Marcos: The Hike with No End

[Shava]

Stepping outside in the dark, street lights down at the corner the only light at this hour of the near-dawn, Marcos adjusted his jacket. Graduation was passed, a week with his family together, and now while Madden was missing (had to be in the bed of some girl in the city though they knew better then to waste time looking) he had decided he'd had enough of the indoors for one lifetime. Having written the letter days before and hiding it in his things, at least his mother would know this was on purpose. He could remember the conversation with a girl he had had a crush on a few years ago before her surprise engagement with the heir of Malfoy (and Morgana's mustache that had been a shock) that he should write a story about the hike of his dreams.

Well. The only thing in life that tied him down (certainly not love) was his family and knowing they were relatively safe from the trials of the wizarding world back in Europe he no longer felt constraint. A deep breathe to remember the city near his home (which he had memorized many years before in tiger form naturally), a zipping up of his fairly new jacket from his mother, and he turned slipping through the shadows to the corner and gone. It took only an half an hour to reach the outskirts of Trujillo Alto and cross the great bridge into the more rural area. While not along the coast and in fact headed in a parallel course which he hoped would hide his trail from tracking. By then it was starting to get some more light and he hitched a ride with a trucker to the capital's airport.

Talking along the way helped the man stay awake and by the time he had also added a memory spell at the train station he knew his trail was well covered. On the way in the train he glanced over the timetables for regular weekly flights he knew he would need to catch the Montserrat flight to get the connection to Caraccas, Venezuela. From there he could begin his walking without needing any other connections. His feet practically itched to feel ground under them again and to walk the world of South America. Catching a flight and using the little muggle money he had he got to the continent and out of the capital by renting a cab to get him to the nearest forested ecosystem.

By the time he got to a deep interior neighborhood which his driver said backed up on a section of the jungle it was getting dark. Paying the man with the last he had, Marcos headed without hesitation into the back part of the complex as the driver turned around and left. It wasn't till he was a good quarter of a mile in that he could not see civilization behind him that he stopped, used a spell to find any prying eyes and when he knew there were no other humans around he changed. The reaction around him was quick, leaves rustling, sound of tree limbs being bounced, and a sound through both air and trees of an exodus. "They" might not know the white form, but there was little wrong with their sense of preservation!

Ghosting into the night he padded silently through the jungle for the first time feeling like he fit into a place something which he had been unaware he was missing. Reveling in it, he still kept a close eye with his night sight for spiders and snakes and kept his pace slow but steady. Walking for a good quarter of the night, Marcos nose drank in the scents of a real jungle and listened to the sounds of the jungle reacting to him as a predator. And NOT one it was familiar with around here! Surprising some wild boars (who were spooked by his white coloration out of nowhere) he did have to spring lightly over one and bonce off the back of another causing the herd to shoot off in several directions unexpectedly giving him time to get a good distance away. Choosing a tree for his first night, he climbed up into the lower branches and once sure of no snakes he settled down along a trunk side limb of good thickness.

Transforming back long enough to cast some good protection spells, Marcos settled down to a well-deserved nap.

The second day of his travel didn't start till around brunch time when he changed and ate one of the meal bars he had on him, a drink from a thermos from a jacket pocket. He would be on the lookout for other water sources, but from what he had read his best bet was going to be rain off the trees and leaves for a start. His food needs would be kept to a man sized amount at least as that still made a full tiger belly when he changed, something he was going to do as much as he could till he felt more comfortable with the dangers to be avoided. There was still much to be wary of in the wilderness, but between his magic and his form he felt he could handle the worst things fairly decently till he could build up some experiences. And that was more then half the point of being out here, to get better in "safer" jungles then the really deep ones in Brazil, Africa, and Asia which would be in his mind his final test.

