Jungle King by Porter Jack

Author:Porter, Jack
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

The terror birds tasted better than the snake, but perhaps not as good as crab. The meat still had that gamey flavor and was slightly sweeter than chicken. Still, we ate our fill of it along with the rest of the fruit.

The day turned cloudy and it rained again, just like every other day. This time, though, we could hear the surf breaking farther out near the shelf, and even the waves to the beach were higher than normal. A storm was blowing in.

Once again, we were forced to hold onto our lean-to so it didn’t blow away.

All of the girls had thought the baby terror bird was a novelty, and begged me to let it inside the lean-to. “This is your home as much as it is mine,” I said. “It’s not my decision.”

Charlee lured it inside with more fruit. The baby bird accepted the fruit, and then began scouting through the dirt and sand looking for pieces of crab shells we had dropped, and even rooting out some bugs trying to squirm through the rocks.

Despite its size, it was surprisingly self-sufficient, and so we made a little opening for it in the lean-to, to allow it to come and go as it wanted. I figured if it eventually became able to live on its own as it grew, then that was the best we could hope for.

The storm continued for another day, and besides taking a break to gather rainwater or hunt for whatever dry firewood we could find, we spent most of our time in the lean-to. Most of us had been on some type of excursion in the last couple of days, and I for one was exhausted. I spent much of the time sleeping, and I was always accompanied by one of the girls sitting with me, while the rest of them talked in low tones. In addition, my injuries, finally allowed to rest, began to heal.

It was a good thing, too, because as soon as the storm let up, I was going to take the remaining tanks to the water and try to dive that cave.

It stormed for two more days after that, and finally on the fourth day the storm clouds broke and the sun came out. We hadn’t lacked for water during this time, but we were hungry. However, I felt rested, and although not healed, ready to do some work.

I needed at least one more diver, and with her experience, Charlee was the obvious choice. The water had calmed, and I thought it was now or never. Another storm could force us to wait, and I didn’t want to delay any longer to find out how to get out of the cave.

We would need to watch out for that predator in the water, but I hoped that since we’d been staying out of the water for a few days, it had moved on.

Tying our tanks together, we checked the regulators and then waded out into the surf. We started out as close to the cliffs as we dared so that our swim in open water would be short.

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