Ahhhhhhhhhh! My terrified shriek was drowned by the late-night traffic outside. My hands seemed to have bathed in sweat and my heartbeat pounded like rock music. My body was drenched with as much moisture I would have perspired in a marathon though this time, I did not do a marathon since sleeping came quite naturally to growing boys like me.
I was shell-shocked and everything around me was a blur. It was as if I was revolving around the world. I just had a horrific nightmare about a forest and if you are thinking I am overreacting to something every human goes through almost every day then wait a minute. Let me give you the entire jigsaw instead of this one last piece and then you can see I am sane indeed.
My trogglehumper (a Roald Dahl term for a bad dream) began with a wonderful forest that had just experienced rainfall. The soothing drizzle, the fragrant petrichor and ahh! the dampness and freshness that surrounded me. Ahh!! What an amazing dream. But wait. I am just getting started.
Because the next thing I know, a monkey swoops down gliding gracefully with the banyan root and swipes a banana from out of my pocket(don’t ask me why that was there). But if that caught both me and you surprised wait till you find out what happens next. I was struck with surprise and excitement so I went over and inspected the sturdiness of one of the thousands of banyan roots around me.
And then the next thing I know, I am attacked by a whole troop of monkeys. And attacked was a severe understatement. Probably even the understatement of the year because they did not even show any sort of mercy. Attacking a lone creature who was up against at least hundreds of well-fed monkeys was surely not humane. But again these monkeys were not human after all.
I had heard that human had evolved from monkeys but I really doubt that because you do not see a horde of people chasing you around just because you had touched a tree’s root or something!! I scurried off.
The monkeys seemed as though they were making me lose my mind because it was not very easy to pass by the gleaming sights of nature without even giving them as much as a glance. But hark! I finally hid behind some ferns lying at a declivity near some foliage. And that seemed to have ended this wild chase. And maybe then I should have pinched myself and ended this horrific nightmare there itself. But instead my brain got caught sight of a long branch. Gosh that looked exotic!
And I gave it a gentle tug. But to my horror, I had done anything but tug a branch. Because that branch was nothing but the tail of a mongoose. And soon enough, without even letting me catch a breath, I set off this time with a red, steaming hot mongoose whose tail was just gently tugged. This actually made me wonder why animal tails do not come with name tags. I mean they sure do look just like branches. But this branch seemed bushier and softer than usual. But this was not exactly that worried me too much right now. For a small animal, the mongoose was surprisingly agile.
And now this time as if I had not had an adventure enough. I ran smack right into a well-hidden cave. Ahh! I breathed a sigh and collapsed onto the floor. Phew! Now that was over.
The floor was welcoming and it seemed to belong to a very quiet cave. Its walls were damp with some algae growing and giving it the thick foliage that surely aided me in my getaway from the mongoose. But then my pounding heart died down as it grew calm. And that made way for the noise of gentle snoring. I craned my neck like one of those lemurs and wow! That was surprisingly a nice feeling. No wonder lemurs are caught doing it so often. But then I snapped a twip underneath my feet.
I cursed my luck because I thought it was only in movies that twigs were placed exactly were you would place your feet. And that aroused the beast that laid in there. Because out of nowhere, a pair of orange eyes glared at me. Gosh! How many animals have I made angry today. Those orange eyes turned crimson and that gave me an instinct I was quite familiar to today: Running. No way, I just found the hide-out of Frankenstein’s monster or maybe even the Gruffalo.
But oh! Darn my sick imagination. I really read too many books before bedtime because this horrendous creature that I had just aroused now headed towards me. Its low growl and its deafening footsteps now inched closer to me every second until I found out this creature was a……… Tiger. Ahhhhh! But before I could even move an inch, this 200 pound creature jumped on me. I mean why couldn’t it just place a Do Not Disturb sign out there. But who knows maybe it did but it probably was encrypted in some tiger verse.
What have I done to animals that has made them so sore to me. I mean if we are sharing our earth with these animals then why does this tiger pounce on me just because I took up a small piece of its cave. But alas I had made two mistakes in the last few minutes.
Number 1: I just woke a tiger from its deep slumber and every nature guide 101 out there would surely not recommend that.
Number 2: I called Earth, ours. And turns out Mother Nature did not take this as a light hearted joke.
Because this tiger opened its hundred-foot mouth and since its not everyday you find this out, this tiger’s breath smelt worse than any national dumpyard. But its razor sharp canines now neared me as I shut my eyes but then I finally gave myself the pinch that could have ended this ‘joyride’ a longtime back. And woosh! That’s how I ended up hyperventilating on a Friday midnight, as you noticed in the beginning of this story and ending of mine or was it the other way around. Gosh! Its so confusing. But I hope you get the idea.
But if there is anything I have learnt from this whole horrific nightmare is that… Actually I have a lot to learn from it.
First, I should always make sure that the tree is free from anti-human monkeys before I touch it.
Second, pray that monkeys do not rule the world.
Third, never ever ever ever touch a branch unless you are willing to put in the extra effort.
Fourth, I must learn to decode tiger encrypted messages that I might find.
And lastly never run away next time I am in such a dire situation. Just pinch yourself. I should really tell that to bomb defusers and other people who have to solve their issues in the nick of time.
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Credits for The Horrific Forest Nightmare
Cover Image Credits: https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/gfrL0orzTp5vABh7iOCs
Inside Image Credits:
- https://sammatey.substack.com/p/investigating-india-2-the-banyan
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namaqua_slender_mongoose
- https://stock.adobe.com/ae/search?k=tiger+eye
- https://www.istockphoto.com/search/2/image-film?phrase=tiger+mouth+open
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Well going,keep it up