1. A Story of a jungle girl
Once upon a time there was a country in a faraway land, it is called Jungkota. In that country lived a
very handsome king called Shadeem. He was very handsome, especially when he smiled his
winsome smiles. But, too bad, until he celebrated his 35th years old, still he could not find a suitable
lady to be his queen. He had been throwing dinners and parties almost every evening, inviting all
the beautiful ladies of the land, but helas, none of them suited his likings and criterias. So as to
suppress his sadness, he picked a hobby, hunting....! Every Thursday he would set off to the
southern jungle where he used wo see wild boars and deers running.
One weekend, as usual, he prepared his horse and six of his men to go hunting, but on this Thursday
he noticed a strange bird sitting on the top of one of the short turret that his castle has. That bird
was singing a melodious song and King Shadeem thought that the bird was talking to him
saying:"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Thursday is the day of the thunder, prepare your heart for
Cupid is targetting you with his Sacred Arrow". King Shadeem heart's began to beat wildly,
wondering if he was going to die. But he could not cancel his hunting activities. So off he went with
his men towards the south, in the very early morning.
The gallops did not take long, they reached the edge of the jungle, as he started entering the forest,
he saw a deer, seemed to be sparkling in the open grass-ground, he approached it, slowly, very
slowly while aiming his arrow. But suddenly the deer jumped and ran off and off also the King after
the golden deer followed by his men on foot. He started yelling his orders to his men telling them
not to let this rare colour deer escape them. As the King was so noisy so were his men. And
suddenly they heard a kind of a whistle or a high-pitched sound of a whistle, they came to a sudden
halt and wondered what it was. Then they noticed that the deer also came to a halt, once again they
tried to capture it, and again the berserk started. It went again this chase for sometime, again the
whistle blew, again they halted and so did the deer, then their jumped to a voice coming from
beyond saying:" What do I see here? Gentlemen in fine clothes after my deer?" They looked around
and around then King Shadeem yelled:" Who are you? Show yourself! This is an order!" and the
voice replied:"Look up! I am above you!" So when King Shadeem looked up and around, after
turning his head to some degrees he spotted a feminine creature sitting on a branch of one of the
trees. Just like it was predicted by the bird of the morn, there he saw a sight he had never seen
before... and Cupid was so close that Cupid's arrow hit the mark.
King Shadeem lost his tongue as he saw, despite the ragged clothes, a beautiful creature, milky fair
skin, long wavy raven black hair, and a pair of sharp dark eyes, the eyes of a huntress. He became
speechless and suddenly the girl shouted:"Watch out! A fly might go into your mouth!" and the king
was startled and slowly walked, approached the tree on which the girl was sitting, still with
astonished expression and yet not a word. "Anything strange? Never seen anyone sitting up on a
branch of a tree?" Now, the king found his voice:" How did you do that?" and the girl:"Did what?"

2. "You whistled one moment the deer stopped and you whistled the next moment, the deer fled." This
time it was the girl who watched the king strangely with her big eyes, saying:" I thought a
gentleman like you would not be surprised at all with what I did."
"Now, who are you? This jungle is not a place for a pretty thing like you." the king said, "and I am
disturbed..!"
"Why so? This jungle has always been my home since I don't know when." as she slid down the tree
to stand in front of the king. "It is so happen that today we came across you, that is also because you
and your men were running after my pet."
"All this time I never saw you around here. This is my particular hunting ground." the king said.
"Oh, I did not know that. I spent most of my time roaming the eastern part of this jungle, but today,
we , my deer and I, fancied of exploring the whole jungle." the girl said, and "Oh... I have to leave
now." And she whistled and they saw the deer came running by her towards the rising sun and the
girl followed with such a weightless speed, off towards where she came from, the king's cry "Wait!"
was completely ignored.
