Adventures
in the Lost World
Episode 1
Atawna and
the Lost World
Email:
Lespion@msn.com
Chapter
1 Sylvan
Princesses
Chara balanced precariously on the swaying branches of
the forest giant. She was high
in the crown, a good four hundred feet above the
ground. Far below her the Cinzani
moved like ants on the forest floor.
She watched their activities with great
interest. The Cinzani were always
good entertainment. They were
a distraction made all the more fascinating by the fact that she had been
expressly forbidden to go anywhere near them.
Well she wasn’t near
them. Not
exactly. And in any case, she
had not deliberately sought them out.
She had simply been moving through the forest and had happened upon
them. She
grinned. The fact that she knew full well that the ground huggers
always used the well traveled trail far below her did not make her
disobedient. How was she to
know their routine?
Lightly, she skipped across the slender
branches. Each one bent alarmingly
as she committed her 100 pounds to it, but she stepped to the next branch
so quickly that none of the limbs had any chance to
break. She had been doing this
ever since she was a young girl.
She was after all a
Trelana, a child of the
forest.
She debated following the
Cinzani. They were after all
going more or less in the direction she called
home. Well, not exactly, but
very close. Surely it would
do no harm just to tag along for a short
distance. After all, it was
most unlikely that any of them would notice
her. Ground huggers almost never
looked up. It was a weakness
that made them easy prey when her people chose to go to war against them,
which was one reason why the Cinzani rarely challenged the Trelana.
Surely, it wouldn’t hurt to just follow them a little
way. It would only take her
a short distance away from her normal route
home. She adjusted her breast
bindings. She was not yet quite
used to them, her budding breasts only recently having acquired the size
and weight to warrant binding them. But she was proud of her developing figure
nonetheless. Only a year ago
she had been a hipless flat-chested little
girl. She had grown up a lot
in that year. Now the gentle
swell of her bosom; the flaring of her hips; and the rounding of her thighs
showed her maturity. And she
was beginning to attract the stares of
men.
Her heart fluttered as she thought of the look she had
caught in Rorix’s eyes this morning as she had returned from her morning
bath, her unbound blonde hair draped about her shoulders like soft wet
string. That had been a
mistake. She should never have
let him see her like that. Still
he had been interested; otherwise he would not have
looked.
Breasts fixed in place she let herself
drop. She hurtled in free fall
through the branches, dropping a hundred feet in just
seconds. But it was a controlled drop, her hands and feet making
contact with the twining vines that reached to the very top of the immense
tree. She stopped herself, just
before contacting a heavy branch, the powerful muscles of her arms and shoulders
flexing as she swung on a looping liana just above the
branch. She let herself drop to the
branch. This one easily supported her weight and she ran along
it as if she were negotiating a wide forest path, rather than a slender limb
at a dizzying height above the ground.
But she was a Trelana.
Traveling through the forest heights was a part of her nature; something
she had been doing ever since she was able to
walk.
Reaching the end of the branch she launched her
five-foot-four-inch frame into space once
again. This time she did not drop so far, only about fifty
feet. Now she could see the
Cinzani much more clearly. All
around her birds, insects, and other arboreal creatures chirped, chattered,
and scolded. But she paid little
attention to them. Her senses
told her that there were no dangerous predators
nearby.
She slid out on a limb and crouched so that she was less
obvious. Two hundred and fifty
feet below her the Cinzani scuttled down the forest trail, unaware of her
presence. What were the strange
creatures up to now? The eight
legged beings were unlike anything else in her
world. If they had been able
to stand up they would have been about the height of a
man. Each insect-like creature
had a triple segmented body. Four
of their eight appendages acted as legs and were attached to the largest
segment. The other four were
connected to the second segment, which was upright like the torso of a
man. The final segment was the head, which contained two very
human eyes on flexible stalks, and a mouth full of razor sharp
teeth. Chara always thought
of the lower limbs as their “feet” although they were identical
to the other four limbs which they used as
“hands.” At the end
of each limb were three “fingers,” each resembling a
claw. One of the claws was
opposable, like the human thumb.
Even with only three fingers, the four hands gave the Cinzani tremendous
dexterity. They were capable
of constructing and manufacturing the most wondrous
things.
But they were also very
dangerous. While not able to
move through the treetops like the Trelana, they were good climbers and it
was not wise to get too close to them.
They were also well armed.
