by Ayana Gray
Additional Notes: This plant, indigenous to the Zamani Region, grows in abundance in the Greater and Lesser Jungles alike near the roots of old trees, or trees who have been personally offended. Dried and burned, hasira leaves may become a dangerous and addictive hallucinogen, causing those affected by it to exhibit unusual mood swings, hyper-aggression, and memory loss.
Ekon shuddered. Since entering the Greater Jungle, he hadn’t seen a hasira leaf, but it certainly didn’t sound like a plant he wanted anything to do with. Suddenly he was grateful to have this journal as a guide.
“You’re up early.”
Ekon jumped. He’d been so immersed in his reading that he hadn’t heard Koffi stir. She was now wide awake, sitting up, and staring right at him. He couldn’t quite figure out her expression or the cause of the sudden uneven pattering in his chest. He nodded.
“Uh, I guess I am.”
She blinked. “How are you feeling?”
“I—” It took Ekon a moment for the details of the previous evening to return to him. He looked down at his arms and legs. The ponya seed paste must have dissolved in the night, because it was gone, leaving his skin only faintly touched with its scent. Notably, the bite marks were almost entirely gone too. He met Koffi’s gaze again. “I feel . . . better.”
“Good.” She paused for a moment, then frowned. “Do you always wake up early?”
“Of course.” Ekon frowned. “I like to.”
Koffi wrinkled her nose. “Why?”
“My mentor, Brother Ugo, taught me at a young age that mornings are the best time of the day to exercise the mind,” he said. “You should try it some—”
“No, thank you.”
Ekon shook his head, hiding a small smile. “I also thought it’d be good to take a look at the map before we get going,” he added. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us. That . . . detour with Anatsou put us off course, so we’ll need to pick up the pace today to get us to the Heart in a reasonable amount of—”
“Actually . . .” Koffi cleared her throat, and Ekon saw hesitation in her expression. “I wanted to talk about that.”
“About what?”
“Our course.” Koffi wrapped one of her twists around her finger. “I was thinking . . . what if the Shetani isn’t at the Heart of the Jungle?”
“What?” Ekon frowned. “What do you mean? Where else would it be?”
“I don’t know,” said Koffi. “It’s just . . . when I think about it, don’t you think that a place like the Heart of the Jungle, the very center of this entire place, seems a bit . . . obvious?”
Ekon didn’t like the direction of this conversation. He’d woken up this morning revitalized, determined to see their mission through. He’d had a very precise, clear-cut plan; now, as usual, Koffi was dismantling it. “If the Shetani isn’t in the Heart of the Jungle, where else could it be?”
Koffi pursed her lips. “I don’t know why, but I have this feeling we should head northwest today.”
“Northwest?” Ekon repeated. “As in, the exact opposite direction of the Heart?”
Koffi twisted the hair around her finger faster. “I know it sounds weird, but—”
“You want us to change our entire plan, because you had a feeling?”
At once, Koffi’s eyebrows rose. “Didn’t you have a feeling yesterday, when you led us into a lair full of spiders?”
The accusation was offhand, but it still stung. Ekon’s voice came out harsher than he intended when he answered. “The whole reason we ended up anywhere near there was because you led us into a magical fog that knocked us unconscious, which caused a giant spider thing to rob us—”
Koffi rolled her eyes. “Gods-smite, you might be the most dramatic boy I’ve ever—”
“Stop swearing!”
“Point proven.”
Against his will, Ekon’s voice rose. “Do you ever act your age, or are you always this immature?”
Koffi scowled. “Do what you want. I’m going northwest. Have fun with your little picture book.”
“It’s not a picture book!” Ekon held Nkrumah’s journal against his chest protectively. “It’s a historic journal of illuminated natural—”
A long shriek made them both go stock-still at the same time Ekon felt a tremor in the dirt. His blood ran cold, and he watched Koffi’s expression change from one of defiance to utter horror. The wet growl that tore through the quiet was unlike any other sound he’d heard in all his life. Slowly, he turned and felt his skin prickle.
