Kanana: The Jungle Girl

By Wesley Allison

In a world substantially different from our own world in 1913, former Rough Rider and adventurer Henry Goode crosses the vast ocean to explore the unknown continent of Elizagaea. Spurred on into the wilderness by emotional trauma, he finds vicious creatures from a bygone era, savage natives, long lost civilizations, and a mysterious jungle goddess.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wesley Allison
• Release date: Nov 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370605996

Wesley Allison

At the age of nine, Wesley Allison discovered a love of reading in an old box of Tom Swift Jr. books. He graduated to John Carter and Tarzan and retains a fondness the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs to this day. From there, it was Heinlein and Bradbury, C.S. Lewis and C.S. Forester, many, many others, and finally Richard Adam’s Shardik and Watership Down. He started writing his own stories as he worked his way through college. Today Wes is the author of more than thirty science-fiction and fantasy books, including the popular His Robot Girlfriend. He has taught English and American History for the past 29 years in Southern Nevada where he lives with his lovely wife Victoria, and his two grown children Rebecca and John.For more information about the author and upcoming books, visit http://wesleyallison.com.Books by Wesley Allison:Princess of AmatharHis Robot GirlfriendHis Robot WifeHis Robot Wife: Patience is a VirtueHis Robot Girlfriend: CharityHis Robot Wife: A Great Deal of PatienceHis Robot Wife: Patience Under FireEaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven PrincessEaglethorpe Buxton and the SorceressThe Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe BuxtonEaglethorpe Buxton and... Something about Frost GiantsThe Sorceress and the Dragon 0: BrechalonThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 1: The Voyage of the MinotaurThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 2: The Dark and Forbidding LandThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 3: The Drache GirlThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 4: The Young SorceressThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 5: The Two DragonsThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 6: The Sorceress and her LoversThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 7: The Price of MagicThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 8: A Plague of WizardsThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 9: The Dragon's ChoiceThe Sorceress and the Dragon Book 10: For King and CountryKanana: The Jungle GirlTesla’s StepdaughtersWomen of PowerBlood TradeNova DancerThe Destroyer ReturnsAstrid Maxxim and her Amazing HoverbikeAstrid Maxxim and her Undersea DomeAstrid Maxxim and the Antarctic ExpeditionAstrid Maxxim and her Hypersonic Space PlaneAstrid Maxxim and the Electric Racecar ChallengeAstrid Maxxim and the Mystery of Dolphin IslandAstrid Maxxim and her High-Rise Air Purifier

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KANANA: THE JUNGLE GIRL

By Wesley Allison

Smashwords Edition

Kanana: The Jungle Girl

Copyright © 2016 by Wesley Allison

Revision 10-11-16

All Rights Reserved. This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If sold, shared, or given away it is a violation of the copyright of this work. This is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Cover design by Wesley Allison

Cover Image Copyright © Andrey Kiselev | Dreamstime.com

ISBN: 9781370605996

For Vicki, Becky, & John

Kanana: The Jungle Girl

By Wesley Allison

Introduction

The lost civilizations and hidden mysteries of Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard and others that dotted the unknown portions of our maps are gone. In a world where Google gives us a street view of every spot on our globe, where can the remnants of Atlantis or Lemuria or Mu still be found?

This story takes place in a world like ours, with much of the same history, but with one very important difference. The world isn’t a little round blue ball. It is a great ring stretching around the sun—12,430 miles wide and 584 million miles in circumference. Far to the east, beyond China and Japan, lies the Shikoku Ocean. And beyond that, continent after continent. The same is true in the other direction. West across the Pacific lies the mysterious continent of Elizagaea. And beyond that? Who knows?

