Jahl lives with his people, the Hamica, in the jungles of a nameless world. They live at one with nature. It’s a simple existence, centred around family and community. One day all this is snatched away when Jahl is captured by slavers. But he’s a proud man from a proud people, and he never shows his fright or anxiety, despite what he feels inside. They take him through the jungle, through swampland and farmland, to a town that has seen many like him come before. In a strange, wooden building in the middle of the town square, Jahl is put into a harness, naked and spread-eagle for all who have gathered there to see. It’s humiliating and degrading, especially when the bidding starts. For the first time, Jahl is truly frightened. Who will purchase him? And for what purpose?

Goodbye to the Jungle

Brocknor looked at him blankly, then got out of bed and padded naked from the room.


“Don’t ask the question if you don’t want the answer,” shouted Jahl. “Everything I said is the truth.”


He got off of mattress and stormed into his own room. He pulled the curtain across the doorway. So angry and so upset, he couldn’t cry even though he very much wanted to.


He awoke the next morning a hollow man. He lay in bed wondering whether the void he felt was due to the previous night’s expunging, or whether it was the realisation of the inevitability of his situation. It was probably a little of both.


He got out of bed and found Brocknor’s bed empty.


“Where’s he gone?” he asked Mari a moment later.


She was sweeping the entrance. “He went out early this morning.”


Mari continued sweeping. “I don’t know. I just happened to see him leave through the gate as I came out to sweep the front steps.”


Chapter 17