Bad Luck upon Bad Luck

While our little aunty was having a blast strolling around the magical rainforest with hundreds of thousands of gigantic termites, our unlucky uncle was in a precarious situation. He had been limping forward for hours but still couldn't find the supposed half-hour away village described by his guide before his hasty departure. Arash's face had turned darker than black. The feeling of loss and panic intermingled with the feeling of pain were evident on his pale face.

[I should've just stayed still just now.] Arash sighed.

At the moment, Arash had finally conceded that he was totally lost. However, he didn't lose hope. The village was supposed to be near. No matter how far he could stray off the main route, he shouldn't be that far off, right?

He paused to catch a breath while leaning on a random tree trunk. The pain on his knee was so intense, he felt that he couldn't move forward anymore. He lamented on his situation with deep resignation. Two hours before, he had rigidly limped in a straight line towards the direction spoken by the professional guide. However, upon crossing a particular thick foliage, he fell again! There was a hidden protruded root appearing out of nowhere under his foot. Thank goodness he had not disturbed any wild animal's habitat this time. Feeling a little positive, his eyes inadvertently looked up and saw a giant python dangling on a large tree in between the leaves. The thickness of its body was the size of his thigh! He almost had a heart attack!

After retreating in haste for a few steps with cold sweat drenching his forehead, he then realized that the python might be sleeping or something. A slight protrusion on its tummy suggested that it might just have a sumptuous meal and was having an afternoon nap to relax and digest its food. Arash could feel goosebumps appearing on his arms.

Although he genuinely wanted to go straight, his heart wasn't strong enough to cross the mere short three-meters below the sleeping snake. What if it woke up and immediately fancied over this poor uncle over here?

And due to that, he made an unusually wide berth to try not to disturb the python from its peaceful dream. This time, there was no other guide or pathfinder to save him from certain demise if he purposely courted death. He couldn't afford to die in this rainforest. His daughters were waiting for him at the daycare. His beloved Hana was relying on him to save her while giving her moral support. He hadn't even written a will yet! And he didn't trust any living soul to care for his adorable-to-a-fault daughters with all the recent news on the pedos out there!

Arash was grumbling under his breath while slapping a dozen annoying mosquitoes buzzing over his ears. Just beside the foliage was a steeper elevation. Although it wasn't that steep, the condition of his knee didn't permit him to go forward easily. The pitiful uncle had to resort to pulling himself up by moving from tree to tree by grabbing any dangling vines available. His exposed hands had been riddled with injuries from being hurt by thorns, sharp barks, protruded spines and even were bitten by countless insects at random. Hana would've burst to tears if she saw the condition of her beloved's hands.

With difficulties, Arash had limped through the slightly elevated forest floor to reach the summit. He could faintly see curling smoke in the distance. Delight filled his eyes as he knew that he just needed to go straight towards the origin of the smoke to find the aborigine village. Unknowingly, he had indeed made a considerable detour for himself. Now, what he needed to do was to carefully trek downwards.

Arash pulled another dangling vine for support to take his first step towards salvation.

As he leaned on the vine to reach the bark of another tree nearby, the vine broke from his weight!

Arash suddenly felt being weightless before he banged his head on something hard. Everything turned dark.

While being unconscious, the poor uncle rolled a couple of times downwards and banged to a multitude of random boulders and trees in succession, further injuring various parts of his body before it reached an obscure corner in between the bushes.

...

Just a few minutes after Arash's fall, a young man walked out of a dense shrubbery with vigilance.

Nyatuh (1) jogged over with ease from the bottom of the mini hill to the summit in less than ten minutes. He looked around seriously while holding a makeshift wooden spear on his left hand. At his back was a blowpipe, slung diagonally by a rope from his right shoulder to his left abdomen.

"Busu (2), I think I heard something from here just a moment ago!" Nyatuh turned his bronze chest towards the back while calling loudly in ancient Bateq language from the summit.

"Is it?! Did you see anything?!" A faraway shout reverberated back from within the forest.

Nyatuh looked around a second time. He could see a faint trail from the bottom of the small hill upwards. It didn't look like a human trail from his eyes. However, Nyatuh had just recently joined the team since one of the trackers had felled sick and died. His knowledge and experience as a tracker were only subpar. He had just gone through the coming-of-age ceremony and was still learning the ropes from the seniors in his tribe.

"Looks like the tracks of an animal being dragged. Want to alert the others to join in on the hunt?" Since the forest in these parts was devoid of rain for a few days, the moist forest floor was in a rare dry state. Nyatuh determined that there might be a ferocious beast dragging a carcass of its game through this part. If they could hunt for the beast, they could gain both the beast and its prize. Tonight would be a feast!

"Stop the nonsense. Elder Jaya already promised to help find the stranded outsider. A promise made is a promise kept." A slightly older young man in his late teens walked out and called loudly back. Tembusu was scrutinizing the surrounding with a calm expression. He bent down to observe the dragging marks on the forest floor suspiciously before turning away. "There's so much area to cover, we need to move faster. If we still couldn't find that person, we need to immediately return to report. He might be in trouble." He sighed emphatically. He knew it was pretty hard for outsiders to survive in the rainforest, especially when the person in question was alone.