Never had he seen such a creature like the one before them.
His first instinct was to call it a snake, a name largely attributed to its thick serpentine body and dark brown scales. But no, as soon as Ekon thought the word in his mind, he knew that was woefully wrong. This creature stood ten feet high; it was no mere snake. His throat tightened in horror as his eyes traveled up its limbless body to its head and found that where he’d expected a reptilian skull was something else. He saw large brown eyes, leathery gray ears that looked familiar but wrong, a trunk, and sharp ivory tusks longer than his arms. An elephant—this beast had the body of a snake and the head of an elephant. It seemed to look between Ekon and Koffi, musing, and as its gaze landed on Ekon, its proper name rose to the forefront of his mind, pulled from the pages of Nkrumah’s journal.
Grootslang.
“Koffi.” Ekon kept his eyes on the beast, willing it to stare back at him as he spoke. He kept his voice low and didn’t turn to look back at her. “Move away. Slowly.”
He waited for the crunch of retreating footsteps but heard none. The grootslang let another wet snarl escape its horrid gray mouth, and Ekon couldn’t stop himself from trembling. He’d trained all his life to take down men; none of that training had prepared him for this.
Without warning, the grootslang shot forward, too fast and lithe for a creature so large. Ekon dodged just in time, rolling away over leaves as it struck at a nearby tree and splintered the wood. The world spun as he righted himself and leaped away before the grootslang could strike again. He looked over his shoulder just in time to see Koffi jolt, as though waking from a stupor. The grootslang turned her way, and his heart sank.
“No!”
He ran but wasn’t fast enough. The grootslang reached Koffi first. It opened its gaping mouth as it loomed over her, but just as it neared, there was a flash of white. Ekon ran along the other side, surprised to hear the beast hiss in pain as it recoiled. Koffi still had her jino knife in hand and was swinging and stabbing at the air. She was keeping the creature at bay, but she’d tire out eventually.
Think. He racked his brain for ideas, frantic. What do you know about grootslangs? He’d just read about them, but his mind was scattered. He tried to remember the finer points of the scholar’s notes. Grootslangs usually dwelled in caves, pits, and other dark places, but could occasionally be drawn out by . . .
An idea came to him.
“Koffi!” He shouted her name as the creature bellowed again. “Throw the dagger at it!”
“What?” Koffi didn’t take her eyes off the beast, but her voice held nothing but disbelief. “Why?”
“Just do it!” Ekon crept to the right, trying to keep out of the monster’s peripheral vision. The idea was a slim shot, but just maybe . . .
“This is the only weapon I have!” Koffi spared him a second’s glance as she continued retreating slowly. “If I throw it, I won’t have anything to—”
“You have to trust me!” Ekon yelled. “Please, Koffi!”
She shot him one more look before steeling herself and planting her feet in the dirt. In response, the grootslang drew itself up to its full height, blotting out what little light filtered through the trees. Koffi raised her arm high, then hurled the dagger as hard as she could at the beast’s middle. The tooth blade gracefully twirled through the air before bouncing uselessly of
f the grootslang’s armored scales and landing in the dirt. The beast hissed with new rage.
No.
Ekon didn’t know what came over him, just that—before he could stop to think about it—he was running. He closed the gap between himself and Koffi, flung his arms out, and barreled into her so that he was draped over her as they both toppled to the ground. Underneath him, she curled her body into a ball, and he used his arms and chest to cover as much of her as he could. Ultimately, he knew the gesture wouldn’t do much against the grootslang’s wrath, but maybe while the thing was busy eating him, Koffi could run. He caught a glimpse of her beneath him; her eyes were screwed shut, waiting for pain. A part of him wanted to close his eyes too, but he found he couldn’t do it. He turned his head to face the grootslang again. It was still eyeing them with malice. The leaves rustled as it slithered toward them, closing the distance as its massive gray ears flapped eerily in the wind. It was getting closer and closer, and any second now, one of its tusks would gore them. Ekon held his breath, braced for it, when—
The grootslang stopped short.