Years to go for that though! While he had read up a lot on jungle magic and dealing with the wild, no one could know everything and at some point he would need a way to make money out here, a good reason for the plant identification book in his other jacket pocket. As well as the journal he wrote in each day because of a certain young lady's interests, though she had chosen to go a different path then along his way. Still, if he ever was able to publish it, he knew he would make sure a copy went her way just to remind her of old times.

[Shava]

A week later and he didn't look quite so clean, but he was cheerful enough. The outdoors, he had always known, suited him much better then civilization did. Not that he didn't enjoy going back and forth between them, but there was something about being outside under the sky and plant ceiling which lifted his entire attitude about life! There were changes for sure, a more careful step surveying both above and below as he walked, a stick in his hand not so much for walking as prodding the ground ahead in some spots which had a suspicious look. He'd passed a few natives and his Portuguese had faired better than he had expected.

Trading information (and funny enough they liked the muggle coins he had the most) for a night at their camp, some monkey dinner, and he had continued without being grossed out by the raw ants (which had tasted like lemons which was SO WIERD AND MADDEN WOULD FREAK OUT). They had warned him about gold miners which he wasn't sure was something very dangerous, but they certainly acted like it was. About mid day he had noticed he could see too far ahead and soon turned west, skirting the edge of a torn up 'clearing' (or as close as the jungle, rocks, and raw ground could be called a clearing) with the sound of machinery. Observation had told him this was what the men had been speaking of, the ground being ripped up and fed into a machine which certainly looked like a monster to natives.

Soon after that he was shot at and had to turn and go for hiding in the deeper parts of the jungle cover! Probably thought he was a native seeing only a figure in the deep jungle. But shooting guns at natives? That was some screwy shit. It took awhile to get around that part of the jungle giving it a wide berth along his way; he could hear the water of a fast paced river near where they were working so maybe he would pick it up farther up. Flowing water would be a nice change from rainstorms which were heavy hitters out here. Like the natives did, he had learned that cleaning up during rain was better only when you already had shelter after to warm up in, hard to do when traveling, but an excellent use of resources. Trying to get by the muggle way was a bit trickier even though he had the magical advantage to fall back on.

And had used it already a few times.

Last night when the storms had been threatening, he had used a abandoned hut roof he had shrunk down and brought along to give him shelter in a tree to stay dry. It had needed patching which he did as he went along, but for a snug place to get out of the rain it had worked very well overall. It felt better to do that than to just use his wand to dry himself off. Besides, very few looked up into the trees when not hunting unless one was a beast. And during the rain nothing looked up at all really! Those downpours were quite serious and forceful unless one was directly under a rather large tree. Though he was wary about lightning which he understood still hit as often out here as anywhere else.

Now he mostly just needed a convenient floor of some sort to hide himself up there. A hammock would be nice, but keeping it hidden with magic was still a challenge for him when sleeping; he'd rather have something easier to work with. Or maybe he was thinking long term mostly. But being near a river would be a nice change. Adapting to the outdoors was a challenge, but he felt more accomplished with the more things he tried out here. Whether tiger OR human really. He needed experience in both modes to merge more into the environment. It was another hour before he felt safely past the mining operation to move in towards where the sound of the water continued.

Seeing sky near, he moved that way and just BARELY stopped himself from going over the edge of a ravine which had creeped up on him! Holding onto a tree, Marcos leaned out enough to look and the water was nearly a hundred feet below and moving fast indeed! Spray shot up hitting the rocks a good distance it looked. A frown creased his face as he wondered when that had started as he had been unaware of going uphill much at all. This thick canopy really fooled the senses! After a little bit of thinking, he made his way back and tried a few other spots, finally finding one which allowed him a decent climbing place to get down. Along the way he spotted a lot of mud between rocks, most without plants growing, but a few. That seemed curious in the jungle and he wondered what he was missing there.

