Curse of the Condor (7 page)

"Jetta can you hear me?" he called. She didn’t answer, but he heard the screaming of his pet monkey. He followed the noise and found Chatter sitting in a tree, jumping up and down. A large group of other spider monkeys joined him up high in the branches and called out their words of warning. He'd heard that noise before and he knew exactly what they were trying to tell him.

"Lead me to her," he told Chatter.

The monkey jumped around and screamed wildly but wouldn't leave the branch. That told him the boa constrictor or anaconda was nearer than he thought. And the fact that Jetta wasn't answering made him really nervous.

It was the condor that led him to her after all. It flew over and rested in a tree just off the path he'd cut through the forest, then it flew away. He didn't like the fact the condor was there at all. And the fact that it was basically pointing out to him where Jetta resided didn't help matters any either.

He approached the area quickly, but cautiously, and spotted her immediately. Sitting on the ground, eyes closed, resting her back against the tree, she had no idea an anaconda was hanging from a limb above her, slipping down slowly to strangle the life from her body. In one slithery move it wound around her, causing her eyes to open wide. The look of terror on her face cried out a silent plea for help.

He started to rush forward, but jungle instinct made him stop. He spotted a jaguar watching from the tree next to her. If he wasn’t careful, it might attack. He had to move quickly if he planned on saving her life.

He threw down the pack from his back, and without hesitation he reached for his blowgun. The same blowgun that had killed her brother. Maybe this time it could save a life instead. He was powerless against the strength of an anaconda with a length four times his own height. It was already in the strangulation mode, the way it killed its prey. He'd seen an anaconda kill a gorilla twice his size in less than a minute.

He reached for one of his poison arrows wrapped up safely in a cloth. He never thought he'd use these again after Ryder's death. But now he knew he didn't have a choice. If he didn't use them on the snake, Jetta would die.

He loaded the poisoned dart into the shaft of the wooden blowgun, took aim for the snake's neck and prayed his aim was still true. He had to focus. He had to forget the last time a dart had left this gun.

He took a deep breath and brought the pipe to his mouth. Blowing into the tube, he shot the dart and watched as it lodged itself into the snake's neck. The snake hissed, jerked, but still retained its hold on Jetta. She turned a shade of blue, her eyes still closed. He could no longer tell if she was breathing.

He took another poisoned dart and then another and hit the snake two more times before he saw the effects of the poison on the snake's nervous system. The jaguar ran off, frightened. He grabbed his machete and ran to Jetta's side.

"Jetta, honey. Stay with me!"

He set in at once with a slice to the snake's body, its massive form dropping to the ground at his feet. He threw down his machete and used all his strength to pull the large snake from around Jetta's neck. Once released, she fell limply into his arms.

He could feel her heart beating rapidly as he pulled her to his chest.

"Jetta, I'm sorry I didn't protect you. I'm so sorry, sweetie. I won't be so careless again."

He expected some sort of spunky comeback, and when he didn't get one he felt a sinking feeling in his gut. He pulled back and noticed her face was still blue and she wasn't breathing.

"No!" he screamed. "No! This can't be happening."

He pushed back her head, swept his finger through her mouth to clear her air passage and brought his mouth to meet hers. He shared his life force with her, willing her to live. He'd give anything, including his own life, if he could just bring her back. He pulled away and the breath escaped her pale lips, but still she didn't breathe on her own.

"Breathe!" he commanded her as if it would really help. "Breathe already, damn it! Can't you hear me?"

He brought his mouth to hers once more, closing his eyes in defeat, knowing he had failed. He'd not only killed her brother, but now he'd killed her as well.

Chapter 7

Drowsy and disoriented, all Jetta wanted to do was sleep. That's why she’d sat down by the tree in the first place. To rest. But Conrado's voice yelling at her was so annoying, she'd never get any rest on this trip.

She figured she must have fallen asleep when she had a dream with an ugly looking bird in it. It looked like the buzzard tattooed on Conrado's arm if she wasn't mistaken. The bird kept following her, scaring her, and she just wanted it to be gone. Then a hundred mocking voices were laughing at her from the sky, chattering their nonsensical amusement at her expense. The air had thickened and she found it very hard to breathe in the blasted humidity.

