Story: The Jungle Walk

 This story is a very interesting one, and first I would like to tell you that comments will be appreciated in sha Allah. 

"Mom, do you think they'll be here today? " Rose asked her mother. 

"Dear Rosa, they'll be here in just 15 mins" Mom replied to Rose. 

Rosa was waiting for her cousins who were coming to meet her. Rose had another name too, Rosa. And she had a twin sister, named Alia, and a brother named Malky. Rosa lived in Brazil, on the edge of the jungle, and was their home. And Rosa didn't have any relatives in Brazil, so that's why she was so excited about meeting her cousins. 

"They're finally here! " says Alia. 

Sure enough, a red car was coming nearer to their home. 

Rosa went down the stairs, with Alia coming behind. 

"Oh kids, there's no need to run", says Mom, panting. 

And then they reached the car, with Rosa's two cousins, named Lily and Rio they were both siblings. Rio looked cheerful and happy, while Lily looked tired. 

"Hi," says Rosa cheerfully to Lily. 

"Erm… hi" Lily replies. 

"Do you like our home?" asks Alia to Lily 

"Oh, yes," says Lily

Malky was talking to Rio. And then Malky went to greet Lily so the twins (Alia and Rosa) got a chance to talk with Rio. 

"Hi, Twins," says Rio cheerfully and smilingly to the twins. 

"Oh, yes nice to meet you," says Alia, She was a shy girl. 

"Nice to meet you too," Rio says. 

Rose didn't say anything, she was watching closely, wondering if Rio was friendly or not, and he was. 

"Hi," says Rosa. 

"Hi," Rio says 

"Would you like a jungle walk in the evening? " says Rosa to Rio

"Oh su.…. " Rio was cut off by Malky. 

"Rio, come on I'll show you your room," says Malky. 

It was lunchtime, and everybody was eating, except Lily. Who had said she wasn't hungry. 

Rosa: Would you like to go for a jungle walk after food, Rio? 

Rio: Sure. 

And so after food Rio, Alia and Rosa went for a jungle walk, and Malky and Lily were not with them because they were both napping.

And so, Rose and her sister and Rio went on a jungle walk. Rio had never seen, heard or smelt anything like this in his life. Rosa wanted to tell him something, so she started walking deep into the wilderness. 

"Rosa, erm…. Are we allowed to go deep? " asked Rio, he knew his question sounded silly. 

"You'll see," Alia replied. 

Rio: But..but I mean…. 

Rose cut him off. 

Rose: We are giving you a secret tour. 

Alia: This jungle holds our secrets, and that is what we are gonna show you. 

Rose: And if you are scared…. 

Rio: I'm not scared. 

"OK then"

They walked for 30 more minutes, and then Rosa stopped. 

Alia: We are here, You can't tell anybody this. 

Rio: This is your secret? 

Rosa: wait and see.

Rosa walked a little more, and then, lo! There were so many bushes there, all bearing some kind of berry, like strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry. 

Rio: Is.. Is this your secret? 

Rosa: Yup. 

Rio: Isn't it selfish not to tell other people about this place? 

Rio asked while tasting a strawberry. 

Alia: Well, this place doesn't belong to us. 

Rio was struck down by this reply, his mouth was hanging open. 

Rio: Who… who… I mean, whose place is this? 

Rosa: Do you have anything named patience.

 Rio frowned, It wasn't a question. 

Alia: We will tell you about it. 

Rio: Oh… ok. 

The place was beautiful, it was a small clearing with no trees, but was surrounded by bushes, and in between was a big rectangle-shaped rock with mats made of leaves around it. 

"Erm… can I eat some of these berries? " Rio asked.

"Sure," Alia replied. 

Rio was astonished, he thought that if this place belonged to someone, they had to ask the owner of the place. 

"Oh, ok, thanks" He didn't ask questions, because the twins were to tell him later. 

"Rio, you see that rock? " asked Rosa. 

"Yeah, you want me to sit on the mats that surround the rock? " he understood what Rosa meant, he was intelligent. 

"Yes". 

So Rosa and Alia sat on one mat, while Rio sat on the other side. And on the table, they had kept some berries of every kind. 

Rosa: So shall I start, or alia would you? 

Alia: You start. 

Rio: Wait!  What are you gonna start? 

Rosa: I'll tell you about the owner of this place. 

Rosa began: "It was about 4 years ago when we were first allowed to walk in the jungle, without Malky. However we were let go only on one condition, that we would not go even a little bit deep in the jungle, but we still went a little deep. That wasn't dangerous because we knew the jungle. For many days we went on deep jungle walks, and we started to go deep, not that deep which helps you get lost. But deep as we knew. We then started knowing the jungle as if it was our brother, one day we even went on a 5-hour-long walk…. "

Rio cut her off. 

