TYGRA OF THE FLAME PEOPLE

                                                  Retold by Anthony Durrant,
                                                  based on a story by an
                                                  unknown writer and artist.

Shortly after Lynn Thomas had departed on her flight, Terry Wilton picked up a copy of the London Times and read that newspaper's account of how she had disappeared whilst flying over the African coastline

"I've got to find her!"  he shouted.  "I can't bear to think what will happen to me if I find out she is dead in the jungle in her plane!"

Putting on his coat and hat, Terry called ahead to the London Airport and asked them to fill the tank of his own plane, then he rushed out the door of his flat.  When he arrived at the airport, he rushed to the berth where his plane was standing.  He was so anxious to find Lynn that he refused to wait for clearance to take off and ran his plane down the runway and off the ground within a few minutes.  Once in the air, he followed the course taken by Lynn on her last flight.  Soon he was passing over the African coastline, where Lynn had run into the storm in which her own plane had crashed.  Looking down from above, Terry saw Lynn's fallen plane lying on the ground below him, and so he circled down toward the ground for a closer look.  Unfortunately, being a less experienced pilot than Lynn was, he soon caught the wings of his plane between two trees, and they broke off and he flew toward the ground.  Terry was forced to land his plane on its belly very close to the crash site, and when he got out of the plane, he went directly to the crash site and found the charred remains of Lynn's plane, with its propelller torn off and broken.  He also found a slim skull peeking out of the cargo compartment.  Upon opening the compartment, he found the remains of a woman inside.

"She must have died at the time of the crash," he whispered, "but she was brave enough to have stowed away aboard Lynn's plane before it crashed."

Terry removed the woman's remains from the cargo compartment and buried her in the jungle alongside the wreckage of Lynn's plane.  Under the body he found a hatbox.  When Terry opened the hatbox, he found diamonds inside! Putting the lid back on the hatbox, he took it with him as he went into the jungle.  Eventually, Terry stumbled across a bleached skull mounted on a wooden spear whose point had been plunged into the soil.  He looked at the skull and thought, I wonder who that was?  Whom did that skull belong to in life?

As he passed the skull, Terry was grabbed from behind by a pair of strong arms.

"You are in the territory of the Kabbichuk people!"  a man's voice shouted.  "And since you meant to trespass in this area, that means you must die!"

The warrior who had seized Terry dragged him forceably to the village of the Kabbichuk tribe.  Once they had arrived in the village, Terry saw that it was laid out around a large temple with a large statue of a goddess kneeling in front of it.  At the front of this statue stood a tall man with a mask on, his body concealed by a cloak and hood fashioned from the hide of a leopard. 

"He is carrying the sacred offering!"  the man said, bowing his head for a minute before shouting, "Take it from him and bring it here to Neferturi's lap!"

Another warrior snatched the hatbox out of Terry's hands and brought it to the masked man, who then opened the hatbox and poured the diamonds into the goddess's - Neferturi's? - open hands.  The hands of Neferturi lifted up and then pushed the diamonds into the goddess's mouth. 

"Neferturi has accepted the offering of jewels!"  the masked man shouted.

"The goddess is good!"  the men and women of the Kabbichuk tribe cried as one person.  "Our hunts for food will be far more successful this year!"

Then he turned his masked face in Terry's direction and shouted:

"And you, trespasser - you will be executed for daring to intrude on our tribe!"

He gestured to his warriors to take Terry away and they brought him to a small hut where another native warrior had been taken prisoner, and tied him to a short post alongside that warrior.  Terry turned to this individual and asked.

"What's your name, sir?"

"I am Scranobo," said the warrior, "and I have come from the village of the Flame People, where our new Queen Tygra now rules!"

"Tygra . . . hmmm . . . " said Terry.  "If I help you to escape, would you warn your queen, Tygra, that I am being held captive in the Kabbichuk people's village?"

"I will most certainly do that, white man!"  said Scranobo.

"Then take the knife from my boot and use your feet to cut yourself free!"  Terry told Scranobo.  "Only then may you escape from this hellish place!"

Scranobo took the knife from Terry's boot with his foot, and then used it to cut the ropes binding him to his post.  As soon as he was free, Scranobo smashed through the back wall of the hut and hurried back to his own village as fast as he possibly could, leaving Terry alone in the hut, still tied to his post.

                                                               * * *

The next morning, Terry was brought out of the hut by the masked man and led out to the middle of the village.  The executioner awaited him by the chopping block, holding his deadly curved sword.  He tied a robe around Terry's neck, and
then tied the other end tightly to a tree so that the rope went taut  Terry realized that, once the executioner cut the rope, his head would literally be torn from his body and land on or near the block of stone right in front of him.  But just as the executioner raised his sword to cut the rope, a dagger buried itself in the small of his back, and then he fell to the ground - dead!  Six Flame People warriors rushed up, and threw themselves into battle with the masked man and his warriors, while Terry used the dagger buried in the executioner's back to cut the ropes binding his wrists, and then removed the rope from around his neck.

"I've got to get that masked man!"  Terry shouted as he rose to his feet and ran after the masked man, who tripped him as he ran into Neferturi's temple.

Terry looked up from where he'd fallen and gasped in horror as the masked man drew a dagger from his belt and raised it above his head - at which point a slim figure jumped on the man, forcing him to the ground, and then buried a spear in the nape of his neck, just under the man's dark hair - he was dead instantly.

"Thus die all who kidnap the people of Tygra, Queen of the Flame People!"  he heard a woman's voice cry - Lynn's voice!  But how could that be?

Terry looked up and saw Lynn standing above him, clad in a lion-skin costume that had been painted with red stripes.  There was a lion's head tattoo on both of her shoulders, just above the tattoo of a blazing torch.

"Oh, Lynn, you're alive!"  Terry cried.

"Oh, Terry!"  cried Lynn.  "So you have come to me, after all!"

And then she lifted Terry off of his feet and carried him to the temple, where she laid him on the open hands of the goddess and fed him some water from a gourd she was carrying with her.  She smiled at him and he smiled at her.

"Who was that masked man?"  Terry asked Lynn softly.

"How should I know?"  Lynn asked him.

"Well, why not unmask him and find out?"  Terry suggested helpfully.

Terry went over to the dead man and pulled the mask off his face.  Under it, she saw the scarred face and wild brown eyes of a man who had craved action above all else whilst he was still alive.  Lynn looked up and Terry and asked:

"Who was this masked man?"

"That's Lucas 'Careless' Crait, the diamond smuggler!"  said Terry.  "I understand he had fled Capetown after one of his diamond deals went bad.  He must have come here and set up a new operation using the goddess Neferturi as cover."

Lynn walked over to the executioner's body and reclaimed the dagger, which she put in a sheath attached to a belt that she wore around her waist.  Meanwhile, Terry rose to his feet again and searched Careless Crait's body.  In a satchel on a belt around his waist, he found a remote control.  When he moved the joystick on the remote control, Terry found he could move Neferturi's arms up and down.

"So that's how it was done, eh?"  he asked Lynn gently.  "I'm glad Mrs. Crait - for I'm pretty sure it was she who died when your plane crashed here in the jungle - didn't live to see you kill her husband, Lynn.  Thank you."

"You're welcome," said Lynn, "but I'm not Dr. Lynn Thomas anymore.  I'm Tygra, the new Queen of the Flame People!"

"You're Tygra, the Flame People's queen?"  Terry asked her, shocked.

"Yes," said Tygra as she scooped him up in her arms again, "and now that you're here, now that I've found you, I am going to take you back to the Flame People's village and claim you as my mate!"

And that's precisely what she did - Tygra did indeed take Terry as her mate.

THE END