The Jungle Part 10

The Jungle Part 10

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I pulled the rope hand over hand, raising the sail as we approached, less speed, but more control I assumed. I wasn't exactly privy to the details yet, but that was my best guess.

"All hands, secure yourselves! We're approaching the mountain now!"

"Aye aye Captain!"

Nervous, giddy, and excited, I tied off the rope quickly, automatically giving it two check-tugs before scampering to the side and grabbed the rope from my belt that I'd pre-looped around myself. Almost hastily, I threw it around the railing quickly, looping it around quickly.

The Reverse Mountain, one of the strangest and yet most fascinating macro-scale features in this world. And that was saying something.

I nearly bounced in place as I tied off the rope in a simple knot, tethering myself to the rail. My runt ass would be held in place pretty easily, and if my growth rate held the same in this world as in my previous life I was going to be pretty short until I was almost seventeen. I'd been almost a head shorter than a fair number of my classmates all through middle school, and half a head shorter for most of high school. I'd finally high the low end of average in my junior year. There was no guarantee though since I apparently didn't have my congenital heart defect in this life.

The wooden deck of the Patch nearly vibrated under my feet as the ship sailed towards the mountain before us, the river going straight up the massive rocky formation that stretched high into the clouds, framed by large arches as far up as the eye could see.

My hands clenched on the railing as I watched in fascination. This world was divided into the Four Blues by the Grand Line and the Red Line, a stretch of current and a large continent that wrapped around the world perpendicular to one another. The local equivalents to the gulf streams of each of the four major seas of this world all converged at one point, one of the two intersections of the Grand Line and the Red Line. A point where the already high cliffs of the Red Line rose impossibly high into the sky, to the clouds themselves, four massive and impossibly fast currents rushing straight up the mountain before letting out into the first half of the Grand Line.

And we were about to ride it.

"Eeeeeee~" I wasn't an enormous fan of roller coasters, but come on! There was nothing like this in my old life!

The first set of gates, the place we had to thread the needle with our ship to avoid getting smashed against the rocks, was approaching quickly, now easily in sight as I held on to the railing near the prow of the Patch. This was dangerous, but the only way for pirates and other less than law abiding folk to get into the Grand Line; crossing the Calm Belts or the Red Line proper was effectively impossible due to the Sea Kings and the Marines respectively. And while it was dangerous, and I could feel a small thrill of fear in my chest, I felt safe, this was the Patch, these were my family, and if they weren't worried, then I wouldn't be either.

Well... much.

The Patch creaked and groaned slightly as Barely guided it in, shifting the rudder slightly and letting the current do most of the work.

It was fascinating how the water would just go straight up the mountain without constantly wearing it down, I'd have thought that even a few hundred years of this would have torn the Reverse Mountain to pieces given the sheer power of the current able to push the water and even a decently sized ship like the Patch hundreds of feet uphill and...

… and okay, this was just really cool shit, alright?

"Hold on!" Came the cry from Captain Billy and oh boy did I! I hugged the railing tight as the ship bucked, hitting the upwards current hard and swaying from one side to the other as Barley heaved the steering wheel back and forth.

"Tchehehehehahahahaaahh!" I giggled and laughed, a giddy sound as I clung tight to the railing, my stomach feeling like it was falling out on the drop of a rollercoaster only in the opposite direction and holy shit look at that salt spray! I grinned like a loon as I watched the water shoot up along both sides of the Patch like the wake behind a jet ski! This was absurd! In the best fucking way!

I threw up a fist even as I held on with the other, and a little of the southern boy in me from my past life shone through, "Yeeeee-haawwww!"

Laughter rose up from the crew and I just didn't give any sorts of fucks as I just enjoyed the thrill of us literally speeding up a fucking mountain!

'There-! The top of the mountain-!' My eyes widened as I saw the geyser at the top of the mountain, of cool water, the droplets turning into ice in midair, glorious little rainbows in the air based off of the refraction of the sunlight off of the ice and god damn I wish I had a camera... "Tchahhhh..."