"And your parents didn't say anything? "

"Well yes they did, but they trusted the jungle and they trusted us, and they knew we know the ways and nooks and crannies of the jungle, they knew that we know how to save ourselves from so and so, so after that, they let us go on long jungle walks and……… "

"Didn't  you ever get bored?"

"Alia, you take from here. "said Rosa. 

So Alia began  "No Rio, there's always something new to discover on Amazon, so we never get bored. One day while we were walking, we heard strange noises. As we followed the voice. We saw that a big black pantheress was lying down, dead. With a few vultures there, and just not far away from the carcasses, there was a small baby panther. It looked about two months old, and it was alive. We took the baby Panther in our hand, and we later found out that the panther was a female, as I went back to my home to tell our parents what we found… "

"I'll continue from here," said Rosa. 

"But then I stopped Alia and said to her: We can take care of this pantheress by ourselves, we won't tell anybody. Some moments are such that are ours, this pantheress doesn't belong to anybody, except us. So we made a small den for her and named her Baghi. We used to go to the jungle every day, with some food for her. And then she learned to hunt and when she was 1 year old, when she was 1 and a half years old, she made her territory. And she's the panther who showed us where the river is, and this berry place and this berry place is currently in her territory. 

"So..so I'm in her territory? "

"yes"

Rio asked lots of questions, like if Baghi got aggressive with strangers, or something like that. 

" I'm calling Baghi," said Rosa, fed up with his questions. 

Rio wanted to say something, but before he could say something, alia exclaimed: 

" BAAAAAAGHHIIII! "

Then there was a rustle in bushes, then something black that was Baghi. 

"Oh, here you are, good girl," said Alia stroking Baghi. 

But then, because Baghi had never met anybody other than the twins, she growled. At Rio, growling meant that Baghi was furious, it was her territory and the twin's. Nobody else had the right to her territory. She started going closer to Rio. 

"Nooooo baghi, stop it! " Rosa shrieked.

Alia went to Baghi and started stroking her shoulder and whispered something softly in her ear, but it didn't work. 

Rosa took a deep breath, She could not hurt Baghi, and that seemed the only option, The panther was angry with Rio for trespassing on her territory. And Rio had read that if you find yourself being attacked by a big cat, just poke something in its eyes, and that's what Rio was gonna do. 

"Rio, don't hurt her," said alia. 

"We'll find a way out," said Rosa. 

" Ju.. Just…. D.. O… I.. It… fa.. st" said Rio, he was so scared that couldn't even talk.

"Rio, stay calm, and don't look in her eyes, you'll get more scared if you look into her eyes" declared Rosa. 

"She had never acted like this, it's so strange," said Alia.

"but…. How tho I sty cam? " Rio was so scared that he couldn't even speak. 

"Take a deep breath and look…… ahhhh my dear" screamed Rosa. 

"what? Do I say ah my dear? " asked Rio. 

"See behind you" exclaimed Rosa. 

"I don't see anything behind Rio," says alia. 

"Me too" Rio declares

"A jaguar is behind you, and Baghi is growling at the jaguar, not you.  So you better get out from the reach of Baghi" explains Rosa. 

Rio walks slowly and then stands with Rosa and alia. 

"Jaguars are dangerous for Panthers"

"We need to fight," says Rio. 

"Yeah, we need to help baghi, she won't give up," said Rosa in agreement. 

"Agreed," says alia. 

Rio, Rosa and Alia take big sticks and stand with baghi. 

Alia:  We are with you. 

Rosa: We fight when you will, and you are our leader

Rio: Erm… yeah but don't attack me. 

The twins grin. 

And the jaguar looked ready to pounce, the panther became ready to defend, and the children became ready to attack.

 The Jaguar pounced on Baghi, and then Rio took his stick and hit it on the Jaguar's Spine. The jaguar roared in anger, and then it hit Rio with his paw straight in his chest, Rio fell back. But thankfully there were no scratches. 

Alia: Riooooooo are you okay? I think we need more people, but I don't want to tell the adults. 

Rio: I think, Lily? 

Rosa: Is she trustworthy? 

Rio: Lily and I have a strong bond, she'll do it for me. 

Alia: Then go, but just say to her "Come on Lily we are having fun, come with me". 

Rosa: Don't tell anybody about this attack, and when you get closer here, tell her everything. 