Chapter One: Arriving in a New World

We stood on the deck of the S.S. Louisa May and watched the coastline roll gently past. Beyond the flawless stretch of white sand overhanging with coconut trees was a thick growth of jungle brush and more exotic trees stretching up for the sky—big leaf mahogany trees, Brazil nut trees, giant kapoks, and massive capironas. Wisps of morning mist still hung in the air, undisturbed by any breeze. Buzzing through these vapors like airplanes dodging through the clouds were six-inch dragonflies. Except for the low chugging of the ship’s engine, there was no sound, until the air was suddenly rent by a deep throaty roar of some unknown creature inside that dark and haunting primeval forest. Colonel Roosevelt clapped a hand on my shoulder.

What do you think, my boy, of your first close-up view of a new world?

I looked at him and said something, I no longer remember what, but I turned immediately back to the emerald panorama gliding swiftly by. It had been a horrible series of events that had conspired to bring me to this distant spot, early this Monday morning April seventh, the year of our Lord 1913.

I had fully expected that by my thirty-third year, that halfway point in a man’s life, I would be settled down with a pretty wife and two or three above average children. But providence did not see fit to make this easy for me. Becoming a man in the height of battle on the slopes of Kettle Hill created a burning desire for adventure in my heart that the brief conflict with the Empire of Spain failed to quench. I traveled to South America and saw much of that land, and then to Africa and even to Southeast Asia. I then spent five years in Europe, working for my keep as I toured the ancient lands of Greece and Rome and their successors. When I at last found my way back to the good old US of A, I was more than ready to settle down, to find that pretty wife, and to start that family. Luck was with me. I found a new job and a beautiful girl. For two years everything went my way. Then it all fell apart.

Henry… Henry. The hand on my shoulder shook me back to the present.

I’m sorry sir. What was that?

I was just saying that we should go aft and enjoy a cup of coffee.

I turned and followed him down the length of the ship. I wanted to say Colonel, that I voted for you in November.

I had no doubt. He grinned. A good many people did, but the electorate has spoken. That is not to say that I might not make a similar run sometime in the future. I am still fit as a bull moose.

Indeed sir, you are the youngest former President that I have ever heard of.

The secret to youth is a vigorous life. I have no need to tell you that. Look at you. You are a strapping man of heroic proportions. Why, I recall you as a rather scrawny boy when I think back to our days in Cuba. Private Henry Goode—no, he did not look at all promising.

I can’t believe that you remembered me at all, I said, thinking back to three weeks before, when I booked passage on the Louisa May in San Francisco.

I remember all the men of our volunteer regiment, he replied sincerely, and a good number of the Tenth’s Buffalo Soldiers as well. There is a bond forged in such situations that is not easily to be set aside.

A steward handed each of us a cup of coffee and we sat down in a couple of sturdy folding chairs. My eyes again sought the rainforest moving smoothly past us. Roosevelt leaned over, bringing my attention back to him.

It is quite an interesting coincidence that we both find ourselves on the same vessel sailing into foreign waters. I started to protest, but he held up his hand. I take you at your word that you didn’t know I was aboard, despite the fact that Kermit and I have hardly been secretive in our planning. No, what I want to know is why, if you are not planning on joining our quest, are you are on your way to Elizagaea.

It’s… I can’t Colonel. It’s too raw. It will eat me up if I talk about it.

Say no more then. We won’t discuss it. He leaned back and took a sip of his coffee. We will discuss something else. What shall we speak on? Politics? Religion? I am versed on more than a few topics.

That, I said, pointing at the shoreline.

That is the great unknown. Its very existence as the enigma it is has drawn to its edge Kermit and me, and presumably you.

Yes sir, but what do we know of Elizagaea?

"Ah, well if it is a history lesson you desire Henry, you shall have it. But we must go back half a millennium to start, long before it was common knowledge that the world is shaped like a great ring around the sun. Back then, prevailing wisdom was that the world was round. In 1492, Columbus set out to prove it. He was proven spectacularly wrong when he bumped into the continent of America. Twenty-seven years later, not yet convinced of either the shape of the world or its vastness, Ferdinand Magellan sailed around South America to cross the great Pacific Ocean. He eventually reached the Kiyeng Kuan islands, where he was killed for his trouble. By then Vasco da Gama, sailing in the other direction, had reached India and his successors sailed on to China, Indonesia, and Japan, discovering the Shikoku Ocean beyond Asia. For a while both Portugal and Spain were content to reap (or rape) the lands that they had found, but there were sturdy adventurers who traveled beyond.