When he did get down eventually to the water table level, he was quite surprised how rapid the water was up close, no laying around stream here though not big enough to match it's sound. Instead of a river it was a wide stream, totally impassable by foot naturally. And come to think of it... Looking around he decided after a few minutes he was truly alone of humans so he slipped between two boulders and changed, coming out to sniff and find the animal tracks by smell. And what a set of smells! Some he recognized from travel though not knowing what most were yet, but others were brand new to him and included few humans. He was in an area which was rarely traveled on two feet. Many birds and monkeys and reptiles for sure, but few humans unless long ago.

And now he could smell some very familiar plants--

[Shava]

Suddenly struck with inspiration (and not a little bit of naughtiness), Marcos moved downstream until he could hear the mechanical stuff in the far distance. A look back at the river and he did some climbing down the river bank on one side, judging the ground carefully. For the next hour he moved some large boulders with his wand until he had transformed the lower bank a good deal. Moving down farther towards the clearings direction, he had moved some more things slowly, as if trying to judge the action of changing the river flow for awhile. And then he remembered he needed to be able to change the flow BACK as well which caused another hour of work above the river bank. Eventually he settled for a channel in the earth around some trees and such before he decided he had done enough.

Revenge for the natives? Possibly. Mostly he didn't care for the jungle home being torn to shreds and nothing about their process of exploding stuff seemed good for the earth or the jungle either one. So. Striking back for the earth, his brothers would tease him for being a softie. Marcos grinned to himself and waited till it was getting closer to dark. Listening farther down he could still hear the machinery despite the upcoming fall of night; they probably had muggle lighting down there so they could work later? Moving down a bit he thought he could see the edge of the clearing, a few minutes of observation and he saw a light shift down there which confirmed his guess. Laughing softly to himself he moved rapidly back up and pointed at the key spot (while standing off to one side of course) saying quite firmly "Defodio" and the wand movements.

As each repetition punched holes through the rocks, he quickly began to see water spouting through the holes and focused more closely each spell. Suddenly there was a big CRACK sound and he dropped off using the wand to leap up the bank higher in sudden concern he might have not quite through it through entirely. Rocks shoved aside as a big key one snapped in two, water SHOT towards him as he scrambled higher! It quickly moved from a geyser of water to a great moving or rocks, mud, and thousands of gallons of water began to follow the new channel, turning the area into chaotic destruction as it passed rapidly down the way towards the clearing. The noise was tremendous and Marcos only now thought how nice it would be to hear and see the reaction, but he knew that was impossible.

Moving up to his second vantage spot already picked out he sat there and watched as the turbulent flow shot away leaving about a third of the water still in the original flow. Moving off to the top of the bank he made his campsite for the night in a tree and went to sleep, confident he had turned a sort of hell loose on the miners for the jungle. It felt really good to sleep away and he was not disturbed. Waking about an hour before dawn (and having missed the scouts who came up in the night to check out the river's change with flashlight and lighted helmets), he overlooked the new river channel and smiled to himself before he aimed at the secondary section of rock face and released the same spell again. This however released a large number of boulders from the cliff face and then used some quick wand work to hold up the largest ones on the river banks edge.

It took a few minutes before it settled enough to see, but the new rock fall had cut off probably a little more then half of the river channel restoring the original flow most of the way. There would still be some going the new route, but Marcos thought that would just keep the ground saturated in the new clearing and difficult to do any work around. Moving down and around, he pointed his wand at one of the most prominent ones and left a symbol he had seen in several natives camps he had seen, making it clear the jungle takes back what it wants to. With a nod, he moved up above the banks and moved along the river side headed up stream in his original direction yesterday feeling good about his own personal level of justice.

Unseen by Marcos, the day before the men had shouted in alarm and scrambled out of equipment seats, most barely making it to dry spaces before they were engulfed, several having to wade in quickly growing turbulence and one trapped on a rock in the middle of the area which rapidly became an island. While equipment tilted over on the now different bottom of the area the miners were far too busy running loose equipment up the new "bank" and rescuing the trapped one with ropes. By the time they were to a safer spot, the entire clearing was underwater as they had made no definition to the spaces edges and the ground was over-saturated within the hour making further progress impossible. Most of the equipment (they rescued only one dozer) was ruined; further progress that night was impossible.

