For the first time in many days, the party slept soundly, unaffected by the noises of nature going on around. At some time in the early hours, eyes peered through the denseness of the jungle, studying the sleeping missionaries. The watchers did not make any move towards the strangers, content to observe and absorb. As suddenly as they had arrived, the tribesmen left, having spent around an hour in their positions.
It was seven o’ clock before the first of the party, Sister Vasquez, roused from sleep. She opened her eyes dreamily and lay, staring at the warming sky for several minutes, not wanting to move. However, duty called and she sat up, shook the mosquito net and removed it before leaving her bed. As she started a fire in readiness for the morning beverage, she saw the men begin to stir. One by one, they rose and came to her, yawning and shaking the sleep from their brains. Ignatious was last to arrive, still feeling weak from the illness but a little stronger than before.
After cleaning themselves up and finishing off their breakfasts, the crew packed up and prepared to go on. As they began to move, a growl stopped them in their tracks; a growl that reverberated through their bodies. In front of them, fifteen feet or so away, stood three gigantic lizards, the type that are seen in old dinosaur movies, with cold, sharp eyes and a flicking, snake-like tongue. None had ever seen lizards so large. They stood about three feet high, twelve to fifteen feet in length, on squat, powerful and scaly legs, with what appeared to be armour plated bodies. The impression they gave was of dragons, which, in fact, they were. The name allocated to these creatures was Cirmundo Dragon. The party remained transfixed in fear and awe.
The dragons moved slowly towards the humans, led by the largest and, if possible, meanest looking. Its head swung from side to side as it neared, savouring the meal to come. It broke into a slow, lumbering trot, followed by the other two. The small group found themselves terrified and unable to move, knowing they were about to meet an awful death.
Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the leader halted in its tracks, causing the two behind to collide with it, both veering to one side as they stumbled. Then, they, too, halted.
First to gather his wits, Ignatious tugged at Vasquez’s arm, pulling her back from the fearsome monsters. Broken from their trance, Christian and Ottomier followed suit, retreating backwards to the jungle edge. It was then they saw the boy. He would be around twelve years of age, covered in only a loincloth, with skin more gold than brown, and bearing shoulder-length jet-black hair. His features were more European than South American Indian and he stood, proud and erect, before the dragons. He stared into the cold eyes, making no gestures or sound.
After only half a minute, that seemed much longer, the beasts slowly turned away and walked casually off into the surrounding jungle. The boy waited until they had disappeared before turning to the group of strangers. “Who are you and what do you seek?” he said to the surprised crew, speaking in a cultured Portuguese.
Christian replied in the same tongue: “We are people from the big cities far from this place and we seek to bring word of our God to those who live in such remote places as this and who have been denied the great pleasure of His comfort and guidance. We come in peace.”
The boy looked sternly at Christian. “You come in peace but you have no right to be here. This is the land of the Incudas, my people.” He folded his arms and spread his legs in a defiant gesture. “Had I not been here, you would now be in the belly of the dragons.”
Christian was at pains to mollify the youngster. Putting on his best smile, he said: “Yes. We realise you saved us and we are all very grateful to you. How you did it, I do not know, but it is clear that it was you who chased the beasts away.”
Unmoved, the boy replied. “Every one in our tribe can communicate with the animals, that is why we are still here. We send them back to their homes if they try to attack us.”
“Yes but how can you do that? You are unarmed.”
“As I said, we communicate.” Christian found this hard to believe and quietly searched the surrounding area with his eyes for evidence of adult presence. “I told the dragon with my mind to go back and he obeyed.”
The missionaries looked at the boy in disbelief. Yet, he had saved them and he had no weapons or support of any kind.
As Christian prepared to ask another question, the boy dropped his arms to his sides and turned towards the jungle. He remained in the spot for a full minute, not moving or speaking. Suddenly, from several places in the undergrowth, men appeared, all bearing short, pointed spears, in the style of javelins. They moved quickly to the intruders and surrounded them, looking menacing.
Without being told, the four began to walk along the bank of the stream, in the direction they had originally intended taking. They were escorted by the tribe, walking along each side of them and behind, spears at the ready. This was a scary experience.
They walked for a distance of half a mile along and, again without being told, they turned along a very narrow, man-made path leading into the thick green foliage. The animals were once more in evidence, bounding through the trees, whooping and calling, with birds fluttering noisily about. Occasionally, a snake would be seen slithering along and out of the path of the humans.
Finally, after a journey of around twenty minutes, they came upon the village. It appeared to be a well-ordered affair, with what could only be described as streets, fashioned on a grid system. However, unlike in so-called civilised towns and cities, no shops were to be seen. The streets were lined with dwellings, each with its own plot of land surrounding it. The houses were more traditional to the accepted impression of jungle tribes, in that they appeared to have been made from mud and then glazed, with straw rooves covering them. They were of differing sizes but none could be described as small.
People emerged from the buildings as the tribesmen passed with their prisoners. Ignatious noted that, like all the other tribes they had encountered, the adult women were naked to the waist with girls of all ages varying between complete nakedness and half nakedness. The same applied to the males but Ignatious’s eyes were drawn to the opposite sex. He would need to concentrate on his prayers if he and his party were allowed to live.
Going on through the streets, a throng of villagers joining the troupe as they went, they finally came upon what appeared to be a village square. Unusually, though, it was situated at the rear of the village rather than the centre, and it backed onto an ever-steepening hill covered by a carpet of greenery to its top. At the foot of the hill and opposite where they now stood, was a short porch made of natural woods from the area, and this covered a wide door made from the same timbers.
As they stood, uncertain of what was to come next, the door opened and a very tall man appeared, dressed in a colourful gown that reached to the ground, covering his feet. His skin was of an even more prominent gold than the captors. Again, the features were more European than Indian and he stood around seven feet tall, the average of the tribe being something in the region of five feet ten to six feet. Clean-shaven, his hair was long and golden and his eyes were a startling blue.
The man, clearly a leader, spoke, directing his stare to Christian. “You come in friendship and you wish to bring news of your God to the people of this village.” It was a statement, not a question. The amazing part was, that he spoke in excellent English!