"God, this place sucks."
16-year old Hannah Brisk withdrew her dripping foot from the mud puddle it had landed in. Her $400 designer sneaker was completely soaked and covered in black ooze, pink racing stripes all but obscured. A small cat face winked forlornly up at her from the side, all but its eyes and ears covered up by the mud. Hannah attempted to shake it off but only succeeded in spraying her other sneaker.
"Why did we have to come to this stinky jungle anyway?" Hannah asked, turning accusing hazelnut eyes up to glare at her mother. Sarah Brisk, Hannah's mother and sole traveling companion, sighed and put her hands on her hips.
"Now, dear," said Sarah patiently, "it's a wonderful chance to learn about the natural world while your school is out! Besides, look around you, this place is beautiful."
"It needs a telephone. Geraldine and Francesca back at home are probably charming half the boys in town without me there, and there's nobody here for me to even talk to."
"You wanted to go when I asked you about it..."
"I didn't think you really meant Africa, mother! Green Eyed Hobgoblins was having a tour, and all their concerts were named after states. I thought you meant one of those!"
"Africa," said Sarah, "is a continent."
"I," said Hannah, "know that. I thought you didn't, and meant Indonesia or something."
"Indiana."
"Whatever."
The two began walking again, Hannah glaring grumpily down at her mud caked sneaker, and Sarah looking at the greenery around them, only occasionally sneaking worried glances at her troublesome teenager. The trip to Africa had been intended as a sort of bonding time, so that mother and daughter could get to know each other a little better. Over the school year, Hannah had spent only enough time at home to sleep, and some nights not even that - most of her time had been spent either at school or off at the mall with her friends. Still, the beautiful jungle should be enough to charm even the most rebellious of hearts, and when Hannah calmed down a little, they could start having a wonderful time together.
First, however, they had to deal with more immediate concerns. Sarah called an impromptu halt and surveyed the river before them. The rushing water was at the bottom of a steep ravine, with slippery brown sides, just wide enough that jumping across was not a safe option.
"At home," said Hannah, "we don't have to fly over rivers, we take the bus. This place needs a bus. And a telephone. And air conditioning. And..."
"Enough," said Sarah, wearied, "I know, I miss home too. But we're here in the middle of an undeveloped wonderland, with another few weeks of it in front of us, so for now just be quiet and help me figure out how to get across this river."
"I'm not helping you with anything," said Hannah. "I'm staying right here. My feet hurt, I think there's a rock in one of my sneakers."
"So take it out."
"I'm not touching them! They're covered in mud!"
"Fine," said Sarah, "have it your way. Sit here and sulk, I'm going to see if I can find a thinner section or a bridge or something."
"Fine," said Hannah, and dropped down against the trunk of an old tree, backpack falling heavily to the ground beside her. Sarah began to walk off down the riverside, calling out to Hannah not to wander off as she went.

A couple of minutes later, Hannah was severely bored. She had not thought to bring a single fashion magazine with her, an oversight which she had already berated herself for a thousand times, and looking at those women in their beautiful outfits would only serve to make her hate the unappealing "practical" outfit she was wearing anyway. There was absolutely nothing to do here except walk from one place to another, and sometimes sit down.
Hannah leaned her head upwards and stared wistfully into what sky was visible through the vines and foliage hanging overhead. It would be twenty days before that sky would hold an airplane with her and it, gratefully flying homewards after this long and painful trek through the jungle. Geraldine, at home, would probably question her incessantly about it for a few days and then forget about it, because summer would be over and they'd see the Kasor twins again, and all other thoughts would be rapidly forgotten. Geraldine might actually like it here, but then, Geraldine was strange.
A leaf detached itself from the tree overhead and floated down slowly to land on Hannah's upstretched nose. It was sticky and smelly. Hannah snapped out of her brief sky-inflicted trance and got up angrily, leaf flying off into the grass. Even the trees in this stupid place were out to get her. She stood, already bored of sitting against the tree. What was she, some sort of tame lapdog, left to sit quietly while her owner went off doing the important work? Of course not.
"I can do, and am going to do, absolutely anything I want," said Hannah, and struck a pose, chin jutting out defiantly to her invisible audience. Somewhere a bird chirped, the only other sound besides the loud rushing of the river below. The chirp was totally innocent and unaffected, not caring about Hannah's angry declaration in the least. It was practically offensive. "Shut up," said Hannah, and stalked over to the side of the riverbank to look down.
The blue waters broke noisily against the two opposing sides, bouncing back again into the main current, rushing ever onwards towards some undefined goal. They provided quite a contrast to Hannah's current situation, slow and unexciting, moving in random directions with the only goal being to survive the next twenty days.
"If I don't murder Sarah in that time, or she me," said Hannah darkly. Hannah and her mother had almost nothing in common, despite living in the same household. Hannah had never known her father, as the man had run off before she had even been born. Since then, Sarah had focused herself on raising Hannah single-handedly, not bothering with such "artificial aids" as daycare. The only other factor Sarah allowed in Hannah's education was school itself, and until she had been old enough to go there, Hannah had been taken along to work each day, to sit by her mother's desk for hours, quite like a tame lapdog. The result of these rigorous years of bonding was that Hannah was thoroughly sick of her mother. Stupid mom, stupid jungle, stupid stupid boredom. Back home, being bored was almost cool, it meant you were cultured enough to not be interested in the culture around you. Here, boredom was just boring.
"Found it!" came Sarah's voice suddenly, from a ways down the river, and Hannah jumped in surprise, foot coming down on the slippery slope down to the river. Hannah's arms waved about in circles as she attempted to regain her footing, but she began to slip, other foot coming loose from the solid ground. Hannah gave a yelp of fright as she toppled down into the fast waters below, leaving jungle, Sarah and backpack behind her. Her head hit on a hard rock as she landed, and the world went dark.