Many of them carried bows and slings, which they could use with deadly
accuracy. If they could not catch her, they might be tempted to
bring her down with an arrow. She
crouched down on the limb, making herself small.
There were about two or three hundred of the
Cinzani. Most of them were the
reddish-coloured workers, but a few were soldiers, distinguished by their
ebony colouring. They were scuttling
along so quickly that Chara could not be sure of the exact
number. Every one in two was
carrying something. From her vantage point she could not quite make out what
they held. Should she go
lower? She remembered how she
had been warned to stay away from the eight-limbed
beings. But she should be safe
enough in the trees, as long as she did not go too
low. Moving back into the thicker
foliage near the trunk, she swung lower.
Here the branches were close enough together that she could move from
one to the other like a trapeze artist.
Rapidly she moved in the direction the Cinzani were going, losing
elevation as she did so.
She stopped only about a hundred feet
up. The Cinzani were oblivious
to her presence. Now she could
see that they were carrying little white bundles, each about the size and
shape of a large melon.
“Eggs,” thought Chara.
“They’re carrying
eggs.” But
why? She knew that the Cinzani
lived in huge complex nests, and that the heart of the nest was the queen’s
chamber where the eggs were laid.
But she had never heard of the strange creatures moving their eggs
for any reason. She leaned forward
for a better look and never saw the stone that struck the side of her
head.
Probably if the stone had not been deflected by several
small branches it would have killed her.
The Cinzani slingers seldom missed and the power with which they hurled
their missiles was deadly. Dazed,
but not unconscious she fell forward, crashing through the lower branches
toward the ground. It was this
that saved her life. The branches
and her clutching fingers broke her
fall.
She landed in the middle of the trail, her pert backside
thumping hard into the packed earth.
For a second she just sat there, too bewildered to respond to her
danger, and then when she did, it was too
late. In shocked horror she
found herself the centre of a circle of Cinzani
warriors. Their stalked eyes
focused on her and she had time for only a quick scream before her arms and
legs were seized and she was yanked into the air, her arms and legs flailing
futilely.
Atawna frowned.
Where was that girl? Chara
should have been back a long time ago.
She had gone off to gather fruit.
At least that was what she had
said. But her little sister
was sometimes inclined to be a little
featherbrained. And lately she
had been drooling over some of the older
boys. That was to be expected,
of course. Atawna remembered
herself at that age. Boys were
everything. And trying out her
newfound sexual powers had been most
exciting. Of course, now at
the very mature age of eighteen she was much more
composed. She no longer loitered
where the males of the tribe would stumble upon
her. Now she made them come
to her. Her bow shaped lips
curled in a smile; she had half the eligible Trelana males in an
uproar.
Her mind returned to
Chara. Well, she knew where the girl went when she wanted to
be alone. Chara no doubt thought
of it as her own special aerie, but Atawna had been there many
times. The Lord of the
Forest. The immense tree loomed
over the forest like a god. Atawna
had spent hours there when she had been allowed to go out on her
own. It had been most amusing when Chara had discovered the
same spot all on her own. She
shook her head, sending her raven locks swirling about her
shoulders. Well, she had wasted enough time thinking about
Chara. Probably it would be
a good idea to see where she was.
Quickly she fashioned her hair into a long braid and
wrapped it about her head so that it would not tangle in any branches when
she moved. Then she sprang off
the branch she had been resting on, catching hold of one of the branches
of a neighbouring tree. Within
seconds she was swinging rapidly through the treetops, rivaling the speed
of the fastest monkey. Powerful
muscles rolled beneath her smooth well tanned
skin. And she was showing a
lot of it. The Trelana were
not a people bothered by casual nudity and they wore only enough clothing
to protect their modesty.
A halter of leopard skin kept Atawna’s well-formed
breasts from getting in the way while she traveled and protected them from
being scratched by branches as she swept through the
treetops. Her loins were covered
with another scrap of dead leopard, a sign that she was now regarded as a
woman and of marriageable age. She
was taller than her sister by about two inches and her fuller figure added
fifteen pounds to her weight, but her exquisite musculature propelled her
from branch to branch without seeming effort.
It took her only minutes to reach the Lord of the Forest.
Chara was not there. But Atawna
could sense that she had been, and not too long
ago. She decided to see if she
could find her wayward younger sister.
