Julie and the Jungle Girl, chapter 5

The next couple of days had Julie and Kimi continue to work on the basics of the whole jungle girl thing, mostly around climbing trees and getting used to being out in the wild. In the meantime, she continued to live with the Jungle Couple and became part of the household, doing her part to contribute to the new impromptu family. Through this, she also learned about the mundane, day-to-day life of Julie and Kaitan.

There is no real need to describe the mundane activities of the Jungle Couple in great detail, only that they still brushed their teeth, bathed, shaved, ate breakfast and occasionally washed their hair. They were only 23, but behaved in such way one would expect out of a couple that had been married for so long that they could simply enjoy the mundane in quiet, loving moments. Kimi wished she could have a relationship like this with anyone. And Julie noticed whenever Kimi thought this way, because she looked pretty forlorn and sad, as though she missed someone.

And as they went on, Julie started taking her deeper and deeper into the jungle. And it was during these treks, where Kimi mostly watched Julie, she learned about some of the uncomfortable truths about life in the wild.

They were getting far from the treehouse one afternoon. Julie was following the trail of a pig she’d spotted and decided would make a good breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here, Julie found the right time to teach Kimi a couple things about tracking 101. “Okay, let’s get a closer look,” she said. She gestured to Kimi to kneel down with her. “See these?” she pointed at some footprints. “Looks like the pig stopped to smell the roses. And eat them.” Some plants looked like they’d been chewed on. Kimi took a mental note of things and eagerly nodded.

Julie stayed low, moving in a crouched, ape-like stance. Kimi followed, but crawled on all fours instead. It seemed to work for her, despite how dirty her hands and knees were getting, because she was able to keep pace with the Jungle Girl. When Julie looked back at her, she smiled and nodded her head. “You’re doing great!” she said. “Just stay off the trail.”

“Got it,” Kimi said. It was simple. And from the way Julie pointed at the pig’s footprints, it was going to be easy to follow.

“What can you tell me about this pig?” Julie stopped and asked. “Just make a guess.”

“Okay,” Kimi stopped and examined the tracks again. “I think he’s a bit fat.”

“How can you tell?” Julie asked.

“Well, his tracks look kind of deep,” said Kimi. “I’d think he’d have to be heavy to make tracks like that.”

“Yeah, but look at your feet,” Julie replied. Kimi lifted her foot up and noticed that her footprints were also deep. Kimi wasn’t that big to begin with. “Here’s another lesson: Never make assumptions. This soil, in this particular spot, is pretty soft, so it might make something that’s light seem bigger than it is. Also, look at the stride length. See anything?”

Kimi looked again. She felt the pig’s footprints, carefully trying to touch them without disturbing or damaging them. With her other hand, she measured a pair of prints. They were about her shoulder-width apart. That didn’t indicate much, ad looking up at Julie, she recognized that pretty quickly. So she kept the examination going. But upon finding another, closer print, she realized something.

“This pig was running,” she said. “And it was…”

“Fleet-footed,” Julie finished. “Not bad. So, from the evidence, what conclusion can you draw?”

“That the pig is lighter than I thought?”

“Bingo!” Julie slapped a congratulatory palm on Kimi’s shoulder, causing her to twitch. “Sorry. By the way, you kind of seem on edge whenever something like that happens, are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” Kimi lied.

“Right, okay,” said Julie. She was about to say something before pausing and grimacing. Clutching her stomach, she stood up and walked over the pig’s trail. “SPIRITS, I gotta take a piss!”

“A what?”

“I gotta pee!” Julie wailed.

“WHAT!?” Kimi shouted, disturbing some birds above her.

“Well where do you think I’m supposed to go!?” Julie snapped. “You think there’s a fucking porta-potty around here?” She ran off into the brush, leaving Kimi speechless and frustrated. She sighed and growled while she sat down on a rotting log to stare at the tracks. She might as well look for more clues about the pig. She thought she saw a human footprint in the dirt, but suspected it was hers. She paid no attention to it and just waited until Julie returned, rubbing her hands with something.

