Willis let go, bent his legs, getting his balance, and, as the raft came even with the rock shelf, jumped. The wobbly foundation of the moving raft, plus his injured leg, betrayed him, and his leap fell short. He hit the water inches short of the ledge and was swept downstream.
Dane leaped and caught Willis’s wrist. His wet skin was hard to hold on to, but Dane maintained his grip as the heavier man pulled him down toward the edge of the waterfall. Dane tried to dig in with his feet in order to arrest his slide, but he found no purchase on the smooth stone.
Then he felt strong hands grasp him by the legs, holding him fast. Matt stepped over him and hauled Willis up out of the water.
“You don’t have to do everything by yourself, Maddock.” Bones stood and helped Dane up.
“Like I’d be anywhere without you guys.” He took a moment to assess their situation. No one was hurt. They had lost his and Bones’s backpacks, the basket of food, and Willis’s Mossberg.
“There goes our raft.” Kaylin pointed down to where the river flowed across the subterranean chamber in which they stood, dropping out of sight at the other end, continuing its descent to places unknown. Pieces of the shattered raft bobbed in the churning water, carried away by the current.
“That’s okay. We don’t need it anymore.” Dane pointed to a spot on the far side of the chamber, where a shaft of light shone through the mist. “We’ve found the way out.”
The climb down was an easy one, save for Willis, but he managed. They picked their way across the stone, buoyed by the promise of daylight and warmth.
Bones crinkled his nose. “You smell that?” He sniffed and frowned. “It’s like a pole cat or something.”
He was right. There was an unpleasant odor in the air, faint, but definitely that of an animal. “Could be anything. All sorts of creatures in the Amazon.”
“Can’t be any worse than what we’ve already bumped into.” Bones grinned. “It’s not a zombie native smell, so I’m game for whatever we find.”
The morning sun was a blessed relief to Dane’s waterlogged body, and he soaked in its warmth with a smile on his face. As Fawcett had described, they were in a high-walled box canyon. Kapok trees towered above a forest of palm, Brazil nut, and other trees he couldn’t identify. All around, he heard the calls of bird as they welcomed the break of day.
“Now this is nice.” Kaylin managed a weak grin. All they had been through was taking its toll on her, even more so than anyone except Willis, who, despite his brave exterior, looked like he was about to drop. A blue macaw landed in a nearby tree and turned its head to look at them in curiosity.
“How about we find a place to rest for a few hours?” Dane suggested. No one looked at Willis, but they all knew why he made the suggestion.
“Naw, I’m good. We all got some sleep on the raft.”
Dane knew it was pointless to argue, so they set off. The going was excruciatingly slow as they hacked their way through the tangled undergrowth. If any non-flying creature lived here, it would have to be one that either slithered on the ground or swung through the trees.
“My kingdom for a machete,” Matt grumbled as he hacked away with his knife. “Why didn’t I grab them when I broke into Mago’s quarters?”
“Hush!” Tam waved a hand at Matt. “What’s that sound?”
A high pitched sound, somewhere between a squeak and a chirp, rang out above the sounds of the jungle. “It’s over there. Take my pack.” She slipped off her pack, shoved it into Willis’s arms, dropped to the ground, and crawled into the underbrush.
“Seriously?” Bones shook his head. “Just crawl around down there with the creepy critters. We’ll wait for you.”
Tam returned a minute later clutching something small, white, and fluffy to her chest. “It’s a baby harpy eagle. It was nuzzled up against its dead mother. Must have tried to fly to her and fell.”
“I’ve never heard of it.” Bones leaned down for a closer look.
“It’s the largest eagle in the world, and they’re nearly extinct in some parts of the world. Deforestation is wiping them out.” A grim expression fell across her face. “Something else wiped out this one’s mother. She was nearly torn in half.”
“Wonder what did that to her?” Dane was suddenly wondering if there was something to the mapinguari legend after all. “Say, have any of you ever heard of the mapinguari?”
“Hell yeah!” Bones fist pumped. “It’s like Bigfoot meets the giant sloth.”
“How do you know about it?” Tam asked as she took her pack from Willis and set about making a comfortable place for the baby eagle to rest. Apparently they now had a mascot. “You don’t seem the scholarly type.”
“Bones only studies things that are, umm…” Kaylin began.
“Controversial,” Bones finished.
“Bullcrap is more like it,” Willis said.
“Hey, somebody’s got to know about Bigfoot and Nessie and all that good stuff. That somebody is me.”
Tam finished making a nest for the bird inside her backpack, and put it on backward, like a baby carrier. Bones took the lead as they resumed their trek, happily carrying on about the mapinguari.
“There are all kinds of stories about it. The far-fetched ones say it has caiman skin, backward feet, and a mouth in its belly.”
“The ‘far-fetched’ stories?” Kaylin smirked.
“We just discovered a two thousand year-old Punic city in the middle of the Amazon. Do you really want to take a tone with me?”
“Fair enough,” Kaylin said. “Go on. We’re all ears.’
“Anyway, it seems most likely that it’s a descendant of Mylodon, an ancient, ground-dwelling sloth. It was ten feet tall.” Bones slashed at a low-hanging limb and dodged as it sprang back at his face. “Supposedly, the mapinguari is a carnivore, and it can move in total silence through the thickest vegetation. Then again, some people think it’s not a ground sloth, and can swing through the trees, as long as the limbs are strong enough to hold it.”
“What else?” Dane found himself searching the upper reaches of the kapok trees, keeping an eye out for the legendary beast.
“It’s hard to kill because of its thick skull, and sturdy bones. And it’s got a tough hide and this coarse, matted fur that arrows bounce off of if you don’t hit it just right. It hates the scent of a human, and people get dizzy when they look at it, but that’s probably because of its strong odor…” His words trailed away and he stopped and turned to face Dane. “Just out of curiosity, why do you ask?”
“Oh, it’s no big deal, really. According to Fawcett, this canyon is where it, or they, supposedly live, and it’s supposed to be death to pass through here.”
Five seconds of stunned silence hung in the air as everyone stopped and stared at him.
“Why are you just now telling us this?” Matt sounded uncannily like Dane’s father, back when Dane was a child and had neglected to mention something important, usually a failing grade or a paper that needed signing.
“What would have been the point? We didn’t have any other choices. Besides, it’s probably just a legend, anyway.”
“And if someone asked you if the chupacabra was real?” Bones arched an eyebrow.
“Fine! I get the point. Let’s just get the hell out of this canyon.” He brushed past Bones, who, unlike the others who were still staring at him in disbelief, was looking crestfallen.
“What’s wrong with you?” Dane frowned.
“We came all the way to the home of the mapinguari, and I don’t have a camera.”
Kennedy knelt in the shadow of a kapok tree, chewing on a Brazil nut and letting the humid air bathe his frozen body. It had been child’s play to use his clothing as a flotation device as he rode the river, but the frigid water had nearly been the death of him. He’d scarcely been able to pull himself out of the water before what would have been a certain fall to his death over the waterfall. His body temperature had fallen, too, and he found himself feeling sluggish and confused as he made his way out of the underground cavern.