บท 6: Her Playmates

While Amaya has learned the ways of the civilized world through her father, she was drawn to the wild as she spent time with Kala.

One time, when his father went to explore the jungle, she sneaked out with the young tiger and went to the forest.

"Kala, my father will definitely be mad at me if he learned that I sneaked out and go to the forest without him." She complained.

"We will be back before he knows it. Come, I'll show you how to hunt a rabbit." Kala purred at her and ran as fast as she could.

Amaya was panting when she caught up with Kala. The young tigress has a rabbit dangling from her mouth and she has eaten half of its body.

"You are so slow big sister," Kala growled and gobbled up the rest of her prey. "That's really delicious, unlike the tasteless meat you feed me."

"Hey watch your mouth. At least I feed you." Amaya said pouting her lips. Her stomach growled. "I am hungry."

"Let me catch another rabbit for you Sister."

"Don't be gross." She said angrily. She looked around and found a bunch of ripe bananas. She reached out and took two at a time, peel them and eat them with gusto.

Suddenly, a young ape jumped in front of her and grabbed a bunch of bananas from the tree.

Amaya who was startled cried. Kala jumped in front of her and growled at the ape. The ape quickly climbed the tree and made strange sounds to the tiger.

Amaya was still a child after all. She started crying.

"Climb at my back so we can go home faster." Amaya obeyed and she hold unto Kala's fur as the tiger ran out of the forest.

Unbeknownst to them the young ape followed them as he jumped from tree to tree. He was hiding from a tree as he watched Amaya get off Kala's back.

When Amaya was about to enter the cabin, she heard a strange sound and when she looked back it was the ape with the banana. He threw the bunch of bananas to her and she caught it by instinct.

Kala growled and was about to pounce on the ape when Amaya signaled her to calm down.

"I think he just wanted to give me the banana." She gestured to the ape to come forward. "You want to play with me?" She asked.

The ape jumped up and down and nodded as if he understood the girl.

"My name is Aya. This is Kala and I will call you Kong. From today onwards, we will be friends." She said solemnly as she patted the heads of the tiger and the ape.

Amaya took a bath washed her clothes and placed herbs on the small cuts on her body. She did not want her father to see her wounds so she chose to wear a bigger dress to cover the small wounds on her body. The dress was made from hare's hide and was soft on the skin.

When her father arrived before sunset, he was carrying a wounded pup, an assortment of black ores, a few ginseng roots, some herbs, and a lot of root crops and wild berries.

She prepared their dinner which was steamed fish, grilled meat, and mashed sweet potato. Ibrahim was touched because his little girl prepared food for him for the first time.

"Daddy, let me take care of this pup. I'll nurse him back to health." She said full of confidence.

"Okay."

Indeed Amaya successfully nursed the pup to health. She named him Cirrus because his fur was as white as the cirrus clouds and his eyes as blue as the sky.

Ibrahim was happy to see that her daughter became happier with her three playmates. He pondered while watching the four play in the grasslands behind their cabin.

"I'll just take Kala a cat instead of a tiger, Cirrus a dog and not a wolf, and Kong a monkey instead of an ape." He thought to himself.

However, he started to worry as Amaya would disappear for hours into the forest with her friends and would come back full of little cuts and bruises.

He punished her one time but the moment she looked at him with those big eyes filled with tears, his heart would melt and he cannot continue with his punishment. In the end, he made protective clothes for her out of snake skin that covered her entire body, legs, and arms.

Ibrahim was watching Amaya play with her pets. She was talking to them like human beings and they seemed to have a tacit understanding with one another.

One day, he decided to follow her in secret to see what she was doing with her pet animals. She was riding Kala who was running fast when she suddenly disappeared from the tiger's back. Ibrahim's heart skipped a bit. He panicked as he looked up and found Amaya on the trees chasing Kong. She held a vine, swung her small body in the air, whistled, and at the same time somersaulted and landed perfectly on Kala's back.

Ibrahim was shocked. He never expected Amaya to have such skills. Did she learn that from Kong?

He heard a rustle in the tree above her and when he looked up it was a snake about to attack Amaya. His hand automatically reached out for an arrow at the quiver that was slung at his back. But before he can put the arrow on the bow and take his aim, a blur of white leaped into the air and snapped at the neck of the snake. The snake went limp and fell from the tree.

Ibrahim heaved a sigh of relief. He was thankful that he took pity on that pup and took it home. Amaya has another protector.

He decided to go home and leave her daughter to discover the jungle with her friends. He understood that he cannot protect her forever and she needed to learn some things by herself.

Meanwhile, Amaya and her friends discovered another spring. It was surrounded by beautiful wildflowers. She tested the water and found it to be warm. Amaya took off all her clothes and took a dip. She stayed underwater for some time before coming out to take in oxygen.

Her father taught her to swim in the sea the first few days they arrived on the island and she has become an expert swimmer and diver. She stayed in the water for a long time before deciding to go back to her father with her friends.