REALITY BITES IN THE TROPICAL FOREST PARADISE

26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, CONTINUED

Chloe should come visit Fount for some inspiration. I used to think her designs were unconventional, but now that I've seen the Warlock's Tower, I had to say, Fount's home decor solutions were even more otherworldly.

They weren't entirely practical though. I mean, growing a home garden was always a nice idea, but Fount's tropical forest didn't just include the flora, it also included the native fauna - it was only the first five minutes into the jungle and we had already met with a wild boar (which chased River), an unidentifiable lizard (which fell on River's head), and suffered the company of more than one mosquito (unfortunately this was equally shared, although the mosquitoes seemed to prefer wolves. I guess it was our higher metabolism that attracted the damn things.)

Like seriously, there were a lot of mosquitoes. And while I was sure the jungle was also home to a host of other terrible creatures, I personally felt that the mosquitoes were the worst.

And because we did study a bit of geography at Middle School, I had ever heard of this thing called Malaria. The jungles in the tropics were so terrible, even the common mosquito bite can lead to a lethally, long drawn, and feverish ordeal.

Nobody better die from malaria.

And, I didn't know this until entering the forest, but it was hot and humid, and also unexpectedly dark, and I mean really quite dark. Under the cover of tightly woven trees, it was more like walking in a cave than a forest and I had to use my wolf sight to navigate the terrain - which was also weird. The ground was soft with decaying leaf litter, and there were bugs everywhere. It was like a large scale organic compost box. Maybe that was what Fount was going for, a natural compost bin. The smells of compost carpet and a myriad of unnameable scents were overwhelming.

And all around us, it wasn't just the mozzies. There were bugs buzzing in the air, bugs chirping from the trees, bugs crawling between the decaying layers of leaves under our feet... bugs everywhere.

And snakes, and lizards... River tripped over a log by accident and found a scorpion, because he was lucky like that.

I never thought I'd say this but I think I've found someplace worse than the warlock lands.

Every slithering sound, every shuffling sound, every rustling, chirping, buzzing, trickling sound... Every single one of them were unfamiliar and totally creeping me out.

And it really didn't help that River and Keanu were bumbling along so loudly. Unlike the forests at home, wolves weren't the biggest predators in these jungles, and these two young teens were giving off all the vibes of easy prey.

I think it would be safer for them to walk somewhere in the center of our party. That's where we would have put our pups, but the two boys kept straggling behind, and I gave up waiting for them to catch up. Maybe we can let them drag themselves behind us and hope that they looked like our prey. No living creature would be dumb enough to try to snatch captured prey from a pack of wolves right?

Actually, I had no idea. The whole place was foreign and riddled with unseen dangers. We were all on high alert. Even Boo.

I usually imagined tropical forests to be just like ours, only more brightly colored. You know, like with red and green and blue parrots, and big eyed mon, and exotic flowers and fruits... not this oppressive dark and humid place. By now, we had mostly stripped off our jackets. Most of the guys weren't even wearing shirts anymore.

My wolves all bore a varying number of black discs on their bodies, although finding one on Ink was like playing a picture search puzzle game.

Anyway, I was so hot, I was this close to shifting into my wolf form. That would really be best - no clothes, but fur to deter the mozzies a bit.

It's just that we still couldn't use our mindlinks so it would just be impossible to communicate properly.

The trees thinned out after we trekked for a bit. At first, I thought this was a good thing because everything was bright again, but then we found ourselves stalled because there was so much green stuff growing every where. Not grass or blue bells though. We were looking at vines, small trees, and large shrubs, and these really large leafed plants - the large leafed plants looked like something that grew when dinosaurs were still alive. Even more surprising than their appearance, was how the edges of their large lush leaves were sharp.

The guys had to all don back their gear to not get cut from brushing against one of the leaves with bare skin. On the bright side, it wasn't poisonous.

Overall, there was a lot to be thankful for. We had been trekking through this tropical forest for a while and nobody got lost - not even River - even though there were one or two times we almost did lose him. Was it just me, or was the jungle purposely trying to split us up? But between my lucky sense of direction and hunting skills, and Wilhelm's vigilance and quick thinking, we managed to not lose River.

River was really the most troublesome human I had ever met.

Who else would trip over a log and land in front of a scorpion? Oh, I've already told you about that. Okay, did I tell you that River also tripped over a python? It was so huge, I thought it was some kind of magic creature at first, but Ink assured me that it was natural for pythons to be large enough to take down and swallow Torque whole. Luckily the python River had tripped over already had some weird lumps along its girth.

"It's still digesting it's meal." Barry said after we had dragged River away from immediate danger, "Let's move away quickly."

How did Ink and Barry know so much about the jungle? I was curious enough to ask while we were taking a rest stop. (The humans needed it.)