Next, Conrado was cursing at her again though she'd done nothing wrong. When she sat down by the tree trunk to rest her feet and take a drink of water from the canteen, she had no idea it would be so noisy.

"Damn it, Jetta - breathe. Can't you hear me?" came Conrado's angry growl.

She opened her mouth to tell him to pipe down as she was trying to rest, but her words didn't come. That's when she felt the rush of air and his warm lips caressing hers. He was kissing her! Her eyes fluttered open to verify the fact. The kiss was forceful, urgent, and wildly exciting and tasted like nature and man. He took her breath away, and she found herself gasping for air.

"Oh, thank God you're alive," he shouted and pulled her to his bare chest.

She sucked in the air around her, and tried to still her heart and regain her composure. No man's kiss had ever done this to her before. She laid her cheek against his chest and could hear the rapid beating of his own heart. Her kissed must have affected him the same way.

Then he grabbed her face in his hands and started kissing her like there was no tomorrow. First it was little kisses all over her face. Then it was a bigger kiss to her mouth. Kisses of gratitude is what it felt like. But she had done nothing but aggravate him, so why should he be thankful?

She reveled in the softness of his lips and felt herself relaxing under his gentle touch. He pulled back, let out a deep breath and looked her in the eye. Their faces were so close she could feel his breath on her moist mouth.

"I'm so sorry, Jetta. I'll never let it happen again."

"Why not?" she asked, looking into his eyes. "I rather enjoyed it."

"What are you talking about? You rather enjoyed what?”

"The kiss," she answered in a dreamlike state. When was he going to do it again? Then she realized they weren’t talking about the same thing. Embarrassment coiled through her and she pushed upright, feeling weaker than ever. "Why? What are you talking about?"

"You really don't remember, do you?"

"Something besides the kiss?” Had she fallen asleep and missed something more than that?

He took her chin in his hand and tilted her face up to his. She closed her eyes, and brought her mouth closer to his.

"Open your eyes, Jetta."

She opened them, and he turned her head slightly to the side. She saw the dead body of the biggest snake she’d ever seen right next to her. It had been severed, and she suddenly felt like retching. She screamed and jumped into Conrado's arms, burying her face in his neck.

It was all coming back to her now. She slowly remembered exactly what had happened, and the fear she'd felt while being suffocated.

Her body shook, and she couldn't hold back the tears that burst free from her eyes. All the while she stayed buried safely in Conrado's strong, protective arms.

"C'mon, lets get the hell out of here," he told her, and dragged her to her feet.

She kept her eyes hidden from the sight of the snake as he led her over to his open pack.

"I need to retrieve my darts," he told her. “You stay right here and don't move. I'll be right back.”

She couldn't have moved if she wanted to. Her legs were like boards, and her limbs wouldn’t respond to her brain's unspoken commands.

He returned in mere seconds with three darts in his hands and her purse on his shoulder. He handled the darts by the black feathered ends as he packed them away.

"What are those?" she asked holding out her finger to point to them. She almost touched one and he pulled back his hand.

"Careful," he warned her. "There may still be some poison on them."

"Is that what you used to save my life?"

"Yes. They're poisoned darts for my blowgun."

He grabbed the long wooden tube she figured was the blowgun, and she waited for him to show it to her. She would have liked to see it, as she’d never seen a blowgun except for in photos, but instead he wrapped it up quickly in the blanket and then threw the bundle on his back.

Chatter swung from a vine and landed on Conrado’s head, but he didn't even flinch. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a fig and threw it in the air. "Thanks for the help," he told the monkey. The monkey grabbed it in mid-air, then scurried off into a tree to eat it.

"Maybe you can teach me how to use the blowgun someday. Something like that could come in handy."

"No!"

The mere thought seemed to mortify him. She wasn't a child, yet she felt as if he were giving her a warning to stay far away from it.