“Stupid backpacker websites making me get this shit,” she said. “Alright, sorry about that. When nature calls, you gotta answer no matter what. OH, and by the way, I’m going to have to teach you what to do when Mother Nature gives you her monthly gift, because getting that out here is a fucking BITCH.”

Just the way she said it was enough to tell Kimi that Julie had some first-hand experience with this. And because she was already grossed out by Julie’s OTHER natural functions, did not want to press the issue.

They went on following the pig’s tracks until they came upon a watering hole. For the first time, Kimi got a good idea of the kind of wildlife that populated the island. The pig, or more specifically, a 3-foot-tall wild hog, lapped up some water at the far end of the spring. Other animals, like wild cats and dogs, drank side-by-side with wild tropical sheep and island deer. This was only a taste of the vast, invasive wildlife that had, somehow, become a fully-developed and balanced ecosystem, with food chains and all.

Julie seemed to care more about how delicious the pig was, rather than the other animals. Naturally, the veteran would be a little more focused than the rookie. She pulled an arrow from her quiver to notch it into the drawstring, which she pulled back. She closed her left eye. Then she licked her lips as if she could already taste the sweet, supple ham and baby back ribs she could make with Kaitan.

She let go.

THWACK!

The arrow struck a log next to the hog. But that was all that was needed for the hog and other animals to go crazy. Julie stood and shot at the hog again, but missed. Without warning, Kimi pulled her knife out and ran up to the hog, screaming like a mad woman and trying to stab it, only to miss by half a meter. She looked up from the sand to watch the hog run off into the woods.

Kimi had almost expected Julie to yell at her, call her a failure and she was horrible. So she flinched as Julie walked up to her, only to give a reassuring pat on the back. “It’s okay,” she said. “It was my fault, really. I got too far ahead of myself and missed the target. And look on the bright side! We won’t have to lug a heavy, smelly pig carcass around.”

And so Kimi relaxed.

So they kept on. Julie handed the hungry Australian a piece of venison jerky and cut some fruit down off a tree they had climbed. “This stuff here is edible,” she said. “I don’t just mean tasty. You’re not going to die you eat this stuff.”

Needless to say, Kimi was a little nervous about the fruit. But, since it wasn’t poisonous and she was too hungry and thirsty to care, she took a big bite out of it. It tasted sweet and had the same texture as an apple.

Julie sat down on the branch and took a piece of paper out of her belt. Giving it a look-over, she noted which objectives were done and which were not. There was tree-climbing, which was checked and crossed off, tracking, which got one check, but not crossed out, stalking, spear-throwing, archery, skinning and cooking, all of which had to do with hunting, were not crossed out or had a check on them. Still, when Julie counted how much they’d gone over, she made an impressed expression. “You’re making good progress,” she said, showing her the checklist. “Just don’t get ahead of yourself, got it?”

“Got it,” said Kimi. She did also get a look at the rest of the list Julie was examining. Most of them were either crossed out or checked off, but the ones closer to the bottom worried her. There was “Talk about going to bathroom”, the hygiene section had “personal” and “feminine” listed, “what to do if you fall and break your arm”, “which mushroom should not be touched PERIOD”, and “ALWAYS PROTECT YOUR SKIN”.

“Um, is all of that necessary?” Kimi asked.

“Abso-fuckin’-lutely,” said Julie. “OH! I forgot! Haircare!” She scribbled that down. “Hmmm, your hair’s getting a little messy. Ah well, I’ve had worse. There’s a reason I had to get a pixie cut a while ago.”

“But… falling?”

“You wanna end up with a useless arm?” Julie replied. “Fine, don’t go get help!”

In that moment, she remembered she was supposed to be scaring Kimi out of becoming a jungle girl. It’s… not a good move, though. “All you’ll have to deal with is a lame leg or arm, and might die of an infection! Oh, and melanoma’s a big problem! And don’t come crying when you—“

“OI!” Kimi shouted. “I thought you were trying to help me!”

“I am!” Julie replied.

Kimi turned petulant teenager and huffed, turning away from Julie. From then on, things were going to be a lot more difficult for the both of them.