"Oh, I just heard about it...while growing up." Barry answered.

"Barry and Ink were imported fight dogs from the far islands." Ki informed me with a smile.

I guess vampires liked exotic things like that...and it did explain why Barry and Ink both sported very black straight hair.

"Ah, but I didn't grow up in a jungle or anything." Barry quickly clarified, "I was from a small town by the beach. Ink came from the big city though."

"But the same island?" I asked.

Ink nodded, "Affirmative, we were both from the same island."

"Do you ever think of going home?" I asked. I remembered Barry saying his dad had a restaurant.

"Ah... It's been so long." Barry quickly refused, "My family probably thinks I'm dead... That's probably for the better too."

Eh? How was that better?

"You know, you could call them or something." I told Barry. We did have internet now.

But Barry shook his head, "That life is over. If I called, wouldn't my mum just cry all over again?"

Oh. But I still think Barry should have called.

"What about you Ink?" I decided to move on.

"My parents hate me." Ink answered quietly, "So it's better that I'm gone."

"But I think..." I wasn't sure how to put this, but I was thinking about my own Mum and Dad, "I think even if they cry or nag or yell they'd still want you back."

And then I remembered those other stories where parents did really bad things to their kids. I didn't know Ink and Barry's parents. Heck, I hadn't even thought about their existence till this conversation.

"Forget what I said, I don't know what I'm talking about." I quickly retracted, but then I couldn't stop myself from adding, "My pack is always your home as long as you choose to follow me. So... no matter what happens, you should always come back home."

Last thing I needed was any one of my wolves to pull a stunt like Roy, but just in case, "Even if you wake up and find yourself the rogue king one day, just come home and apologize."

I felt my mouth pressed down hard. Arugghhh... now the heavy humid atmosphere had gotten even heavier. Why did I have to blabber all that? No thanks to me, we were now in the awkward zone.

"Arruggghhhh!!!" (But this wasn't me, it was River.)

He had suddenly jumped up yelling and swatting the back of his pants, "What are these?"

Why? Did he find another scorpion?

"They're fire ants." Barry identified and quickly backed off, "Look out! Fire ants are very territorial."

"Arruggghhhh!!! They're BITING ME!" River swatted and jumped.

Nobody knew what to do. Wilhelm caught hold of River's arm and we retreated from the ant territory.

Yes, our party of powerful wolves retreating in the face of a nest of fire ants.

"You must have disturbed their nest." Barry told us.

"Arugghhh... I can't shake them off!" River wailed.

"They're gotten into your clothes River!" Keanu realized. "Take of your clothes!"

I turned and walked away from the group so River could strip off his pants so the other guys could beat the ants out of his clothes. It would've been funny except while it was happening, everyone was too focused on surviving this jungle to notice that Torque fighting a pair of pants was hilarious.

Ki followed me while Ben sent Cobra and EJ to go scout our new enemy, mostly so no one else accidentally disturbs another nest. Sigh... I had always thought Black Wolves were the most aggressive and territorial creatures in the world. But today, I think we met our match. I spied one on my boot. How did it get there? Even though the ginger colored ant was small, it was the largest ant I had ever seen in my life. I could see the mandibles twitch and move. I tried to shake it off, but the ant had some super grip ability. So I used my finger to press down on it, it died, but not before I felt its shell crack as I squished it. Yuck.

Ki magically produced a wet wipe.

"Sam, we're good to go." Ben called.

Ki and I returned to the main party. River was looking miserable, he had been left in his boxers and tshirt, his legs were covered in red welts. Ouch. Reality bites. I didn't dare to ask Ki to heal him though. Ki was definitely rationing his heals now. When some of the guys got cut by the sharp bladed leaves, Ki had also ignored their wounds. It was probably better to save Ki's healing for emergencies.

Two minutes later and River fell right into this thing that smelled like rotten meat. It was seriously gross. Ink, our team encyclopedia, said it was a flower. At first I thought Ink was learning to joke from Cobra. I only realized he was serious because it had a scientific name and all.

If I were a scientist, I wouldn't have categorized the Rafflesia arnoldii as a plant. I think I'd classify it as an alien. It looked more like some kind of splotchy alien flower. What kind of flower was the size of a toilet bowl? And it smelled like rotten meat. Did I mention it smelled like rotten meat? I nearly gagged.

"Where I come from, this is also known as the corpse flower." Barry, our ad-hoc local guide said.

Which I felt was about right.

There were a lot of other things River tripped over or discovered. I'm not sure how River managed it, since he would have been following us and no one else had tripped before him. I was quite convinced by now that if there was something dangerous in a three meter radius from River, he would stumble over or into it.

But it wasn't just River, even though River probably suffered the brunt of it. This jungle seemed to be out to get all of us - no one was spared.