Book I of III: The Swords of the Sultan (29 page)

The vulture-woman also added nicely,
“Cee-caw-chee-hee-choo-cha-hahoo-chaw-chee-caw-caw-caw.”

Just as before, as soon as she had finished,
the others began to chant quietly at first, “Caw. Caw. Caw. Caw!
Caw! Caw! CAW!”

The chanting grew progressively faster and
faster, as well louder and louder! Once again in unison, nearly a
minute later, the chanting stopped.

The gorilla-man’s gaze focused back upon
Baltor, and his friendly smile turned diabolically evil a second
before he growled at the top of his lungs,
“
Groooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwllll!!
”

Baltor closed his eyes and awaited the plunge
that would finalize his life.

It seemed that the gorilla-man had even given
Baltor a few extra moments to live, as he was able to ask himself,
silently,
What will life be like for me after I die? Oh—sorry
God if I’ve done wrong, but I tried as best I could
.

Instead of Baltor feeling the tusk penetrate
his chest as he expected, he heard the sound of a whooshing noise.
The second he heard the sound of someone else’s body crumpling
nearby, however, he opened his eyes and looked around.

Even though the gorilla-man was now lying on
the ground and no longer conscious, the vulture-woman had already
begun to frantically push her way past the scattering cannibals who
were rushing for their weapons located in their homes on the other
side of the prison, while simultaneously raising a loud cawing
alarm.

There were only a half dozen tribesmen still
around, though they were all armed with either spears or blowguns,
while looking all around the dark jungles for their enemy, or
enemies. From all around, Baltor observed as several more of those
tribesmen, including one of the two that had been firmly holding
him in place, dropped to the ground.

Upon seeing his partner fall to the ground,
the other unarmed cannibal that was holding Baltor let go,
especially after having witnessed firsthand his very unusual and
powerful fighting skills a few minutes ago, and immediately he
bolted back for the village while screaming.

Baltor thought about chasing him down for a
moment—yet he quickly changed his mind as he heard the screams of
the returning cannibals get progressively louder.

From amongst the din to his right, he heard
someone yell something like,
“Caw-chew-cha-cha-che-cha-cha-chew-Cheo!”(55)

Baltor looked over to see the young man with
the loincloth that had tried to talk to him earlier that day,
already about fifty feet away to his right. Not only was he
directly looking at Baltor, yet he quickly gestured toward himself
with both hands twice.

Without any further delay, the young man
turned around and began to run toward the dark recesses of the
jungle, which was still about fifty more feet ahead of him.

After immediately getting the idea that the
young man wanted him to follow, Baltor booked north at full speed.
With a spear that he had just scooped off the ground that a
cannibal had just dropped upon falling unconscious from a poisoned
dart, he quickly ascertained he would only have to fight his way
past two more cannibals armed with spears. The nearest cannibal was
twenty feet away from his current position, while the second
nearest was thirty-five feet away.

He simultaneously observed that both
cannibals were looking in other directions than his own running
position—the further of the two cannibals had not only spotted the
bolting young man, yet had taken off in hot pursuit.

The second Baltor had passed the bonfire,
which had been to his right about twelve feet away, his peripheral
vision detected a female cannibal standing up on the northeastern
side, who was now looking at him while placing the end of a blowgun
in her mouth.

Baltor quickly estimated that the woman was
about twenty feet away from his current position, while the male
cannibal was only about fifteen feet away—meanwhile, the woman had
just begun to aim carefully at the moving target that she had
already deemed a dangerous threat!

The very second he had gotten twelve feet
away from the male cannibal who, at that moment, turned his head
toward Baltor’s direction for the very first time, he first leveled
one end of his spear into the ground while also firmly gripping the
other end.

This action caused him to catapult high up
into the air with both his feet kicking out straight in front of
him for maximum thrusting power, all the while shifting his grip on
the spear until he was firmly holding it in the middle with both
hands.

Just before Baltor’s feet made contact with
his enemy’s chest a second and a half later, he had already curled
up his legs tightly into his own chest. The very second his feet
made contact, he kicked his feet straight out with full force!

Not only did that cannibal fly sideways
through the air for about a half dozen feet and not only did his
head crash so hard into the ground, which instantaneously caused
his neck to snap sideways and kill the man instantly, but his
corpse even continued to roll sideways another half dozen more
times before stopping once and for all!

As Baltor flew backwards from the propulsion,
his legs instantly tucked themselves back into his chest; and not
even a moment later he heard a whooshing sound from a passing dart
that would have hit him had his momentum kept going forward.

The second he had completed his back flip
back on his feet, he didn’t pause yet cocked back the spear in his
right hand, and rapidly flicked it toward the female cannibal who
had just finished reloading her dart gun.

The spear plunged halfway through her before
stopping—in both shock and pain, she dropped the blow dart gun, and
then she grabbed the spear imbedded through her to try and pull it
out. A second later, she collapsed to the ground dead!

He hadn’t been watching her die, yet had
already recommenced to bolting forward, while observing that even
though the young man was just nearing the perimeters of the jungle,
the last immediate threat was about twelve feet behind the young
man and drawing nearer by the second.

Baltor slowed down his pace for but a second
as he leaned over to scoop up another spear off the ground, which
had been dropped by the first cannibal he had killed. After
recommencing with his full running stride, he immediately cocked
the spear back in his right hand, and then he heaved it with all of
his might straight at the cannibal!

Though this cannibal was about forty-five
feet away from Baltor’s position, he was now only eight feet or so
behind the young man.

Just as the cannibal was about to launch his
own spear at the young man, no more than three seconds later,
Baltor’s spear not only sailed completely through the cannibal’s
midsection which caused him to capsize to the ground, yet the spear
continued to fly straight toward the young man! Upon seeing that
the spear hadn’t stopped, Baltor began to grit his teeth in fear
and frustration, as his feet came to a complete stop.

