Chapter 2

THE BLOODCRY

It was two days after Baron Alberto Rossini and his group found their first diamond that the Jungle Hawk, Alex Kromhout, and Elize Angeli reached the foot of the cliff mass that separates the two parts of the prehistoric valley.

In the shadow of a tree fern, the trio settles down and begins to eat hungrily at the papaya fruits, which are plentiful here. Alex and Elize are tired to death. The hours of struggling, first up the cliffs and then down again, have demanded a lot of their energy and courage. Especially from Alex, who has only been up and about again for the past week or so after he was wounded in the head by his comrade, Peter Couzyn. (read Primeval Valley)

Now they are looking for Mimi Loloberg, former film star, who, it is suspected, was kidnapped by the Sjaloks of Zarsjata, just before the small group was about to make an attempt to escape from the terrible valley.

“Do you think Mimi will still be alive?” There is hesitation in Elize’s voice. Her sun-tanned face is wet with sweat.

The Hawk shrugs his shoulders. The sweat is also glistening on his bare upper body.

“Difficult to say for sure, although we all three hope so.”

Elize sighs. Alex leans more comfortably against the tree trunk. He thinks about that day, about two years ago, when they had to make an emergency landing here in the secluded valley after they ended up in a violent storm.

Then there were eight of them. He, Elize, Mimi, Peter, Aztec Calder, Zato, Paul Rothman, and Jean de la Noy. Zato was torn apart by one of those enormous reptile predators, Paul Rothman slipped when he wanted to clamber up the cliffs, looking for a way out, and fell to his death. Jean de la Noy was carried away and probably devoured by a Pteranodon, one of those feared reptile birds. Aztec Calder escaped from the valley in some unexplained way and found the Jungle Hawk, who immediately came to investigate, and Peter Couzyn went off his head and sought his death... (read Primeval Valley).

Then Mimi disappeared without a trace.

And now they are looking for her. Poor Mimi, thinks Alex, once she had the world at her feet, now no one knows where she is. Perhaps she is already dead...

“Miserable place,” sighs Alex and sticks a piece of papaya fruit in his mouth.

“What are you saying, Alex?” Elize looks at him.

“I’m just saying that this is a miserable place here. Five people have already died... five good friends. Mimi is possibly also dead, and we are probably next soon...”

“Let’s keep up our courage, Alex. The future may not be so dark...”

“Dark?” Alex laughs bitterly. “It is pitch dark, I tell you! Look at what we have to defend ourselves with...” He points dismissively at the bows and arrows. “You can’t even hurt a Tyrannosaurus Rex with them. What do you think will happen if that animal should come down upon us now? What do you think we can do if the Sjaloks were to attack us?”

The Hawk smiles. As he gets up, the muscles roll lightly on his upper body and on his legs.

“Come now, Alex. I don’t recognize you like this, and Elize has also made me understand that you are a real man. None of us are going to lose courage. If Mimi is alive, we will find her, and if it is humanly possible, we will all get out of here.”

Alex is silent. He eats the last piece of the fruit before he also gets up. He smiles wearily. “Okay. I feel better... but the Father knows, that doesn’t exactly make the prospects brighter.”

The Hawk hangs his bow over his shoulder, rolls up his grass rope and hangs it around his neck and shoulder, and wipes his hunting knife clean on a fern leaf. “Let’s move on,” he says.

The trio walks on silently, the Hawk in front, Elize in t