Chapter 4

The noise of a startled, angry bird made Blair sit up and blink herself into a rude awakening.

"Shut up," she screamed at the noise as it flew past her window. "You haven't got any manners at all."

She pulled her mosquito netting back and stared out into the dim light of early morning.

The jungle was beautiful all right. But she sure hated those damned noisy birds for ruining her sleep.

They had a way of doing that. Disturbing her sleep, even her conversations with her father. She wondered if they had something personal against her.

"You'd be kicked out of the finer social circles in Boston, you know," she said out her window.

A heated, chirpy reply came floating down to her from the tree tops. She looked up to see the beautiful emerald green jungle less than one hundred yards away from her.

Her father and the native workers had found a great clearing to build their lodging in. There was ample room to put a lean-to, with the help of some aluminum poles, and a lot of lumber and canvas. There were three black men along this trip.

More than Dr. Fortner usually took. But he would have need of them. They planned to try a bold experiment, and he would need the extra two hands. Work had already begun on it, and Blair grew more excited by the day.

An intricate network of webbed netting and aluminum was being constructed not far away from where they camped. Just a few yards into the trees. It was big enough to house a gorilla, but it was also a trap. A trap to store a living, breathing, active gorilla in and also to observe him from the outside.

The idea was to lure a gorilla inside. To set fruits or nuts or even something more enticing inside and sit and wait for a gorilla to step in, then watch as the weight of his body automatically tripped a lever that would pull the remaining mesh webbing down on him and seal him off from exiting again.

There would of course, be provisions made for him to stay there. Food and water could be put inside, and he would be able to see out, but it was a well-documented fact according to Dr. Fortner, that gorillas loathed closed-in spaces.

"Morning, dear," Dr. Fortner called to his daughter as she stepped out of the tent.

Blair smiled at her father who was sitting under a tree at a huge, round wood table having coffee and making notes. Two of the black men were tying the trap up.

"How's that thing coming along?" she said, grabbing the bulk of her blonde hair, and tossing it back over her shoulders.

"Nearly ready," he said, sipping his demitasse cup.

How the man could act so civilized out here, Blair couldn't understand. The middle of the tropical jungles of Africa and this man was sitting sipping his coffee for all the world like he was sitting at home in his kitchen, staring out at the bird bath.

It was all she could do to keep her clothes on. Even now, she looked down at herself all of a sudden and noticed she had on only the sheerest of nighties.

It was something she had been warned about doing in the jungle. Too many insects and crawling bugs to sleep nude, but she was damned if she was gonna sleep in an insulated suit, either.

"I think before sundown," her father said, standing up and heading toward the trap.

"Great," Blair said back, fishing around the pile on her trunk for something to put on.

She found her favorite soft, chamois safari shirt and tore her nightie off above her head.

As her arms reached skyward, she got a sniff of herself.

"Wow," she said, under her breath, "time for a beauty bath."

The men were going to put up a shower of some sort in the camping ground, but first things had to come first. Like building that trap. In the meantime, there was the river finger. And the pool of mountain run-off less than half a mile from camp.

Which would it be today? Nice to have two bathrooms to decide between, Blair thought, as she grabbed her clothes and hurried into them. She stepped gingerly into her safari boots and laced them up loosely.

She grabbed a big, fluffy towel and a bar of soap. Then, tucking that under her arm, she grabbed her leather belt with the heavy hunting knife secured inside the sheath on the side. She buckled it over her shirt and grabbed a sun hat.

She paused a moment, wondering if she should take the rifle or not. No, she wouldn't. The only thing she had ever had a desire to shoot at was a man anyway.

Someone who had snuck up to their camp one night in the bush, trying to steal their provisions and weapons. It had happened in South America, a long time ago.

She had stepped out of her tent to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and shined her flashlight in the startled man's face. She wished she'd had a gun then, and she would have shot him.

But never, never in her life had she shot an animal.

Never eaten one and never shot one. She and her father were strict vegetarians. That came in especially handy out here in the jungles. No salt pork or dried jerky to weigh down their packages. They lived mostly off the things that grew locally.

Fruits, seeds, nuts and with the help of some dried beans and grains, they ate healthy as long as they were there.

