The Beginning

Three years ago, a white bus was crossing a dirt path in the rural área near Dias D'ávia, heading to a reserve in Atlantic Forest. Inside the bus was a group of 9th grade students from the secondary school of the IFBA (Federal Institute of Bahia), and among them was Maria.

They were going to have a field trip in the forest reserve, which was very difficult to access by automobile due to the natural geography of the region.

"Look at that!" said the student who was sitting next to Maria in the bus. He was pointing with his finger to a bunch of tamarins that were hanging on a huge tree next to the path.

"That's amazing they still exist in here. I thought they only existed on the reserves..." said the boy.

Like her classmate, Maria also opened a smile of enthusiasm after seeing this. As the bus continued forward, more trees of the same kind were appearing in the landscape. There were also small stone hills full of colorful flowers, big birds perched on the electric wires of some lamp posts, palm trees full of coconuts, ipê trees, rocks dotted by cacti, and many other things caused the students to huddle together in the windows to take a look. Although most of them lived close to the place, everything was so interesting to them as if they had never seen anything like it before.

The time was passing quickly, and the bus finally arrived at the end of the line. The students left the bus in a row. In this area the forest became more dense, and they could barely see the sky due to the size of the canopy of the native trees. Mist shrouded the forest, as it usually did during that season of the year. A couple of indigenous people who lived in a nearby village were waiting for them.

"They are from the Tupinambá tribe, and they are going to be our guides," said one of the teachers who had been on the bus, before turning to face the students. One of the indigenous men came forward and introduced himself to the group. He then began to speak about the history of the forest.

"...They still couldn't make pastures here. They tried in the past, but all the cattle died suddenly. My people believe this forest is protected, and no one can use it except a few..."

Most students were quietly paying attention on him, but whispers could be heard from some of them talking at the same time.Maria was ignoring these whispers until something called her attention:

"Creepy story!" said a voice, followed by a pause. "Yeah! I could never imagine!" replied another.

She tried to hear more, but the teacher interrupted them and told them to pay attention to the guide.

"So, that's all. We shall explore together now," said one of the voices.

The man finished the speech, and they organized themselves in groups and followed the Indian guide into the forest. They was learning about the diferent biomes. The teacher who was with them spoke about the diversity of the atlantic forest and how theated was its existence.

Maria wasn't much interested in the lesson; she prefered to spent her time watching the forest as she followed behind the class. As they ke[t going deeper inside, the groups were getting further from each other, until they could not see one another anymore. It was then that Maria noticed she was alone with only two of her classmates. They were both boys -- one with straight, medium-length black hair and wearing a tribal necklance, the other with shaved head and a very thin build. She saw that they were slowing their pace while looking for something in the woods and whispering to each other

"So it's here?" said one.

"I'm not sure," replied the other.

Maria approunched them carefully, trying to understand what they were saying.

"What are you both doing? We should keep going!" she said.

"Shhh!" one them wispered.

"So, fine!" she retorted while walking ahead of them, a bit incensed, "I will leave, and if they ask me, I will tell them both of you are skipping class."

They looked at each other, thinking about the punishment they would get -- not only from the school, but also from their parents, if they knew what they were going to do.

"Hey wait!" the boy wearing the necklance shouted.

"Are you kidding?!" the other boy looked to him angrily and whispered, trying to change his mind. Maria, curious, came back to them to find out what they were planning.

"So, you are going to tell me what is going on?"

"Don't tell her!" the bald boy continued trying to convince his friend to keep Maria out of it.

"No! I will tell her. There's no problem. Besides, she might have heard something, otherwise she wouldn't be so curious."

Maria remembered some of the whispers during the guide's speech. Creepy story. She narrowed her eyes, wondering if it was related to what that boys were discussing.

"So, you're Maria right?"

"Yes," she repliyed.

"I'm Cauã, and this is Carlos," he said, while putting his hand in the thin boy's bald spot.

"You will be responsible for this! Not me!" said Carlos, the bald boy, a little disappointed. Cauã ignored his friend's worries and removed some of the dead leaves that covered the forest floor. He raised his hand as if to call Maria over to see.

"What is it?" asked Maria, disgusted with what she saw. It was the halfway-buried hip bones of a human skeleton.

"There's a lot more than this one," whispered Cauã, while trying to break off a piece.

"I don't know why you had to show her!" It's not as if you are going to date her now!" shouted Carlos, annoyed by Maria seeing the bones.

"Shush! Shut up you idiot! Someone will hear you," Cauã wispered angrily.

Maria nearly threw up when she realized the ground in the area was full of human bones. She started to carefully watch where she was stepping. Cauã watched her eyes, enjoying her reaction while he held a piece of the bone.