She had no trouble following the route Chara had
taken. Her scent hung heavy
on the air and clung to every leaf and branch she had
touched. Swiftly she dropped
from the crown to the canopy and then swung along the route Chara had
taken. As she followed her concern
deepened. Her sister’s
path had taken her close to a trail used by the
Cinzani. Although none of the
strange creatures seemed to be near, it was possible they had been when Chara
had been around.
Atawna’s smooth brow
furrowed. Narrowing her piercing ice blue eyes she swept the
trail. A large number of Cinzani
had passed recently. Had Chara
strayed too close to them? The
girl was insatiably curious and had been warned countless time to avoid the
eight limbed beings. Atawna
dropped the last few feet to the trail.
Moving quickly she jogged along in the direction the Cinzani had been
traveling. She had gone only
a few hundred feet when she came upon a disturbance in the regularly spaced
track of the quadrupeds. Something
had disturbed their progress.
It took her only seconds to spot the
knife. It was
Chara’s. Atawna had seen it often
enough. Her sister had probably
lost it in the struggle when she had been
captured. Atawna’s mouth
went dry. If her sister had
been taken by the Cinzani it was very likely that she was already
dead. Although there had been
no conflict between the Trelana and the Cinzani during Atawna’s lifetime,
there was no love lost between the two
species. Each kept to its own
region of the forest, avoiding trespassing into the other’s
territory.
There was no sign of blood, just the confused claw marks
of a struggle. Perhaps there
was a chance that her sister was still
alive. There was only one way
to find out. Moving back up
into the trees, Atawna swung from branch to branch paralleling the
trail. She knew that there was
a good chance that she was merely sacrificing herself for a sister that was
already dead, but she couldn’t just give
up. She had to try and learn
what had happened to Chara.
Despite her hopeless situation, Chara could not help
being curious about what the Cinzani were up
to. It looks like they were
creating another of the huge complexes that they used as a
nest. If so, that would explain
the eggs they had been carrying.
It was far easier to move unborn offspring than it was to transfer
entire colonies of adults. But
there was one thing missing. In
order to have a viable colony, there had to be a queen, and Chara had seen
no evidence that there was a queen in this
colony. The Cinzani were just
beginning work on what would be the new Cinzani
nest. Workers were moving
efficiently to and fro, carrying baskets of earth and moving rocks and timbers
about. Chara knew very little
about Cinzani cities other than the fact that they were much more than mere
holes in the ground. Some members
of her tribe had once visited a nest that had been abandoned and they had
come back and spoken for days of its wonders.
The Cinzani built a nest by first excavating a large
hole in the ground. Next timber
and stone from the surrounding area, as well as quantities of the excavated
earth were fashioned into a solid
foundation. Then a complex nest
was constructed on the foundation.
The word “nest” was actually a poor description
of what the bizarre creatures built, but Chara knew no
other. The closest thing to a city that the Trelana built was
the complex network of walkways and platforms that were nestled in the
treetops. What the Cinzani built
resembled a Central American pyramid.
In consisted of a massive base of earth stone and wood with successive
stories built on top of it. Each
story was slightly smaller that the one below so that the pyramid rose in
a series of giant steps. The
inside of the pyramid was a warren of corridors, storage chambers, and other
rooms of all sorts. As the
“nest” grew, the base was extended and each story added
to. Very old colonies could
measure over a thousand feet on a side and rise the same distance above the
rainforest floor. Huge populations
of Cinzani could be contained in such
structures.
But they all started out small Chara supposed, just like
the one she was watching the Cinzani
build. However, perhaps she
should worry more about her own plight, rather than what the Cinzani were
doing. They had placed her in
a bamboo cage. Lengths of bamboo
had been driven into the ground and then lashed together with coarse
rope. It was a crude but very
effective prison. Chara lacked
the strength to pull the bamboo poles out of the ground and they were lashed
too close together for her to squeeze
through. If she had not lost
her knife she might have been able to cut her way to freedom, but that had
been lost in the struggle along with her breast
bindings. Her small saucy breasts
now bounced free. It was annoying
but not critical. She hoped
that none of her friends saw her like
this. Unbound breasts were the
sign of physical immaturity, and she considered herself very grown
up. On the other hand, if no
one from her tribe saw her how was she to be
rescued? She decided that it might be alright to be seen almost
completely naked if it led to her
salvation.
Less than a hundred feet away was the edge of the
forest. If only she could find
someway out of the cage and get to the trees…
Chara’s thoughts were
interrupted. Her blue eyes
widened. Something was
happening. Several of the large
Cinzani soldiers were coming toward her.