In 1595 Sir Francis Drake sailed beyond the Kiyeng Kuans to discover the continent he named Elizagaea. Just as Drake was planting his flag in the distant west, William Parramaribo, had set off to the distant east to discover Nytlandvit, though it would be three years before he returned with the news. You know the rest: how Spain’s and Portugal’s fortunes waned and how others rose to take their place, how Britain and France vied for the west and out of that struggle new nations were born, and how the Dutch became rich from the distant eastern trade routes. You know of the rise of the United States and its struggle through civil war, and you know of the spirit of independence in South America, Africa, and Asia. You know how Perry and Cook discovered continents beyond Elizagaea. You know how Lazerev and Wilkes found lands beyond Nytlandvit. All this we all know, and yet these distant lands remain largely unexplored.

Colonel, just how large is the world?

Scientists tell us that if we set off walking east from New York, we would walk five hundred eighty-five million miles before we made it back from the west.

That’s a long way.

Indeed it is. There may well be tens of thousands of continents beyond Elizagaea and Nytlandvit—enough that our descendants will be exploring them for a thousand generations. But Kermit and I will put our names on this continent for this generation.

I wish you luck, Colonel.

And I ask you just one last time, are you sure you won’t join our enterprise?

No thank you, sir.

He stood up and stretched out his hand. I stood too and took it.

We’ll be docking at Abbyport this afternoon. There’s much to do, so I may not see you again today. I’m sure we’ll meet later in town though.

Yes, sir.

I watched the old Rough Rider step inside the starboard hatch, and then sat back down to watch the jungle again. What was I going to do? What was I doing here? God only knew. I certainly didn’t. I was just running—running as far away as I could get from pain, humiliation, and a woman’s scorn.

I sat on the deck for another hour or so, and then I returned to my cabin. By the time I had my clothing and necessities packed I could feel that we were approaching what passed for civilization in these parts. Returning to the bow of the ship, I could smell it—the smell of wood fires, of drying fish, and of human filth.

Abbyport was the largest settlement in this part of Elizagaea. As far as I knew at the time, it was the largest town anywhere on that continent. It consisted of twenty or thirty small business buildings in a single row leading up to the docks. Beyond those were two dozen colonial style homes built by the English, and around those were several hundred huts of the natives.

As the ship approached the dockside, I got my first good look at the natives. They were a copper-skinned people with universally black hair, and were in feature and dress very similar to those early Indian tribes of the southeastern United States, before they were pushed west or wiped out. They wore simple clothing, mostly fashioned of broad-leafed plants but with an occasional leather component, and a few wore various pieces of civilized clothing. They were a tall and graceful people, well proportioned and handsome.

It was already getting quite hot, as the Louisa May’s porters delivered my luggage to the dockside and I joined it. A native boy of about twelve or thirteen approached me. He was barefoot but wore an old pair of dungarees and a shirt that was too large for him but which was tied at the waist and had the sleeves rolled up.

You need help to the hotel? he asked pointing.

I had to laugh. I did indeed need help to get anywhere. When I had found myself in San Francisco with a ticket to the mysterious west, I had gone to the famous Canary and Son Outfitters to buy everything that I might need for such a journey, from firearms to tents to boots. They had supplied me with everything I needed, for just about as much money as I was still in possession of, and to carry it all in, they had given me luggage. My gear was stowed carefully away in six massive steamer trunks, each seventy inches long, thirty-six inches wide and forty inches deep. They were watertight and had a compartment for everything that could be imagined. They would not be easily moved however, since each was roughly large enough to carry four or five bodies.

What is your name?

Saral.

Well Saral, if you can get my luggage to the hotel safely you shall be rewarded. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a silver dollar, which I tossed to him. More on the completion of your task.

I started up the dirt street toward the only building that looked large enough to