"I shot my great-grandfather's gun out on his farm when I was only ten she said. It’s not like I’m going to shoot off my foot. And I took karate for two years. I'm comfortable around weapons. You don't need to patronize me about them."

"I don't ever want to see you anywhere near this blowgun or the darts, do you understand? It's a deadly weapon. It can kill, as you've just seen."

"I know that. Still, I think - "

"Not ever," he repeated, finalizing the conversation. "Now let's go make camp. I don't think you're in any condition to continue today."

"But it's still early," she said. "We could get to Ryder faster if we kept going."

She took a step and felt her legs give way beneath her. Before she could hit the ground, Conrado had swooped her up into his strong arms and was making his way through the overgrowth of the jungle floor.

"I know a place we can set up camp. It's just up ahead."

"You can put me down," she told him. "I don't need to be carried."

"Like hell you don’t," he answered. "You're still shaking. From now on you're staying close to me so I can protect you. So close that you'll be able to count the hairs on my ass."

She couldn’t answer to that without blushing, so she stayed quiet. But if he kissed her again, she knew she’d be wanting to take him up on his informal invitation.

Chapter 8

Conrado hadn't been kidding when he said he wasn't going to let Jetta out of his sight. She couldn't go two steps without having him right there behind her. She couldn't even squat down to use a bush without him standing on the other side waiting for her, and this bothered her very much. She was more of a private person. Needless to say, the jungle was far from private, but still she cherished her space.

"Look," she told him as they set up camp for the night. "I appreciate you saving my life and I can't deny the fact I'm a bit jittery after the snake incident, but you really don't have to follow me so closely."

"I'm only trying to protect you."

Jetta sighed deeply and went to sit on a log. Conrado got there first and held his hand up for her to wait.

"Let me make sure there's nothing living inside the log before you sit down. Plus, you need to watch out for fire ants and poison dart frogs." He inspected the area and then gave her the go ahead to sit.

"Poison dart frogs?" she asked, not sure if he was being serious or not. "I hardly think you need to protect me from a frog!"

"The natives use the poisons the frogs excrete from their skin for the tips of their darts of their blowguns. Very deadly."

"Look, this is getting ridiculous," she told him, throwing her arms up in the air as she spoke. "I've camped before and I know how to be aware of nature. I've taken my sixth graders on nature hikes. I've even backpacked in the Rockies by myself in areas that were supposed to be restricted. I'm not really as helpless as you think."

"Like I said," he told her and turned to check the food on the fire, "I'm only trying to protect you. That's all."

"When I want your protection I'll ask for it." She plopped down near the fire on a straw mat he'd put there for her.

He tended to the food, and neither one of them spoke. She knew she'd been harsh with him and didn't want him to think she was ungrateful for what he was doing. It was just that his presence so close to her was distracting. After that kiss they'd shared, she felt uneasy around him. She liked it too much.

But then she reminded herself it wasn't really a kiss. He'd told her he was only giving her mouth to mouth resuscitation to revive her. She knew it was true, but still she couldn't help but feel there was some sort of passion behind it.

"I'm sorry," she said, watching him poking at the fire with a stick. He squatted down instead of sitting. He did that a lot, and she realized it was probably his peoples' way, just like the way he always stood so close when he talked. She still wasn't used to his ways or customs, and she definitely would never get used to the jungle.

"Sorry for what?" he kept his eyes on the fire.

"Sorry for complaining so much about you protecting me. I should actually be thanking you for saving my life from that huge snake." She shivered when she thought of how it looked after he’d killed it. She couldn't wipe the image from her mind.

"It was an anaconda," he told her. "The jungle's biggest and deadliest snake. It can strangle the life out of its prey in less than a minute."

She swallowed deeply and shuddered again. "Then I guess I really do have you to thank. If you hadn't come back to see where I was, I'd be dead right now."

"You don't need to thank me," he said. "I only wish I could have been there to stop it from wrapping around you in the first place. If you need someone to thank, you should thank the condor."

"Are you saying a vulture had something to do with me still being alive?"