They were carrying a small raised wooden platform, and carrying it
very carefully. “I wonder
what this is all about?” she thought.
Reaching her cage, the platform was lowered to the
ground. Sitting in the center
of the platform on a cushion of the beautifully woven silk cloth the Cinzani
produced, was a Cinzani infant.
But not just any infant, Chara
realized. It was an immature
Cinzani queen. She knew it was
a queen by its colouring, for instead of being red or black like the other
Cinzani it was a brilliant emerald
green. What else could it
be?
Two of the guards loosened the ropes and untied the door
of her cage. Reaching in they
hauled Chara out into the open and forced her onto her knees in front of
the Cinzani queen. Chara’s
heart began to beat like a drum.
She had no idea what was going on, but she sensed that something momentous
was about to happen.
“Unnggh!” Chara grunted in pain as the
soldiers holding her suddenly pushed down on her shoulders, forcing her to
arch her back. Her gently curved
abdomen was now pushed toward the Cinzani
queen. Suddenly an old story
she had been told as a child came flooding back into her
mind. It was said that the Cinzani
started a new nest by offering the new queen a blood
sacrifice. The queen fed on
this sacrifice, enriching herself with the blood of the victim and then retired
to the nest to begin laying eggs.
Chara had always supposed that the story was nothing more than a tale
told to keep her from going too near the Cinzani, but now, held by the Cinzani
soldiers, and with her belly arched toward the advancing Cinzani queen, Chara
had a horrible feeling that everything about the story was all too
true.
If there were any lingering doubts they were dispelled
a few seconds later when the tiny queen opened its jaws revealing a full
set of needle-like teeth. It
reached toward her with its tiny arms, the razor sharp claws on the end of
each limb extended like scalpels.
Chara gasped in fear and fought to break free from the soldiers that
held her, but there was no escape.
Her strength was no match for the two powerful Cinzani warriors that
clamped their claws on her arms and legs from either
side.
Closer and closer the horrible little creature moved
toward her, its claw-like feet scrambling on the wooden
platform. Chara wrenched against
the creatures holding her, straining the powerful muscles developed over
a lifetime in the treetops. She
almost broke free, wrenching her right arm away and losing a little skin
in the process. Immediately, her hand flew to where she usually wore her
knife, remembering only as she found the sheath empty that she had lost it
when she had been captured. Then
she was seized again. This time,
she was forced forward, and both arms yanked behind her
back. Fighting desperately,
she felt the strong cords of the fine rope used by the Cinzani being looped
over her wrists. She almost
wept in frustration as her arms were pinioned behind her and then roped to
her ankles, leaving her squatting helplessly before the Cinzani queen, which
had backed off to its cushion when she had
struggled.
But now the little queen was advancing again, its long
rasp-like tongue licking its jaws, flecks of saliva dripping onto the wooden
platform. Chara could only watch
in terror as its jaws gaped wide.
A horrible thought inundated her
mind. The Cinzani queen was
far too small to kill her. Was
it going to eat her alive? Burrow
into her belly with those needle sharp claws, and rip at her soft flesh with
those serried teeth? She jerked
her body frantically, her waist length blonde hair, which had become loose
in the struggle swirling about her straining body like a cloud.
She screamed as the Cinzani queen made the first
incision. It cut into her smooth
belly with surgical precision, its tiny claws slicing her
flesh. And then there was a
“thunk,” and a high pitched
squeal. Suddenly Chara found
herself lying on her side in the grass.
In front of her the soldiers who had been holding her were tending
to the Cinzani queen, which was kicking out its life, pierced through and
through by an arrow. Then there
was another “thunk,” and another as two more arrows found their
mark, this time in the bodies of the
soldiers. Dazedly, Chara realized
that she recognized the flights of the
arrows. They identified the
marksman as her older sister, Atawna, and then she felt someone behind
her. A knife slashed thought the ropes around her wrists and
ankles, and a strong arm jerk her to her feet.
“Run,” Atawna, said, “we only have seconds
before the Cinzani recover.”
Chara did as she was told, heading for the safety of
the nearest tree. Her sister
was right behind her. The Cinzani
seemed momentarily confused by the loss of their queen, but the reaction
wouldn’t last. Soon they
would be in pursuit, and over ground, they were much faster than either of
the two young women.
Chara ran like she had never run before, but her steps
seemed incredibly slow. Right
behind her she could hear Atawna’s light footsteps and behind that a
hubbub as the Cinzani suddenly reacted to the intruder that had murdered
their queen.
