A Bear Grylls Adventure 3, page 4
I can wait, it seemed to say, as it lay down beneath them. It knew they weren’t going anywhere.
Omar gazed with fascination at the killing machine below. It was longer than Bear would be if he lay down next to it. Its scales were as big as both his hands if he clasped them together. Its massive mouth was clamped shut but pointed teeth still jutted past its lips.
“They can stand on their back legs,” Bear said. “Keep your feet up and work your way back here.”
Omar carefully wriggled his way back along the branch. He and Bear sat side by side with their backs to the trunk.
“How long do we wait?” Omar asked.
“As long as it takes. Eventually it will go for something easier to catch – I hope.”
Eventually! Omar thought. What good was eventually?
But once again, he made himself stop thinking like that. It wasn’t helpful. This was the jungle. Things took as long as they took, and that was all there was to it. Setting records would have to wait for a day when there wasn’t a caiman smacking its chops a couple of metres below him.
Bear untied the bandana to check the bandage on Omar’s hand, and nodded in satisfaction at the way the cut was healing.
“It just takes a bit of time – like everything else,” he said, and grinned at him.
Omar felt a strange, warm glow inside him. It was a feeling of peace. He realised that he couldn’t control everything. He was simply part of the jungle, and he needed to respect its rhythm. Some things he could do – like look after himself by staying in the tree. Some things he couldn’t. And in those cases there was no point fretting about them.
He closed his eyes.
Then something hit his head and his eyes flew open. He twisted round to see what it had been. The world shifted.
“Hey!”
His arms and legs flailed as he tried to get a grip, but he could feel himself falling …
10
SHOOTING GALLERY
Omar struggled to sit up in a sudden panic, thinking of teeth and enormous jaws. But there was no sign of the caiman.
He was lying in a mass of leaves and branches that wanted to tangle him up. And there it was again. Bop. Something hit his head.
He looked around for Bear. He wasn’t there.
And where was the caiman?
Next to him were a couple of empty drinks cans. It wasn’t very jungly.
And he could hear the sound of girls laughing and chatting.
Zing. Bop.
Another empty can bounced off Omar’s shoulder. He looked up. There was a branch just above him, with a couple more cans perched on it.
“Come on, we should be going,” said a girl’s voice.
“One more …” said another.
Zing.
Omar saw a rubber band zip past the branch.
Bop.
A shooting gallery.
Omar clambered to his knees and stared over the branch. A group of three girls were walking away. They hadn’t noticed him but he recognised them all from Camp.
And that was where he now was. He looked around him.
The trees were all a normal size. He could see the sky. It wasn’t incredibly steamy or hot. And there was no sign of Bear. Or the caiman.
One of the girls was Chloe, the one who had chucked the plastic bottle on the ground earlier. And it didn’t look like she was going to clear up these cans either.
Omar pushed himself to his feet. He looked back at the bent branches where he had been lying. Wow. He remembered getting lost after the race. He must have had a lie-down and had a really weird dream.
But it had been a good one. He felt so much happier than before.
Omar picked up all the cans and rubber bands he could find before he headed slowly back to join everyone else. There was no rush.
Omar grinned. Bear would be pleased!
But as he walked Omar remembered how he had acted during the race, and afterwards. Had it really been so important to him, setting a new record and winning at any cost? He had made a real fool of himself, especially with Sophie. He should apologise.
When he got back to the clearing everyone else was still chatting and laughing. He saw Sophie over on the other side, though she didn’t notice him. Omar started towards the bins to get rid of the cans and rubber bands. The pile in his arms was teetering, and he had to speed up. The pile collapsed just as he reached the bins and he aimed the cans so that most of them fell right in.
But one of the rubber bands caught on the bandana tied around his wrist. The same red and white bandana that Bear had put on to keep his bandage in place.
He remembered it so clearly. How he’d cut his hand, and Bear had cleaned it up. How Bear had checked on it as they trekked through the jungle, and how he’d kept it above the river water as he crossed.
Omar studied his hand. The cut and the bandage were gone, just as if he had dreamed them.
But there was the bandana, tied around his wrist.
Omar felt his heart thud in his chest. He really had been on an adventure with Bear. Which meant he could get back to Bear.
How had he found his way to the jungle in the first place? He remembered getting lost, and – oh, yes. He had tried to use that stupid trick compass.
Omar pulled the compass out of his pocket. It showed the usual four directions, but he distinctly remembered there had been five.
Then he stared. For a moment, the dial seemed to spin on its own and suddenly there were five directions again. At the same time there was a clattering noise as a can hit the bin and bounced along the ground.
“Goal!” Chloe shouted to her friend, and they laughed. Omar scowled. He remembered how Bear believed in taking care of the world around you. He knew Bear could teach Chloe a few useful things about that.
Omar looked back at the compass dial. There were just four directions again. But it had definitely been five … just as Chloe had walked past.
Omar’s eyes went wide.
Maybe it was that fifth direction. Maybe you couldn’t find it.
It had to find you.
So Omar made a decision. Before going to apologise to Sophie, he had something to do.
It looked like Chloe was heading off to some other activity, so Omar hurried forward and ducked in front of her.
“Hi?”
“Uh – hi.”
Chloe slowed down and then stopped. She was staring at Omar with a look that said Do you need something?
Omar thrust the compass at her before she could say anything. “I just wanted to give you this,” he said.
She took it, smiling but clearly puzzled.
Omar tried to remember. What was it Sophie had said to him?
Oh yes.
“Just consider it a gift,” said Omar.
The End
Bear Grylls got the taste for adventure at a young age from his father, a former Royal Marine. After school, Bear joined the Reserve SAS, then went on to become one of the youngest ever people to climb Mount Everest, just two years after breaking his back in three places during a parachute jump.
Amongst other adventures he has led expeditions to the Arctic and the Antarctic, crossed oceans and set world records in skydiving and paragliding.
Bear is also a bestselling author and the host of television programmes such as Survival School and The Island.
He has shared his survival skills with people all over the world, and has taken many famous movie stars and sports stars on adventures – and even President Barack Obama!
Bear Grylls is Chief Scout to the UK Scouting Association, encouraging young people to have great adventures, follow their dreams and to look after their friends.
Bear is also honorary Colonel to the Royal Marine Commandos.
When Bear’s not travelling the world, he lives with his wife and three sons on a barge in London, or on an island off the coast of Wales.
Find out more at www.beargrylls.com
First published in Great Britain in 2017 by
80-81 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 9RE
Text and illustrations copyright © Bear Grylls Ventures, 2017
Illustrations by Emma McCann
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The right of Bear Grylls to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-7869-6020-7
Bear Grylls is an imprint of Bonnier Zaffre,
a Bonnier Publishing Company
www.bonnierpublishing.com
Bear Grylls, A Bear Grylls Adventure 3
