Up a Tree p.13
Entering the jungle was like walking into a wall of water.
Amy felt like she'd been hit with a sandbag. She felt hot and heavy and irritable, as if the planet was pressing down on her, she could hardly breathe.
"Ugh! Doctor, has the gravity increased?" she asked, only half joking. Stranger things had happened.
"No, Amy, it's just the heat and density of water in the atmosphere. It makes you feel lethargic and heavy," he said. "You'll get used to it."
"I hope so," she said, bending over and brushing a hand across her sweaty forehead, panting.
"Here," said a gruff voice. A large meaty hand thrust a canteen at her. "Take this." Erik handed another to Rory. "Even with all the water in the air you risk dehydration if you don't drink frequently. You'll be sweating out more than you realize."
He headed back to the head of the caravan and Amy took a slug of the water, her eyebrows popped up, apparently the canteen had a chiller built into it, the water was cold.
She stood up and sighed.
"Better?" asked the Doctor.
She nodded. Bill and Jute were acting as rear guard, scanning the jungle around them, weapons raised. Amy took off walking again. The men followed her. She huffed out a breath and gathered her hair up into a ponytail. She flipped it around in a quick knot, securing it up off of her neck.
"I thought it would be cooler in the shade," she said. "But it's even hotter!" The jungle pressed in all around them, a permanent twilight with only the occasional stray sunbeam straggling through the foliage. There was no breeze, just perpetual, heavy, breathing heat.
They were walking down a wide, cleared path in the jungle, virtually a tunnel. Trees, vines, creepers, and ferns pressed in on all sides, but it was clear enough for the baggage train to float along ahead of them with plenty of space to spare.
It smelled like mold, but the bare ground was packed hard under their feet. "What is this?" Rory asked.
"Game trail," Bill put in behind them.
"What kind of game?" Rory asked, anxiously.
"Well," the Doctor said, sauntering along beside them, turning circles and staring at everything like he was in a zoo. "You know how big a panther is on Earth, and you've seen the size of their treecats. Now imagine a water-buffalo." He waved at the wide trail.
Rory's eyes widened and he looked up at the burst tree branches fifteen feet over their heads.
-----
Amy was glad to see she and Rory had been right. The trees here were big, but were normal sized trees otherwise. Draped with creepers, covered in moss, half digested by a truly vast variety of mushrooms. They penetrated farther into the jungle, leaving the comforting safety and sunlight of the home tree glade behind.
Rory was given a machete to help with the task of cutting back the occasional low lying creepers and vines. Strangely, she and the Doctor were not.
Instead, they were handed baskets. Jute shouldered his machine gun and handed out what looked for all the world like Easter baskets, complete with high handle. He nodded to a collection of bushes that were growing up right next to the cleared pathway.
Amy saw that Pickles, the small man with the Asian eyes, had handed out baskets to half the other hunters as well. For now, it seemed the hunters were intent on harvesting fruits and nuts from the edges of the jungle as they hunted.
"I thought we were looking for Sunsail cocoons?" Rory asked, as Brian, a tall, black haired man with hairy eyebrows, pointed him toward a small bush with pistachio looking nuts on it. He started stripping the clusters of nuts off with a quick fist, pattering them into his basket. Rory copied him.
"The Sunsails will be farther in," Jute explained, he was stretching up to pluck the small, ripper-fruit like berries from a slender sapling that was braving the tunnel for its faint share of the light. Amy stretched up beside him, plucking down the almost black husked fruit. She bit into one. It was crunchy like a ripper fruit, but this one was red inside, with a thinner skin and a tarter taste.
"Why?" she asked, reaching for more berries. Really, it was a shame they didn't have these at home. She wondered if she could find some seeds. She hadn't seen any in the fruit yet.
"The delicacies help pay for the expedition," Jute explained. "Not everything will grow in the tree. This way," Jute explained, holding up a handful of berries and dropping them into his basket, "even if we don't bring back enough cocoons we still make a profit."
"If Amy doesn't eat them all," Rory said, grinning.
