Oana continued to lead Anton through the jungle. Anton was starting to get nervous about meeting her tribe. Would they like him? Would they attack him? Would they accept him? What could possibly happen? He didn't know and that made him nervous and scared. 

When they stopped for a break by a river, Anton took this moment to ask Oana what had been bothering him. "Oana, would your tribe see what you see in me? Or will they think that what you say isn't true and do things to me?" Anton's hand automatically went to his throat. 

Oana turned toward him, her blue eyes looking over his face. "I do not know what my people will do or what they will think. All I know is that what I see in you is true. What I feel is true. You are the man from the prophecy. I can see it."

"How?"

Oana smiled. His heart felt like it skipped a beat when he looked at her smile. "I have studied the prophecy since I was a little girl. I was sick and tired of parts of my family and people disappearing whenever the utoshie come to my tribe." She sat down by the rive on her knees and ran her hand through the water. "I've been waiting for decades for the ezbene, or the prophecy, to come true." She looked up at him with hope in her eyes. "Now you have come. You will be able to help us."

Anton sat down next to her and stared down at the flowing water. "So, it's just a hunch?"

Oana sighed. "I should have known that you would not understand." Her shoulders sagged. "I assume that you and your people do not have prophecies?"

Anton shook his head. "No, we don't." Anton thought back to what she had just told him and there was a word she said that he didn't understand. "Oana, what does utoshie mean?"

"It means 'mad men.'" She looked down at her hand in the water. "That word is what my people call your people."

Anton nodded his head, understanding now. "How far away is your tribe from here?"

Oana looked in the direction that they were heading. "About another day's journey."

"So, you traveled a day away from your tribe just because you think that the man in the prophecy was in this jungle?" His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at her. Damn, she was beautiful, he thought to himself. He couldn't stop the thoughts of what it would be like to touch her flow through his mind. 

Oana nodded. "Yes. I did."

"Why?" Anton asked, standing up.

Oana looked at him with a stern expression on her face. "Because I think about the good of my people – how I can help them." She stood up and walked closer to him. She poked him in the chest and told him strongly, "I believe that you are the man that we need. You are the man that I need. You are the man that the prophecy foretells to save my people. You might not believe that, but I do. Listen to me when I tell you – my people need your help." Her eyes pleaded with him and grew soft as she laid her hands on his chest. "Please, just come with me." 

A jolt of electricity went through Anton's body as he sighed. He didn't truly know if he could trust what Oana was telling him, but his body was telling him to trust her. Who knows? Oana could be one of those creatures who lure people out into the jungle and, once far enough, kill you where no one can hear you scream. That was probably far enough from the truth of who – or what, Oana was, but Anton was still cautious. His body told him otherwise. 

He watched as Oana dropped her hands and walked away from him, back toward the river. He watched as she stared out to the other side of the river. A slight breeze came through and blew her hair from behind her. 

Anton smiled at himself as he watched her. He was ridiculous. She wasn't going to kill him. He could feel it. He felt a connection with her that he wasn't understanding, yet but soon he will. 

Suddenly, a loud noise came from the other side of the river. Anton walked over to Oana and tried to look for what made that noise but saw nothing. But Oana did. Beside him, she became stiff. She quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him to a large tree. 

"Go! Climb!" she urgently ordered him while pushing him up the tree. Fear laced his voice as she continued to push against him. 

Anton, confused about why he had to climb but obeyed her anyway. He wasn't a fast climber, but he could still climb well. Oana had passed him and was sitting on a large, sturdy limb a little way above him. He tried to climb faster, but that just made him become clumsier. He lost his footing only once and ended up looking down. 

"Hurry! Hurry!" Oana urged him.

Finally, Anton reached the limb where Oana sat and climbed up next to her. "Why are we up here?" he asked in between breaths. He was surprised that the branch was able to hold them both. 

"Shh," she shushed him as she pointed at the river. "Watch."

Anton followed to where she pointed a saw a large creature come out of the water. The creature was large and bulky. Its skin looked rough and was colored green, blue, and black. It looked to Anton like a walking bruise. On its head were two large eyes and a pig snout. Large, sharp horns protruded from its forehead and from its mouth. Anton and Oana were high up in the tree, and he could tell that if the creature stood up on its hind legs, it could easily reach them. 

"What is that?" Anton asked Oana.

Oana kept her eyes on the creature while she spoke to him. "That is a fadaar." She leaned up against him and lowered her voice. "They live mostly in the water and are very territorial. If they find you in their territory, they will trample everything in sight until they reach you, and trust me, it's a long, painful death."

Anton watched as the creature sniffed the air and started walking around, looking for them. "Are we in its territory?" He hadn't planned on being trampled today and he hoped that it would never happen. 

"We must be." That was not the answer he wanted to hear. "But he is younger than most. He does not know what to look for and he must have arrived here. I did not see any marks where they usually claim their territory. We should be safe up here." She looked up at the sky. "Try to get some sleep, okay?" She turned away and climbed onto the limb next to them and leaned up against the trunk of the tree. 

Anton looked down at the fadaar circling a tree across from them. He leaned back against the tree trunk and tried to fall asleep – but to little avail. He was nervous about the fadaar. What if it found them and they were in its territory? He didn't want to be trampled. Who would?

"Anton," Oana said gently to him. "Do not worry about the fadaar. He will not notice we are here. Once the night is gone, we will leave, and he will go back to his territory. Everything will be fine. Go to sleep."

Anton sighed and closed his eyes. Sleep eventually did come, but it was restless.

----------------------

When morning came, Oana woke him up and told him that the fadaar was gone. They quickly scurried down the tree and started to travel back in the direction of Oana's tribe. 

"What is the name of your tribe, exactly?" Anton asked her after a couple of minutes of silence.

Oana smiled proudly as she turned around and faced him, walking backward. "We are called the Tifaxi. There are twelve tribes in all with one as the head tribe. We are the lowest of the tribes. My father is the head chief of the Tifaxi's." 

Anton nodded his head. He needed to get to know more about her and her tribe so that when he gets there, he wouldn't make a fool out of himself or be killed. He wanted to make her happy when he would meet her tribe. "So, uh, how old are you?"

"Twenty-one," she answered as she turned back around. "I was supposed to be married off three years ago to a family from the Tadeti tribe, but I did not feel a connection with the young man. In my tribe, mothers and fathers marry their children off to a tribe member of a larger and better tribe. Some children do not care whether they feel a spark or anything for who they are being married off to, but some do care." She turned her head and looked at him. "I care. My mother was married off to my father and instantly felt a spark with him. My father felt it too. My people who feel the spark have a happier and longer marriage than those who do not feel a spark. I know that if I married into that family, my family would have been looked at with honor from the upper tribes, but I want that spark."

Anton was quiet for some time before he asked, "How do you feel that spark? Can someone make themselves feel a spark?" Was it the spark that he was feeling whenever he touched her?

"People have tried, but no one has been successful," she answered with a shrug. "When you meet someone, there is something that pulls you towards that person and a spark illuminates inside of you. It is a wonderful thing to feel, but some people never get to feel it. You can make yourself like and love that person, but there will never be a spark." Oana sighed. She looked in front of her and got lost in the scenery. She had stopped inside of a small clearing. 

Anton became quiet. He didn't know what to ask next. He looked at her and noticed her eyes glistening over. He decided not to bother her and just concentrated on where he was placing his feet when they started moving again. He hoped that it wasn't much longer for Oana's tribe, because his feet were beginning to bother him.