Quala - Escape From Headhunter Island Read online

ago, and we we’re able to meet for the first time. There is a man on Earth who has betrayed me, his name is Bristol Bennington, help me find him, and I can take care of the rest. Until then I need you to be very careful and stay alert and alive. Trust in Quala and no one else, not even that blasted woman Orchid! As he slams his hand down on the table, ttthhuuudddd!!”

  Kimi: “But what abou…”

  Vivaldo: (interrupting) “Sssshhhhhhhhhh, don’t trouble your thoughts right now, here’s some dessert, and then you must get some rest.”

  Worker bees slide over a giant golden plate with deep fried honey crusted cornflakes and ice cream in the middle, sitting on top of graham crackers and chocolate sauce. Kimi’s eyes get huge, and she digs in, this time using the golden spoon. She gets about half way through dessert when she feels so sleepy, she leans over to Quala’s chair to place her head on his and fall asleep.

  Vivaldo: In a whisper, “Rest well my little bubblegum, don’t forget to think of me and I will be there to help…” Vivaldo and his worker bee knights carefully set Kimi and Quala back in her floating boat and set her in a new direction, toward an uninhabited island, so she can get some real food and water, and help get Quala working again.

  The Mysterious Island (time & date in a blur)

  Somewhere near Ilha Trauíra

  S 1° 19' 0'' W 45° 37' 0'' / -1.31667 / -45.61667 / GeoNameId : 3411354

  With the sound of waves crashing, the boat rocks furiously, a wave spills over into the boat splashing into Kimi’s face, she wakes up with sudden panic. She shakes her head and wipes her eyes to see what is going on. The boat is tilting heavily and all she can see is whitewater until the boat rocks upward, she sees a beach in the distance. Suddenly the boat takes speed as she has caught a wave and in the blink of an eye the boat smashes into the ground flipping her, Quala and the rest of her belongings into the air and onto the beach. Sand flies everywhere as she tumbles up the shore. Kimi immediately rushes over to Quala to see if he got wet, “whew, he’s dry” she says to herself. Dragging Quala up the beach, she feels relieved that they are both okay, the boat, as she looks back, not as lucky as the waves swallow it back into the sea. What just happened? Kimi thinks to herself. We’ve made it to some island and all of our stuff is scattered around the beach. Kimi flops back down on the beach, looking at Quala, “We’ve made it! At least somewhere anyway.” She knows Quala won’t answer, but it makes her feel better that she still has someone to talk to, even if he is in sleep mode.

  Kimi collects herself and her things, backpack, boots, and Quala, then decides to head into the jungle just fifty yards up from the beach. I’ve got to get us out of this sun, and find some food, although I feel full right now, she thinks to herself. Was I just dreaming that? Was that real? What does he mean find Bristol, and where am I, “Quala you need to wake up!” as she shakes him.

  Kimi finds a large palm frong lying on the ground, Quala is too heavy for her to carry or drag, so she places him on the palm, puts the backpack over her shoulders and proceeds into the jungle As she walks, the trees are fairly well spread out, but as she continues to move forward the trees start to get too dense. She tries to look ahead even though it’s getting more dense and more dark as the trees start to block out the sunlight. She sees an opening and a slight dirt path, and she thinks she sees a banana tree just a little further up that path. She heads that way.

  Sure enough it is a banana tree, she pulls a little faster, head down and pulling, she doesn’t notice something daunting that is just above her, in fact she passes right below it. (Several dozen shrunken heads and bones tied to some tall posts about 5ft off the ground, Kimi’s head only reaches 4ft.) There’s something else lurking in the jungle as well, high up in a tree, woken by the rustling leaves pushed out of the way by Kimi. An eight foot, 250 pound, full grown, male, Black Panther, moves along the trees, staring, and following her every move.