The deck jerked beneath my feet and I was nearly thrown into the air as the Patch jumped out of the water. Holy fucking fucker fuck?! The Patch was nearly a hundred feet long! And it had multi-second hang time!!

"Tchahah!!!"

My stomach fell out as the feeling of weightlessness passed over me and the Patch crashed back down into the water of the outward stream-!

Knees buckled and I nearly hit the deck as I lost my grip on the railing, the rope around my waist saving me from hitting the deck as we rushed down the mountain as the biggest rollercoaster in the whole world! Going well over sixty miles an hour! Grabbing the posts of the railing I held on as the Patch vibrated, laughing all the way down, "Wooooo!"

It was within only minutes that the entire ship jerked and shook as it hit the slower water at the base of the mountain and the start of the Grand Line.

Each breath I took was a shuddering mess as I tried to pull myself up on trembling knees as the ship slowed. Frankly, I failed and fell back down, hanging from the tether around my waist and bumping against the railing a few times as I grinned like an idiot.

That had been a rush! Of adrenaline and fear and exhilaration! Only a small error could end up with us dashed against the rocks in the middle of either a desolate mountain or in the ocean or tumultuous currents at impossible speeds! And we'd made it!

I threw my hands up as I dangled, chanting out, "Let's go again! Let's go again!"

"Chuuchuchuchu," the newer member of the crew, Chugo, barely eighteen, chuckled as he half wobbled over towards me, "You liked that?"

"Tchahah! No fucking shit! That was awesome!" I wobbled in place, looking up at the guy, he was decently proportioned unlike the rail-thin Barley but not absurdly muscular like Captain Billy. He was a bit husky, sure, but he didn't have the enormous variance that some people in this world showed, and I pointed at him and demanded, "You tell me that wasn't awesome!"

"Well, yeah, that was awesome." The young adult admitted as he stood over me, "But you're hanging by your tether, it totally knocked you off your feet."

We'd come to the Grand Line for a couple reasons as Captain Billy had explained it to me. To let the heat on us cool off in the Blue after hounding those merchants as well as to go swing by Water 7 to let us upgrade the Patch and grab some things.

"I weigh, what, eighty pounds? You weigh closer to two hundred." I grinned good naturedly, "Suck my dick, of course I got knocked off my feet."

"Chuchuchuchu..." The young man laughed softly as he started to untie my tether, "From what I hear you have girlfriends to do that already."

In spite of myself, I blushed, "That's an exaggeration. I have friends who are girls. None of us are old enough for that to be a thing at all." The knot came undone and I dropped to the deck with a thump, letting out a little and obligatory, "Ow."

"Uh huh, right."

"Oh fuck you Chugo."

-oOo-​

"Well… at least we know these aren't McPuffins?"

I gave Claude a little glare at that, but his shit-eating grin didn't even waver.

"Honestly? I'm just happy that I'm not the one getting swarmed by animals this time."

"Bite me Wallace," I grumbled over the fluttering and chirps of the hundreds of little hummingbirds that swarmed around me.

Literally hundreds.

There was a small twitch in my cheek now, because the hummingbirds were fluttering around me in a literal cloud of the damn things. One of them was trying to make its home in my collar, another couple had found their spots in some of the hidden pockets of my overcoat, I could feel one of them trying to make himself comfortable in the crook of my elbow inside my jacket, and another couple trying to get comfortable in the open V of my shirt. And let's not forget the dozens of them perched on my shoulders and the four or five hiding in my spiky hair like tigers in tall grass.

We'd found the birds Claude had said we were on the trail of. Sadly, instead of being the delicious and horrifically valuable McPuffins, they were these little incandescent hummingbirds. They had some pretty eyes, and each and every one was a brilliant splash of shimmering colors, only each individual one was a vibrant variety of different colors. If it weren't for the fact that they had identical shapes and patterns and not a one of them was the size of my palm I'd have thought they were different species.

And they'd just fucking fallen in love with me.

With a sigh, I held out an arm horizontally, and immediately dozens of the cloud of fluttering jewels swarmed around the limb and settled atop of it.

