Sarah looked around. Lush greenery filled her view, bright colored birds cawed in the background and a steady hum of insects filled the air. She was lost, half naked, and had no clue where to go.
________________________
Moments before she and her friend Lauren had been in the locker-room at their school. Knowing the boys were out at practice, the room was quiet and empty. The boys wouldn't return for another 40 minutes or so, leaving them with the perfect opportunity to sneak into the room unseen. Both of them planned to break into their respective boyfriend's lockers. Always the jealous type, both suspected their boyfriends had been cheating on them. A few suspicious texts, stray gazes at other women, and a long list of other suspicious clues had led them to this point. They were convinced the boys were hiding something, and the only place they could keep something from their girlfriend's eyes was the locker room.
Cracking the locks -the boys always used the same combos - they found something they didn't expect. In each locker was a rather tribal looking loin cloth.
Lauren was mad - the loin cloth not only confirmed her suspicions but suggested her boyfriend was into something kinky. Somewhere, there was some kinky bitch he'd been playing around with. Sarah was more confused than angry, yet looking at Lauren she could see the connections forming between this discovery and the potential 'other girl' her boyfriend had been seeing. The characteristic beet red of Lauren's jealously begin to cross her skin. Sarah sighed. This was definitely suspicious, and she was feeling slightly vindicated at her own suspicions, yet she knew this deserved a moments more thought than Lauren was apparently willing to give it. Not wanting to deal with an angry, blubbering Lauren, Sarah quicky tried to deflect.
A half-baked thought suggested she should put on one of the loin clothes to give her friend a laugh. Perhaps some humor would defuse the moment. Grabbing the underwear, she slipped it over her clothes.
_________________________________________
And then she was her, standing in the jungle, no Lauren - or her school for that matter - in sight.
Looking down, she suddenly noticed most of her clothes had vanished. Everything - top included - except her loin cloth.
"Fuck!" She shouted. Scanning her surroundings, she saw nothing - truly nothing - but trees. Nothing suggested a way forward or course of action. She was mostly naked, alone, and confused.
Ṣe o padanu? came a young sounding voice. Sarah jumped. Turning, she saw a brown skinned wavy haired boy of perhaps 11 leaning idly against a tree. Like her he was wearing nothing but a loin cloth. Unlike her, he was grinning.
Her face reddened as she quickly tried to cover her ample chest. The last thing she wanted was some kid gawking at her.
Ruut looked up at the strange girl. Tall, pale skinned and sporting an unnatural head of platinum blond hair, he couldn't help but grin at her. She looked ridiculous. Yet, he recalled tending to Maa’ti. She had been similar, but the guiding hand of the medicine man had helped clear away this strange ....otherness that had taken her. Ruut didn't try to understand why Maa’ti had looked so different, what mattered was that whatever curse had been lifted. Concentrating on the thought gave him a sense of unease. Like something was missing in his memory, yet something he didn't want to try and remember. Rather than remember what Maa'ti had been, his brain was happy to accept that whatever it was...was just a strange temporary curse. A curse, it seemed, that had inflicted this odd pale woman.
"You've been cursed too!" he said to her,
She only stared back at him, face confused and unsure how to respond.
"Do you not understand? You have been cursed!"
She babbled out a strange reply in a dialect of twisted tounges that yet again, gave Ruut that confusing sense of unease. The language was strange, yet familiar. Something was cursed about it. She definitely needed to visit the medicine tent.
Without a second to spare, he grabbed her hand and began pulling her down the dirt path towards the village.
"This way, you need help immediately!"
Without any other options, Sarah simply followed along. She didn't know where she was, nor did she understand what was happening. but perhaps this strange jungle boy could help.
__________________________________
"Right in her" Martin heard Ruut's - or Rob's she corrected - voice. As Ruut stepped into the tent, Martin saw an unexpected figure follow Ruut's lead. Standing before him was Sarah Parsons- someone he knew from school.
Martin's brain short circuited. While he was clearly looking at Sarah, his brain wanted to tell him she was someone different. Someone from his tribe - that boy that represented that indescribable blank space in his mind. Yet she wasn't in his tribe, and definitely wasn't a boy.
She watched silently as Ruut guided Sarah onto one of the beds, something she did without complaint but with a look of total confusion on her face. She was clearly following along because she didn't know what else to do. Looking her over, it was only then that Martin realized she was topless. Back in school he had pinned over her for years. Head of the cheer team, she was well endowed, fit and an absolute bombshell. Back home, she was far out of his league. Still, that didn't stop him from admiring her from afar.
Now - as Sarah sat before him topless - He found he felt nothing. He knew seeing her without clothes should feel odd - but it only felt normal. Topplessness wasn't a taboo in their culture. He also knew that staring at the breasts of his crush should be sending him into overdrive. Yet it didn't. Something had changed in him, his desires - different. He didn't know how to feel about this.
As he laid, studying her, his mind turned again to the that strange clash of memories between Sarah and this boy his mind seemed to think should be in her place.
Sarah sat, silent - not wanting to insult or scare the tribal youth that babbled before her. She had hopped the village would have some sort of clear connection to society, yet when she'd arrived, she saw no clear roads or any other infrastructure. It was just reeded huts and half naked tribesmen. Without other options, she'd followed the boy into the tent.
Sitting, she noticed a girl lying not far from her, staring at her body - studying her. She didn't know how to react to that, but figured it was her pale skin the girl was interested in.
Emi yoo gba oluwa mi, duro rẹ! the boy said. Gently, he squeezed her hand - presumably trying to reassure her - and dashed off. Without the loud boys babbling, silence suddenly filled the room.
"Sarah?"
A tingle of confused fear tickled up Sarah's spine. The last thing she expected was to hear her own name.