By Catten Carter
Clears throat, sits down, and looks into the fire, saying with a low voice, “This story I will tell you all is not a ghost story, and it is not a scary story to tell as amusement when it gets dark, No, it’s a cautionary tale about ancient evils, that roam the night here in the jungle”.
Keeps looking into the flames, exhaling long before starting, “Now, the story took place three years ago. Whisper and I had decided to travel far north in the jungle because she was in search of new herbs, and I was curious to see if there were richer hunting grounds than those we normally visit in the south.
We had packed well for the trip. I had brought a big comfortable fur to sleep on, or use for cover if it should rain, and whisper had packed herbs and medicines in case either of us got hurt. Whisper had cooked for days in advance, so we brought lot of delicious food and snacks and we were excited so spend some time alone, just the two of us.
During the day we would walk and talk. I would tell silly jokes that I’m sure Whisper had heard many times before, but she always laughed and pretended like they are brand new. At nigh time we would build a fire and cuddled up close, listening to the sounds of the jungle, and gossiping about the tribe. It was wonderful trip, and we enjoyed the privacy, which as you know can be difficult to have in a big tribe
I lost count of the days, but the jungle eventually became unfamiliar. The trees grew closer, and the jungle became darker and less easy to travel. There were new sounds in the treetops, and I remember we were very busy exploring new plants, trees and streams.
One night it got very cold, colder than normally, so I collected a big pile of fern leaves and made them into a small bed. We undressed fast so we could get under the warm fur. There were no moon and stars out that night because the clouds had covered the skies and I could tell that Whisper was a bit uneasy. I hugged her tight to me, told a silly joke to make her laugh and then kissed her shoulder.
She looked deep into my eyes and said, “You always make me feel so safe”, so I swiftly moved under the fur, and kissed her neck and chest with exaggerated loud kisses. I felt her laughing, so I continued kissing her, to make us both forget the starless cold night. I put my hands gently around her round breasts and moved my lips slowly on them, and I felt her breathe faster as she lifted her hips against me.
I noticed nothing except her soft skin on my lips, not even the cold night on my legs, as my feet slipped out under the fur, and when my lips reached below her tummy, she pressed her thighs around me and I closed my eyes. Suddenly I felt something wrong, she held her breath and her body froze in motion, so I lifted up and before I could ask what was wrong, she put a finger to her lips and said very low, “shh… I think someone is out there in the dark”
I held my breath as well and listened out in the night, and sure enough, there was movement in the bushes and what sounded like footsteps through the dried leaves. I looked to Whisper and nodded, and at the same time we both jumped up, grabbed our weapons, and scouted into the darkness.
I squinted my eyes and there in the dark I saw the shape of a man… I pointed to the location and Whisper jumped when she too saw the mand. I shouted out loud and stood tall, trying to make myself look big, “Who is there, walking around in the night? I am Catten, a Tapirapé hunter, and my bow never miss, so show yourself!”
The man stepped into the light and looked at us. He was skinny, his long hair was dirty and lumped together, and his body was filled with mud. Whisper put down her bow and showed him her hands, “I’m Whisper… The Shaman of the Tapirapé tribe. We mean you no harm” she said. There was no reply from the man, but he was shivering in the cold, and I remember I felt pity looking at him.
I lowered my bow and invited him to come sit with us by the fire. He didn’t say a word, he just sat down by the fire and staired long into the flames. Whisper offered him a bowl of soup. It was still hot on the fire, and he sniffed the air, as to scent what was presented to him. When he had taken a deep breath, his face lit up and he nodded and started eating fast. It was clear that he hadn’t eaten proper food in a while.
He finished the whole bowl quick and put it down next to him. Whisper went to our fur to get dressed. The light from the fire moved over her naked body and I watched his eyes as she bent down to put on her skirt, but he just kept looking into the fire. Whisper sat down next to me and then he looked up at us both and opened his mouth to speak.
“I am Mukashe, I lived far north of here”. He pointed with a very dirty finger to the north and added, “behind the big mountains, about two months walk from here. I smelled your soup and saw your fire and I’m sorry if I startled you”.
I was all very strange; a man in such a state, so deep in the jungle so I asked curiously, “You look like you have traveled long Mukashe, what are you doing this deep in the jungle, all alone in the night?” He looked at us both and then back into the fire and took a deep breath, “I have been hunting the Ek’paal”. He observed us, and it was clear he expected an emotional response from us both to the name. When it didn’t come, he continued talking.
He took a deep breath and said, “Our legend says that long ago, two bright stars in the sky fell in love and had a son whom they named Ek’paal. The stars would each night look down from high in the sky and see our campfires. They were curious about us, so they made their son human, and sent him down to us so he could learn about the jungle and our ways.”
He paused for a bit before he continued, “Ek’paal came to the jungle, and each day he would walk and observe all the life and people there, and when night fell, he would find an open space, look to the sky to his parents, and tell them all that he had seen and experienced.”