While some moved up stream carefully to discover what had happened (and guessed their work had unstablized something to make it fall) the boss gave it up for a bad job and they packed up in the morning to leave with what little profit they had with all the lost equipment accounted for. It was a ruin for them for that season with as far as they knew unrecoverable expensive mechanical equipment to deal with. After they were gone awhile the site would be checked out by the natives, surprised to see the symbol for the jungle wilderness home on a rock face. The area would be considered sacred and many new plants were moved into the new clearing in an effort to speed up the jungle's coverage. When a few miner scouts returned next year they would be quite surprised how quickly the jungle was re-covering what they had left behind and the area would be skipped over for other areas.

And the equipment made some decent new animal homes in the lush coverage for a decade after. It would be several year before some of the natives would close up the last of the 'leak' area to return the river to it's full force again, it's work at boosting the local growth having been a tremendous success.

[Shava]

Little could have prepared him this week for what he found.

Skirting civilization to stay in the jungle was good practice and felt nice although he did occasionally clean up and get a room when he could as mini-vacay from his trip. After three months he was feeling really good about his travels, the tiger having surprised quite a few predators who left him strictly alone! Along this stretch of the continent however there were cliff faces, several where ancient ruins could be found and difficult for tourists to get to. With nothing of value for tribes and being kept by the government to guard against it's use in museums (for free that is), Marcos ran into few people where he could see some ocean in the distance.

It was during one of these miles that he stumbled into what he could not believe existed. One moment, thick jungle, nearly impenetrable along a animal path, next moment he saw mossy sharp box edges. It made him stop in his paws suddenly, knowing something was very wrong. Looking at it and finding it so odd to see manmade corners in the thick brush he glanced around and saw this 'space' was hemmed in on all sides by thick jungle vegetation. And everything in the confines of this tree-thick bramble was heavily covered jungle rotting vegetation. He changed back into human form, wobbling a bit as he adjusted to being on two legs again for a moment. Looking around with the different perspective he realized the only reason he had stumbled into this was because of the low animal path brush he had pushed through.

And then he saw more edges and something round to his right, long and-- a cannon! His jaw dropped and he grabbed for his wand, casting to find metal and he almost staggered back in realization. He was more than a mile from the coast! It the thickest jungle! And standing in the middle of ship wreckage?? Once he was looking you could see the remains of the ship edges, two or three cannon (although where a fourth would have been could be just unrecognizable under the vegetation) which would make the way he was facing the front-- He turned around to see the back, wondering if this was an old old wreck or something more recent, but still no idea how it got this far inland. Baffled, he began exploring using his wand to find the metal bits and look at the shapes under his fingers, though still careful not to touch much due to the dangerous in the jungle.

Over the next five hours (very distracted) he figured out the shapes, found an anchor, a few Spanish coins (he'd never seen a doubloon before, but it was damn heavy and needed a lot of scouring to reveal), and remains of about a dozen nails and weights. It was easily one of the coolest things he had ever seen, if baffling. It was definitely wrecked, broken badly from 'landing(?)' here, the clues to it's final trip rather well buried in the jungle and rotting away. As it got dark he climbed a tree to get perspective and then ended up setting himself up in the crook to have his dinner while looking down. What had happened? What had the hellish ending of the ship and it's crew involved? How could (and he doubted there was anything magical in this case as the more he had explored the more 'historical muggle' it felt, like Spanish conquistadors and stuff.

His dreams that night were rich an varied; he was a sailor, an explorer, a native warrior watching the white men come ashore, A farmer on the hillside over the ocean coast, and many more he couldn't remember. He wrote tons in the morning light, pages and pages and diagrams of what he had found. Not that he expected to be able to find this again-- and that stopped him. How long might this go still undiscovered? Would he be the only one ever? A look around and he went back over what he had seen the day before imagining and looking for things he might not have found. And then he stopped and nearly smacked his forehead with a palm. With all the magic and searching he had done, he never thought to search FOR magic!

