Beyond the Valley of Mist (7 page)

The men took their turn in
the bathing pool. After that chore was completed, they shoved the
raft into the water and ate some of the food as they continued
floating down the river.

Although everything around
them was still a steaming swamp, very hot and very wet, they all
felt a little better. They had slept, bathed, and eaten. The sounds
of the animals and the noxious gases escaping from the mud pots
were still there. The jungle seemed endless.

***

Chapter 9

The Rapids

The river had carried them
into the valley, and perhaps it would carry them out if they could
survive long enough. Every moment was a new and frightening
experience. At every turn of the river, enormous crocodiles lay on
the banks, just waiting for an opportunity to strike. They even
watched a crocodile eat a tiger! It seemed inconceivable that
anything could eat a full-grown tiger, but that crocodile was
huge.

They saw another powerful
animal struggle against the death trap of a boiling mud pot. The
animal didn’t have a chance. Once the grasping mud caught it, the
animal sank slowly into its slimy depths, and the sound of its
cries was pitiful as it sank out of sight. They were thankful that
Zen and his father had made the raft high enough to allow them to
float above the river.

Finding places to spend the
night was difficult, and spending the nights in complete darkness
was terrifying. They had to be constantly watchful. Danger could
come from the most unexpected places and at the most unexpected
times. On many occasions, they had to defend the raft from reptiles
that tried to climb onto it. A centipede almost as long as a man’s
arm climbed onto the raft; one bite from it could have been fatal.
Lela saw the centipede just before it climbed onto Zen’s leg. She
killed it with a smashing blow from her stone axe. They all
shuddered at the ugly sight as it writhed about on the raft before
falling into the river and was promptly eaten by something hidden
in the dark water.

Not knowing what lay ahead,
Zen and Jok realized that time was short and that they wanted to
consummate their joining to Lela and Ador. At the next location,
Zen made a bed as best he could and held Lela in his
arms.

“
Lela, I will love you and
care for you all the days of my life. Will you share your life with
me?”

Lela snuggled up in his
arms and replied, “Yes, I will. This moment alone is enough to make
all the fears and hardships we have endured worthwhile. You are
what I have always wanted, and you are all I will ever want. I am
yours for as long as I live.”

Zen knew that tonight he
would take Lela as his mate. He would acknowledge her womanhood by
expressing his manhood. Lela would acknowledge his offer by giving
him pleasure and taking pleasure in the giving. Together, they and
their two friends would build a new village, and a new life free
from fear and reprisals.

Zen and Lela bore witness
as Jok and Ador pledged their lifelong commitment to one another
and promised to love each other as long as they lived. The two
couples lifted their faces to the stars and asked whatever God
there might be to bless their lives with all the good things they
had ever dreamed of.

They bade each other a good
night, and each young man took the woman he loved to his "bed."
This day, and this night, was the beginning of their new
life.

***

Frightening days and
terrifying nights passed but now, after their pledge to each other,
they felt fulfilled. They ate the last of their food. From now on,
they would have to live off what they could get from the jungle.
There was plenty of fruit on the trees; they watched to see which
fruit the monkeys were eating. The monkeys seemed to prefer a large
yellow fruit with lots of hard, green seeds. Zen took a small bite.
It was tart, with a sweet taste. The flavor was pleasant, and Zen
was tempted to eat the whole thing, but his better judgment told
him to be cautious. He waited long enough for the fruit to digest,
and since nothing happened, he took a larger bite and had soon
eaten the whole thing. When he didn’t get sick, he figured they
could eat the fruit safely. At his urging, the others tried
different fruits, using the same cautious method of testing. They
eventually found a few trees with fruit they had determined was
good.

The men speared a fish
swimming near the surface of the river, but since there was no fire
to cook it, they ate it raw. They could have built a fire by
placing a mat of green leaves on the raft to protect the logs, but
everything was so wet, nothing would burn.

Night after night they
slept in trees, using vines to climb in and out of the branches.
Leaving the raft to get to the trees was dangerous, but they had no
choice.

The fruit they had eaten
had not made them sick, so they added four different types to the
ones they knew were good. But fruit was not enough to give them the
nutrition they needed. They wanted meat, and a fire to cook it on.
They had heard stories of how their ancestors had eaten meat raw
before they learned to use fire for cooking. Zen reasoned that if
their ancestors could eat meat raw all their lives, he and his
group could too until they got through the valley. If only he knew
how much farther it was to the other side.

The constant strain, and
the lack of sleep, was beginning to wear on everyone. They were all
having doubts about reaching the other side of the valley, although
no one expressed it.

“
I would give anything to
see a beam of sunlight,” Ador sighed.

“
Maybe if I climb to the top
of that tall tree, I could see over the mist and get some idea of
how much farther we have to go,” Zen said.

That would be a dangerous
thing to do because Jok would be left alone on the river bank with
the two girls. They discussed it and decided it would be worth the
risk to know if Zen could see the other side of the
valley.

Zen reached the top of the
tree, but he saw nothing. He noticed that the fog seemed less thick
and that there was what appeared to be a narrowing of the valley.
It looked as though the river would be entering a canyon only a
short distance ahead.

When he got back on the
ground, Zen reported that he thought the river might be running
through a group of low hills and perhaps it would be leaving the
valley after going through what appeared to be a narrow
canyon.

His companions were
nervous. They heard what sounded like lions not far away. They
picked up their things and ran, hoping to get to the raft. Their
only hope was to get the raft into the water before the pride of
lions overtook them.