"Hey!"
Amy filled her basket and turned to look for the Doctor. He had wandered off and was talking to Pickles beside the cart train that was still slowly floating along as the hunters harvested.
The carts were a simple wood slat sided affair, but with a pair of antigrav discs stuck to the bottom. The track here was fairly level, but it would be impossible to maneuver a wheeled vehicle over the rootknotted forest floor she could see beyond the trees.
Amy saw a white flash at the edge of her vision. She turned to look, but it was gone again. Something large and brown rattled the branches of the tree she was picking. She shrieked and dropped her basket, throwing herself backward.
A small, brown and tan stripped head popped up over the tree, a little monkey face cocked at her in blinking surprise and curiosity.
Bill laughed. She picked Amy up and dusted her off. "It's just a Trelwee."
Amy stared. The creature stretched up higher at the top of the sapling, looking down at her with jerky, birdlike movements. It was striped all over, and had the extra long arms and legs of a Trelwin, but it was only about as long as her arm.
It bounced in the tree, rather aggressively, or as if it was bored with the show, and sprang off into the jungle. Swallowed up almost instantly.
"Was that a Trelwin?" Rory asked. He'd watched carefully, not moving, ready to leap in front of Amy if necessary, but not wanting to cause alarm.
Brian took his full basket of nuts and shook his head. "Distant relative," he said in his deep, rough voice, placing both baskets in the bottom of the cart the Doctor and Pickles were opening out and locking upright. "Smaller, not as clever. There's lots of them down here."
Janet came up and slung a canvas bag full of guava-like fruits into the cart. "We haven't even begun to catalogue all the different species of them." The Doctor perked up at this scientific sounding observation.
"Have you managed to catalogue much of the fauna?" he asked, bright eyed, standing up just that little bit straighter, his hands wringing themselves unconsciously in his curiosity.
Amy recognized the signs. Something white flashed in her peripheral vision. She snapped her head aside and this time she was sure.
She walked over and yanked on the Doctor's shirt sleeve, before he could get too engrossed in his conversation. Rory followed her, he'd seen it too.
"Excuse us, Janet," Rory apologized. "We need to borrow him for a second."
The biologist nodded and grabbed another sack, striding off. Half the rest of the hunters were slowly walking along in a moving perimeter, guns out, scanning the forest around them as they all progressed slowly deeper into the jungle.
Amy and Rory faded back to the end of the line, huddling around the Doctor.
"Either Nelda's followed us," Amy hissed. "Or there's another white Trelwin out there." Rory nodded urgently.
The Doctor looked around cheerfully at the forest walls. "No, that's Nelda."
"Keep moving back there!" Erik yelled from the head of the caravan.
The Doctor waved a hand in acknowledgment and started sauntering forward.
"What's she doing here?" Rory asked. "I'd have thought she'd be safer in the tree."
"Probably," the Doctor agreed, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "She seems to think she has to protect me."
"From what?" Rory asked. He and Amy were still crowded around him, occasionally peering suspiciously at the forest. Somehow it suddenly felt full of eyes.
"From the monster."
"What?!" Rory squeaked.
Amy scowled in thought. "What does that mean?"
"I have no idea." the Doctor said, sauntering casually, keeping pace with the carts. "But she seems sure there is a monster, and she seems to think she can protect me from it."
"What makes you so special?" Rory asked, the waiting, chittering silence of the forest was getting to him.
"Dunno," the Doctor said, unconcerned. "Apparently, they didn't think it would attack humans. So this was a surprise to them too. I think she wants me to find out why."
"You mean, they think it's some sort of invisible monster that attacks Trelwins?" Rory said, aghast.
"Apparently."
"That's horrible!" Amy said.
The Doctor shrugged. "Every world has its dangers, and its own explanations. We saw how it affected Aaron. What must they think?" He nodded toward the jungle. They turned, and saw Nelda had stopped trying to hide. The pale Trelwin was crouched in a tree, waiting for them to catch up.