It started about half an hour after their break. They had been walking around the jungle for hours by now, and Kimi was getting pretty tired. But Julie looked pretty fresh, helped in part by the endurance she’d built up over the past two years. She showed that as she jumped over a fallen log with little effort, while Kimi huffed and puffed at having to do this again. Was Julie trying to test her or something? “Come on, hurry up! Use your legs!” Julie called out. “You got this!”

Kimi grumbled, despite appreciating Julie’s genuine encouragement and jumped off the log, with Julie following. “I think you still need to work on climbing,” said Julie.

“I’ve been getting better!” Kimi replied, causing Julie to hold her hands up.

“Whoa, take it easy,” said Julie. Kimi’s passing glare made her back off. But she ran ahead of Kimi. Then Kimi ran up to Julie. The Jungle Girl sighed, suspecting that it was simply because Kimi’s a teenager that she was acting like a little rebel. To be fair, Julie had been a teenager only 4 years ago (yes, 19 counts as the teen years) and she hasn’t yet realized how stupid and petulant she was.

But they trekked on. Julie occasionally checked their bearings while Kimi drank from her water canteen. “Better save that,” said Julie. “We’re still nowhere near the next drinkable spring.”

“But I’m tired and thirsty!” Kimi whined. She had to react quickly when Julie threw an apple to her.

“It’s got juice,” said Julie. “Eat it.”

Kimi was too hungry and thirsty to argue.

The next thing she knew, Julie held her hand out and pushed her down. “Hey, what!?”

“SHH!” Julie hushed the Nisei girl and pointed to the small clearing. A rather large cat, not the biggest on the island, but still big enough to kill a human, was prowling around in a small “clearing” (if it could be called that) and looking very agitated. Julie and Kimi watched the cat from their hiding place, not moving even once. That being said, Kimi got a little agitated at the way Julie watched the cat. When Julie sighed, Kimi asked,

“What?”

“I don’t think that cat has rabies,” she said. “He’s just cranky.”

“What?”

“Some of the researchers were worried about rabies,” said Julie. “I don’t think they need to be worried, we’re already pretty isolated that—”

“How do you know it’s not rabies?”

“Look at him!” Julie stage-whispered. “What do you see?”

“Just a cat walking around,” said Kimi.

“No disorientation? No stumbling?”

“No,” said Kimi.

“Those are symptoms of rabies,” said Julie. “I’m not worried, I already said, we’re pretty isolated, so—"

“Can I fight him?”

“NO,” Julie said firmly. “You haven’t even learned how to defend yourself!” She showed Kimi the list. “LEARN TO FIGHT” was circled, with the note “NEED TO DO THIS” scribbled next to it.

“Come ON!” Kimi pleaded.

“I said NO,” Julie replied.

But Kimi’s petulant teenager side won out. “I’m gonna do it,” she said.

“DON’T. YOU. DARE!” Julie hissed through clenched teeth. She reached out to grab Kimi, but it was too late. Kimi ran towards the cat. The feline turned and noticed Kimi, backing away and growled at her. It swiped to keep her at bay. But Kimi kept coming. The cat leaped at Kimi, and the next thing Kimi knew, she was pushed to the ground.

“BAD KITTY!” she heard someone shouting and tossing the cat aside.

Julie drew her machete and started making as much noise as possible at the cat, screaming a number of animalistic and primal sounds while trying to make herself look bigger than she was. The cat, which had been tossed several meters aside, hissed and swiped at Julie before lunging at her. Julie grabbed the cat in mid-air and wrestled it to the ground, where she put into a sleeper hold. And yet, despite all the scars on her body, which told Kimi that she’d done this before, the cat did not land a single claw on her.

When the jungle girl let go, the cat was calm. Julie checked herself over for blood before sighing in relief. But next, she stomped up to Kimi. “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR!?” she screamed. “YOU COULD’VE GOTTEN YOURSELF KILLED!!!”

“I WANTED TO—“

“NO!!” Julie shouted. “I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO IT!”

“I have to learn, don’t I?”

“You’re lucky this is the first offense, Kimi. Next time, I might not be so willing to help!” Julie stormed off as if to let off steam. But, “ARE YOU COMING OR NOT!?”

