Fearless Master of the Jungle (A Bunduki Jungle Adventure (31 page)

Still in the throes of the
primeval driving force which more than anything else had kept her
alive under conditions she had never known on Earth, Dawn tossed a
look after the war-lady. Then she ran to the edge of the
escarpment. Down below, she saw Charole being hauled into
one of the
‘bullboats’. Under the urgings of the Protectress, it was cast off
and set into motion.

Hearing footsteps approaching, Dawn
swung around ready to continue fighting. She discovered that there
was no need. Having liberated himself, Bunduki was coming to join
her. Before either could say a word, a hate-filled voice rose from
beyond the rim of the cliff.

‘
The
Quagga God curse you, Dawn and Bunduki of the “Earths”. I’ll be
revenged upon you yet!’

Moving forward, the blond giant
and his wife looked down at the speaker. Standing in the
departing
‘bullboat’, Charole was shaking a furious fist at
them.

‘
She
means it, darling,’ Bunduki warned.

‘
Let
her come back any time she likes,’ Dawn replied, spitting out the
words savagely. ‘But if she does,
I
’
ll
make sure she’ll never have another chance to kill
us!’

James Allenvale
‘Bunduki’ Gunn’s
tremendous physique and strength were hereditary. On his father’s
side, he was descended from an illegitimate son of Sir Henry Curtis
who had accompanied the great white hunter, Allan Quatermain on two
epic journeys of exploration in Africa.
^lxxix
His mother, Allison Dawn ‘Tex’
Gunn, was the granddaughter of Mark Counter, a Texan who in the
mid-1800s had attained legendary status by virtue of his Herculean
powers, as a cowhand, peace officer and all round fighting
man.
^lxxx
Nor had his parents proved unworthy
of such bloodlines. Along with Sir Armond John and Lady Hazel
Drummond-Clayton, they had served in the little known but highly
effective ‘Group Thirteen Special Missions Organization of British
Military Intelligence all through World War II.
^lxxxi

When Bunduk
i’s parents were murdered by
Mau Mau terrorists, he had been adopted by a wealthy titled family
who were related to Dawn. In their care, he had received the
education which fitted him perfectly for survival on Zillikian.
Arguably the world’s foremost authority on wild life and wilderness
survival, his adopted father had imparted much practical knowledge.
Bunduki had been taught how to follow tracks which were scarcely
discernible to less keen eyes, to move in silence even through
dense undergrowth, to locate hidden enemies and conceal himself
from them when necessary and to climb with great agility. He had
the knowledge to find or hunt for food, while his training in
various forms of fighting allowed him to protect himself against
predators or human foes.

In Bunduki
’s hands, the Randall Model 12
‘Smithsonian’ bowie knife—sixteen inches in overall length,
weighing forty-three ounces, with an eleven inch long, two and a
quarter inch wide, three-eighths of an inch thick clip point
^lxxxii
blade—was an even more
effective weapon than James Bowie had found the original.
^lxxxiii
Sir Armond Drummond-Clayton had
taught him fighting techniques which were unknown in Bowie’s day.
In archery, he had acquired sufficient skill to duplicate most of
the feats attributed to Robin Hood. From a Masai
melombuki
^lxxxiv
he had learned to throw
a
m
’
kuki,
that nation’s traditional spear and handle a shield. During
visits to the United States, along with his Texas-born look-alike
cousin Bradford Counter,
^lxxxv
he had been instructed in the
arts of horse handling and lariat throwing by a purebred Comanche
Indian. To round off his knowledge of martial arts, he was equally
adept at fencing with a saber or an epee
^lxxxvi
and had gained great
proficiency at boxing, judo, karate and plain, old fashioned rough
house brawling.

Always something of a tomboy,
Dawn Drummond-Clayton had—with her parents
’ full approval—duplicated the
lessons in martial arts and wilderness survival that her
inseparable companion, Bunduki, was receiving. Even during her
formal and conventional education, which had not been neglected,
she had contrived to keep up her training and did not forget what
she had been taught. In addition, while attending Roedean,
^lxxxvii
she had taken part in every
permissible form of sporting and athletic activity, excelling in
them all. However, like Bunduki, she had become completely
disenchanted by the blatantly one-sided political bias and
hypocrisy of the international sporting bodies and authorities. So,
in spite of being a world class athlete, gymnast, swimmer and
fencer with either saber or epee, she had refused to compete in
their events. For all that, she had always kept herself at the peak
of physical condition.

As was the case with Bunduki,
much of Dawn
’s perfect physical health stemmed from being allowed to
share in some longevity pills obtained by his adoptive parents.
Specimens had been given to Dr. Clark Savage, J.R.,
^lxxxviii
for analysis and reproduction.
He had discovered that, in addition to slowing down the ageing
process in human beings—granting those who took them what amounted
to immortality, barring accidental death, suicide, or murder—they
also gave immunity from practically every tropical disease and
destroyed all such harmful internal parasites as the various
nematode worms— commonly called ‘hookworms’—of the genera
Necator
which might be
ingested when eating the raw flesh of wild animals.
^lxxxix

So, with such qualifications,
Dawn was ideally suited to survive on Zillikian and made a fitting
mate for the man who had been created the
Dapan-Dankara,
the Fearless Master of the
Jungle.

Dwelling upon the open plains
of the planet Zillikian, the Mun-Gatah nation was so
dependent upon its
domesticated zebras—which bore about the same resemblance to the
wild animals as, on Earth, an Arabian Thoroughbred, American
Saddlebred, or English Hunter does to the tarpan,
Equus Caballus
Gmelini,
or
Przewalski’s horse,
E.G. Przewalskii,
that are believed to have been the progenitors of
all the various domesticated breeds of
E.C. Caballus—
that
its entire culture was based upon the
different sub-species of
Equus Quagga.
In fact, roughly translated, the nation’s
name means the ‘Riders of the Striped Animals’.

The lowest social order ride
the
grar-gatah,
which has the black and white stripes, forming a gridiron
pattern on the hindquarters, in the manner of the Grant’s
zebra,
E.Q.
Grantii.
People of the next higher grade use the
ocha-gatah,
with the orange, or cream, and
black coloration of the Burchell’s,
E.Q. Burchellii.
The aristocracy have the
banar-gatah,
which resembles the
Grevy’s,
E.Q. Grevyi,
by being larger than the other two and in having
numerous narrow black stripes, but no transverse bars on the rump.
A further sub-division among the classes comes from whether one
rides a stallion, gelding, or mare. There are also medium and heavy
draught animals known as
tuh-
and
moh-gatahs,
derived from the grar- and
ocha-gatahs.

Because of their importance in
the nation
’s
religious beliefs, only the six-man Council of Elders, the High
Priest, the Protectress of the Quagga God, the six District
Administrators and their wives are allowed
to
ride the rarest of the sub-species, the
quagga,
E.Q.
Quagga.

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