Pomaika'i's Furious Trail

Chapter 3

The four men who chased P'li and Lea trudged back in the opposite direction nursing their proverbial and literal wounds.

The thick jungle impeded their journey for several hours. Not helping was Kilo's dislocated shoulder, which they had a hard time trying to fix. Uli carefully looked at it closely, cringing at the swelling. He tried to move his arm back into the socket with Pua holding onto Kilo's shoulders. Kilo nodded and bit his lip right as Uli pushed it in. Kilo loudly screamed, forcing Uli to stop. He did it again, but Kilo's screams made him stop.

"Curse our luck!" said Kaku, the fourth man. "Why did we have to run into Kai'an and Huli of all peoples?"

"Well we did, so let's not worry about 'what ifs'," said Uli. "But what will the Boss think?"

"What do you think the boss will think!?" Pua snapped.

"Don't say that!" Kilo breathed in between moans and groans of pain. "We should just tell him the truth! He'll learn anyway!"

"I WISH I could have your optimism, Kilo," said Pua.

"We'll never know unless we find out," said Kilo. He adjusted his shoulder, but cringed again. Getting a little impatient, Pua sighed, rolled his eyes, shook his head and pulled some leaves off a tree. With his comrades' help, he created a bind for Kilo's shoulder, which they wrapped around that dislocated shoulder until Kilo's arm was fully immobilized. They also made a sling for him, just to be on the safe side.

With Kilo finally in less pain than earlier, they could keep going. Even while he groaned from that pain, it wasn't loud or drawn-out.

They slowly trekked and trudged through the jungle's brush for the next several hours. The pouring rain that came a couple hours into their trek hampered it even more, turning the already-soft jungle soil into a think quagmire. "The rain will wash our footprints away," said Pua. "We do not have to worry about being followed, or at least I hope." None of the others responded. Pua felt as if he was talking to himself in the end, and shrugged while pressing on.

After slogging through the quagmire for what seemed like forever, they finally emerged from the jungle. Even though this was only a part of the island, the southern forest's density made it very difficult to get through. Now, they only had a day until they returned to—

"WHAT do you think you are doing coming back!?" Six men riding Greystokian deer rode up to surround the four. Clad in wooden, almost Mad Max-like armor, they lowered their spears into their faces. Each of the men sighed.

"We were roughed up by Kai'an and Huli," said Pua.

The six men lowered their spears to look at each other, removing their helmets and glaring at the four others. Pua refused to budge on his story, even going as far as to point as Kilo's shoulder, although Kilo nodded in agreement, since he experienced it firsthand. "We were in Teo territory," he said.

"And that matters HOW?" the leader asked, pointing his spear in the injured man's nose.

"You wouldn't want to provoke the Teo," said Pua. "Even if the Paradise Village warriors were with us, their larger army—"

"SHUT UP!" said the leader, moving forward into the torchlight to reveal he was a white man. "The boss came with us. He wants to know why his concubines were able to get away."

"We just explained," said Pua. "If we must, then let us explain to him in person."

"Very well," said the leader. "What will you do if he does not believe you?"

"Let us speak to him, first," said Pua.

The sextet's leader nodded, kicked his deer's sides and it moved out of the way for the four men to move through.