The two young men had missed Arash due to their haste on finding Arash! Alas, if only a more experienced tracker was together with them, the pitiful uncle would've been found.

What bad luck!

...

A few drops of water dripped on Arash's face, waking him up. However, his mind was still cloudy; he couldn't, by the love of God, recall what had just happened. His whole body was in pain, and he couldn't even move his legs! He could only see loamy soil mixed with rotten leaves in front of him. He tried to move his head to the side to find some clues but could only see darkened blurry greenery everywhere.

After a few moments, realization dawned on the pitiful uncle. He had literally rolled down the small hill in a most awkward manner, while bumping into a series of random things, injuring himself in the process.

A weak voice whispered, "Thank God... Thank God..." He was muttering weakly under his breath by thanking God for looking out for him. In most movies and animes he watched with Hana, nine out of ten, the character will be impaled by something sharp after rolling down a hill or something, which will end the character's villainous life. He nodded gratefully. Might be due to him accumulating lots of good deeds through sponsoring funds for welfare NGOs. Arash was a person who was innately kind and compassionate at heart and could be easily moved to manly tears just by watching social media charity ads. As such, he had been an anonymous samaritan for these online charity organizations for years since he started working. However, this was a secret even Hana didn't know. She would've grown ballistic if she knew since he had sometimes funded way too many of them in one go. They weren't that well-off to spend nearly half of his salary for that! Arash only told Hana he funded three of such organizations which had pleased her as he knew she liked a compassionate and generous man, but of course not the extreme kind.

A few more drops of water dripped on Arash's head, clearing his mind a little and returned him to reality. He was lost in thoughts for a moment as long as he was thinking about his beloved. Currently, he knew he was sprawling on all fours, facing down. A heavy load on his back meant that his backpack was still there. Only the compass he was holding was missing. He tried to turn his body around, but any slight movement sent searing pain into him, preventing him from completing the action.

He lifted his right hand, shakily to his face to see it crusted with injuries and blood. Again, he was thankful that both of his hands could still be used with very minor injuries.

He started fumbling for his spectacles in the surroundings in desperation. The power of his prescription spectacles was high, a consequence of facing the laptop for far too long (and secretly reading manga under the blanket with a torchlight while he was younger). His spectacles were not on his nose, and he could only clearly see for a distance of a meter away. Further than that was total blurriness. Without a clear view of the surrounding, Arash was getting more anxious. What if there were dangerous animals around stalking him just outside of the perimeter of his vision? He won't even know when he died.

The fat drop of water hit his face again, reminding him that the long-awaited thunderstorm was coming. A faint sound of thunder followed through after a second or so.

Truly, fortune does not come in pairs, while misfortune never comes alone.

Arash smiled bitterly as he felt his whole body being bombarded by a large amount of water as if a high-pressure hose had been purposely aimed at him. The rain was especially harsh this time, even the thick canopy above couldn't stop its advance. It was the kind of rain even when you use an umbrella, only your head will stay dry while the other body parts were destined to get drenched.

Just a little amount of time later, Arash could feel part of his body was already submerged. He tried his hardest to move both of his legs desperately, but couldn't.

[God.. please help me...]

He wanted to cry but had no tears left. Now he knew he was actually in some sort of shallow ditch. Naturally, all the extra water will flow through the channel once the forest floor couldn't accommodate the harsh pouring rain. If he didn't move out of the way, he might be drowned even without knowing once he passed out again. His consciousness was flickering and he knew he didn't have much time.

As such, the unlucky Arash tried his best to drag his battered body with his two good hands, inch by inch, with desperation. The worst thing was, his backpack added extra weight on his back, especially under the bombardment of the unforgiving rain. Arash had thought to abandon his bag but decided against it after a second of contemplation. After all, the supplies in the bag will play an essential role in his future survival if the search party failed to find him. The most important thing was, his lifeline was in his bag, which was his treasured smartphone. Although it couldn't be used at the moment due to lack of signal, when the time comes, he could only rely on it to contact either his wife or the caretaker looking after his daughters. He only hoped that the impact from the fall didn't hurt his precious smartphone.

While thinking of his family who needed him, his indomitable will pushed him to stay conscious as he dragged himself for as long as he can. The passage of time was lost to Arash as he kept on moving forward on the forest floor. With the heavy rain pouring on him, his already impaired vision had reduced to only a foot in front of him. He could feel the light was dimming.

[Was it because it is nearing night time?] A scary thought flashed through his mind.

A deep sense of foreboding filled his mind. Once the rain stopped, and the night unfolded, the rainforest will be the playground of lethal predators. Arash won't stand a chance, he'll be a dead man for sure.

True to Arash's speculation, it was nearing dusk. Arash was shivering while dragging himself in a sorry state. Unknowingly, he had dragged himself for hours under the rain. His face devoid of color, lips pale, and even his sight was affected. His vitality was at an all-time low at the moment as he was struggling to keep his eyes open.

After struggling for some time, he finally collapsed and lost consciousness a second time.

[Hana, I'm sorry. I'm afraid I cannot take care of our children any longer…..]

...

Authors' Note:

Nyatuh (1) and Tembusu/Busu (2) are M'sian names of local trees in Malaysia (laughing).. Sorry, no idea to name the character if it's not a cutesy one. All other names from the tribe later on will be based on natural items present in the forest haha