When she awoke, Hannah was lying face up in a small puddle, about an inch deep. Her auburn curls clung wetly to her head, which felt bruised and sore, as did the rest of her body. It took her several moments to remember what had happened, and several more before she began to wonder where she was.
Hannah rose shakily to her feet, legs grumbling in protest, feeling as if they - or she - had been beaten soundly for hours by Principal Wernams. She looked around. She stood in what seemed to be an underground cavern, unlit except for a pale blue light emanating from the far side, around what appeared to be a corner in the rock. Behind her, the river came splashing down to the ground, where it coalesced into a small puddle and drained away into small holes in the earth, far too small for Hannah to fit through.
"This would never happen back in Curborough," said Hannah, and stared up at the source of the falling river, a tunnel in the rocky wall above her. "Ahh, great. How am I supposed to get out of here?"
No answer was readily supplied, so Hannah headed for the only other landmark, the pale blue light. Her body ached from collision with a thousand rocks and river edges, and dark vines seemed to reach out and grab at her feet - the mud had, at least, been washed away from her sneakers - but she made it to the end of the cavern, where the light was. It came from a small underground spring, water jumping merrily up out of the earth, sparkling in the blue light, and falling back down to be absorbed in the soil. It looked pure, and Hannah cupped her hands in it, letting some of the illuminated liquid pool between her hands.
Hannah lifted the water to her mouth and took an experimental sip, thirsty from the long jungle trek and the unknown length of time she had spent being carried by the river. The spring water was icy cold, but delicious, and Hannah began to feel her strength returning to her limbs. It wasn't Fizzbang Cola, but it made a pretty good substitute. She drank the last drops from her cupped hands, and wiped her mouth with the back of one, preparing to reexamine the cavern for means of escape.
Something caught Hannah's eye in the glowing blue spring, and she turned back to face it with reflexes born of years battling for bargains. Standing in the middle of the spring, where there had been nothing and no one previously, was a tall blonde woman, clothed in flowing green vines and with bracelets of finely carved wood. Her yellow hair flowed down her neck and shoulders like a waterfall, and her eyes shone with a brilliant green as she spoke to Hannah.
"Child," said the woman, "welcome."
"Where'd you come from?" asked Hannah, backing away slightly in distrust. From her experience, strange women calling her "Child" were usually religious freaks, showing up to preach about her sinful life, and urging her to follow some higher purpose. Hannah, meanwhile, had never seen anything wrong with the higher purpose of enjoying herself.
"I have always been here," said the woman, smiling. "I am Sylvia, the spirit of the jungle. Why do you hate me, child?"
"I don't know who you are," said Hannah, "never seen you before."
"Me the jungle. Tell me, why do you hate the jungle?" Sylvia's green eyes gazed into Hannah's puzzled countenance, silently persuading, bringing the words and explanations forth.
"It's so boring," said Hannah, "there's just nothing to do. All that happens is walking around and having to talk to my mother, who is such a total jerk. There's no CD player or magazines or anything."
"What of the birds and the beasts around you? What of the trees of the world, untouched and unbroken since the beginning of time? Do these things, that have inspired so many over the long years, hold no meaning for you?"
"Nah. They're just there, y'know? I can't do anything with them, not like at home." Hannah was surprised to find herself talking so freely, especially considering her strange situation, but there was something about Sylvia which compelled Hannah to talk.
The blonde woman raised her eyebrows. "Do anything? Are you an artist, then, child, or a musician? You have lovely fingers, you would do well, and make the world happy."
"I'm not into that sort of thing."
"A writer, then? Or an architect? What is it that these jungles fail to send to you?"
"I don't go in for that creative stuff," said Hannah, leaning moodily against the cavern wall. "I mean, these trees and birds and stuff, they're just plants and animals, I can't hang out with them or anything. There aren't any shopping malls or guys around here, just a bunch of green plants. How am I supposed to have fun here?"
Sylvia did not speak for several seconds, and when she did, it was another question and not a response to Hannah. "What you have told me," she said, "is most troubling. Tell me, child, is there any good to you? Do you care for aught other than yourself?"
Hannah thought about it for a moment, and gave the truth as answer, rather than the careful lie that would be employed against any other questioner. "I guess not," she said, and grinned cheekily.
Sylvia closed her eyes and looked downwards, saddened. "There is only one hope for you," said Sylvia, "that you begin life anew, as an animal of the jungle, until you learn to make yourself better. When you can make another human being love you for who you are, and not who you appear to be, then I will restore you to your human form."
"Okay," said Hannah, "so what am I going to be? A lion, or a deer, or...?"
Before she could finish her question, Hannah Brisk was gone from the cavern.

