Rescue

I first awoke to the sound of a kookabura laugh, and to the aching pain that creased through my body. I shut my eyes, trying not to wake up. I had been dreaming about being home in the city, in my cool room in the north, instead of being attacked out in the hot, humid, and all-too-wild jungle. And it was all because my dad had decided to work in the jungle, trying to discover a cure for the common cold or something. I tried to wiggle into a more comfortable place, but the pain caused me to come completely awake. I opened my eyes and sat up. I had been laying under my collapsed tent. I crawled out of the tent in a daze.  All around me were the remains of our camp. Mom and Dad were nowhere to be found. I glanced cautiously down at my own body, and was a little shocked to find it covered in bruises and cuts. Somehow, whatever had attacked us in the middle of the night had forgotten about me. I couldn't remember any attack, but then, I was also a heavy sleeper.

I struggled to my feet, groaning from the cuts and bruises. I felt the dried blood gingerly with my hand and the wound stung angrily back. "OW! oo, that hurts!" I hissed. "Ok, Kate, don't panic. You're just in the jungle, alone . . ." I hugged myself as I called "Mom? Dad? Where are you?" I didn't hear any voice that sounded human. THe noises around me wer strange, exotic, and scary. I became desperate. "MOM! DAD! WHERE ARE YOU!" I screamed suddenly, and I began to run through the campsite and into the trees. I didn't see any blood, but then, the animal, whatever it was, might have dragged mom and dad off and . . . oh no, not that! anything but that! I hugged myself tighter as the fear nearly drowned me.

I was running so fast, I didn't see something jump out of the bushes until it was almost too late. "ROAAR!" It came after me, and as I screamed and headed the other way, I looked back and saw it was a jaguar. A hungry jaguar. I sprinted as fast as I could through the jungle, but everything got in my way. Running on a track is not the same as running in the jungle at all. Finally, I tripped over a rock and crashed to the ground. The last thing I saw was the jaguar approaching, teeth bared. Then, everything went black.

I awoke to something soft and rope-like brushing against my cheek. "Huuuubaa, it had quite a hit on her head. Think we should awaken it?" A female voice asked gently. "Nah, let it rest." a light, almost mischevious, male voice whispered back. "It's best it don't see us. Hubaa, that would give our nest away."

"Well, if you don't want it to wake up, what is your tail doing?" The soft rope-thing abruplty pulled away. "Well, er, I was just seein' if it was alive!"

"w-wait . . ." I said, eyes still closed, sleepily reaching towards where the voices were coming from. "Who are you?" I opened my eyes cautiously, and before them I saw the strangest creatures I'd ever hoped to see.

"AAAHHH!" I screamed, moving further away from them. Unfortunately, I moved too far. I was about to fall off of wherever I was when I saw one of the creatures shoot something long and spotted out and lasso me.

"Now, now, calm down . . . um . . . thing," the male voice said as the spotted lasso set me gently down on the nest, which I now noticed seemed to be a sort of reed-clam, with blue downy feathers inside. I looked to see that the taller one had spoken. "We're not going to hurt you" the other added. "Wh-what are you?" I asked, trembling a little. They looked a little like a lepard and a small monkey mixed together. But the thing that made them like neither was an extremely long tail that rippled and waved. they were yellow with black spots, and their ears looked a little like somthing between a dogs's and a rabbit's, and what made me nervous was that they were talking to me.

"Well, to answer your question," the male said, "My name is Marsuplami, and this is my mate, Marsupilame." Marsupilami bowed, and as he did, his tail coiled up in the shape of a hat, which lightly tipped to me. "We are called marsuplilami, and we live in the jungle. What are you?" it asked.

"Um, I'm a human, and m-my name is Kate," I stammered. I held out my hand, and marsupilami came foreward without hesitation. Instead of shaking my hand with his, he wrapped part of his tail around my hand and shook it with a surprising amount of strength. "Glad to meetcha, Human Kate. So, what are you doing in the jungle? As far as I can tell, you aren't from around here." I still felt a little uncomfortable with Marsupilami, but I soon relaxed as I told him where I was from and why I was here. Neither Marsupilami nor Marsupilame seemed to be harmful. Marsupilami listened with interest and kindness, as well as a bit of a playful twinkle in his eye.

"And then, something attacked us in the middle of the night, and I woke up with no one at our camp and . . ." I suddenly remembered I hadn't seen my parents in hours. "Have you seen anybody, creatures, looking like me?" I asked. Marupilami looked to his mate. "No, we haven't," he said after a moment. "But we know this jungle from top to bottem, and we can find them in no time, can't we Marsupilame?" Marsupilame shook her head. "I've got to take care of the little ones. They won't keep to the trees for long, and are bound to come and see who this new guest is. I'd better--"

"Hooooooobbaaaaa!!!!" a child-like voice screamed above me.
"Hoooooobaaa!" another hollared, and another. I looked up to see three creatures, not quite like Marsupilami and his mate, looking down at me. Two were yellow and one was dark blue, and only one had spots. "Who are youuuba?" the spotted one asked. "And what are youuba?" the yellow one asked. They all jumped from the trees, and my hands went up in defense just before they landed on top of me. "OOF!" I laughed a little as I realized that they were just like kids. they crawled all around me, swiming from my arms by their tails. "oooh, mama, can we keep it?"

"Pleeze, mama, we promise to take good care of it!" Marsupilami chuckled as he pulled them all off of me with his tail. "Come now, little 'uns, be nice to our guest. This is kate, the human."

"Where did you come from?"

"How did you get here?"

"where's your mama?" the last question was asked by the littlest, the blue one, and my face fell. "I don't know, ummm . . . I'm sorry, I don't know your names. . ."

"I'm Bibi" the little blue one anounced.

"And I'm Bibu." the yellow one added.

"And I'm Bobo. I'm the oldest one." he said proudly.

"Come now, marsupis, daddy and Kate are going to go search for Kate's family. You must stay here," She added, when the children began to groan. "The Jungle is no place for little ones to be wandering about. It's enough trouble keeping you in the trees!"

With that, Marsupilame grabbed her children by their tails with her own and climbed up the tree and out of sight. Marsupilami smiled fondly after them before turing back to me. "Now, Kate, we can get down to business. I'm sure we can find your family. Let's head on back to your campsite." I looked down from our little ledge on the tree. "How are we going to get down?" I asked. "Who said anything about getting down?" Marsupilami replied as he wrapped his tail gently around my arms and chest in a spotted harnness. "Wait a minute, you mean we're going to travel through the-" I never had time to finish my sentence because Marsupilami dove over the side of the nest, dragging me down with him. I screamed at the sudden rush as we fell. Marsupilami grabbed hold of a vine and began to swing, dragging me along with him. I screamed all the more and clutched tightly to Marsupilami's tail. After a while, I finally managed to shout "Are you sure this is the best way to traveeeeeeeel??" He grinned down at me. "Why, it's the only way to travel in the jungle!"

and that, my freinds, is how I met the Marsupilami