"No. I'm saying the condor
was hovering in a tree above you waiting to peck out your eyes and rip your dead flesh from your bones. I just happened to notice and get there before that happened. Next time, don't wander off from me."

Thoughts of the bird she'd seen in her dream flashed through her mind. So maybe it wasn't a dream after all. Maybe she was in the midst of dying and just watched the scene before her eyes as if she were watching television.

"I've never seen a condor in real life. Are there more of them around here?"

He stopped poking at the fire and looked up to the canopy before answering.

"I hope not," he said softly. "Condors aren't usually found in the rain forest. They live in the Andes, in the more mountainous regions."

"So what's this one doing here?" she laughed. "Is it lost?"

"It's been following me since childhood.” 

"Tell me about it. Please. Does this have something to do with the day your parents died?"

She didn't think he was going to tell her, but then he finally spoke. He stared into the fire as if in a trance when he relayed his story.

"I'm a
mestizo
by birth," he told her. "I'm of both Peruvian and American blood."

She nodded. “But you were raised by the Jivaro.”

"Yes. My father was a missionary, and we were on our way to the Jivaro camp when it all happened. You see, my father had this dream of setting up a colonization program with the tribe, but they wanted nothing to do with outsiders.”

“So,” she asked cautiously, hoping not to upset him. “Was it the Jivaro who killed your parents?”

“The Jivaro were a fierce tribe with a fondness of hunting the heads of their enemies, though my father believed us to be safe because he’d seen to it he’d learned their language."

"Headhunters?" she moved closer to him. “Please don’t tell me they - ” She couldn’t even finish her horrible thought.

“No,” he reassured her with a hand to her arm. “They didn’t behead my parents, though I can’t say they wouldn’t have if we’d gotten to their tribal village as planned. My parents died before the Jivaro showed up. In actuality, it was probably a blessing in disguise.”

“So what was it that killed them, Conrado?” She put her hand over his.

He blinked several times in succession, and kept his gaze on the fire. She felt the tenseness of his arm.

“We entered the Cave of the Condor.”

“Cave of the Condor?” she asked.

He nodded. “My father died inside from the poison of a snake. My mother was hit in the head by a falling rock.”

“That’s terrible,” she cried. “Where was this cave?”

“I can’t tell you. As a promise to the Jivaro, I must keep it a secret. But I can tell you it’s very hard to find. My parents stumbled upon it by accident. My mother, the archeologist, was always looking for a find. She saw markings on the cave and was insistent about going inside.” He blinked, bit his lip and blinked again. “They went in, and never came out.”

“But Conrado, didn’t you try to help them?”

“It wouldn’t have mattered,” he relayed. “They died instantly. The cave is cursed! The cave is cursed and I should have died too that day. But instead, I emerged as some kind of hero to the Jivaro.” He poked furiously at the fire, then throwing the stick in, he stood, pacing back and forth. “I am so tired of people dying.”

She stood slowly and wrapped her arms around her. He sounded as if more than just his parents had died because of this cursed cave. And he sounded as if he thought he was responsible. A slight shiver coursed through her body, though the sun was shining hot above them. She felt he was holding something back. Something she needed to know.

“What do you mean by that? Who else died, and how do you feel responsible?”

His head snapped around and he looked directly at her.

“I didn’t mean anything by that. My parents died, as did one of my father’s missionaries. I feel responsible because I couldn’t do anything to save them. ”

“Oh,” she said, still feeling he wasn’t telling her the whole truth. But you were only a child, Conrado. How could you put so much blame upon yourself?”

“The jungle is dangerous, Jetta. Please. Just let me protect you.”

“Dangerous? You mean from the head hunting Jivaro?” She was very unsettled by the thought.

"They don't head hunt anymore," he told her. "That’s one tradition my influence has changed throughout the years. But at the time, it was custom. The Jivaro still don’t like outsiders though, and I wouldn’t put it past them to kill anyone who wanders into their village just because it annoys them. So like I said, stay close by me.”

"Please, stop." It sickened her to think of what he’d said. It wasn’t bad enough to be scared by a snake, but to think of being captured and killed by natives truly had her nerves shaking.