Ekon’s heart thundered in his chest like a war drum as he watched the monster turn its head slowly to the right. He followed its gaze to the thing that had given it pause. A single shaft of golden sunshine was piercing the jungle’s canopy, shining light directly on the jeweled hilt of Koffi’s jino blade. In the luminance, the deep red of the rubies embedded in the carved ivory glittered like blood, a beautiful violence. The beast flicked its forked tongue as it used its trunk to pick up the blade and examine it, two beady black eyes narrowing with scrutiny. Ekon didn’t move a muscle as it completed its appraisal. A second that felt like a century passed before it wrapped its trunk around the rest of the blade and turned away from them. As quickly as it’d come, it slithered into the jungle’s depths, consumed in the darkness. Still, Ekon didn’t move.
“Did it leave?” Koffi’s voice was muffled against his chest, and immediately, he rolled off her and helped her up. She stared in the direction the grootslang had gone, looking visibly shaken.
“Yeah.” Ekon looked over his shoulder, trying to make his heartbeat steady again. “I think so.”
Koffi looked from the trees back to him, bewildered. “How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“How did you know it would go away?”
Ekon nodded to their sacks, still sitting just a few yards away. “I’ve read about them before,” he said. “Grootslangs are classified as hoarders.”
Koffi frowned. “What’s that mean?”
“They’re like magpies, they like to collect things,” he explained. “Especially things of value. Your jino blade had those rubies on the hilt, so I figured that might be enough to distract it.” Suddenly he felt guilty. “Sorry about losing it, by the way.”
“Meh, I’ll find another. Besides, I still prefer kicking,” she said. “I’m just glad it worked. For a minute there, I thought we were done for.”
Ekon chuckled. “Nah, it would have eaten me first, promise.”
Koffi’s expression abruptly changed, as though something had just dawned on her. “You—you covered me.” She spoke as though the words were from a foreign language, one she barely understood. “Why?”
Ekon stopped. The truth was, he hadn’t known why he’d done it, he just had. “I . . .” He faltered. “I was just returning the favor. You helped me with the spiders yesterday. Figured this round was on me.”
“Thank you.” Koffi’s voice was earnest, perhaps the most earnest he’d ever heard it.
“Uh . . .” Ekon massaged the back of his neck, suddenly feeling warm. “Don’t mention it. You hungry?”
Koffi grinned. “I’m starving.”
* * *
They continued north together, side by side. Though, technically speaking, Ekon noted that they still hadn’t determined their exact plan or path yet, he found he didn’t mind. He inhaled and took in the smell of moss and rich dirt, which he’d never smelled before. The air was still warm, but not oppressively so, almost pleasant.
“Ah.” Koffi stopped walking. She lifted her eyes and pointed at one of the trees up ahead. “Look.”
Ekon’s gaze found the tree Koffi was pointing at. It was easily the largest he’d ever seen. Its wood was a deep, rich brown, with bulbous bumps on its trunk that reminded him of warts. Leaves of deepest green clung to its branches, which were weighed down by large red fruits Ekon had never seen before. They were like pomegranates, but bigger.
“She looks like the mother of the jungle.” There was a touch of admiration in Koffi’s voice as they drew closer.
“I was going to say grandmother.”
They stopped just before the tree, the tops of their heads not even reaching a third of the way up its trunk. In the afternoon light, the fruit weighing down its boughs seemed to glisten. Just the sight of them made Ekon’s mouth water.
“I think we’ve just found lunch,” said Koffi, triumphant. “And possibly dinner for the next few days.”
“Wait a minute.” Ekon withdrew Nkrumah’s journal from his bag and began flipping through its pages, trying to find the chapter he’d been reading earlier. “Just give me a second . . .” He felt Koffi’s gaze on him as he continued searching.
“Well?”