Kimi instantly gave chase.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Kaitan would spend the day in a different way (hm, that rhymed). After Julie and Kimi left for their little learning trek, the Jungle Dude stayed behind to help prepare Kimi’s standard-issue outfit, should the Nisei-Australian earn it. Getting the leathery deerskin fabric to the flexible, yet sturdy material like what he and Julie wore took some effort. And it took some time to prepare, as the stuff had already been soaked and cleaned, so the graining process came next. The hide was brown, thanks to some of the dye he was using.

When he was done, he stopped and walked away from it. And because the author did a lousy job of researching the process of making buckskin, we’ll focus on something else.

He stood in the doorframe, looking out into the jungle. A thought popped in his head, and that he had yet to visit the Teo in some time. He remembered that a trading group from the Pele Tribe was on its way to the Teo village on the shore, as evidenced by the carved note right next to the HAM radio. Looking at the sun, he suspected it might be getting close to the time the Pele caravan would arrive at the new, researcher-assisted capital village. Next to it, the map of the island showed the extent of Teo territory, taking up much of the southern portion of the island. The Pele took up much of the northwest and there was a gap where the Paea once controlled.

So he strapped on his seven-year-old, waterproof watch, packed up his utility belt and left the treehouse, leaping off the front porch onto a tree branch that jutted out onto the porch and began leaping from branch to branch like many simians, and indeed the Big Guy, Tarzan himself, who never actually swung on vines in the original books. That’s an invention of the Weissmuller movies.

And speaking of which, Kaitan took a much more serious attitude towards his lifestyle, unlike Julie’s much more humorous approach to it. Of course, as we’ve seen, he’s sort of learned to not take it so seriously, either, especially when he just rolls with Julie’s self-mockery. But this is his life, and he’s been living this way for 7 years. He can’t go back to Winnipeg, this is home to him now.

Whatever.

It took him nearly 45 minutes via the tree route to reach the new location of the Teo capital village. Unlike the old village, which was in the middle of a jungle clearing, the “new” capital village was right on the shore. It was actually an older fishing village where most of the Teo fishermen lived and/or worked, but Kaitan always thought that a seashore capital made a lot more sense than one in the middle of the jungle. You know the real estate mantra Location, Location, Location? Exactly. And this Location, Location, Location, was great.

In order to build this new village though, part of the jungle surrounding the older fishing village had to be cut down. It was sad, but there’s still an entire island covered in trees and other vegetation that the Teo revered. The wall was still being built, but from the outside of that unfinished wall, he could see that the village was much bigger than the old one, helped in part by the previously-mentioned fishing village.

Elements of that old village were still there, like the obvious, the outriggers and canoes beached on the shore, with fishermen hauling their nets out or into the boats. A few docks were under construction, and Kaitan suspected they were turning the village into something of a tribal port. No doubt the tribe’s economic powers were going to grow.

The brand-spanking-new huts were clean and brightly colored. This would almost certainly change in the coming years, when people have lived in them for years. But for now, it was like a new house for everyone.

Some of the Teo kids played in the surf. And if you really want to know how little different tribal people are from modern folk, you’ll know when you see the kids playing on the beach like you’d expect at say, Rockaway or Venice Beach.

His first stop was at the hut in the middle. And as he expected, there was a paleman sitting in front. This is Tim, a dude who was possessed by the spirit of some old, evil sorcerer a while ago (read “Julie and the Cursed Ruins” for reference) and ended up learning the Teo language in that way.

“Oh, hey, Karza,” he said.

“Kaitan,” the Jungle Dude insisted. “Is Manti here?”

“He’s inside,” said Tim.

“I thought I recognized a voice out here!” Chief Manti, clad in his orange-and-yellow ʻahu ʻula and carrying his mahiole helmet under his arm. “Good to see you again, Karza!”

“I’m going by Kaitan now,” said the Jungle Dude.

The Chief threw his head back and laughed. “It is about time you decided to use that name!” he laughed.

“Yeah, I guess,” said Kaitan. “I have some news, by the way. Julie’s taken on an apprentice.”

“She has?” Manti asked, his eyebrow raising a la Stephen Colbert. “Another paleman?”