He moved closer, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "You get numb to it after awhile. The Jivaro have a whole different way of life. I rejected them at first, but once I realized they admired me and thought me to be the boy of their condor prophecy, I knew they meant me no harm."

“You mentioned the prophecy before,” she said. “Tell me about it.”

“They called me
El Condor
he said. They tattooed my arm with the condor and told me somehow I was connected to it. It’s all just silly superstitions, Jetta. It doesn’t matter. What you need to do now is rest.” Once again, he shut her out, just when she thought she was getting closer.

"Ryder told me you were raised by the Jivaro, but he never mentioned your sorrowful story."

He dropped his hand from her shoulder and bent down to pick up his machete. He busied himself cutting huge leaves. Her eyes settled on the huge jaguar tattoo on his back.

"Yeah, well, Ryder never mentioned he had a sister either. So I guess we're even."

He brought the large leaves toward the fire. He then pulled what he'd told her was wild yams and yucca root from the fire, along with capsicum peppers. He put the food on a leaf, using it as a plate and handed it to her. He hunkered down to eat, while she sat on the mat.

“Is that jaguar tattoo permanent also?”

He looked up from his food when he answered.

“No. With lots of scrubbing, it’ll come off just like the snake did. But of course, I can’t reach it well and that’s why it’s still there. Only the condor on my arm will be there forever.”

She looked down to her food and poked it with her finger. She didn't have enough nerve to try it yet, so she continued to talk.

“So did you have to earn the painted images?”

“I did.” He finished off his food and took more. “I killed my first anaconda at twelve years old. And part of my coming of age ceremony was that I captured a jaguar.”

“Oh! Don’t tell me you killed that as well?”

“No. I released it afterwards. The Jivaro only kill animals in defense, not for sport. Or if they need food, or the fur for clothing.”

“So what was their motive in killing off people?”

He shook his head slowly. “Jetta, they are an ancient tribe with ancient customs. Who am I to judge the way they live? Besides, I told you. They don’t head hunt any more.”

It was obvious Conrado had made some strong connections with the Jivaro after living with them for so long. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have defended them. Still, she could see he was still torn about his heritage.

“So why did you leave?” she asked, blowing on her food to cool it off.

“I stayed with the Jivaro for ten years,” he told her. “When I turned twenty, I was to participate in the right of passage to manhood. To become a Jivaro warrior. But I couldn’t do what was required of me, so I decided to leave to save face for my tribal father. I never meant to show disrespect, but I just couldn’t do what they asked.”

“And what was that?” she asked casually, never expecting what he’d answered.

“I was required to kill. Not an animal, but a man.”

“Oh my!” She didn’t know what to say, and was glad when he continued.

“So that’s why I decided to search for my late father’s family.”

“But what about your relatives in the States? Your mother’s side of the family.”

“I never contacted them.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to,” he growled. “What does it matter? She’s gone because of her own foolishness. She didn’t need to go after the treasure, but yet she risked her life to do it.”

“Treasure?” Jetta’s hand went to the condor hiding beneath her shirt. “You never mentioned anything about a treasure.”

Conrado quieted all of a sudden, and she knew this is what he’d been keeping from her. The barrier of a wall was back between them.

“It’s nothing, Jetta. Forget I said that. Now tell me all about your family.”

She wanted to show Conrado the trinket Ryder had sent her, but something kept her from doing it. There were secrets between them, and she would have hers too. Ryder didn’t want anyone to know about her gift, but could he have meant to keep it from his best friend as well? She’d just wait and ask him when she saw him.

“All right.” She hesitantly picked up a small piece of yam, blowing on it and nibbling just a little. She was surprised at how good it tasted. “My mother is a doctor. My father is a business man of a very successful corporation. They adopted Ryder and I when we were just toddlers. Neither of us remember our real parents. I was the ever obedient child, but Ryder was the rebel. He’d sometimes hang around with the wrong crowd. We were all happy when he decided to change his ways and became a missionary.”