Stranded City Girl - Chapter 2

Cruz's P.O.V

I'd only know her for about 10 minutes, and I already established that she is crazy, she was following a bird for Pete's sake. Then again so was I.

The pain of losing my sisters still burned deep. That flight was our only hope, but of course, fate had other ideas besides my sisters and my happiness. I was officially in a bad mood, I felt like hitting something. Maybe that stupid bird. The macaw squawked overhead. We reached a cliff 500 or so above a clearing. The bird dove down into whatever was below us.

Shane leaned over the edge to see how high up we had reached. She looked so much like Danica. Shane gasped and lost her footing, she started falling forward. I ran and reached her just as her feet were leaving the ground. I grabbed her hand literally not a second too late. She did a somersault midair, she gasped a few times before looking at me, oddly she didn't look scared.

"I hate being the damsel in distress." She hollered.
"Yeah well, I don't like being alone."

She looked down. The Amazon River snaked through the forest. But a few miles east, about 8 miles, there was a barren wasteland. Fallen trees, dead animals, smoke from an old forest fire.

"Is that from our plane?" I asked.
She shook her head. "Can't be, the smoke looks old, and the plane in behind us."
We both looked at each other until my eyes stung with unshed tears and I looked away.
"Ya know," she began. "As much as I love being suspended half a thousand feet in the air-no really, it's been great-over piranha infested water could you please, oh I don't know. PULL ME UP!"

I smiled at that. I grabbed her upper arm with my free hand and started swing her back and forth. A few seconds later, I hoisted her up with all my strength. She was lighter that I'd expected and she ended up lying on top of me. She groaned then rolled off me and onto the ground.

"You're not very gentle are you." She laughed.
"And you're not very grateful."
"Nope." She got up and leaned over the edge again.
"If you fall I'm not saving you again."

"Yeah well, I don't need saving." With that, she did a back flip off the cliff, and into open air.
I ran to the edge of the cliff to see her fall. She did a few flips mid-air before lading feet first into the river and submerging. She stayed under water for a few seconds before emerging.
"Are you crazy!" I screamed.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." She swam to shore. "Hey, what's that." She ducked under a Kapok tree.
I saw her tug and pull at something wedged in the tree but it wouldn't come out.
After of a few minutes of this, she sighed and sat down against the tree.
"Give up?" I hollered.

"Not by a long shot. I'm just res -" She stopped abruptly and looked at some shrubs to her left. She backed away slowly, her eyes fixed on one spot in the plants.
"What's wrong?" I yelled.
She looked at me with the fear of a homeless cat.
There was a loud roar and then something black and yellow jumped out of the shrubs.
"Leopard." I whispered.

Shane had backed up so much, she was up against the cliff side with nowhere left to run. To the right was the river, to large to cross, to the left was the deeper part the forest.
I cursed at myself. The leopard took another step forward. I had no choice. I jumped.
The beast stared at me in surprise. I ran out of the water and stood between the it and Shane.
"Cruz, what are you doing?" She half whispered half screamed.

I didn't know, and the leopard was inching closer. I searched for something to scare it with. A large stick? No. We could cross the river. No, the piranhas would eat us up. I could try to pull the thing stuck in the tree. Maybe. I ran to the tree. I didn't have time to check what it was, I just grabbed it and pulled. Out came a gleaming silver sword. It was about 3 feet long and perfectly balanced. I stared at it in awe for a few seconds, then Shane screamed. I looked back and saw that the leopard was in spitting distance of her and it was ready to pounce. I ran to her side and raised the sword. I hoped it would scare the cat because I didn't know how to use the thing and I didn't wanna kill the animal. It looked up at me in surprise and. Was that respect? The cat did something like a stretch where he bent down and raised its rear in the air. It looked sorta like a bow.

I lowered the sword. Shane let out a breath she'd been holding. She hugged me tight and cried openly on my shoulder.
"Thank you," she said. "I'm so sorry, that was all my fault. I-I -"
"Shh, it's ok."

She dug her face deeper, her wet hair mixed with my wet clothes made an odd smell. She came out with a brave face.
"I'm sorry. I must look like a baby for crying."
"Hey," I put my hand on her shoulder. "I think people who cry are very brave."
She smiled.
All the while, the leopard was still there. As we looked at it, it tucked its elbow in, raised its paw upward and flapped it twice, then it moved back to the bushes. We followed.
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The leopard kept going deeper and deeper into the forest. It took 3 maybe 4 hours to finally get there. And 'there' was a cave half hidden from vines and flowers. Inside, we walked carefully and fearfully, scared that a jaguar or an anaconda might attack us, because there were human carcasses littering the floor. Coming into view was a pedestal holding a rusted dagger. The leopard stopped in front of me. It pointed its paw at Shane then at the dagger. Every step she took, the dagger glowed a little brighter. By time she reached it, it glowed so much it hurt a little.

Shane held the hilt of the dagger, and it shone brighter than a nova.
Once the light died down, the knife looked it was carefully cut from the cleanest golden glass mirror. The leopard spoke.
"You are here. Oh, my lady -" She bowed again, "My name is Sheeba, and I think you have already met Polly."

Just then a scarlet macaw flew into the cave and onto my shoulder. I ducked, but it held on.
"Polly want a cracker." She said with a whistle.
"Sorry, she likes to mock parrots." Sheeba said.
"Okay, whatever, now what the heck are you saying that I am 'her'."
"My dear, that dagger isn't just a weapon. Look at it."
"Yeah, I know it's shiny, so it's also a mirror."
Sheeba rolled her pupils.

"I mean seriously, like I care what my hair looks like when I'm fighting a panther." As she said those words she brought the dagger up.
"Oh, should I braid my hair or f..-" She dropped the dagger with a terrified look on her face.
"How?" She said, falling over.