"So, she's coming along as your bodyguard?" Amy asked, watching the Trelwin swing along parallel to the track. Those long arms propelling her across 15 to 20 feet of space at a time. Pale hide flashing against the dark backdrop of the jungle. She turned to check the Doctor's position.
"My native guide," the Doctor said with a smug grin. Rory rolled his eyes.
"Form up!" Erik yelled from the front of the caravan.
Amy looked up to see they'd come to a junction of the trail. A Y fork. The hunters stashed their baskets and bags and unshipped their guns, forming up in an orderly column.
"Alpha team front!" Erik barked, turning back to them. "Beta team left. Gamma team right. Delta rear. Doctor, you're with me!"
The Doctor gave Amy and Rory a mocking salute and trotted up to the front.
Erik led them down the left fork, deeper into the jungle. Out of the twilight gloom and into the jungle proper.
"I feel like Tarzan in deepest darkest Africa," Amy muttered as the cheerfully lit trail fell away behind them and the jungle pressed in with its green gloom.
"Who's Tarzan?" Bill asked.
Amy looked up at her in surprise. "Oh... nevermind."
They split up, stretching out along the narrower trail. Everyone seemed to know where they were supposed to go. Bill and Jute made up Beta team and drew Amy along with them, Rory joined Brian and Shale on Gamma team on the other side, Darcy, Kevin and Jonas brought up the rear, while Pickles, Eula and Silas stayed in the middle and guarded the caravan and supplies.
It was even murkier and wetter in here. But somehow it had turned cooler, almost clammy.
"Is it like this everywhere?" Amy asked, thinking of the endless vistas of jungle she's seen from the Tree.
Bill smiled, her arms gleamed with moisture. "No. There's a band of high water table just here, makes it wetter, the plants grow thicker. You always get a ring like this around the great trees. We'll break out into brighter, dryer forest on the other side of the band. That's where the Sunsails breed. It's too wet here."
A Mayfly, as big as her fist, started homing in on Amy's red shirt. "Oh, hell no!" she said, batting at the giant mosquito and backing up.
Bill turned and swatted the spindly insect away with the flat of her machete. Amy looked around to see if there were any others.
"Didn't you spray down?" Bill asked.
Amy looked at her, her skin already crawling with imaginary bug bites. "What's that?" she asked, trying to keep a lookout out of the corner of her eyes.
Bill hung her machete on her belt and pulled out a spray can. "Insect repellant. Close your eyes."
Amy did. She heard the hiss of the spray can, and felt a mist settle on her, astringent and cool, like being sprayed with mint. Bill sprayed it over her face, arms and hands, the front and back of her legs, even her clothes.
"Okay, you're done."
Amy opened her eyes and looked down. She sniffed her arm. She couldn't smell anything.
"It works by emitting light at a frequency the insects find repulsive. It works on all of them." Bill explained.
Amy stared down at her arm, it didn't look any different.
"We can't see it, but the bugs can. We'd be a feast otherwise," Bill said.
Amy nodded. "Rory!" Rory looked up and trotted around the cart at her beckoning. "Him too," she nodded at Bill.
Jute pulled out his spraycan. "I've got this one." He held it out to Rory. Rory looked a question at Amy.
"Insect repellant," she said.
He simply nodded and held out his arms. Jute sprayed him down. Once done, their eyes skipped forward to the head of the caravan to the Doctor.
"Erik!" Amy yelled through cupped hands. Erik turned to her with a scowl.
"He hasn't sprayed down!" she yelled, pointing at the Doctor.
Erik looked at the Doctor and rolled his eyes. He whipped out a spraycan and sprayed down the Time Lord before he could protest.
The Doctor jumped back and spluttered. Erik said something. The Doctor calmed down and listened. He looked down and pointed at his wrist. Erik sprayed it. Clearly, "You missed a spot."
-----
As they exited the thicker band of jungle they spread out. Bill led the way into the tangle of undergrowth beside the trail, weapon up, Jute following behind, head swiveling as he scanned the area. Amy stumbled and eventually found her footing on the root-strewn forest floor.