“Ek’paal walked around like this for months and months, observing and explaining, but one night he could no longer see his parents in the sky. Other stars and constellations had taken their place in the sky, and he shouted to them, “My parents in the sky, where are you! Why have you abandoned me!”… but there was no reply.”
Mukashe looked up at us both and suddenly said, “Do you have more soup?” We were taken by the story so Whisper quickly poured him another bowl so he would continue without further interruptions.
He started eating the soup and between the spoonful’s he continued, “Ek’paal was angry at his abandonment and as the months passed, his anger and hate slowly consumed him until one night there was nothing left. It was cloudy that night, and there were no stars to be seen, so he shook his fist and yelled with fury to the empty sky, “I am Ek’paal… The son you abandoned! I will no longer do you bidding, and I will never speak to you again!”
“Ek’paal was fuming with rage and with his two hands, he clawed out his eyes so he could never again observe the jungle for his parents in the sky. He screamed with pain and hearing his own voice he searched the ground blindly with his hands. He found a sharp rock and then carved off his tonged and threw it far away, ensuring he could never speak again.”
“The blood poured from his mouth and eyes into the ground, and with it, the last bit of humanity in him” … Mukashe paused and put the empty soup bowl down. He then looked over his shoulder and started talking while looking into the darkness.
“Ek’paal hid and listened, the jungle was full of sounds, confusing and frightening without eyes to see, so he stayed hidden until night fell and the jungle quieted down. He used his hearing to find food, feeding on anything that crawled or made a sound, and many years passed like this…. hiding, eating and hating”
“Ek’paal had gotten old, so old that his skin had turned into leather and was losing its grip on his bones, so one night when the clouds had covered the skies, Ek’paal went to a village and listened. He heard a woman getting ready for bed, and he followed the sound to her hut. When she saw him standing there, with his leathery skin and empty eyes, she screamed in terror. The loud sound hurt him, so he jumped her and with his old teeth he bit off her tongue.”
We moved a bit closer to the fire, and I put my arm around Whisper as he continued telling, “Ek’paal dragged the young woman into the night. Her eyes were filled with terror and her mouth opened to scream, but no sound came from her lips. Ek’paal found a clearing and there, with his old bony fingers, he clawed out her eyes. He opened her chest and then entered her body… Ek’paal had found a new body, and a way to continue his miserable life.”
“Centuries passed and the jungle changed but Ek’paal didn’t. He roamed the night, and occasionally when his body became old and leathered, he would wait for a cold starless night, and seek out a new body to prolong his life.”
The man exhaled and paused I could see his eyes tear up, “The evil I speak off took a young woman from my tribe two months ago, the woman I was supposed to marry”. His voice wavered and he added, “I heard her scream and saw her being pulled off into the night. I followed as fast as I could, but it was too late. The only thing I found was a blood of pool, her tongue and her eyes… her beautiful eyes laying there on the ground torn forever from her body”
He looked at us both and his face turned from grief to anger, “I’ve been chasing the Ek’paal ever since, trying to stop it ever hurting someone again!”
I must admit that while terrifying, I doubted Mukashe’s story. There was no doubt his emotions were real but staying long in the jungle, alone, can do things to a man’s mind. I was going to suggest he stayed the night near our fire but as I was about to speak, suddenly the jungle turned completely silent around us.
Mukashe’s face turn to stone, and he turned around and looked with fear into the darkness, when suddenly a shape appeared as out of nowhere… It grabbed him by his face with long bony fingers, and before I could react, it had pulled him backwards into the night. It all happened very fast, but I still remember vividly what I saw appear from the dark.
It was a woman, but not a woman… Her fingers were long and bony, and her hair had fallen off. Her skin was black, black like the night, but what still haunts me to this day was her face… her face was completely without expression; her mouth was opened as if it had frozen in a scream and where her eyes used to be, there were just two gaping empty holes that saw nothing at all… and yet looked deep into my soul.
I aimed my bow into the darkness, when suddenly we heard Mukashe screaming. It was screams like I never heard before, not of pain or agony, but of all consuming fear. I aimed my bow, but all I saw was the darkness, and my arrows hit nothing but empty air. It must not have been more than 10-20 seconds before the screams stopped, but it felt like an eternity.
We stood there back to back with our weapons draw, but nothing more happened that night, and when the sun broke we packed up camp and searched the area. In a small clearing nearby, in a pool of dark blood, we found Mukashe’s eyes and his tongue…
We headed south again and traveled fast home, we didn’t talk much during the day and during the night we would light a big fire and take turns sleeping. It was uneasy sleep, with disturbing dreams of eyeless faces looking at us from the dark… We continued like this for days, until the jungle became familiar again and we finally reached home.
Exhales long and looks up at everyone… “I’ve since then traveled north to find tracks or evidence of what we saw, but there has been nothing, and while I’m fairly certain that the Ek’paal have moved elsewhere in search of food and bodies to sustain him… When it’s a cold night and the clouds cover the stars, we always put an extra log on the fire, and on those nights, my dreams are still haunted by eyeless faces staring back at me from the dark”.