Missiles started to fly past
them. Stones from slings and
arrows from bows. A rock struck
Chara between the shoulder blades and she stumbled, the breath knocked out
of her. Atawna caught her before
she fell, and then they were into the
trees. “Climb,” her
sister urged, pushing her toward the trunk of the nearest
tree. And then turning, Atawna
loosed several arrows in the direction of the pursuing
Cinzani.
“Figs!” she
muttered. “That didn’t
slow them at all.” The
Cinzani were almost upon her now, dozens of them closing on her at the speed
of a gazelle. The few that had
fallen to her arrows were simply ignored and
overrun. Quickly flicking her
bow over her shoulder, she grabbed the nearest vine and scampered up the
tree trunk. She had to move
fast. The Cinzani were faster
climbers than she was. Only
when she reached the higher levels of the tree would she be able to outdistance
them.
She scrambled up the
trunk. Below her she could hear the scrabbling of the Cinzani’s
claws on the bark of the tree. In
a few seconds they would be upon her.
She reached the canopy.
Here the branches of the tree spread wide, intersecting with that
of its neighbours. The shady
gallery was festooned with lianas and interlaced with
branches. It was a perfect natural
highway for any animal with aerial
abilities. And Atawna was just
such an animal. Without stopping
she ran along the nearest branch and leaped to the next tree, then swinging
from branch to branch propelled herself through the treetops with blinding
speed.
This was something the Cinzani could not match, and she
was soon clear of their pursuit.
Ahead of her, darting from limb to limb was
Chara. Her little sister was
moving faster than she had ever moved in her
life.
Atawna caught her after a few
minutes. Seeing her, Chara swept
up to the crotch of a great tree and waited, her chest heaving from
exertion. “Slow down, little
sister,” Atawna said. We
may have to pace ourselves. I
have a hunch that the Cinzani may not give
up. No Trelana has ever killed
one of their queens as far as I know.”
Chara nodded.
The emotional trauma of her near escape now swept over
her. She began to tremble
uncontrollably.
“Easy,” said Atawna, placing her hands on Chara’s
shoulders. “Sit down;
I’ll get you some food and
water.”
Chara composed herself in the fork created by the junction
of three branches. Taking deep
breaths she brought her frightened breathing under
control. She was a bit
chagrined. She had not set much
of an example for her older sister.
And only a few hours ago, she had prided herself on her newfound
maturity. Now she felt like
a pathetic little girl. She
had been stupid, letting her curiosity get the better of her and placing
herself in unnecessary jeopardy.
Her foolishness had forced her sister to come to her rescue, thus
endangering her as well. Setting
her jaw, she got to her feet.
Well, she would not make that mistake
again. From now on she would
behave as a responsible member of Trelana
society. Provided, of course,
that she and Atawna got out of their present
predicament. She wondered if
her sister was right about the Cinzani not being likely to give
up. There was no sign of the
eight-limbed creatures.
A slight rustle above her announced the return of her
sister. In the small net bag
all Trelana carried with them, Atawna had a collection of fruit, nuts, and
herbs. She set them in front
of her sister. “Lean
back,” she ordered, pushing gently on Chara’s
shoulder. “Let’s look
at that cut.”
Chara settled back against the bole of the
tree. “You’re
lucky,” said Atawna.
“These are superficial.
I was just in time. Hold
still while I make sure that they don’t
fester.”
Chara picked up a ripe sugarfruit, and bit into its juicy
flesh. She seemed to be paying
no attention to what Atawna was doing.
If nothing else, she would behave like a warrior while she received
treatment for her wounds.
“Ooh” she thought, “that
stings!” But she did not
flinch as her sister crushed one of the herbs she had gathered and spread
it over the cuts on her abdomen.
“There,” said Atawna, “that should do
it.” She picked up a purplish
fruit about the size of a man’s fist and bit into
it. “We better eat and
move off. I don’t think
we will be alone for long.”
Chara nodded.
She suddenly felt naked without her breast
bindings. Even if her small firm breasts did not need much in the
way of support, it was one of the marks of
womanhood. Atawna seemed to
guess what was running through her mind.
“Come on,” she said.
“We’ll look for something to cover you on the
way.”
Atawna stuffed the remainder of the fruit and nuts into her net bag, and leaped into the tree. Chara got to her feet and quickly followed her.