We'd run across them on the edge of the lake, following Claude's directions and tracking skills and we'd come upon this nice little… it wasn't a clearing really… it was almost like an alcove in the jungle at the edge of the lake. These enormous, thorny bushes formed this enormous horshoe sort of shape that started in the jungle and the two 'prongs' reached out into the lake a fair distance, cutting off any approach except from the water. And there'd been a couple of those fire breathing hippos in there, so anything coming from the water would've had to be pretty badass, and the bushes were horrifically thorny and seemed poisonous. But I'd chucked one of the hippos a good thirty feet, and the others had made the remarkable decision to not mess with us. Crazy, I know.

But we'd waded around to where we'd thought there'd be McPuffins, all ready to go WATAAAA on them, and it turned out to be a bunch of nests for hummingbirds.

A bunch.

They'd been a little cautious with us, but then I'd mixed up some sugar water using the sugar I used for my sweet tea while out and about (good lord no caffeine, it might actually kill the little balls of hyperactivity) and… well… you practically could see the hearts in their eyes.

"I don't have anymore…" I muttered to the oblivious featherballs, "I gave you guys all I had already."

Wallace snorted, suddenly covering his mouth and looking away.

I blinked, "… what?"

Claude looked at Wallace in confusion before looking back at me, and then his eyebrows shot up before he started to laugh.

Okay, now I was scowling, "What?"

"It- … it seems…" Claude started, trying and failing to speak through his laughter as he pointed at my head, "It seems they're moving in."

Tentatively, I reached up with my other hand and touched the top of my head–

"No! No no no. No nests!"

Both Claude and Wallace burst out into guffaws as I scattered the twigs being set upon my head, despite the disappointed hum from the dozens of hummingbirds along my still horizontal arm. They did their level best to give me puppy dog eyes, and I pointed at them angrily, "No! No nests!"

They pulled that puss in boots move where they leaned in further with even wider eyes and hummed plaintively at me, but I stood firm, "No."

There was a grunt from some of the fire breathing hippos, and the three of us looked up as the sounds of splashing came from the lake. Wallace's hand slid to the handle of his claymore even as Claude shuffled back behind him and me. I stayed relatively in position, though I prepped myself just in case, even as the cloud of hummingbirds flying around me dove back to their nests.

"Now come, they are right around here."

My eyes narrowed, that voice was familiar…

A large man stepped around the cover of the bushes, with a tiny Mohawk and a bunch of white facepaint, and my eyebrows immediately went up as my face brightened, "Katlego!"

He turned, looking at me in slight surprise before a small smile appeared on the large man's face, "Florida. I had wondered what the laughter was…" his seemingly boiling eyes settled on the numerous glittering fluffballs still perched all over me, "And it seems we've found the source."

I had to shrug at that, my cheeks heating up slightly in embarrassment, "They kinda took a liking to me."

Wading through the water that barely came up to the edge of his grass skirt, Katlego chuckled, "So it seems."

Another two men came around the edge of the bushes, one far more ripped than even Katlego himself, but looking young… real young. Like, barely my age in this life. Hardly a young man even. He was in a similar outfit to Katlego, but while Katlego had no weapons, this guy who was just a bit shorter, but probably weighed half again what Katlego did also carried an enormous spear. He had tan facepaint, two tear-streaks of facepaint as well as a speckling of spots on his cheeks and that close cut haircut.

Like, I was wondering if it was technically a sword sort of enormous. The spearhead was nearly the size of my torso. Sheesh.

The other was much older and shorter, barely taller than my own 5'6", with a long beard and long hair, with a weathered and wizened face. He looked damn near ancient, like he was eighty or so, with a stooped back and a rifle slung over it with dozens of bullets on bandoleers he had around his scraggly chest. He had a huge straw western-style hat that cast most of his face into shadow. And aside from swapping out the grass skirt of his companions for a pair of pants, he was in the same sort of 'anklets/bracelets/pec armor' outfit they were in.

Unlike the other two prime specimens of the male half of the species, he did not wear it well.

Claude glanced between us, "I gather you two know each other?"

"We met last time the groups were sent out," I confirmed to him before looking back to Katlego, "You can probably guess why we're here, though I'm curious why you three are."