The girls were in the lead,
so they jumped onto the raft while the boys pushed it into the
river. The lions tried to jump onto the raft, but Zen stopped them
with the point of his spear while Jok worked frantically at getting
the raft into the current, where it would be too deep for the lions
to wade. The race was close, but they won.

But how much longer could
they continue to win? Eventually they would lose, and their lives
would end. They didn’t dare think such thoughts. They had to find
the other side of the mist, and soon. They were all getting weak,
tired, and discouraged.

Zen noticed that the
current was getting stronger, and the raft was moving faster. There
were no more steaming mud pots. Soon they could see both sides of
the river and the walls of a canyon. The mist was clearing! They
all shouted with glee. At last, they were free from the horrible
Valley of Mist!

The river was flowing
faster and faster. It was no longer placid. Now the raft was
bouncing along.

“
Push the raft to the bank
of the river,” Zen called out.

They tried desperately, but
it was too late … the current had taken control, and they were
being hurled deeper into the canyon. All they could do was hang on
and hope that the raft would hold together. The sound of the river
became a roar and it hurled them around violently.

Zen held onto Lela, trying
to prevent her from falling into the river. Her eyes were wild with
fear. She was a good swimmer, but she was not sure she could
survive in that swirling water.

They heard Ador scream and
saw her fall backwards from the end of the raft into the river. She
went under, and came up again. She was riding the current. She
waved, and it looked as though she was going to be all right until
she slammed into a boulder and disappeared.

Jok was half out of his
mind with concern. “Ador, Ador,” he screamed and jumped into the
river. He swam to where she disappeared and searched until he was
exhausted. Lela and Zen pulled him back onto the raft and tried to
console him.

They searched the surface
of the river with their eyes, hoping to see Ador. The river
continued cascading through rapids. Jok wanted to jump back in the
water, but Zen convinced him that he could see better from the
raft.

After what seemed too long,
the river finally finished its passage through the narrows and
became a smooth-flowing stream again.

It was a bright, sunny day,
and they would have been happy if they hadn’t lost a member of
their party. Their eyes looked everywhere, up and down the
riverbanks, searching for Ador. Finally they saw her, lodged like a
piece of driftwood against a large rock on the other side of the
river.

The river was more than two
hundred paces across, and the only way to get to her was to swim.
Zen and Jok dove in and swam with all their might. When they got to
her, she looked peaceful, but she wasn’t moving. They couldn’t tell
if she were alive or dead.

Jok was distraught and
tried to revive her by holding her in his arms. Zen had had
experience with drowning victims and knew they had to get air into
her lungs. Zen listened for a heartbeat. It was faint, but there.
She could live if he could just get her to breathe. He worked over
her until he was just about to give up, when she suddenly coughed
and spit up water. He rolled her over and helped her to sit
upright. As she continued coughing, she began to breathe steadily.
Ador was going to live!

Jok took her back in his
arms and cried, “Oh, Ador, I almost lost you.”

They gestured to Lela to
let her know that Ador was okay. Lela jumped up and down,
expressing her joy. The little group of friends had made it through
the valley intact!

Lela thought of her mother
and father back in the village of Lalock, and began to cry. She so
much wanted them to know that they had all made it through the
Valley of Death. Perhaps they were the very first people to see
this side of the valley. When she looked up, the beautiful
snow-capped mountains were still far in the distance.

Zen was waving at Lela when
he saw something moving in the brush behind her. He watched
carefully and realized that a lion was stalking her. In their
concern for Ador, they had left Lela alone. The lion, seeing his
chance to grab an easy meal, moved slowly and furtively, as is its
hunting habit. Zen knew that Lela was in grave danger. For a
moment, he didn’t know what to do. If Lela became aware of the
lion, she would start to run and the lion would charge and quickly
overtake her.

Zen knew that Lela was too
far away to hear him, and couldn’t see the lion anyway. He grabbed
a spear, dove into the river, and swam powerfully, trying to reach
Lela, who was pleased that Zen was coming back to her. She sat on a
stone beside the river to wait for him.
Oh, Lela, if only you would dive into the river and swim to
me, I might be able to save you,
Zen
thought
.

Jok noticed that Zen was
swimming frantically, trying to cross the river to get to Lela. Jok
realized that something was wrong and then spied the lion stalking
Lela. The lion was about a hundred paces up the hill and, knowing
his prey was unaware, was proceeding slowly.

Jok started jumping up and
down, trying to attract Lela’s attention. She saw Jok and waved
back, noticing that he was pointing in her direction, but she
couldn’t understand what he was trying to tell her. Then she heard
Zen yelling, telling her to look behind her. Lela saw the lion
fifty paces away, just as it started to charge. There was no time
to run, so she turned and dove into the river just as the lion’s
claws raked her lower right leg.

Lions don’t like water;
this particular lion hesitated and then jumped into the river after
Lela. She was a strong swimmer, but the lion was gaining on her.
Zen was swimming to meet her, and they met just before the lion got
to Lela. Zen braced his feet on the bottom of the river, holding
his spear to kill the swimming lion. The lion was so intent upon
capturing Lela that he was unaware of Zen until he felt the sharp
point of Zen’s spear in his belly. The lion, at a disadvantage in
the water, abandoned the chase.

Realizing how close she had
come to being a meal for the lion, a trembling Lela clung to Zen.
He held her in a firm embrace and soothed her as he whispered that
they must rejoin Jok and Ador.

The swim back to their
friends was more leisurely, but the strain of the near-disaster
affected Zen greatly. He was exhausted. When he reached the bank,
he crawled out, found a grassy knoll, and fell asleep.