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Once again she was on the
loose. And as usual, she did
not have the faintest idea as to which way to
proceed. She kept on moving in
a direction that she thought was taking her away from the village, trotting
through the forest as quickly as her shoeless feet and her level of fitness
would allow. She was not in prime
condition. Her long confinement
had weakened her and she could not move as speedily as she once
had. Fortunately, she had happened
on a trail almost right away. That
was a blessing. Thrashing about
in the rainforest at night would have placed her in a severe
predicament.
She continued moving down the trail for the
rest of the night. By morning
(she hoped) she would be far enough away that pursuit would not be
immediate. As it got lighter
she tried to get her bearings, using the glow of the dawn as her
compass. She wanted to move
east. As the sun rose she tried
to take branches in the trail that headed her in that
direction. As usual she had neither
food nor water. It would not
be long before she would need both if she were to continue her
escape. It was difficult enough
to escape, without having to find food and drink as well, but without them
escape would be impossible.
She found neither food nor water for several
hours, by which time she was both famished and
parched. Then, as chance would
have it she stumbled across a tree bearing some sort of juicy wild
fruit. She had no idea what it
was, but she recognized it from the
village. The villagers called
it
maebe.
Using her knife she cut open the fruit and gorged herself on the ripe
pulp. Satiated, she took several
of the fruits and wrapped them in a large
leaf. It made a crude but effective
carrying bag.
By now she was beginning to
limp. Her bare feet were quite
bruised. She stopped for a few
minutes while she cut strips of cloth from her
robe. She wound these about her
feet. That would have to do until
she could get something better.
The scenery about her looked somewhat
familiar. She was on a downhill
slope passing through a more open area bordered by large
boulders. Larra realized that
she was very close to the rope bridge where she had been wounded and
captured. She redoubled her
pace. If she could reach the
bridge before her pursuers caught up with her she could cut off her pursuit
by destroying the bridge.
About a half-hour later the bridge came into
sight. She moved cautiously now,
aware of the fact that if the Maasi had set out after her it was possible
that they might have reached the bridge before
her. She had not exactly traveled
in a straight line, but rather had wandered about the forest looking for
a way out. Only by good fortune
had she stumbled upon the trail that led to the bridge and possible
freedom.
This time there was no
ambush. Before
her hung the rope bridge, swaying slightly in the
breeze. Below was a sheer
drop to the bottom of the canyon.
She hoped that the bridge was in a good state of
repair. Gingerly she stepped
onto the bridge entrance. The
deck of the bridge was made of lengths of wood held in place by
rope. They looked sturdy enough,
but could be rotted through or hollowed out by ants or
termites. Gingerly she made her
way across, testing each section of the bridge before she committed her weight
to it. It was with a sigh of
relief that she stepped once more onto firm ground on the other side of the
canyon.
“Made it!” she
gasped.
She pulled out her little knife and began
to saw at the cables suspending the
bridge. The grass rope cables
were quite thick and tough, but the knife had an excellent edge and cut through
them easily. Within a few minutes
the job was done, and the bridge broke away from the edge of the canyon and
fell into the chasm, crashing against the far side of the canyon wall where
it was still supported. Now she
should be safe from pursuit!
“Well done, White Witch,” said a
deep voice from behind her.
Larra spun
around. There, scarcely thirty
feet away, was Chui. Somehow
he had gotten to this side of the canyon before her!
“Now,” he continued, “we will
not be disturbed.”
Larra crouched, readying herself for
combat. Chui appraised her
coolly. “I have never met
anyone like you, White Witch. You
have the beauty of a woman, but you fight better than any warrior in my
village.” Here he paused
for effect.
“Except me.”
Larra realized that she had fallen into another
trap. Chui had known the route
she would take and had come directly to this
spot. The only mystery was why
he had allowed her to destroy the bridge.
It was almost as if he did not want anyone else to catch
her. Then she recalled his most
recent words.
“We
will not be
disturbed.”
He wanted her alone! A
cold, hollow feeling formed in the pit of her
stomach. She could guess
why!
“Chui,” she pleaded, “there
has been enough blood. Can you
not act as the son of a chief and show mercy toward a harmless woman who
only wants to leave your country?”
Chui laughed,
uproariously.
“Harmless
woman! You have killed
five of my warriors. You are
a devil in female form, but I have the means to break your
spell.”
“What is
that?” Larra inquired, trying
to keep her voice steady.
“I will take you for my
wife. My father does not wish
this to happen, but when I present you at his kraal, heavy with child, he
will allow me to keep you.”
“You cannot succeed,” Larra
cautioned. No man can take me
without my consent.”
Chui laughed
again. This time the sound was
a low sinister chuckle. “I
think I can make you consent,” he said, and he lowered his
spear.
Almost casually, Chui
approached. The man was clearly
overconfident. Larra held her
spear before her with both hands.
It was a long clumsy weapon, but she was skilled in the various weapons
of ancient
Larra lunged, striking for the opening that
Chui’s careless approach offered.
Her blow found only air.
Chui neatly sidestepped and aimed a deadly counterstrike with his
own spear at Larra’s exposed torso.
Only by diving to the ground and rolling quickly to the side did she
escape being impaled. She
had almost been fooled. Chui
was a much more skilled warrior than anyone she had yet
encountered. His seemingly
overconfident manner had been a trick to catch her off
guard.
