Lucas stood up while Y'shaati squatted. "Who is this strange girl? Why does she act so strange? She behaves like... like an ape or something...", he said inside his mind when he saw her move on all fours.
"Errr, would you mind standing up? Seeing you walking like that gives me the creeps..."
She evidently didn't understand the young man's words.
"You shouldn't do that, you're not an animal... come on, stand up," Lucas ordered. "Look, you just have to do this, it's very simple. Can you do it?", he said while teaching her how to do it. This time Y'shaati decided to imitate his movement.
"Oh... I... I wasn't expecting this. Ok nevermind then, I think I'd rather see you as you were before..." Lucas said a little intimidated to discover that she was a little bit taller than him.
"Okay listen, I thank you very much for saving me from that huge cat. Never thought there existed wild cats that gigantic. But now I have a bigger problem. My camp was attacked by those monsters and I ended up separating from my Grandpa. I have to find him at all cost... if something bad were to happen to him I would never forgive myself... ", Lucas spoke as he searched in the ground.
"So excuse me, but I have to go before it's too late... hey wait, that's mine!" the young man yelled as he saw the girl holding his knife.
"No! Hand it over, I need it to defend myself!" Y'shaati quickly climbed a tree and perched on a branch to inspect the object.
"Wait, get down from there! What are you doing? Careful with that thing!". The wild girl continued to touch the sharp point of the knife carelessly until her finger was slightly cut, causing her to slightly moan in pain.
"See? You just hurt yourself. That's not a toy! Can you give it to me now... please?"
"Ahh ook ook!!", Y'shaati replied angry before throwing down the knife very close to his face.
"Whoa! Hey, what is YOUR problem!? You almost took my eye out! I warned you!"
"Ahh ahh ook ook ohh!!"
"Why are you mad at me? You're a very dumb girl, you know?" The blonde continued hooting at him like an ape. The boy sighed frustrated.
"You know what? Stay up there if you want, I don't need you... I'll be on my way. Bye.", Lucas said after picking up his knife. He turned around and walked away. Y'shaati just watched him go.
The young man went back into the dense foliage of the jungle to decide his path. Unsure of not really knowing where to go, he started walking in the opposite direction to the sun, hoping that was the right way to go back to his grandfather...
/////////////
For hours, Lucas traveled several kilometers of endless jungle. He crossed one of the hundreds of minor rivers in the Amazon rainforest, hiked a fairly high hill and even walked through a rather dangerous ravine in which he almost fell over. By evening, he was already quite hungry, tired, and dehydrated. His feet ached from walking. He knew he didn't have much time to find a safe place to spend the night, as he had been doing for several days now. On those occasions he was fortunate to be able to sleep inside hollow logs, but this day luck seemed not to be on his side. As night fell, he knew that was when he was most in danger of being attacked by jungle predators, so panic and despair began to seize him once more. However, unbeknownst to him, Y'shaati had been following him closely all day stealthily, hiding high up in the trees. Her curiosity to learn more about the strange human was his main reason to following him.
With the sun already hidden, Lucas finally found what he was looking for: another log to spend one more night. However, this one wasn't large enough to get inside of it, so he choose to sleep next to it. Once he made sure that the place was free of venomous insects and poisonous plants, the boy began to collect small sticks with the intention of making a small fire. Meanwhile, the wild girl watched at all times, hidden in the shadows. When he managed to gather enough, he took a seat and pulled a lighter from one of his pockets. When lighting the fire, Y'shaati remained completely amazed at what she saw: the strange human was able to invoke the power of the red flower... How was this possible? For a long time, she had tried to understand the truth of that mysterious entity, so perhaps this was the perfect opportunity to find out more about it...
What am I doing..? I don't even know if I'm close...", Lucas babbled to himself as he gazed at the fire. He looked very weak and tired. It seemed that at any moment he could pass out. Behind him, Y'shaati slowly moved closer to get a good look at the red flower.