"What are we looking for?" she asked, she'd looked over her shoulder and seen Rory and the others disappear into the jungle on their side.
"The cocoons tend to be webbed up against the base of the trees," Jute answered, keeping an alert lookout behind her. "The white stands out, so they aren't hard to see, unfortunately you have to be pretty close because of all this undergrowth."
"It's also a good idea to look up," Bill said, suiting actions to words. "Not only are there some predators that like to jump down on you," Amy shivered at the thought and found herself looking up into the branches, 'but, you can also sometimes spot newly hatched sunsails."
Amy nodded. She kept her eyes open, and stumbled along, her sock-boots were already encrusted with mud, making them feel like she was carrying a block of cement on each foot. She could see why they hadn't changed to rigid boots. There were so many crawling roots on the ground it was like walking on branches anyway.
It was slow going. The jungle was filled with the sounds of hoots, whistles, buzzes, and the shuffling sound of things moving in the groundcover. They spread out, but Jute reminded her to always keep the track in sight.
"Lose it, and you could be lost forever."
Amy was wet and straggly, her hair sticking to her neck, her shirt clingy and itchy and it felt like everything in the world was green. The occasional brilliant flower burst like a firework on her vision, almost hurting with its brilliance.
She had no idea what time it was. She couldn't see the sun. There was no sky, it was all blocked out by leaves and branches and creepers, it was like walking underground.
A shrill whistle split the air.
They stopped and listened then Bill grinned. "They found one!" Jute was grinning too, and waved Amy back toward the track. She could hear the sounds of the others crashing through the foliage as they all converged on the whistle.
It was Alpha Team. They arrived at the bend in the head of the track at the same time as Gamma team. Rory looked over at Amy, as if making sure she was all right, then they both looked at the Doctor.
He was grinning like it was all his doing. He put his fingers to his lips and whistled again. The rest of the hunters crashed through a few seconds later.
Erik was already busy spraying something on the dozen split open cocoons clustered around the base of the tree. The rest of the hunters quickly fell in, carefully cutting the cocoons away from the webs that attached them to the boles. They were laughing, and chattering. Pickles and Brian were unloading and unfolding more of the carts to hold the load.
Apparently it was unusual to find a cluster this big, especially so early. Orders and counter orders talked over each other as the Yblins worked.
Amy and Rory, however, were looking up into the tree. It was a typical rainforest tree, only about 60 feet tall. But it was covered in Sunsails.
Stained glass rainbow wings overlapped each other like a huge cluster of jeweled flowers. The newly hatched Sunsails hung upside down from the branches, slowly fanning their new wings dry in the muggy jungle air.
It was so beautiful it was like looking up at a giant bouquet.
"Oh wow," Amy said breathlessly. Rory, beside her, nodded.
Amy fumbled for her pocket, digging out her cell phone. The Doctor didn't like them taking pictures, but there was no way she wasn't getting one of this.
She sighted through her phone and backed up a step. Bill came trotting through, carrying a five foot long cocoon. She and Rory backed up out of her way. With everyone working, they had to shuffle aside, along the edge of the forest ferns.
Amy sighted through her phone again, she saw the Doctor crouching and examining a cocoon and discussing something animatedly with Janet. She swung the camera up.
Just a little bit farther back. She edged back into the ferns. Rory trotted over to give Pickles a hand packing the cocoon.
Ah, there, perfect, she leaned back just slightly to get all the Sunsails in shot. And her foot slipped.
She tilted over backward, her foot sliding into something cold and gritty, "Rory!" she screamed as she toppled over backward. Her cell phone went flying.
Quicksand glooped up around her, over her head. For a second everything went black and silent. She thrashed her way to the surface, viscous gritty quicksand sucking at her every move.
She could feel it pressing on every inch of her, there was no bottom, vaguely she could hear a commotion around her, she heard Rory's muffled shout.
She screamed. "It burns!"
Previous Chapter
Next Chapter