Chui continued his attack, pressing Larra
back. She parried and counterthrust
and Chui caught the blow on his shield, thrusting back at her
immediately. Again Larra gave
up ground to prevent being speared.
She took a quick glance behind
her. She was being driven perilously
close to the edge of the chasm.
Desperate, she parried Chui’s next attack and counterattacked
ferociously. Her assault forced
the giant warrior back and Larra was able to shift to her left, away from
the edge of the canyon. Now she
was no longer in danger of stepping over the edge.
Chui was now on the attack again, each of
his skilled thrusts threatening to end the battle with a single
blow. Each time Larra blocked
the attack and struck back at her massive, yet agile opponent, and each time
Chui blocked her blow and launched an attack of his
own. And so the contest went,
with neither antagonist able to harm the
other.
By now Larra and Chui had been dueling for
a good fifteen minutes. Normally,
this would not have been a problem for someone in Larra’s state of fitness,
but her injury, her forced confinement, and the intense heat and humidity
of the rainforest, sapped her usual
strength. Larra realized that
she was beginning to tire rapidly.
Already her fine body was drenched in
perspiration. Rivulets of sweat
poured from her brow and into her eyes, obscuring her
vision. She was beginning to
pant with exertion. Her black
opponent grinned at her. He did
not seem to be the least bit tired, even though he too was covered in beads
of moisture. He actually seemed
to be enjoying the contest.
Suddenly, Larra
understood. Chui was not really
trying to kill her. He was trying
to exhaust her. He did not want
her dead, he wanted her as a prisoner
again!
With her strength rapidly draining away, Larra
knew that she would have to take a
chance. Shifting her weight from
side to side in order to make herself difficult to hit, Larra closed
in. Chui stabbed at her as expected,
but this time instead of parrying the attack, Larra rolled beneath it, intending
to get past Chui’s guard and strike up into his exposed
abdomen. Chui, however, stepped
to the side with an amazing agility for so large a
man. As Larra rolled beneath
him, his foot came down on her spear-shaft, pinning the weapon to the ground,
and then reversing his weapon, he struck Larra across her left
shoulder.
“Oohhh!” Larra
cried. The impact numbed her
arm and shoulder. She dropped
the spear from her lifeless fingers and collapsed to the
ground. Before she could recover,
the massive black warrior was upon her, flattening her body beneath his massive
260-pound frame.
“Oooopphhh!” she gasped.
The impact had knocked the breath out of
her. Franticly Larra tried to
get air back into her lungs.
Chui seized her arms and attempted to force them behind her back,
while at the same time using his weight to prevent her powerful legs from
striking him where he was vulnerable.
Larra struggled
desperately. She knew that given
the huge warrior’s superior strength, it was only a matter of time until
he wrestled her into submission.
Somehow she had to break away.
Using every last ounce of her remaining energy she attempted to pull
her legs back for a devastating kick.
Chui, however, seemed to anticipate such a move, and transferring
his weight he moved his lower body between her legs as she moved them, forcing
them apart. Larra writhed on
the ground like a trapped animal, coiling and uncoiling her athletic body
in a desperate effort to break free.
Through it all, Chui maintained his grip and his dominant
position. He seemed content to
let Larra exhaust herself.
As she struggled Larra caught a glimpse of
his face. It was picture of arrogant
triumph. A small smile played
about his cruel mouth. He was enjoying this
struggle!
Larra used every stratagem she knew and invented
a few new techniques, but slowly her struggles
weakened. Her breath came in
harsh gasps, and her arms and legs felt like
rubber. Slowly, Chui pressed
her into the earth. Calling on
her last reserves of strength Larra tried to wrench her arms free, but the
huge African held her wrists with a grip of
steel. With a sound that was
half groan, half sob, Larra stopped
struggling. She could no longer
force her body to move. Exhausted,
she lay gasping for air, her heart hammering in her
chest.
Still holding her arms, the giant African
rolled her over on her stomach. He
pulled her arms behind her and then, holding her wrists with one powerful
hand, he removed Larra’s knife from where she had tied it about her
waist. Held by only one hand,
Larra once again tried to break free, alarmed by what the warrior might do
with the knife, but he was far too
strong. He controlled her now
feeble exertions with almost no effort.
What did he want with the knife?
Her heart in her mouth, Larra awaited his next
move.
She felt a tug on the brassiere-like covering
she had created to cover her breasts.
Chui was cutting through the straps that held it in
place! Now too weak to even move,
Larra offered no resistance. She
felt him pull the covering from her body, leaving her naked from the waist
up. Even when he confidently
released her wrists for a few seconds she made no effort to escape; her strength
was completely drained from her body.
Larra could hear Chui tearing her halter-top
into strips. A few seconds later
she felt her right arm being tightly bound just above the
elbow. Her arm was then pulled
roughly toward the center of her back and tied to her left arm in an identical
manner. The strain on her arms
forced her to arch her back so that her magnificent tear-shaped breasts jutted
forward. Chui then turned to
her legs, and bound her ankles securely.
Finally, with a few quick slashes of the knife, Chui cut away
Larra’s brief skirt, leaving her entirely nude.
The muscular warrior then rose from Larra’s
prone and completely defenseless body.
Reaching down he pulled her into a sitting position so that she rested
on her haunches. He then knelt
before her, his huge body still towering over
her. Trembling with apprehension,
Larra squatted before the huge black man.
She was alone in the rainforest, completely at the mercy of a malevolent
and barbaric African!
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