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Larra looked about
her. She was not sure exactly
which way to proceed. One direction
in the tangle of vegetation looked much the same as the
other. However, her stomach was
complaining vehemently. First
she needed to find some food. Water
was not a problem. Tipping one
of the large leaves she drank greedily from the pool contained in the natural
hollow formed by the leaf. Then
she headed down the forest path keeping a lookout for anything that appeared
edible. It was then that she
became conscious of the gentle swaying of her
breasts. Without her bodice they
had no support at all. She unbuttoned
her blouse all the way and tied it neatly just below her
breasts. Her nipples showed clearly
through the thin fabric, but it provided much more comfortable support than
her bodice had.
“I should have worn my blouse like this
long ago,” she thought.
“That is the last time I am going to be tricked into wearing
some Victorian contraption.”
He stomach
rumbled. “Yes,” she
said aloud, “I know.
Don’t worry I’ll feed you.”
Moving through the forest, Larra kept her
eyes open for anything that looked
edible. There were insects
everywhere, but she was not ready for that
yet. This was a
rainforest. There should be some
edible fruit
somewhere.
After a half-hour of wandering she came to an opening in the
forest... The vegetation here
seemed to have been partially cleared.
She approached cautiously.
Was the clearing man-made or
natural? And then she saw it
– a tall broad-leafed plant supporting what clearly appeared to be a
bunch of green bananas. Larra
threw caution to the wind. This
might be a dangerous place, but if she did not get food she would soon be
weak from hunger. The fear and
exertion of the previous day had worn her
down. Her hunger pangs overwhelmed
her. She moved quickly to the
plant and tore off a half dozen of the unripe fruit from the bunch that hung
before her. Then clutching her
booty she scampered back to the forest.
She found the peel surprisingly tough, but
with a little twisting she managed to break the end off the banana and took
a bite. “Ugh!” she
gasped. It was like biting into
a piece of wood. Then in a flash
of inspiration she realized that she did not have a banana, she had a
plantain. And plantains had to
be cooked before they could be eaten.
Frustrated, she was not about to give
up. She still had her little
bow. She would make a
fire. By this time Larra was
not thinking clearly. She was
thinking only of food, not her safety.
Had she not been so hungry she would not have considered building
a fire so close to what was obviously a forest garden.
In five minutes she had her fire blazing
merrily. In fifteen she was wolfing
down a plantain. It was a bit
scorched, but it was food. She
felt a twinge of pride. She was
getting good at this sort of thing.
And then the four warriors strode into view!
Larra leaped to her feet, mentally cursing
her stupidity. All she had needed
to do was move a little farther into the rainforest and she would probably
have been safe. Now it was too
late. The warriors were too close
for her to run, and in any case they would probably catch
her. She prepared to
fight. The warriors advanced
confidently on her. They saw
only a defenseless White woman and expected no
resistance. Larra was glad of
their overconfidence. She would
have the element of surprise.
They came at her single file, the first warrior
actually reaching out to grab her, making no attempt to defend
himself. Larra struck with all
the force she could muster. Her
booted foot struck him dead in the solar
plexus. He drooped without a
sound, a look of pain mixed with stunned surprise on his
face.
Before the second warrior could react Larra
had bounded past her first opponent.
His shield was partly raised so she leaped high and struck him full
in the throat with her right foot.
There was the sound of crunching cartilage and Larra knew that he
was dead. The warrior made a
strangling sound as his eyes rolled up into his head and he staggered back
to fall in a heap.
Now there were just two, but they had been
given a few moments to prepare. The
third warrior fell back, raising his shield for protection and pointing his
spear in Larra’s direction...
His attempt to gain space, however, brought him into contact with
the fourth warrior, who was still pressing
foreword. That slight distraction
was all the opportunity Larra needed.
Still moving rapidly she struck again, not high this time, but
low. The edge of her foot drove
into the top of the third warrior’s
knee. There was an audible crunch
as the knee hyperextended. With
a scream of pain the warrior collapsed, grabbing at his injured
leg.
Now there remained but a single man
standing. His eyes wide in shock,
he simply stared at Larra for a second or
so. He could not believe what
he had just seen. In less than
ten seconds a feeble White woman had killed and injured three armed
warriors. This could not be
happening!
He did not remain staring
long. The she-devil (for that
was what the warrior believed he was facing) was advancing on
him. He held out his shield and
spear in a defensive stance. He
must not let her get near him.
For Larra, the last warrior presented a
problem. She knew she had to
close with him as quickly as possible.
If she did not he would likely take to his heels and run for
help. Fit as she was, she very
much doubted that she could run him down.
At the same time, he was fighting her very
carefully. If she moved in too
quickly his wicked spear-point would disembowel
her. And so she moved in slowly,
trying to keep close and looking for an
opening.
She never saw the fifth
warrior. At the last second she
heard a slight sound behind her and then the butt of a spear struck the base
of her skull and everything went black.
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