Ah jeeze, Maddox would have kicked him in the ass.

[Shava]

Never having looked at a ship wreck (and only having seen pictures of the old big ships, not even sure if there were more types then a Galleon and feeling stupid for not knowing) his guesses were way off on type, age, and style, but there was no mistaking it was an old ship because of the cannons. And seriously, he doubted anyone made old wooden forts that were long and thin so he had SOME sense about this. Neither was he an architect or an archaeologist or whatever those folks were, but this looked very much like the outline of a ship. From what he did remember (not much) the captain's quarters, pilot house or whatever the steering and map place was had to be in the back.

Or he hoped. A smirk at his own thinking, glad his brothers were not here.

Moving to what he thought of as the back he tried three spells before he thought he had the right one for detecting magic in the form of items. A faint buzzing sound in his ears told him there was something, though it was very very weak and off. Following the sound slowly, he moved even farther back to one side near the edge of the ship outline. It looked flat-ish here, but he got down on his hands & knees conjuring a scraper and began clearing off moss. Well, green whatever junk off the ground. Ten minutes of work showed him the roughly rusty metal flat panel! Another forty showed it was the top of some container probably because he was having a problem getting around the corners of it to pry up. So much for the proper way!

Using his wand he vanished the panel and the interior was revealed, a roughly black mess of rotten fabric of some kind he roughly cleared and found himself looking at tarnished coins and some rather large gemstones, some cut and some uncut (which he only recognized because of someone in school who had brought some to show off). Eyebrows up, he doubted any of that 'treasure' was actually magic so he conjured a box and began filling it which didn't take long (it wasn't a big box from what he could see). In the middle of the pile a second box was revealed, about four by four inches. Which had been in here a long time as it seemed to be stuck to the bottom and needed some really hard pulling and twisting for a few minutes.

The bottom of the small box came off in his hands leaving him holding a metal frame, cloth attached to the inside ripping off the interior which was hanging now between the two. He managed to free it and a small thing in red and another in green both fell out! He grabbed for the green first on the logic everything around him was green and thus it would be lost easily and it felt cold to the touch. When he turned his hand up, he was holding a small green rough cut die of (he counted) twelve sides of stone. There were symbols cut on the different faces (and it was big, nearly the size of his entire palm) but the interior bits of cloth were still stuck to it and it was hard to see. The buzzing in his ears was louder now and he felt a slight vibration from the buzz in his hand.

The second one proved to be a kind of game piece? This was cut out of a red stone and while not clear, the black and gold veins running through it's stone structure felt odd, though it vibrated as well. Setting down the frame of the box he glanced around feeling like he was being watched and then put both pieces in the box he had been filling and finished off the transfer of coins. Overall, maybe a hundred all together in coins and a few handfuls of jewels or rough-cut stones. Having been raised with the idea of colonialism, he felt little guilt over taking what most might consider 'stolen goods' even if historical. And the coins had been in three or four different kinds so from multiple places anyway.

He had no idea of their value but surely selling a few through the muggles could give him a little funds along the way. He stashed the box into his coat, but it was WAY too heavy for the material and he then tried to shrink it down but it resisted and he thought about it, pulling out the two magic items and the rest shrunk down easier to carry. Marcos stuck the two pieces in his inner pocket and changed back into a tiger to continue his trip from yesterday when he had gotten very sidetracked. He managed about four more hours before it got dark and he choose his tree of the night.

[Shava]

Finished writing in his journal, Marcos put it back away with the stylus in his bag and stretched, long and hard. He was staying in a bed for once, a resort he had passed deep in the jungle along his path. And apparently he was not the only traveler who had wandered up as they had a separate set of rooms for rent for non-resort types. He smirked to himself and enjoyed being scrubbed clean and in laundered sheets. There was something about creature comforts he understood and had missed, but enough to stop his travels really despite their luxury. Seven months so far and a thick letter lay on the desk sealed for his mom and brothers as an update to say he was doing well and happily so. He would drop it in the resort's mail in the morning before he headed out again, but for now he was content to lay still.

