Jen stirred. Her eyelids, heavy as theatre curtains, fluttered open. The first thing she registered was the symphony of chaos: the screech of a red-and-blue macaw, the rhythmic chitter of unseen monkeys, and the low, guttural hum of a billion insects. The second thing she registered was the curious absence of her khaki safari shirt.
Omari was horrified. “The Mngwa hunts in the open. Finch’s men will shoot you before you take ten steps.”
The Mngwa—a magnificent, terrified creature—exploded into the chaos. It did not attack. It simply ran, a golden blur of muscle and fury, straight through the middle of the camp. It bowled over Finch, who shrieked and dropped his toothbrush. It scattered the remaining poachers like ninepins. Tarzeena- Jiggle in the Jungle
Omari looked at her blankly.
Jen saw the fear in their eyes. She also saw the satellite phone, its battery now at one percent, mocking her from her lean-to. Rescue was a fairy tale. But a plan? That was something she could build. Jen stirred
Jen was not the typical action hero. She was a primatologist, a woman of middling height and generous, comfortable curves, more accustomed to a dusty library in Cambridge than the sweaty, living heart of a rainforest. Her colleagues described her as “formidable in debate” and “unforgettable in a cardigan.” But here, stripped of her armor of tweed and intellectual certainty, she felt profoundly, terrifyingly exposed.
She sat up, groaning. A cascade of chestnut hair, matted with leaves and what she hoped was mud, fell over her shoulders. She looked down. The jiggle was inevitable. Every minor adjustment, every breath she took, sent a soft, undeniable ripple through her frame. In the silent, predatory world of the jungle, she was a walking seismic event. The second thing she registered was the curious
He shook his head, a slow, deliberate motion, and pointed at her again. He gestured to her unkempt hair, her mud-streaked arms, the way she’d instinctively moved to cover her chest with the machete. He said it again, this time with something like awe. Tarzeena. The word, she would later learn, meant “She Who Shakes the Earth.”