  Kimi arrives at the banana tree, and as she reaches to grab some, she hears a twig snap, not above her though, somewhere in front of her. The panther changes his focus from Kimi to where the noise came from as well. It crouches down on a heavy limb only ten feet above Kimi. Kimi feels like she’s being watch and hurriedly dashes into a thick collection of jungle trees, where she hits a stone wall with engravings on it. She is too close to make out the engravings, but from a distance they show tribesmen lopping off heads and step by step process of shrinking heads. Above Kimi about six feet is a ledge and more intricate engravings as well as being decorated with hundreds of skulls. Kimi pulls Quala close to her, and crouches down with her back to the engraved wall. Kimi waits for what seems like forever, then decides to take a chance and step away from the wall. Taking about five steps, she hears something behind her now, a deep, gurgling mild growl. She slowly turns around, thinking maybe Quala is coming too, leaning against the wall, Quala is still lifeless. She then looks above Quala, on the ledge is the panther, staring right at her with two big glowing amber eyes. She freezes, and the panther slowly gets into a ready to jump crouch. Kimi takes one step slowly backwards, and the panther takes a lower crouch, then leaps. Kimi hides her face and screams, but the panther doesn’t hit her, he jumped over her head. Screams cry out from behind her, as well as a loud roar from the black panther, as it mauls the face of a painted man with a spear. Just then many more painted men, with painted faces and only leaves around their waste jump out of the forest, some after the panther, some after Kimi. They succeed at capturing both Kimi and the panther, but Kimi feels the soul of the panther, it’s blood flow slowing, it’s heart beat growing faint. The panther looking Kimi right in the eyes, she is distracted from being swept up by the painted men, focusing only on the panther. Her chest burns, then her limbs, then finally her eyes and Kimi lets out a loud growl while scratching at the painted man carrying her before she, and the panther go limp and as lifeless for that moment as Quala. Everything fades to black.

  Kimi, Quala and the Jaguar are tied to bamboo poles and carried off deep into the rainforest by the painted men. The travel for about 30 minutes until finally arriving at an undiscovered campground of this unknown tribe.

  (translated from tribal language)

  The tribal warriors talk with their chief inside of a hut made of palm frongs and bamboo.

  Tribesmen: “We have found a girl who travels with a Jaguar in the forest.” – “She was protecting some kind of statue of a god that she was praying to when we knocked her out with the blow dart.”

  Tribal Chief: The chief takes a puff from a long pipe and meditates for a moment, then exhales the smoke from an herbal mixture from the forest. “Show me the girl”

  They go outside to a center courtyard surrounded by thatch huts on bamboo stilts and a large bonfire in the middle. The tribes people gather around as the chief examines Kimi, tied up to a pole, with Quala at her feet. The chief looks at Kimi, lifting up her eyelids to see her eyes, noticing her clothing and beads. “She must be from another tribe, a witch sent using her magic on the Jaguar and bringing her deity with her to influence us over.” “This is nonsense! Her spells will not work, it is only trickery, we will send a message back to her tribe. Give the deity to the children to play with, we will have a ceremony tonight, this girl will be my next wife and we shall send the offspring back to her tribe, showing our dominance of these forests.”

  [Meanwhile the kids run off with Quala, each tugging for the chance to touch it and throw it around the yard.]

  Some of the tribesmen take Kimi down off of the pole and carry her off into the chief’s bungalow. They lye her down on his mat and leave, while the chief prepares a special marital ritual worthy of any witch doctor. Drumming and dancing begins outside, as the chief prepares different elements of the forest for spell breaking on the little witch Kimi. He mixes dirt from the forest floor, with bark from nearby treetops, herbal leaves from rare bushes in the forest, as well as powders from aged mixtures of herbs from their travels. After starting a controlled fire, he places the herbal
mixture around the fire barely igniting the edges and launching a strong herbal incense toward Kimi. Next the chief takes his long pipe and smokes up some of the herbal smoke once again and directly blows it into Kimi’s face, he then takes some of the ash from the mixture on his fingers and paints her forehead and cheeks. Now, the spell is broken.

  There is a tradition with this tribe that has helped them to live strong and disease free for thousands of years within the rainforest. That is to rapidly evolve with early mating and reproduction, wickedly casting of any offspring and their mothers should there be any type of disease or un purity. So, for the chief to take Kimi as his wife at the age of 10 is not unusual for the tribe, however, highly awkward is the moment that Kimi starts to wake, just as the chief is disrobing. Dazed and vision blurred, Kimi tries to figure out what is going on,… again. The chief steps over to his mat and tries to remove Kimi’s beads, just then Kimi’s eyes open wide and she lets out an ear drum busting, curdling, loud, screeeaaaaammmmm!

  (At the exact same sequence of time outside)

  The kids start getting more and more bold, tossing Quala up into the air,