Alona’s Quest for the Golden Tree

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Alona’s Quest for the Golden Tree

Chapter 22: Inert Body

WHEN WE ARRIVED at our destination, I frowned.

The body of water she mentioned halved the forest neatly, cradled by rocks and green grasslands. It circuited the place, waves flowing beyond the forest.
I blinked, and declared, “This is not a stream. This is a river.”

“Don’t have much of a difference to me,” Ate Rachel shrugged.

I grimaced.

Typical. Of course, in Ate Rachel’s eyes, they were the same. Except there was one significant difference between the two. One was safe enough to be drunk. The other was not. I bet this body of water goes to and from the sea. Apart from saltwater, imagine what else could possibly bob along on the way to here.

Trying to preserve our newly-repaired friendship however, I spoke in a quiet, soft voice.

“I don’t think we can drink that.”

“I know,” agreed Ate Rachel. “We will drink there.”

She pointed at a place that was a little beyond the river. It was a rock formation, with freshwater bulking free from its crevices.

My eyes brightened up.

“Spring water!” I said, limping toward the water source fast.

Ate Rachel beat me to the spring water. I thirstily gulped the amazingly cold water after her.

It was fresh and richly satisfying.

I faced Ate Rachel, grinning satisfactorily.

Ate Rachel did not return my grin. Her face was frozen in a look full of terror.
I made a sudden movement, but she stopped me with a look. Understanding, I ceased moving at once.

“What? What is it?” I whispered urgently, lips barely moving.

“S-snake,” she answered, face draining of color.

My eyes grew wide.

“W-where?”

Her lips pointed at the place behind me.

I turned, ever so slowly.

A little beyond us was a huge reptile, lying comfortably on top of a broad slab of rock in an apparent siesta. The snake’s long scaly body was tightly wounded in a loop.

All the hairs in my body stood up.

Why was I not surprised? Of course, what was a jungle without its snakes?
“W-what should I d-do?”

 “Don’t move,” she whispered. “Don’t breathe. Don’t say a word.”

“Are you crazy?” I demanded, whispering back. “What if that wakes up? What then, ha? We gotta run. Now!”

“You think so?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“On the count of three, then.”

“Don’t startle it,” I said. “Let’s run fast, but silent. Got that?”

“Got it,” she said. “It’s a o-one.”

My heart thumped hard.

“T-two,” I counted down. 

“Ready?” she asked. Her lips were blue from nerves.

No, I was not actually. But who ever was, anyway.

“Ready,” I replied. 

“Three!”

“Go! Go!”

We sprinted away, fast. Just when speed was necessary, I stumbled, most inconveniently, down the slippery rock.

“C’mon,” urged Ate Rachel, helping me to get up.

I got up. And ran.

We didn’t know how long we ran. We didn’t know if the snake followed us or not. We didn’t care. All that mattered was to get as far away from there as possible.

When we deemed we were far away enough, we stopped to catch our breath. Clutching the stitches at our side, we sat up, collapsing from sheer exhaustion.
Trouble was, we weren’t the only ones who collapsed at that particular spot.

“WHAT THE –”

I did not finish what I was supposed to say.

Ate Rachel and I looked at each other.

“Was that –” she started, frowning.

I nodded before she could finish her words.

“–a body.”

Lying before us was a body of a man. He was lying face down on the ground.
I swallowed. It was official. This was a scary forest.

“Is it –” I started to ask, but couldn’t bear myself to voice out the question.
She shook her head, “I don’t know.”

I started to step forward. Ate Rachel took hold of me before I could move.

“What are you doing?” she asked, panic registered at her voice.

 “I’m going to check if he’s –” I hesitated, “a-alive.”

She gripped my hand tighter.

“Don’t,” she cautioned. “I-it’s dangerous.”

“Nonsense,” I said, shaking her hands off. “I’m just going to check.”

Gently, I heaved the body on his side.

“Ate Rachel,” I called, grunting. “Come help me. He’s heavy.”

Ate Rachel remained frozen at her spot.