The three men walked up onto the grassy shore that the three of us were standing on, Katlego giving a little shake of his feet as he responded, "We're actually here for the birds." At my curious expression he continued, "They know much of the surrounding area, the Little Jewels are the eyes and ears of the jungle. We are searching for the Nyeupe Mfalme."

Wallace's face scrunched up, "The what?"

The younger guy straightened, "He is the mightiest of the beasts in the Jungle! Defeating him is proof of one's worthiness as a warrior, and earning his respect is a necessary step in becoming a general of King Shaka's!" There was a small twitch in my cheek at that even as I forced it down. We weren't entirely sure it was Shaka, and even if it was, just because one group were monsters didn't mean that they all were. And I knew Katlego, at least a bit. He wasn't a bad person, not truly.

I'd sorta zoned out though, and by the time I came back in, the younger guy was finishing on a long rant of accolades, "–he is the White King! The Little Devil! The Master of Monkeys!"

Claude and I shared a glance at that.

Wallace just blundered straight ahead, "Wait, a little white monkey king…?"

"That's what I said!" the kid shouted, practically offended.

"About this tall?" Wallace held out his hands at a teensy little height between them.

The kid glanced at Katlego, who nodded, "Yes?"

"Florida kicked his ass like, yesterday."

"What?!" the kid demanded, his ears twitching rapidly even as the older man gave me a calculating look. I could tell despite his eyes being shadowed. Don't ask how. Katlego didn't look too surprised though.

Claude just nodded, "Yeah, he had a bunch of gorillas with him, Florida beat them up."

"What-?! That-! No way!"

The zebra-man of the group however reached beneath his peck armor and pulled out a waterskin and a bowl… I have no idea how he was able to fit those under there, but at least he didn't pull them out of his skirt…?

As one, the hummingbirds not roosting atop me or within my clothes surged forward from the branches even as Katlego held out the bowl and waterskin. I raised my eyebrows as the little multicolored birds surged around the six of us like the eye of a hurricane of glittering gemstones… it was quite impressive honestly, but I'd just been subject to a cloud of the things for several very long minutes, it'd sort of lost its appeal.

"Little Jewels," Katlego said almost ritualistically, "I ask of you, what is the state of the Nyeupe Mfalme? Can he be battled?"

He popped open the cork of his water skin and poured… water into the bowl. Probably sugar water honestly. The hummingbirds surged forward, drinking up the offering quickly before swirling about in the air and forming into… a cartoonish thumbs down.

Huh. Efficient.

"Who defeated the Nyeupe Mfalme?!" the kid demanded, and the hummingbirds quickly rearranged into a pointing finger pointing at me.

Because of course they did.

"That's impossible! Such a tiny girly man could never have defeated the great Nyeupe Mfalme!" I raised an eyebrow at him. I could definitely understand 'tiny' considering that I was literally two feet shorter than his staggering seven plus feet, and despite his apparent youth he was even more muscular than Katlego, but girly? That one didn't really make sense. "I have trained my entire life, defeated great warriors and slain mighty beasts in preparation for my ascension to the ranks of Shaka's most trusted warriors!"

"Hah!"

I cringed. Wallace, pls no.

"I nearly beat this 'mighty monkey' of yours!"

Wallace, pls.

"Even as glorious of a warrior as I am, Florida utterly eclipses me!" Wallace laughed, both hands on his hips as he continued boasting, "Of course he'd be able to defeat a monkey, no matter how mighty!"

A small twitch formed in the young man's face before he stomped his feet at shoulder width apart, one hand on his hip and the other pointing dramatically at me, "Then if I cannot prove myself to the Nyeupe Mfalme, I shall defeat you! That shall secure my place as Shaka's General!"

"Dumisani."

The bluster disappeared as the young man looked over, "Ah, yes Katlego sir?"

"Don't."

"What-?! But I-!" the young man sputtered. Shock and disbelief warred on Dumisani's face as he gestured at me, "But he's-! Look at him!"