"I don't wanna die here... of all possible things, why did this had to happen to me? Damn... I'm completely and absolutely screwed... aaaahhh!!", the boy screamed when he noticed the presence of the blonde right next to him.
"Ook ohh ohh ahh!", she hooted.
"Holy... you scared me to death! You again!? Have you been following me since morning?", he asked. The girl simply ignored him and continued to stare at the red flower.
"What's wrong? You've never seen fire before? Well, I'm not surprised... you're very strange, to say the least. How do you manage to survive in this place?", he asked again. At that moment, his stomach made a guttural sound...
"Oww... Oh, I'm starving..." Y'shaati turned to see Lucas. She knew that was the same sound her belly produces when she doesn't eat anything. Noticing his agony, she looked up into the treetops for a few seconds.
"What is it?", he said before the girl walked away and started to climb a tree. The boy watched her until she was out of sight.
"Wow, how does she do it? I couldn't even climb a single branch... I'm pathetic...", he muttered disappointed. A few seconds later, a small fruit fell on his head.
"Ouch! Uh? Wait... is this... a pear?", he said before more fruits started falling as well.
"No way... have this been up there all this time?" After a while, Y'shaati returned to the ground. She walked up to Lucas and offered him some more.
"I can't believe it... y-you saved me again... thank you very much!", the young man thanked him with a big smile on his face. He sat next to her and then both immediately started eating.
"Ohhh... it's delicious! Hey, uhm... please forgive me for yelling at you a while ago... I shouldn't have done that... I'm really sorry."
It took them only a few minutes to eat all the fruits. After that, Lucas began to explain Y'shaati everything that had happened to him since the day he arrived in the jungle... even though she didn't understand a single word. At first, she wasn't pay attention to him, being only focused in the warm sensation the red flower produced on her feet, wiggling her toes a little bit. But then, for some reason, she could actually start feeling the young man's emotions in his voice as he continued speaking. She knew he was being noble and sincere, like any other Naka'i or Tahuayo of the jungle. It was a very different way of communicating than she used to do. She suddenly seemed interested about it...
"I still don't know how all this happened, you know? I was very excited about this journey. Since I was a kid I always wanted to explore the world along with my father... the stories he told me at night about the great mysteries and discoveries of the history of mankind motivated me to be an archaeologist, just like him and grandpa. Unfortunately he died a long time ago." The boy took out a small photograph from the pocket of his shirt.
"Grandpa says I look a lot like him, hehe... what do you think?", he showed the photo to Y'shaati. She leaned closer to see. "I don't know, I think all children look like their parents. Even you probably..."
"I miss him so much... there's not a single day that I don't think about him. But now... I-I don't want to lose my Grandpa too... I-I don't want to be alone...", Lucas sobbed while a tear fell on the memento of him and his father. The blonde girl turned to see his face. She knew perfectly the meaning of that feeling. Y'shaati tenderly caressed his cheek to wipe his tears. The boy reacted completely surprised. She could feel his sadness.
"Uh? Do you understand me?" he asked. "Uhm... have you lost someone in your life too?"
"Lu-cas...", she answered.
"wow, you remembered it. You're better at listening than many people I know, haha...", the boy said while saving his photo.
"Better turn this off now... it can be dangerous to leave it like that," he said before getting up and putting out the fire. "I feel very tired. I should try to sleep a little. You should do the same. Fighting that wild cat must surely have been tough for you... isn't?" Lucas smiled at the girl.
The blonde was so fixated on the young man that she didn't even notice the red flower dying out. She smiled too.
"Which side of the log do you want? Here or there?"
Y'shaati approached him again and gently licked his cheek to say goodbye.
"Ah! Wait, where are you going?", Lucas asked, blushing. He watched the wild lady run into a tree to climb it and rest on one of its branches.
"Hey, you really have to teach me how to do that, hehe... sweet dreams, monkey girl."