“Ate Rachel?”

She still did not move.

At last, I managed to move the body so that he was lying on his back. He was a stranger, I realized. If he was a local folk, I would recognize him immediately. Where did he come from? 

There was a huge wound at his stomach. It was ugly, and full of blood.
“What happened to him?” I said, gasping in shock.

Ate Rachel marched down towards me and tugged brusquely. “That’s none of your concern. That’s not a child’s concern! Leave him!”

“What are you talking about?” I said, gasping. “We couldn’t just leave him here! What if he’s still alive?”

“Look at him!” replied Ate Rachel stubbornly. “He’s dead.”

“We don’t know yet,” I retorted, just as stubbornly.

For the second time, I shook her hands off.

What did our teacher said to check if one’s alive? Somehow my mind’s coming up empty. So, I followed my instinct. I pressed my ear at the man’s chest to hear if his heart was still beating.

Nothing.

My face fell.

Cleaning the build-up of wax on my ear, I pressed again. Harder, this time.

Guddung…guddung…

“Oh,” I gasped, backing up abruptly as if electrocuted.

It was very faint.

“What?” asked Ate Rachel, curious in spite of herself.

“There was a sound,” I said, blinking confusedly up at her.

“Oh?” she said, frowning, “are you sure?”

She kneeled beside me, pressing her own ears at the stranger’s heart. For several minutes, she listened intently. 

“Can you hear it?” I asked eagerly.

She did not answer.

“Can you?”

She blinked, nodding slowly.

“I hear it.”

“You hear it?”

“What are you going to do?”

“What are we going to do?”

For a while, we stood frozen. The man was alive. But he was barely breathing. Were we supposed to help him?

“No!” declared Ate Rachel. “We can’t!”

I looked at her, horrified.

“Are you just going to leave him here?” I demanded. “How could you be so heartless?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” retorted Ate Rachel. “It’s not a matter of being heartless. Be realistic. What can two little kids do to help?”

I must admit there was truth to that. 

It was a play of ironic circumstances that out of all the people that could have found this man, he met two little kids. Two lost little kids. What can we do to help save his life? I doubt whatever we learned at school had any relevance to our current situation. Now that I think about it, why didn’t they teach us first-aid at school?

The man moaned, a very faint one. His blue lips trembled, looking like he was in delirium.

If not us, who would help him?

“Whatever we can,” I answered, with a stubborn edge at my voice.

Rummaging through my knapsack, I looked for something that we could use to treat the wound. There were ropes, scissor, and a flashlight. In this particular situation, they were completely useless. I took the flashlight out nevertheless.

The moon was climbing and it was growing dark. The flashlight was needed to inspect the wound up close.

Inspecting the wound at the man’s body was gross. And heartbreaking. It looked deep and dangerous. What could have possibly inflicted such a wound?

Biting my lips, I took my purple jacket off. Putting the flashlight in my mouth to free my hands, I snipped the jackets into strips. In a stroke of unbelievable genius, I transformed my comfortable jacket into man-sized bandages. Just like how Ate Rachel cleaned and tied my wounds, I cleaned and tied the man’s wound.

Blood-red stained the purple cloth. However, the makeshift bandage stopped the steady flow of blood.

I mopped the sweat off my forehead one-handed.

“Should I hold the flashlight?”

It was Ate Rachel, speaking stiffly for the first time in several minutes.
I grinned.

“Can you?” I asked.

Ate Rachel chuckled. Before she reached out to take the flashlight off my mouth, she messed up my hair. I smiled.

“I think he has a fever?” she commented.

I bit my lips.

Nanay always made me eat juicy fruits whenever I was sick.

“Should we squeeze some macopas into his mouth?”

Ate Rachel snapped her finger agreeably.

“Why not?” she said. “That might help.”

BANG!

We jerked up, wildly looking about.

“What’s that?”

My hands slipped as it squeezed fruits onto the man’s mouth. Ate Rachel and I looked at each other.

It was a loud booming sound.

(c) 2016, Herbel Santiago

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