"The wost part is the story of what happened here..."

She was already getting dizzy, when she looked back to Cauã and said, "I'm not sure if i want to know it now..."

He put the bone piece in his pocket, and suddenly loud voices could be heard far away calling for them. The boys left the area, running ahead after they heard the voices. Maria tried to follow them, but it was no use, they had already disappeared into the mist. Due to her dizzyness she could barely move her body correctly, and she realized that she had been left behind. The feeling caused her to faint.

The mist in that remains of Atlantic Forest was becoming more dense as the night was approaching. The time passed quickly, until Maria finally awoke. Her head was hurting, and standing next to her was a boy half-naked, staring at her. He had red tupinambá tribal paintings on his face that prevented Maria from reconizing him.

"You're one of the tupinambás that live here?" she asked, with the trembling voice of someone who had just woken up. The boy remained silent, staring at her as if he hadn't heard anything.

"Hey, I'm talking to you."

The boy, still silent, pointed with his finger. "He probably doesn't speak my language," she thought. Even so, she looked to the direction he was pointing, but there was nothing but mist and bushes that way.

"What is in that place?" she asked, worried where he might be sending her.

"Auá, Iandê ocá abaetetuba," he said in Tupi, the language of the Indians. "I was right," she thought, and grew some courage to follow where the boy was pointing. The mist was so dense that she coudn't see far in front of her face, but she kept going until she found the entrace of the forest path from whence she came. All her classmates, her teachers, and the guides were there together.

"Finally you showed up!" one of the teachers said with a angry expression. "Your parents are going to be notified about it, you can be sure!"

Maria frowned. "I didn't do it on purpose! It was an accident!" she explained, worried about what her parents would think. "I fell on the ground and passed out!"

However, the teacher wasn't interested in her explanations. He took her by the arm and brought her on board the bus.

"You're going to be sitting here for the rest of the trip. If you get up, you will be suspended for a week," said the teacher. Maria was saddened and chosee one of the last seats of the bus to be

away from everybody, even though the bus was empty. She waited for the teacher to leave and started to cry out loud.

Her tears fell to the bus floor, making it wet. The class went to visit another spot in the forest while she was there in the bus, alone. Suddenly she felt a hand stroking her head. She was frightened to see that it was that tumpinambá boy of the forest again. He was doing the same thing as before: staring at her.

She looked carefully at his eyes this time, and realized it was different from any other eye she had seen before. The color was a kind of cane green, like that of a cat's eyes, and it contrasted with the red paintings of his face. Maria did not react, and the boy hadn't stopped staring at her.

What he want? she thought. "Uh... thank you for showing me the way back," she said, trying to figure out what to do. The boy took a stone knife that was sheathed on his back, and with his hand that was stroking her head he took a lock of her hair and cut it off. She screamed desperately and closed her eyes, waiting for the worst. It was then that Cauã and Carlos entered the bus quickly and ran to her.

"Hey, Maria, what happened to you?" Cauã said, shocked after see her screaming with her eyes closed.

"Where is he?" she asked while checking her hair. Carlos and Cauã looked around curiously.

"He? Who?" Carlos asked, finding it strange.

"A Tupinambá boy, he was here just a second ago."

The boys looked to each other, doubting what she was saying.

"Are you talking about Cauã?" Carlos wondered. Maria narrowed her eyes as she tried to understand what he was talking about.

"No! I mean a boy that was wearing Indian dress and red paint."

Laughing at what Maria had said, Carlos turned to Cauã. "Did you hear? Indian dress, she said. She's dreaming about half naked boys. What a pervert!"

Unlike his friend, Cauã became serious upon hearing this. He started to feel a cold sweat, and his dark skinned face became as pale as a ghost. He sat close to her, and she could see his hands trembling a little.

"Are you ok?" Maria asked, wondering if what she said had scared him too. He was looking at the wet ground.

"When did he appear?" Cauã asked.

Maria replied: "I was sad because I was in her alone, and I started to cry because the teacher punished me. Then he appeared right in front of me."

"I'm also tupinambá, my family lives in a village very close to here, and there is a story of a mischevious god who lived in this part of Atlantic Forest..."

Cauã was interrupted by the sound of the rest of the class arriving on the bus.

Carlos quickly sat next to his friend, and then they waited until all their colleagues were seated on the bus and ready for departure. Cauã wispered in Maria's ear: "We call him Abaça�� Amanaiara."

Maria whispered back: "Ab...ça... what...?"

He didn't reply, because the teacher was passing close to them, staring at Maria with a disapointed expression on his face. But as soon as they were out of the teacher's sight, Cauã turned back to Maria's ear: "Beware the waters!"