Mysteries in the Jungle (Junjou Romantica)

[3]

The first thing Nowaki realized when he slowly left dreamland was how he wasn't laying in the sand. His hands and his feet were bound together with some sort of rope. There were whispers of the people he got to know from the plane right behind him if he was correct on that assumption. He opened his eyes and was shocked to see a whole group of people staring right back at him. Turning to his right, he saw a large throne carved out of stone and a highly decorated older man with silver lines in his black hair sitting on the throne. His light brown eyes and his posture presented an unrelenting leader who ruled over this tribe without any problems. To his side, Nowaki saw a beautiful woman with green eyes and long cascading curly hair, she was also decorated with many trinkets, her smile presented her kindness. On the other side of the leader, he saw a man with long brown hair who only wore a loincloth, whispering into the leader's ear.

Nowaki managed to sit up on his butt and he caught the gaze of the woman who smiled at him without any malicious intent. This brought Nowaki some relief to this whole scenario, it seemed there were some courteous people in this tribe who found them. It didn't last long when he turned to stare at the leader and noticed how the man didn't stray his eyes from him. His stern face didn't waver as the man right beside him kept whispering into his ear, the leader nodded his head throughout the whole conversation while drumming his fingers on the stone throne. His eyes were hard and cold, which brought a shiver to his spine.

The woman and the man whispered into the leader's ear, after they were done, the leader snapped his fingers. Two muscular men appeared through the crowd and grabbed each one of Nowaki's arms, pulling him on his feet. Nowaki didn't struggle when they touched him, he noticed the knives tied around their thighs and he knew they would hurt him if given the chance. He couldn't tell if they were eager to hurt him since he didn't look at either side to look at their faces, he didn't want to know what they were thinking by their expressions.

"Release the bonds that hold him!" The leader commanded, the men took out the knives from their thighs as they cut up the ropes around Nowaki's wrists and legs."Go on and make your assessment, my son." He told his son, who nodded his head and walked away from his father.

Nowaki rubbed his wrists when the brown haired man jumped down from the throne as he walked toward him. He remained still as the two bigger men retreated back into the crowd without a word. Nowaki assumed this was the leader's son due to the strong resemblance and there was some nice jewelry on his body. He didn't understand what this guy would want with him or what was his reason to attempt to talk to him, he was sure the man couldn't possibly know Japanese.

The wild man stopped right in front of Nowaki as he stared into his eyes. Those light brown eyes pierced through Nowaki's soul, it was as if the man was looking through him and seeing every little thing he had done in his life. Nowaki went rigid when he felt the man touch his face and kept this stare down in front of everyone else. The man broke the gaze when he turned back to the leaders and nodded his head.

Nowaki noticed the woman looked visibly relieved when the male beside her nodded his head as well. He didn't understand what was going on but maybe he was saved after all with these people. They didn't injure him or kick him around like the movies he saw back home lead to believe that anyone who wasn't considered civilized would behave.

Nowaki's attention went back to the man in front of him when he said. "Hiroki Kamijou."

The taller man snapped his head to Hiroki who simply smirked up at him. "W-What?" He felt Hiroki poking him on the chest while he heard the other passengers whispering among themselves.

"I am Hiroki Kamijou, your name?"

Nowaki managed to utter out through his shock. "N-Nowaki Kusama."

Hiroki patted his cheek in amusement. "Didn't expect me to know a lick of your language, did you?" Nowaki nodded his head as a very old man with colorful beads on his neck walked toward them and waved a stick with feathers all over the place in his wrinkled hand. "He is Nowaki Kusama, humble elder."