That day's hunt was a failure. King Shadeem rode back to the palace disappointed. His men tried to
comfort him but in vain. The vision of the fleeting jungle girl disturbed him and such curiosity
developed inside of him. Who was that girl? What is her name? Where did she come from? These
continued criss-crossing his mind.
When he arrived at the palace, it was already sunset, and yet he yelled at his men :"Tomorrow as
the sun rises, you all gather in my study-room, I have orders for you!" as we walked to his
appartment to prepare himself for dinner. That night his mind was wandering, he could hardly
sleep.
In the next morn, by the breakfast table, he said:" Today, right after this I want you all explore and
search that jungle, and find me that girl. She said she used to roam in the east. So you all go towards
the east and bring me some news." and they replied:"Aye,Your Majesty!" So, they went leaving his
majesty the king pacing to and fro his study-room.
Now, in the jungle, as the king's men went towards the east, astonished and grumbling, talking
among themselves saying that now the king is behaving strangely. Of all the ladies in the kingdom,
he went loco because of a jungle and wild girl. And suddenly......! A thick fog envelopped their views
and they could no longer see their way and the air turned so cold that they shivered. Their hearts
shrunk and beat faster, wondering what bad omen awaited them. The head of the group ordered
his men to halt and squat-down low. As they tried to see through the fog they saw a dark shadow of
uncertain shape. They could not figure out if it was of human or animal. They waited and hoped the
fog would thin away. After sometime the chief signalled them to move further slowly and quietly,
then they saw something sitting on a big rock and as they gazed hard, it was a black raven, with a
stern gaze in its eyes.

3. As those men of King Shadeem were gazing at the black raven, somewhere in the palace
surroundings, creeping and crawling a shadow, moving so swift then suddenly stopped as a
guardian of the palace was walking, doing his early morn patrol, yawning. The shadow squatted the
lowest it could, till the guardian passed by. Then swiftly it crossed the lawn towards an entrance as
it spotted luckily that the door was open. The shadow slid into the palace to find itself in a kitchen
compartment. There was no-one, but suddenly it heard voices seemed to be approaching the
kitchen where the shadow was. It looked around for a place to hide. The shadow saw one of the
kitchen cupboards was open, but luckily those voices simply passed the kitchen by and fading away
towards another direction. The shadow peeped through the kitchen towards the inner part and
spotted several doors and a staircase leading to the upper floor of the palace. The shadow paused
for a second and swiftly decided to check on those doors and peeped through till it came to a room
where are found shelves of books, it slid in and looked around to spot a perfect hideaway for "the
just in-case". Finding none, it went towards the window to make sure that it would easily be opened.
The shadow, lightly and rapidly with it sharp eyes, went through those shelves.
The Crossing
Back in the jungle, to the king's men, after spotting the raven, they looked at each other, asking :"
What omen could it be?". The leader looked around, as he saw nothing, again ordered his men to
move forward. After walking for sometime, they came to an edge of a ravine, they halted as they
saw a crossing to the other side of the ravine made of thick rope and wooden planks. They shivered,
wondering if that rope-crossing was safe enough to be crossed-over. One of them looked behind
and around, which made one of his companions asked:" What are you looking at?" and he replied:"
Eeh.... just to see if that bloody, scary raven follows us. See if there is any sign of it???". Suddenly, the
chief spoke :"Rhobus, now I want you to take a look if that crossing is good enough for all of us to
walk on." Rhobus approached the crossing and stared at it pondering how to test it. He looked at his
chief. Suddenly they heard a voice :" Mbeeek, mbeeekk!" They looked around, then they saw that
the voice came for the other side of the ravine. A flock of mountain goats bleating and one of them
was approaching the crossing, King Shadeem men held their breath. They waited and lo... the goat
treaded the crossing slowly and leisurely. One of the men spoke :"Chief, I think if we go one by one,
we can reach the other side." As he finished speaking an arrow suddenly flew over their head from
nowhere and hit a tree just about five meters behind them.
An intruder in the palace
The shadow was tense for a while