Rio went back to the bungalow, while the group fought fiercely with the jaguar, sometimes The jaguar would be on top of Baghi, then the twins would take their sticks and hit them hard on the jaguar, then they would get out of the way, but if the jaguar would stand in front of the twins, growling. Baghi would distract the jaguar, and then they both would fight. But then the jaguar was in front of Rosa, with Baghi who was wounded with blood gushing out of it, behind him, and Alia was sitting with Baghi, unsure of what to do. When Alia tried to help Rosa, Rosa said: " Alia, help Baghi, make a bandage for her out of leaves, you know how to do that. She could die "

Alia said: " But Rosa, if the jaguar attacked you, you would get a wound, and when we go home, we'll have to tell the adults how you got the wound, and if they heard that.they will never allow us to come here……. "

" You just don't worry, I'll take care of myself " Rosa said, cutting off Alia. 

Rosa had loved Baghi more than anything else, when she had found her, laying on the ground so weak, with her mother dead. Rosa had made a decision, that she'll stay with Baghi till her last breath, no matter what. And now because of that she was in 

front of the jaguar. While Alia nursed her. Rosa thought in her breath "Ah, Rio is taking too much time". The jaguar looked ready to pounce, its teeth bared, growling. Baghi had tried to fight but Alia didn't let her, because Baghi wasn't well. Rosa took a stick in her hand, Rosa had a really good aim, and this was a time to show her true self to Jaguar. She got a hold of a few rocks in her other hand, but before she or the jaguar could do something, Rio came running with Lily, and Malky. 

" Oh, you are finally here. A snail would have been faster," said Alia. 

"So this is what, although you didn't want me here, right? " Asked Malky. 

" Well, now you can't tell anybody about this place," said Rio. 

"Ah, okay I won't," replied Malky 

"Guys? We can talk later, would you help me? " said Rosa, who had a jaguar in front of her. 

"What?!  Rosa?  Are you okay? And what happened? " asked Malky, concerned about his sister. 

"We have no time for questions, Let's go and save our sister!" shouted Lily 

"Yessss," said all the children together, except Alia. 

"I can't help, I have to take Baghi to her cave, the jaguar has wounded her", said alia, sadly. 

"I'll help you", said Malky, and they both go in the direction of the cave. 

While Alia and Malky were going to the cave with Baghi, everything was calm and silent, and even Malky did not know about the twin's secret, he asked her all the things, and alia told him everything. 

"And also,  I'm sorry, for not telling you about this place, and did Rio tell you about this place? " asked Alia. 

"It's okay, and Rio did not tell me about your secret," replied Malky. 

"Now it is not a secret anymore, the adults will know,"

" And how will they know, alia? "

"Somebody would tell them"

"And how?"

Malky alia reached Baghi's cave, after staying with Baghi for a little time, they heeded back for the berry place, where the team was fighting with the jaguar. 

Rosa took a big rock and aimed at the jaguar's eye. She hit the jaguar with the rock straight in the eye. The team had managed to distract the jaguar giving time for Rosa to escape from the front of the jaguar, and all of them were fighting the jaguar with sticks and stones. After a while, Alia and Malky had also joined them. And together, they managed to scare away the jaguar. 

Lily: We did it, yahoo. 

Lily was jumping with joy. 

Rio: We surely did it, and now I have to…… 

Alia cuts off Rio. 

Alia: Ah, no need, I have told Malky about it. 

Rosa: Let's go and meet Baghi. 

Lily: I'd like to know, who is Baghi? 

Malky: She's the twin's panther companion, and we are currently in her territory. 

Lily: So she's a female? And she won't bother us? 

Rosa: Never, I'll tell you the story of how we met her. 

Rosa tells Lily. 

Lily: Thi,.. This sounds like a fairy tale, and because she is your Friend, she won't get angry?  Because we are in her territory I meant. 

Alia: No. 

Lily: So before we go to meet her, can I taste some of these berries? 

Rio: Yes, and I'm feeling hungry. 

Malky: Let's eat fast, and then meet Baghi, It's getting a little dark, our parents might worry. 

They all agree. 

In the den of Baghi… 

Lily: Oh this poor thing, all wounded. 

Rio: Yeah, so you think she'll be okay at night? 

Rosa: She'll be all right, she's strong. 

Malky: All my life, I wanted to see a panther, and now with the help of my sisters, I can even stroke it. 

The twins smile. 

Malky: She's quite beautiful. 

Lily: Yeah she is. 

And after talking and laughing, they all head home.

Rosa: Will this stay a secret? 

Lily: I swear. 

Rio: It'll always be. 

Malky: Ever and always. 

Twins ( together): THANK YOU. 

And laughing and walking, they all head home, after the biggest adventure of their lives that they'll always remember. 

                               The end


Your loving explorer, 

Sidra Khan