"Come on Jimmy! We're almost there!" That was the second to last thing Jimmy heard before a dart got shot in his neck and he fell to the ground.
"Jimmy!" That was the last.
Jimmy's eyes flickered for a while before he could finally open them. He felt so much dizziness in him as he tried earnestly and struggled groaningly to wake up. Opening his eyes and finally gaining conscience, he looked about him. He was on the top of a hill, tied to a stake of mahogany that was raised with mahogany logs in the middle of the Amazon forest.
"Wha-..., what?" muttered Jimmy tiresomely.
"Psst." A whisper came from Jimmy's right. He looked and saw his trusty blonde co-explorer, Leo tied to a stake too. "You were knocked out really cold, man," Leo said as he looked straight at Jimmy.
"How did we get here? What happened?" Jimmy asked with so much fear and panic in his voice and expressions.
"Well.... We got nabbed; by those guys," replied Leo, motioning with his eyes and his head towards his right, down the hill. Jimmy looked that way and gasped.
"Now I remember! Hold up. We were captured by the forest dwellers?" asked Jimmy with one brow raised.
"What does it look like, pal?" replied Leo in a rather sarcastic tone.
"Ugh! "Great. Just great," Jimmy said, as he bumped the back of his head of black hair on the stake's pole which he was tied to. "You know, bro, this is all your fault!"
"My fault?" replied Leo as he turned his head swiftly in shock towards Jimmy's statement.
"You just had to go find Neoxian's thigh bone, didn't ya?" asked Jimmy rhetoricallly.
"Hey, I didn't drag you in on this, you know," said Leo.
"Watcha talking about? You told me that you were gonna die if I didn't come with you," Jimmy replied, now more angrily.
"Pfft. Well, yeah, but who told you to care for my well being? Leo asked with his head up and his eyes closed.
"Oh, brother," said Jimmy rolling his eyes.
"Come one man, you gotta admit. You wanna find that bone too. When we get that bone, all our dreams and wishes would finally come true," Leo proclaimed with a fixed gaze on Jimmy.
"Uh, no. I do not wanna find the bone because it does not exist!" Jimmy exclaimed.
At that, footsteps and voices were heard by these two young men from below the hill. The closeness of these sounds increased and increased which made Jimmy and Leo very nervous. After a while, 17 men stood before them. These men tied red traditional-like apparel on their upper bodies and wrappers made out of animal skin on their lower bodies. Two out of them held a torch of fire each while the remaining held spears in their hands. One of them which stood in front of them, who was also their leader began to speak;
"You have come to intrude our home, and now, you must pay the price," said the slim old man who then snapped his fingers. The two men with torches moved towards the two stake's to set them ablaze.
"Woah woah woah woah woah, woah!" Jimmy and Leo repeated at the same time in panic. The leader of the men snapped his fingers again and the two men with torches halted at once.
"Speak," said the leader in a firm tone.
"You don't wanna kill us," Leo exclaimed immediately.
"And why do you say that?" the leader of the men asked again as he folded his arms.
"Because... um... cause... we... um...," Leo stammered as he thought of a valid excuse.
"Because we know where Neoxian's thigh bone is!" Jimmy immediately blurted out loudly.
The leader opened his eyes widely and told the two men that held the torches to move away. He came closer to the stakes, and while he stood about a meter away from them, he said,
"That's impossible. Nobody has ever found Neoxian's thigh bone."
"Oh but you see, we have, and in fact, we have hidden it at a place. If you burn us now, you'll never get it," Jimmy replied.
"Y-... yeah, that's right," Leo added.
The leader stroked his long white beard for a while and then ordered his guards, "Release them. Let them show us where the thigh bone is hidden." Then, he turned his back on them and began to move away.
"And oh, if this is a lie and I find out, then you would prefer that you were burnt at the stake," the leader said as he turned his face away from them. The two men were untied and brought down from the stake.
Leo took a big gulp and looked surprisingly at Jimmy who clenched his shaky fists together. Sweat dropped down from his face.
"Alright, let's get going then," Jimmy said as he took hold of Leo and began to lead the way.
All the men followed the lead of Leo and Jimmy. Not another word was spoken throughout the walk. Two guards held each of the hands of Jimmy and Leo. Leo had no clue of where Jimmy was taking them. Jimmy, on the other hand kept his face serious and tried not to show any emotions. They got to a waterfall.
"We're here," Jimmy said. "We buried it beside that rock," Jimmy said as he pointed to a large rock beside the waterfall. At the leader's command, some of the men started to dig up the site. After a while into the men's digging, Jimmy entered into fight-or-flight mode. He headbutted with all his strength the guard that held his hand so tightly. The guard fell to the floor immediately and left Jimmy alone. In an instant, he did the same to the guard that held Leo bound. He too fell to the ground.
Jimmy grabbed hold of Leo and jumped off the cliff down into the waterfall.
"Hey! Shoot them! Shoot them!" the leader ordered. The men began to blow darts at them but to no avail. They both entered into the water and came out immediately unto the dry land and into the thick forest where they began to run so quickly.
"Our plane's gotta be here somewhere. Ah! there it is!" said Leo, pointing eastward. Jimmy and Leo both got to and hopped into the brown explorer plane instantly.
"Hey! Hey! Shoot them! Don't let them escape!" The voice of the leader of the group was close by behind them.
"Step on it, man!" Jimmy screamed at Leo who was at the pilot seat. Immediately, Leo turned the key in the plane and in a few seconds, they were in the air. They both still breathed heavily because of what had just happened to them. Jimmy then put his palm on Leo's shoulder and said;
"Hey man."
"Yeah bro?" Leo replied.
"Next time, don't take everything you read online seriously," Jimmy said slowly.
"You don't gotta tell me twice," Leo chuckled.
Two young men brave the jungle in search of treasure and are captured by a tribe. Jimmy's cunning saves the dangerous situation.
Thank you for writing this story for The Ink Well, @drstrings we appreciate the interactions with other writers.
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Morning Drstrings;
I really enjoyed the HOOK you created this week as part of the skill challenge. I actually read it twice over, to make sure I got it. I couldn't help but wonder about the situation you created with the danger and where they might have been to have been 'darted'. Super stuff! ;)