Ekon frowned. It seemed he’d reached the end of the journal’s botanical section, but he hadn’t seen any notes or illustrations to match the tree before them. “I’m not finding anything on it yet, but that doesn’t mean—”
“Look, you said yourself that this Nkrumah guy was the expert on this jungle,” said Koffi, crossing her arms. “Which means, if this tree isn’t noted in there as dangerous, it’s fine.”
“I still think we should check to make sure—”
Without warning, she leaped, fingers wrapping around the lowest bough so that she swung from it with surprising grace. Ekon watched, somewhat horrified and somewhat impressed, as she pushed herself up and reached for the next highest bough, climbing higher and higher until she was several feet above him.
“Koffi, be careful—ow!”
“Watch your head!” Koffi gave him an impish grin as she shook one of the boughs and sent more of the tree’s fruit to the ground. They came off with surprising ease, showering the space around him. Ekon frowned when a few more hit him on their way down, but found he couldn’t stay mad. After a few minutes, Koffi glanced down at him again. From the tops of the branches she looked like an ancient queen of the jungle, presiding over her domain.
“Right.” She tested one foot on the branch below her, and it wobbled. Her eyes dropped to the ground below, where Ekon was standing, then widened. “Um . . .”
“Seriously?” Ekon fought to keep exasperation from his voice. “You know how to climb up trees but not down?”
Koffi’s eyes narrowed. “It’s not like I had to learn. We had ladders at the Night Zoo.”
Ekon rubbed the bridge of his nose before looking around. “Jump. I’ll catch you.”
“Jump?”
Ekon’s frown deepened. “Unless you’d like to stay up there all night?”
There was a pause before Koffi rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She lowered and let her legs dangle over the branch, swinging them back and forth. “I’ll push off.”
“On my count,” said Ekon. “One . . . two . . .”
“Three!”
Ekon’s heart leaped to his throat as Koffi came flying down at him in a rush. His arms barely shot out in time to catch her. Their bodies collided, his back slamming against the tree’s trunk to take the worst of the impact. When he opened his eyes, Koffi was still in his arms, and scowling.
“You closed your eyes?”
“Not on purpose,” said Ekon defensively. His heart was thundering in his chest. He suddenly realized his hands were still on Koffi’s waist, and they were still very close tog
ether. For exactly three seconds, he was keenly aware of their chests rising and falling against each other. “I mean, I still caught you.”
Koffi stepped back from him and started gathering the fruit she’d shaken off the tree. “We should have enough here to make a decent meal.” She looked at him. “I know you’re good with a dagger, but . . . how are your mincing skills?”
* * *
* * *
A few minutes later, with the help of Ekon’s hanjari, they had a small feast before them. The tree’s massive roots were large enough to use like a makeshift table, and some of the larger leaves served as plates. Koffi sat on one side of it, he took the other. Admittedly, Ekon wondered if, along with the fruit, he’d have to eat his cautionary words about them. They’d looked delicious hanging from the tree’s branches, but cut up into pieces, they emitted an aroma unlike anything he’d ever smelled before—the scent was intensely sweet, almost sugaring the very air around it. As if reading his mind, Koffi smirked.
“See?” She picked up a piece of the fruit and popped it into her mouth. “A perfectly good lunch, despite your bossiness.”
Ekon noted that the fruit had stained her lips dark red; he was still staring at them when her words really hit him. “Wait.” He put down the piece of fruit he’d been about to eat, frowning. “I’m not . . . bossy?”
Koffi raised an eyebrow.
“I’m not!”
“You really are.”
Ekon sat back, thoughtful. “I’m just cautious,” he said after a moment. “I mean, this jungle’s dangerous, and I don’t like to see people I care about hurt. It—” He caught himself. “Uh, sorry, that was a weird thing to say.”
“No.” Koffi’s expression had changed; gone was her smirk, and in its place was something he didn’t recognize. “It wasn’t.”
Neither of them spoke for a moment. In that quiet, something hummed near Ekon’s navel. He didn’t know how to describe that feeling, what to do with it. Quickly, he changed the subject.