Sarah strode quickly through the jungle, every few seconds stopping to call out her daughter's name and wait hopefully for response. There was nothing. Hannah had been gone two hours now, having vanished from the spot Sarah had last seen her, leaving nothing but her backpack. Sarah was slowly beginning to give up hope.
Suddenly, there was a rattling sound, and a brown snake burst out from a nearby bush, tongue darting in and out angrily, body swaying from side to side as it slithered quickly towards her sandled foot. After a moment of shock, Sarah tore a branch from a tree and hit the snake hard with it, pounding it to the ground until the venomous serpent could not continue its deadly attack. Satisfied but shaking, Sarah continued in her hopeless search for her loving daughter.
Behind, Hannah the snake lay dying, having failed in her quest to make one human being approve of her. Her tongue flicked out one last time, one last drop of venom falling out into the world, before she lay still forever.

*blink*

Wow.

Very... I don't know what it very is, but it's very something. I smell a hint of Aesop somewhere in there, but I don't know where. Aesop or Zen, I think.

Please tell me you had inspiration for this masterpiece from somewhere else. If you didn't I'm afraid I'll have to praise you.

=o.

..the end was definitely a surprise.
Disturbing. Or sad, I'm not sure, which.

Well-written indeed.

I don't understand why the girl turned into a snake because she doesn't like the jungle. She doesn't hate it, she meant it no harm. The story has a useful moral teaching, but the punishment is too harsh. :S The death of the girl doesn't make the world a much better place, IMO.

But the story itself is well-written, as usual. ;P

Originally Posted by 4I Falcon

Please tell me you had inspiration for this masterpiece from somewhere else. If you didn't I'm afraid I'll have to praise you.

It's most inspired by - and a parody of - my friend, who was going to live in the jungles of Peru with her mother for a few weeks. She's a shapeshifter, and she doesn't like stories where the obvious ending (such as prophecies coming true) happens.

(WR, she does say a few times she hates the jungle... regardless, you may be right, but I really wanted to make fun of the little mermaid.)

Oh, I didn't read/watch the book/movie. :S

What did the mermaid do?

Well, in the original, as far as I remember, the little mermaid fell in love with some human guy and had herself turned into a human girl to try to win his heart. The only problem being that, should she fail, she'd die. Which, unfortunately, happens, as the guy is seduced by some other woman, after which the mermaid turns into sea foam.
If memory serves me right.
I guess that would mean that Unknown's speaking about the Disney-fied version, in which the mermaid succeeds and marries the guy and stuff.

Well, that was effectively depressing. *resolves to never express hatred towards jungles* Well done, UR.

Originally Posted by Coppertop

Well, that was effectively depressing. *resolves to never express hatred towards jungles* Well done, UR.

Don't worry, Copper. It's okay to express hatred towards the jungles so long as you can answer "yes" to "are you an artist". I kind of imagine if Hannah had said "yes" to any of those questions the conversation just would have ended kind of awkwardly, like "Oh. Well, okay then. Bye."

Very well done story, Vio. The ending was unexpected yet worked well with the rest of the story. My only critique is that some of the places/ways Hannah talks to herself seem out of place; saying "Shut up" to a bird is understandable, but "If I don't murder Sarah in that time, or she me," feels forced.

Haha, ok, I feel better knowing that.