“She is from a paleman land,” said Kaitan. “But she is not what I would consider a paleman. She’s uh… Japanese.”

“I do not know what that is, but I would love to hear more,” said Manti. “What is she doing?”

“She is teaching her the ways of the jungle,” said Kaitan. “She started by teaching her to climb trees and now she’s teaching her how to hunt.”

The Polynesian chieftain smiled and nodded his head. “Excellent,” he said. “I cannot wait until more outsiders get a taste of our way of life. But, I suspect that is not why you are here. If you were, I would have gotten a messenger bird from you.”

“When are you expecting the Pele?” Kaitan asked.

“Soon,” said Manti. “Tim, what time did Chief Kawa say he and his men would be here?”

“The hawk message said sun-on-top-of-sky,” he said, handing a slip of paper to Manti.

“Ah yes, I forgot,” said Manti. “That is strange.” He indirectly looked up at the sun, and scowled. “The sun is a few degrees of the top. Kaitan, what does your timekeeper say?”

Kaitan checked his watch. “It’s 12:37,” he said.

“They’re late,” said Tim.

“And Kawa is usually on time,” said Manti. “What could it—”

The sound of a conch shell blowing from the north interrupted him. “Better late than never,” said Kaitan.

The Teo villagers gathered at the north entrance, or at least what was to be the north entrance once it’s completed. A procession of men, led by a man in a blue-and-green ʻahu ʻula and mahiole, entered the village. There were no cheers or applause, but friendly greetings. But the Pele men seemed more grateful and relieved than happy to do their job. And it confused Kaitan, Manti and Tim, who all shared a confused glance amongst each other.

“You there! Come with me!” Manti ordered.

The greeting party approached the traders. They carried straw baskets filled with fish, grains, spices, fabrics, fruit, vegetables, toys and weapons. But they were also half-full in some places, and others that were empty. The Teo villagers were baffled, and turned to Manti and his greeting party as they approached. Chief Kawa, the man dressed in the blue-and-green garb, walked up to Manti to greet him. “I apologize for being late,” he said. “It seems the logistics of a convoy like this are more difficult than I imagined.”

“What happened?” Manti asked. “And why are some of the barrels empty?”

Kawa called to one of his subordinates. That subordinate walked up and handed a broken spear to Manti’s second-in-command, Hilo. He and Manti examined the spear. It did not look like any spear they had.

Then Kawa brought them around. Some of the empty baskets were torn and had holes in them. They looked like something had pulled on them. And Manti almost ran into a deer pulling the cart, but stepped around it.

And at the end of the caravan, they found it. A man lay dead with an arrow sticking out of his chest. And he appeared to be Teo, with the designs of his arm tattoos. "Do you know who this is?" Kawa asked suspiciously.

"I have never seen him before," said Manti. "What are you getting at?"

"I wanted to know why a man with Teo markings attacked our caravan," said Kawa.

"If you are insinuating that I am behind it, you are mistaken," said Manti. "Who else—"

"Chief! The marking!" Manti's second-in-command, Hilo, said. He wiped ther man's arm to find the bad coming off as if it was painted on. Manti and Kawa both sighed.

“Them again,” Manti said. “What happened?”

“They ambushed us,” said Kawa, “Not two hands ago. They came from the west and demanded we get out of Teo territory. We of course, told them to get out of ours, but they attacked. This one here managed to get up onto one of our carts before he was shot. Except I wish he was still alive. This is the third time already!”

“We can send some of our warriors with you to escort your caravan on the journey home,” said Manti.

“I appreciate the offer, but I already brought some of my best warriors,” said Kawa. “I fear we may have to do something more drastic soon, regarding that cult.”

“My sources say they are not a threat,” said Manti. “Then again, I am not positive they are telling the entire truth, so I must take… Tim, what is the term I am thinking of?”

“A grain of salt, sir.”

“What he said,” Manti finished.

“A good philosophy,” said Kawa. “Karza?”

“Kaitan.”

“About time you changed to that. What have you and Julie found?”

“Not much,” said the Jungle Dude. “And it’s not much of a whole lot to begin with.”

“Not again,” Kawa muttered.