Prologue

"Quiet singing!" A man yelled from his hut and looked down his window sill, "Didn't I tell you to stop singing?" The girl sitting under the window sill looked up at the man and quiets down a bit but still sang to herself. The man went back into his room, "didn't I order you to be quiet Matika?"

"This is boring�" Matika looked around the village as they walked steadily going about their day tasks. "This is boring, boring, staring at them walk." She sighed and tried to scratch her back along the post behind her. "Boring, boring, boring and hot." She sang to herself and looking up at the sun.

"What are you complaining about girl?" The man asked coming out of the hut next to the post she was leaning on. "Didn't I tell you to be quiet?" The man asked bringing out his whip. Matika winced hearing the whip snap. "Now stay quiet until I say you could speak."

Matika nodded her head and turned away from the hut, "when am I ever going to leave this place?" She looked at her wrists that were bound together in shackles. "Stupid mean man." Matika muttered. "Should've never left home."

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"How lost do you think we are from the others, Rye?"

"If only I knew myself Dan." Rye answered and made his way through the brush and bushes and tree.

Dan shook his head, "how could they have not noticed we weren't with them?"

"I'd tell you, but I don't know the answer to that question either." Rye replied with a small shrug.

Dan frowns and squinted his eyes, "isn't that smoke or fire?"

Rye adjusted his eyes, "Hey! You're right! We're saved!"

"Saved from what?" Dan asked as he ran towards the smoke, "we weren't really running from anything."

"We're here for our environmental biology class. We were here to do researches on Siamese crocodiles and tigers." Rye said running behind Dan, "do you think we would be safe out here alone without those tour guides and other researchers and classmates?"

"That's right, we would be running then wouldn't we?" Dan noted as they continued to run until they came to a small fenced in village. "Where are we?" Dan asked as he looked around.

"Could I help you sir?" A man came to greet them at the fence.

Rye greeted the man, "sir, we're lost, and was wondering if you could help us."

The man looked up at the sky, "it's going to be dark soon, why don't you rest up first, and I'll send one of my people to guide your way out of here."

Dan and Rye quickly took the offer and followed the man through the village. "You think you'd be able to stay here the night?"

Rye shrugs, "I'll see if I fall asleep tonight or not."

"Tonight would be the first night that we'll be sleeping in a sheltered place rather than just out sleeping bag and the night sky." Dan said smiling.

"Sheltered, yes, if you call dried up leaves your wall." Rye said as they followed the man into the hut.

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Matika looked straight ahead and saw two strangers walking into a hut. "They're not from around here." She studied them more across the village, they were on the opposite side of the village from her and didn't see her. They couldn't see her, she was too far. But she could see them.

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Dan looked out the window directly towards Matika's direction, she was too far from him. He couldn't see her as well as she is seeing him. "Do you feel like someone is watching us?"

"Everyone is watching us." Rye pointed out as he walked to the hole in the hut that was a window to them. "Look, see, that girl is looking at us," Rye said as a girl walked by with vegetables in a basket. "Look, the man over there that's cleaning his gun is looking at us."

"Cleaning his gun?" Dan repeated and backed away from the window.

Rye laughed, "don't tell me you're scared."

"I'm not, just petrified." Dan corrected and leaned against the wall. "One night here is fine with me, if they really will take us back to our group."

Matika smiled as she walked into the hut looking down at Dan. She poked at him and laughed. "Sleep pretty well doesn't he?" She walked and sat over at the window and looked towards where she was tied up to the post. "Help me please. I don't want to be here anymore." Matika turned to look at Dan sleeping, "I want to go find my family." Matika took Dan's hand as he continued to sleep. "Please, help me. Get me away from here." She placed her hands on his cheeks and moved it slowly down his face. "Take me with you�"

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