CHAPTER 12 – SHE IS THE MISTRESS OF THE FOREST

The day is still young, feeling bored of doing nothing, Dexter, informed Shayne, he will gather fruits in the forest, so that they may have food to eat. Shayne object but he did not change his mind, as a man, it is the role of him to do this hard work. She wants to come with him, because she knows well the forest, but he wants to be alone, he wants to prove to her, he is a man, she can depend on.

                There is no path way to follow, in exploring the forest floor, one should simply need to follow his own hunch and judgment where to go and how to go. Dexter just tried to remember, where he came from so that he can return back afterwards. He prays and hopes, he would not encounter fierce wild animals, because he has no weapon to depend himself. Shayne has not given him his gun, possibly she will not give it to him anymore, otherwise, he promised her, she will not hurt any one of her friends. He wonders, how many wild animals are her friends? How she able to tame those wild animals? Shayne is really a mysterious lady, and she never stops amusing him every day. But he loves Shayne no matter who she is. It is the reason, why he is not yet planning to go home and leave the forest even he is ok by now. In his count, this is his fourth day in the forest.

                He continues exploring the area, hoping he can find and see fruit bearing trees with ripe fruits ready to eat. The problem, he does not know what are those trees, whose fruits are edible and safe to eat. He is just looking for established known fruits safe to eat, like bananas, guavas and jack fruits, if he does not know the fruit, he will not get it. He has with him, his survival knife only, there is nothing he can bring from the hut.  He continues walking on and on forward. After sometimes, luckily, he found banana plants below the hills, in a savannah. He enters in the area where banana grows, it is a wide area, he looks for the fruits, for the ripe fruits, when he found one, he cut it away from the stem and go home. He feared he may go very far away and again, may lost his way.  He wants to look for more fruits as possible but he found out it is not that easy; he needs to scouts a large area to gather more.

                Before he has able to leave the wide grass land, he heard the honk of a pig, it becomes louder and louder, as if it is following him. He is easy to follow, he is making a pathway in the grass, he leaves his smell in the grass, as well as the smell of the ripe bananas he is carrying with him. It will actually attract wild boar who will come close to him. He can recall the story of hunters who have had encounter wild boar, according to them, it is fierce, there are some stories about a man that was killed by wild boar. Dexter walks fast as he can, later he run and run, when he looks back, he has seen a wild big boar following him.

                Again, he feels his life is in danger, in the second time around. He must do something. He enters the woods and look for the tree who can carry his weight, in an instant he jumps up on its branches and climb up. He is safe. He still carries the bunch of ripe bananas with him. When he looks down, he found out the wild boar is actually there, it is after him. He told himself, he will just come down once, it is away. He did not expect what happened next.  The troop of monkey notice him and the bananas he was carrying. They become noisy, their chatter, and gibber becomes louder and come close to Dexter little by little

                Dexter cut small branches of tree and ready to hit anyone who will come close to him. But they are so fast, and they come in group, he has no match with them, in the branches of trees. It is their playground. The worst thing, if he lost hold up there, he will fall down, in the waiting wild boar. In a short time, Dexter got so many scratches in his arms and legs, and the banana he is holding is almost gone, but the monkeys did not stop attacking him yet, he is still in danger.

                He remembers, Shayne told him, to call her once he needed help

                He calls for Shayne in a loud voice

                “Shayne! Shayne!  Shane!  Help!   Help!    Help!”

                His voice echoed in the forest. The birds feeding in the trees nearby fly in chaos.

In no time, Dexter sees Shayne standing down at the foot of the tree where he is climbing.

                “You better watch the wild boar is at your back, climb immediately” Dexter cried down to

    Shayne.

To his surprise Shayne walks directly towards the wild boar and she touches it in the head.

                “How are you my friend, I have not seen you for long time” she talks wild the wild pig.

The wild pig become tame like any other domesticated pig; it wags its tail honking going around Shayne. Dexter notices it is not alone two more pigs come up, hiding from the shrubs nearby, all of them come closer to Shayne.  This woman is wonderful, she can come along with almost all animals in the forest.

                “You come down; they will not be going to harm you” she calls her down.

                “These monkeys are also pestering me” he answered back.

Shayne waves her hand to the monkeys, as if she is greeting them, they make terrible noise, but all of them also climbed down, and come closer to Shayne. She puts her hand to the monkey, one after the other and they all accepted her like one of them. Dexter climbed down and come close to Shayne, who is very busy with the pigs and the monkeys around. They all recognize her and happy with her.

                “They are all my friends; they know me well” Shayne told to Dexter.

The monkeys are crawling around them, they are all behave now, in the presence of Shayne, a while ago, they where very mischievous, most especially when they are up there in tree tops. They become very different, like the wild boar who chased Dexter, it behaves likes a domesticated pig. Dexter asked himself, who is Shayne? Why she can tame almost all wild animals?

                “I don’t have the fruit, anymore, that monkeys snatch them all to me”

Dexter is like a little child, complaining to Shayne about what the monkeys has done to him.

                “Don’t get mad at them, actually they are kind” she smiles at Dexter

                “You take the bananas of Dexter; you get some for exchange” she ordered the monkeys.

The monkeys obeyed her, they climbed up in the trees and was lost in the dense forest. After a while they return back carrying bunch of bananas and some other fruits. Dexter is beginning to know Shayne more and more as the days past by. The woman who has tamed his elusive heart, is also the woman who can tamed all animals in this forest. They know and obey her as if, she is their master. It is very clear, Shayne is the ruler of the forest.