Having the natives along was sometimes uncomfortable, and Blair tried to look the other way when they shot an alligator or deer. But they killed only what they needed to eat, often settling for fish or some kind of wild bird, so it was a bit easier to take than if they just shot for sport. That she could not abide. It sickened her even to think about it. Fortunately, none of those types were around here. They stayed out of the deep jungle, where they could get lost or have the weather turn on them. Or have the natives turn on them.

She waved to her father, "Going to the river finger," she said, cuffing a leaf off the tree closest to her. It would provide a dry shelf for her clothes and towel while she stepped into the shallow water and washed herself.

Slipping into the steamy jungle growth, looking at the mazes of twisted vines that fell randomly down from the tree tops, seeing the profusion of wild red and purple jungle flowers... these things gave Blair a serene feeling as she tramped along. The underbrush between here and the river was not so difficult to navigate, and there was already a little path worn out where she and her father and his helpers had been traveling.

The river finger was a spill-off from the large navigable river that ran about five miles to the west. She could stand in the shallow basin of the river finger and bathe to her heart's content. There were even places, cool and refreshing, where she could wade in up to her chin if she liked.

She turned into the open air and caught just a tiny glimpse of sky above the tree tops. She surveyed the ground looking for a place to put the palmetto leaf.

And then, she saw it. She had seen some of them before. Her father and the natives had pointed them out to her. It was a good sign. A sign they had come to the right place.

The right place to find gorillas. A huge gorilla footprint lay deeply-embedded in the moist, clay soil next to her hand.

She stood straight up and looked around. It was an instinctive move. Nothing was there. Still, when a print like that was staring at you. What else were you supposed to think?

She was anxious to tell her father about it. She almost rushed right back and told him then. But, she had come to the river finger to bathe, and that is what she was going to do.

She stepped out of her boots and smoothly peeled her clothing off. She gave a little sigh as she looked around. It felt so natural to be alone and naked in this place.

So wholesome and clean to expose your body to these lushly verdant plants and wild, uncaring animals.

A brightly-colored bird flew overhead and screeched down at her.

"Critic!" Blair hollered back in a mocking tone.

She stepped into the water and grabbed the bar of soap. She dipped it in the water and lathered it up. She worked the heavy lather in smooth, even strokes along her slender arms and up and down her flat stomach. She sat down in the shallows and began rubbing her tits. She rubbed them in huge caressing circles, around and around.

She felt herself glowing, even under the cool water. Touching herself like this in these circumstances always made her incredibly aroused. Maybe it was just the place. She found the jungle so sensual. It always made her want to take off her clothes and expose herself to someone or something. And it made her pussy lips chatter together in mounting excitement.

She watched as her deeply-hued pussy lips darkened and her nipples stiffened to a peak. She rubbed her nipples around and around in her hands and let out a sigh of uncontrolled passion as she felt the intense heat build up between her legs.

Suddenly she felt something rubbing her legs.

"What the fuck?" she said, jumping out of the water and going for her knife.

The thing had been something small, but she had no idea what it was. She unsheathed her blade and aimed it at the intruder under the water.

"Come on out of there," she said to the thing, flicking her knife menacingly, "I'm ready for you."

She had never shot anything. But hand-to-hand combat wasn't out of the question at this point.

The water rippled suddenly and Blair lunged toward it, knife in hand.

She caught sight of a brown, sleek thing jutting above the water a moment, then disappearing.

"Okay!" she hollered, "one more time and I gotcha!!"

She stepped onto a slippery smooth rock and lost her footing.

"Oooooohhhhh!" she cried as she fell into the water, flailing her arms and legs in a vain attempt to regain her footing.

She felt herself plunge into the cool depths of the water and sank quickly below her hairline. Her wild blonde tresses floated up, clearing the path of her vision as soon as she hit bottom.

She opened her eyes and gripped her blade tight in her fingers. She mustn't panic, whatever else she did. To panic in the jungle meant certain death.

She blinked curiously at the sight in front of her. A huge, thick, slippery green and brown eel slithered up to her and wrapped its long, muscular girth around her leg.

Fully ten inches in diameter, the thing tightened up on her and then, just as quickly untightened its grip.

So you wanna play? Blair thought to herself, stepping up onto a rock she knew would provide her with the footing to see above water once she was standing there.