Then his stomach growled and an eyebrow went up.

Supper had not been that long ago, but apparently he was not to be easily ignored. He'd already hit up their shop with what muggle money he had and had done well restocking his meal bars and water capacity before getting a bite (quite a large amount really) in their little cafe, but that was not enough it seemed. A glance out the window through the shades and he decided to risk it and see if any form of late night stuff was available. Slipping on his shorts (he only had the one pair along) and a decent button up shirt, Marcos headed outside and catching the eye of a staff-dressed individual he inquired about his food choices and the man told him the only thing still open was the pool dining. Heading over there a young woman provided him with a menu which he ordered from and then sat down on the edge of the pool his legs dangling in.

Two couples were over in other parts of the pool, clearly very personally involved and he nearly felt embarrassed at his presence. Food was not long in arriving as the lady let him know he had about a half hour before the kitchen closed. Thanking her in Portuguese (which got him a smile) he dug into his wrapped concoctions, setting the fruity virgin drink aside with his chips and cake for after. His mama would have cuffed him for his food intake which along with his brothers had kept her hopping, but he could tell he had the space despite supper. Maybe it was his body being upset with him for going lean too long on his hike? Possibly. As he did so, a woman close to his age came by and then circled back around to stand beside him from behind; he was aware of her, but didn't look up from his food at the time.

Missing entirely the looks between the server who was cleaning and the other.

Not really an innocent his mother had talked often about the bad people of the world and he'd heard some things (and seen-- blimey what Madden had gotten them into some places--) enough to make him wary. As long as she didn't come from behind near his food he wasn't alarmed at this point but when she pulled up a chair nearby he glanced her way while eating. She spoke softly to him, asking about company and if he was going to be up long. It didn't take long for him to realize he was being focused on a bit too much and caught the server's eye asking for two to-go boxes for his food. She came and got those and his empty plate as he finished. A shake of his head at the other woman didn't get him free of her however, she just moved a bit farther over towards one of the other couples.

Alert now and rather curious how this worked, he drank his drink as he went to the counter to get his boxes which the young lady had already put in a paper bag for him. Handing over a tip he raised an eyebrow and asked her "Does that sort of thing happen often?" The woman glanced towards where the 'questionable' situation was hanging around and shook her head wary of saying stuff in front of a customer. Trying another angle he added "Just surprised this far out off the beaten track to be asked that. Is there like a village around or nearby housing?" She shook her head again turning away as she cleaned trying to ease out of other questions. A purse of his lips at there clearly being more going on here and he took the bag, adding a tip down for her before he turned and headed back to his room.

The suspicious character caught up to him before he got back to his room, but he was already thinking he would be followed. Not wanting her to know what room he was in, he turned with an "Obliviate" softly spoken over his shoulder causing her to stop and look blankly for a moment as he finished quickly getting to his room and closing the door soft behind him. Putting the bag down he watched from inside the dark room at the corner of the shade till the woman shook her head as if waking up and looking around before continuing on around the corner. Breathing out he sat down in the chair to have the rest of his food, putting the cake and it's box away from another day in his pouch. Madden probably would have brought the woman back to his room and used the spell later, but that was not Marcos just as alcohol was not something he was huge into.

Wits seemed more important to him then risk while getting his pleasure in.

He would have been surprised by the group of toughs who gave her a hard time about losing a victim later, but by then he was stripped down and fast asleep a magic lock on the doors & windows just in case. Morning found him cheerfully awake and alert, ready to continue on his way through the jungle after a good solid breakfast. It would be the last real civilized break he would have for a few weeks due to the back roads drying up in the direction he headed.