The jungle itself started rather abruptly. The path just prior to that point had been in open land with few bushes or trees at all, but when the jungle began, it was like a solid wall of trees and bushes. The only way into the mess of growth was the path. It was only wide enough for two to ride side by side, so they crammed in close together and entered in.

It certainly was dark, and to Liam, it was obvious the jungle had come by its name honestly. The trunks of the trees were larger than any he had ever seen, and they stood taller than any trees back home. They seemed to stretch up forever, and the tops were lost in a dark haze, creating a canopy for the forest. He could hear noises come from the jungle. Sometimes there was the sound of an animal which called out to another and Liam could hear a response follow right after, somewhere off in the darkness. Sometimes he heard growls. Sometimes he would hear the sound of a very large creature as it crashed through the trees and plants. The Dark Jungle was more alive than any place they'd been so far.

Since they could not see the sun, they had to use their stomachs as their clock. Once all of them could hear growls from their bellies, they realized it was lunchtime. They stopped for a quick bite, but only long enough to get their food out of their packs and into their mouths.

They continued along the way. The path wound through the trees. At times, they could see the glow of eyes in the woods, watching them from a distance. Liam wondered what kind of creature it could be and if it was friendly or dangerous.

By supper time, when their bellies started to growl again, they were ready for a break. They found an area where the path was a little wider, and they thought they could set up camp. They hopped down, built a small fire and got ready for supper. The fire was small but seemed to burn like the sun. After being in such a dark forest all day, it was hard to look at the flames at first. In time their eyes adjusted and they were able to relax a little bit. The light from the fire gave such a sense of safety.

They cooked a meal for themselves and then, as was their pattern each day, they took out their swords and began to practice. It was much harder to practice by firelight since the flames would flicker and shadows would grow and move around them. At first, Liam and Ezra thought they should skip their practice while in the jungle, but Jrasta explained it was good for them to learn to fight when light was scarce.

By the time they finished, Liam, Ezra, Jrasta and DOHNK were all sweaty, and Liam could smell how badly he stunk. The Jungle itself was quite warm. There was very little air movement, but loads of humidity. Everything felt wet, and Liam seemed to sweat more than usual. The humidity only added to the smell, but he wondered if, in a fight, he could use his body odor to his advantage. It was, after all, pretty gross.

As he was about to lie down for the night, Liam once again noticed the eyes in the Jungle. They were now closer, and he could tell they belonged to a rather large beast.

He pointed the eyes out to Jrasta who jumped to his feet in alarm. "Everyone, arm yourselves!"

The eyes moved quickly toward them. There was the sound of a large beast as it crashed through the forest. It came closer and closer. Whatever the creature was, it sounded nasty!

As it came out onto the path, only a few steps from them, Liam and the others were filled with dread. The creature moved on all fours with yellow fur covering its entire body. It was about the size of a large ape and had claws and teeth which gave the impression it was not to be messed with. It paced back and forth on the path, clearly ready to attack. Liam didn't remember having drawn his sword or his knife, but both weapons were in his hands.

"This is one of those man-eating beasts I told you about," Jrasta began, speaking quietly as if he was concerned about upsetting the creature. "We're going to have to move carefully if we're going to survive this experience. If we don't give it what it wants, it will attack."

Liam thought that was an odd statement to make. If it was a man-eating beast, why would they give it what it wanted? How could they give it what it wanted? He hoped Jrasta didn't intend to feed one of them to the beast so it wouldn't attack.

"This is what we're going to do. I want each of you to grab some man and toss it over to the beast. When it gets what it wants, it should leave us alone," Jrasta said. He didn't take his eyes off the beast the entire time he spoke.

Liam thought that was also an odd statement to make. He had gotten somewhat used to some of the odd things said here in Arestana, but he was also a little worried that he might, in fact, be the "man" everyone would decide to grab and toss to the beast. He wondered if his friends would really hand him over to the beast. What kind of a crazy world was he on?

He turned his head slightly to see what everyone else was doing and was surprised to see them running around the fire. As they ran, they ripped up plants out of the ground. The beast looked on as they moved. It continued to growl and snort and pace back and forth.

"What are you doing?" Liam asked. He felt angry at them for weeding the path at such a time.

"Man only grows on the forest floor, Liam! Get pulling it up! If we don't give the beast enough, it'll attack!" DOHNK hollered back at Liam.

"These plants are called 'man'?" Liam asked, a little angry, but also quite relieved. "You mean when Jrasta called this beast a man-eating beast, he meant it ate this plant? A plant called 'man'?"

"Of course, what did you think I meant?" Jrasta replied. "Get to work! If the man-eaters don't get their plants, they turn into person-eaters, and that's not good for us!"

Liam knelt down and began to pull up and collect plants. He loaded up his arms with the green weeds. As he collected the "man," he wondered what a "person" was. Were they the "persons" or was that some other kind of plant. Arestana seemed to be designed around the idea of confusion. He muttered to himself while he worked, "You don't think this is a little on the confusing side?"

"What's that, Liam?" Ezra asked.

"Nothing! Just pulling up man!" Liam didn't want another conversation about dumb stuff.

When they had each gathered an armful, they walked up to the beast and dropped what they had collected before the creature. It watched them warily at first, but when the last of them had dropped their load, the beast attacked the man and scarfed it all down.

When it was finished, it lunged at Jrasta and began to lick his face. It then turned to DOHNK, Ezra, Jep and then Liam last of all. Liam, like everyone else, was left dripping with man-flavored slobber. The beast turned back toward the darkness of the jungle and crashed off into the trees.

"I'm glad that's dealt with," Jrasta announced. "Now that the man-eater has been fed, we should be able to get a good night's sleep. He'll think of us as friends for now and patrol around the campsite for us. We should be safe until morning."

The word, "should," didn't make Liam feel all that safe, but he knew better than to question it before bed. It would only lead to more frustration. His own.

I hope you are enjoying Arestana: The Key Quest. Keep reading to find out what happens next! If you want to get a hold of this entire story, you can pick it up from Amazon, Chapters, Foyles or just about everywhere else!

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