A split second later, the young man abruptly
stopped in his tracks and turned his body, just as the spear zinged
in front of his stomach by no more than a single inch.

Two more seconds passed before the spear
finally sank a quarter of the way into a tree that was ten feet
beyond of where the young man now stood—it was only then that
Baltor breathed a deep sigh of relief, while wiping off all the
sweat off his forehead with his left hand.

After the young man had glanced at the bloody
spear forever imbedded into the tree, he slowly turned back around.
Upon seeing Baltor breathing yet another sigh of relief while also
shaking his head in disbelief, and also the mortally wounded
cannibal who was screaming out his agonizing pains only six feet
away, the young man once again excitedly gestured with both of his
hands to follow.

Finally, he turned around and entered the
dark perimeter of the jungle. Meanwhile, Baltor wasted no time and
followed, though he was still about forty feet behind, yet slowly
catching up to the young man.

As soon as the two had escaped the perimeters
of the village, they suddenly heard many sounds of whooshing,
fighting and screaming from behind them! Along the way, even though
Baltor saw no one other than this young man, he continued to
book.

After about twelve more minutes of running
and Baltor had gotten to about ten feet behind, the young man
suddenly stopped and turned around. Without saying a word, he
immediately began pulling together a bunch of dead leaves off the
ground into a pile, and then hid himself within them. Meanwhile,
Baltor had already gotten the picture and followed suit.

Less than a minute after they had fully
tucked themselves under the leaves, Baltor heard the sounds of
approaching footsteps running by and the sounds of bird-clucking
noises. He remained completely still, which included lightening his
breathing up until it was virtually noiseless and undetectable.

Only seconds later, those footsteps receded.
Nearly ten minutes later, the area became finally silent other than
the sounds of grasshoppers and other jungle noises. Soon after,
without meaning to, Baltor fell asleep.

Night turned into morning, and Baltor only
awoke because he felt himself being shaken awake. Upon opening his
eyes, he saw the young man squatting next to him.

This man gestured for Baltor to follow with a
single wave of his hand, and without any further delay, he stood
up, turned to the north, and began to jog that direction—Baltor got
right up and followed at the same pace right behind him.

An hour before sunset, three days later, and
with only about a dozen short pit stops the entire time to eat,
drink, rest, etc., the two exhausted men finally reached the
borders of another tribal village, consisting of a large number
similarly-designed straw huts. On the far side of the village,
there stood a single massive bamboo hut—at least thirty times the
size as the rest.

Spread throughout this village were hundreds
of midget villagers of all ages involved in daily tasks. The men
either farmed his own little lot of land right next to his hut, or
socially chatted with one another, while the women cooked or
cleaned or chatted. The children played and laughed.

Thankfully, Baltor saw that no one around
here wore that gruesome white make-up like the cannibal tribe. But
like them, their clothes were the same, consisting of simple grass
skirts and sandals; and these women also wore just enough bead
necklaces to conceal their privates.

With the young man still in the lead, Baltor
entered the perimeters of the village, noticing all the villagers
stop in their tasks as this young man passed on by, bowing to the
ground on their hands and knees.

Baltor instantly recognized the “universal
sign” that the guy he’d been following for the last four nights was
at least a very high-ranking member of society, perhaps even
royalty!

Once the villagers looked up to see Baltor
pass, however, their eyes remained firmly locked onto him—for never
had they ever seen anyone with such light skin before, and
especially such strange clothing.

Curious, all of the villagers soon began to
follow right behind

Baltor, while rapidly speaking amongst each
other in that bird-like tongue—only moments later, he could feel
hands touching his backside gently, but never did the villagers
grab or stop him as he walked.

Baltor did his best to ignore the pesky
annoyances, which certainly wasn’t easy, but then unexpectedly,
someone had just lightly poked his left butt cheek with his or her
finger!

He was about to turn around yell out a
reprimand, but when he heard the sounds of someone’s hand being
slapped and a woman saying something harshly that caused a young
child to cry, he figured the culprit was that young child, so he
just kept walking.

Perhaps ten minutes later, they—the young
man, Baltor, and all the villagers who followed close
behind—finally reached the big hut.

This three-story building even had outdoor
patios looking out just about everywhere on all floors. Located at
the only entrance Baltor had seen so far, there stood on each side
a tribal guard in a semi-relaxed position, each armed with a
feather-laced and very sharp spear.

The young man entered the hut first, while
Baltor followed about five feet behind. The second his new friend
had passed through the entryway, the guards immediately crossed
their spears in front of Baltor, indicating that entry into the hut
was forbidden, unless of course he fought his way through, which he
was not about to do.

Instead, he stopped dead in his tracks and
patiently waited. The instant the young man heard the sounds of the
spears clicking, he turned his head around and said something in
that very fast tongue of his to the guards. (56)

A moment later, the two guards drew back
their spears into their original position, and Baltor assumed that
that the young man had told the guards to allow him to enter the
hut, and so he did.

Once Baltor had entered, the two guards
re-crossed their spears, which forbade entry to all the other
villagers that wanted to come in.

Even though there were no stairs in this hut,
Baltor approximated that he was walking through a
one-hundred-and-twenty-foot long hallway that escalated higher and
higher into the hut, while bearing a dozen entryways decently
spaced on each side. At each of the entryways, there was a large
animal fur, which hung down from the ceiling. Baltor could tell
from a passing look through the cracks around and underneath the
furs that there was at least one room behind them.

After entering the third and final hallway
and floor, Baltor surprisingly discovered that this hallway was
very short—no more than ten feet in length it was.