To be fair to him, I was the shortest person here, and with my relatively voluminous clothes I probably looked even smaller than the hunched over old man. Not to mention the dozens upon dozens of little hummingbirds roosting on me and hiding in my spiky hair that were probably peeking out over the top of it. I probably was even less intimidating than normal.

Katlego just shook his head.

"I didn't come all the way out here not to prove myself!"

The zebra-man just raised an eyebrow at him, smile long gone as his boiling blue eyes met Dumisani's own gray ones.

Ears twitching, Dumisani bit onto his thumb, looking away in thought as he fidgeted in place.

I looked down at the lines of hummingbirds still settled on my left arm, "By the way, could you guys answer me a question?" Nearly as one, they bobbed their beaks in an affirmative, making me smile, "Do any of you know where the McPuffins reside?" Another collective motion, but this time a shake of their little beaks and a little mournful sigh. I smiled, "It's alright, I just had to ask. They're not in the jungle anywhere then?" Another shake of their heads. "Thank you very much."

"You-!"

I looked up, finding the young Dumisani pointing dramatically at Wallace, "You said you nearly beat the Nyeupe Mfalme!"

Taken aback for just a moment, Wallace recovered quickly, putting his hands on his hips and puffing out his chest, "Hah! Yes! I did!"

"Then if I defeat you soundly, I shall have proven myself sufficiently to the spirits and the land and King Shaka!"

Wallace, to his credit, didn't immediately jump all over that, his face scrunching up, "Well…"

"Or do you admit to not being man enough to have even stood in the presence of the Nyeupe Mfalme?!"

You could practically see the fires light in the kilt-wearing man's eyes as he raised a fist, "It's so on!"

"Wallace-"

"Hah! You say that like you'll be a challenge for me!" Dumisani planted his hands on his hips, throwing his head back as he laughed.

"Hah! As if! This duel will only last if you can manage to keep up with me!" Wallace blustered back.

"Hah! Says the man wearing a skirt!"

"…" Wallace went stone still at that, his head falling such that his eyes were cast into shadow.

"What? No response to that lady boy?" the teen-ish aged Dumisani wheedled, ears perking up.

"You dare insult my family's pride and joy?!" The bearded man brought his head up, teeth bared and his entire body practically lit ablaze by his passion, "You dare question the manliness of the kilt?!"

"Of course I dare question the manliness of a 'man' in a skirt!"

"You have no right!"

"Hah! I have every right! Don't you see these manly muscles?!" Dumisani proceeded to go through several body builder poses, "Do you not see how they flex and bunch?! Surging with manliness and ferocity!"

"Hah! You call those muscles?!" Taking his shirt in both hands, Wallace tore the thing to shreds in a single dramatic motion, leaving his scarred chest bare aside from his plaid sash. Actually quite impressive that he managed to tear his shirt entirely off without disturbing the sash. Wallace posed, his own muscles flexing, "These are muscles! See their bulk! Their tone! Their power! These are the epitome of manliness!"

Claude swooned just a bit.

"Those?! The epitome of manliness?! Hah! You must be stupid!"

"Stupid?! You're stupid!"

"No, you're stupid!"

"No, you!"

Katlego and I faceplamed.

"Nuh-uh! You are!"

Sighing I stepped between them, "Okay, you're both very pretty. Now if you're actually doing this, can we find somewhere that's not in the middle of a nest to do this?"

"I agree," the zebra-man spoke up as well, his deep voice booming within the confines of the bushes, "Fighting in the middle of the Little Jewel's nest is quite rude."

Simultaneously, the two flexing idiots sheepishly apologized, "Ah, sorry." The synchrony didn't go unnoticed, and the two of them immediately glared at one another.

Shaking my head, I put a hand on Wallace's back and started to push, "Come on get going. Let's get this over with."

I paused as the two of them started walking out, still glaring at one another. Looking at the lines of hummingbirds on my arm, "Okay, you all can get off now."

As one, they shook their heads.

"Alright, your choice, but I'm lowering my arm." I promptly did so, and the dozens of flying jewels scattered with hums into the air-

And promptly dove into my shirt or jacket or into the masses of other hummingbirds already on my shoulders or head.

"… damnit."

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The Jungle Part 10 End