Jungle Roses

She could not recognize what it was.

She felt it moving over her skin, as if massaging it, and at the same time she felt the rest of her clothes being torn off.

Her horror kept her from screaming, or even trying to move. She could feel her heart beat so strongly, she thought it would explode. She almost wished it were a snake after all, finally giving her the death she had been waiting for. Or fever. But she felt more awake and less feverish than she had ever since entering the jungle. She closed her eyes again, clinging on to the hope that it was all a dream, that she would wake up now.

Something else touched her legs, with just as snake-like a movement. It was thinner but just as strong as what held on to her upper body, and slowly seemed to wrap around her ankle and then the lower part of her leg. A few seconds later, something similar touched her other leg, and she felt both her legs slowly pulled apart. She was unable to struggle, to defend herself: Whatever it was, it was so strong that she could not even move a millimetre against its will. The first one still moved up on her body. It finally wound itself around her arms which it had pulled up above her body. There it held them firm and closely together.

For a minute or two all remained quiet. Rosa Luz couldn't move, nor did the things that held her move. She closed her eyes again. If she tried to fall asleep – maybe it was all a dream, and she would wake up and find herself in her small hiding place on the lowest branch of the tree. Or even, maybe in her father's home, scared of the upcoming wedding, but at least safe from the jungle? Or in the hammock in the little hut next to their house, still a little girl, her grandmother snoring next to her. But she couldn't fall asleep, and the tears she felt streaming out of her eyes and running down her cheeks felt all too real.

And then there were hands. Or something that felt like hands – many hands. Rosa Luz did not dare to open her eyes. At first, two of the hands touched her: They started each at the inside of one of her legs, moving up, slowly, but unstoppable, towards the part where both her legs met. Their touch was caressing, it almost soothed her fear a bit. At the same time, the direction of the hands was unmistakeable. Then another hand was placed on her head, where it started playing with her hair. There were more hands that carefully caressed her shoulders, her stomach, and then approached her breasts.

Rosa Luz' heart still beat wildly with fear. But there was something in the tenderness of those hands' touch that calmed her down and replaced the fear with something else, with a wish that Rosa Luz couldn't quite define.

She felt a hand touching one of her breasts, and she felt her nipple stiffening under the touch. Soon another hand reached her other breast. For a moment they were playing with her nipples, which were more sensitive than she had ever felt them – each touch sent a shiver through her body. Then they cupped her breasts firmly.

The hands between her legs reached the place they had been aiming for since first making contact with her skin. Rosa Luz felt them touching her where she had been taught since her childhood that not even she herself was to touch. For a second, she remembered the whispered references of other young girls in her school, or the admonishing glances of the Brothers in the mission about the jokes like those of the men at the nightwatch. But when she felt the warm contact of fingers with that place, a sweet, honeyed feeling overwhelmed her and made her forget her fear – made her crave more of that touch, and her lips parted to let out a low moan in which she could barely recognize her own voice. It sounded more like something an animal would utter.

The fingers moved down a bit, parted her lips, and tried to push between them into her. To her surprise Rosa Luz could feel that she was wet inside. One finger entered her easily, just to move out of her again and distribute that liquid that had come from inside her on the spot that it had touched before.

The girl now wanted to open her eyes and see who was touching her, who was holding her to be subject to these many hands, and how many people were there around her. But just at this moment, another pair of hands moved over her eyes, covered them and kept her from opening them. The hands felt warm, and softer than any human hands Rosa Luz had ever felt. Something was different about them, but she could not quite say what it was. And again, they gave her a strangely comforting feeling that made her forget her uncomfortable situation, that made her give in to their touch.

The finger continued pushing into her – carefully, but slowly getting stronger. Rosa Luz had never experienced a feeling like this caused her before, and would not have been able to describe it if asked. It took over her body completely, and darkened out every thought, made her forget the fear, fever and the tiredness of her body. She could hear the echo of moans in the forest, but barely realized it was her own voice that she heard. It was getting louder, the moans turning almost into screams, and Rosa Luz believed she saw an explosion of lights within her closed eyes, while a wave of pleasure shook her body.

Then, suddenly, the hands left her. Those between her legs, those on her breasts, those that had been caressing the rest of her body were removed. Only those on her eyes remained.

For a few moments, her body was exposed only to the night air. She was still held up by her arms and legs. Trembling, yearning to be touched again she listened into the night to hear if she could make out someone there. Him, them, whoever was keeping her like this, whoever had made her feel like this. But all she could hear was silence, and in the distance, the nightly sounds of the jungle. She tasted a strange yet sweet scent in the air that she knew came from her own body. It mixed with the smell of the jungle. As if no one was there, except her and the forest.

The next moment, she felt the hands again, roaming her body gently, as if exploring it. At the same time, she felt something else touching her between her legs. It wasn't just a finger this time. What was probing at her still wet entrance now seemed a lot larger than the fingers that had been there before.

She felt it trying to enter her. She could feel it pulsating, she felt it was thick, for a moment she thought it would never be able to get inside her – and fear welled up in her again. What was happening here? Who was this, and what was he planning to do to her? Somewhere in the back of her mind, Rosa Luz remembered the pictures some girls had secretly looked at when she was staying in the city, and the stories they had told. She had never seen a naked man, but she had seen pictures of them.

She tried to struggle against the strong grip on her arms and legs, but she knew it was useless. She wanted to call out for help, but at that very moment she felt him pushing into her, entering her deeply in one thrust. For a moment there was a sharp pain that turned the call she had on her lips into a short scream.

A moment later the pain was gone. Rosa Luz could feel that he – whoever he was – was deep inside her, holding still. Then he started moving slowly, and again the feelings that made her almost forget her fear overwhelmed her. Whoever it was that had entered her so crudely was now making her feel like she had never felt before.

The hands – she could never make out how many there were – started caressing her body again. While she felt him moving inside her slowly, pulling out a bit and then re-entering her gently, the hands were careful, soft. As he picked up the rhythm, began thrusting more strongly into her, the hands became more demanding as well. One of them touched her right at the same spot as before, without interfering with what was thrusting into her. Its rhythmic little movements made the sensations inside her grow again, until once more they overwhelmed her.

Rosa Luz felt hands on her breasts, cupping them gently at first, then pinching her. She felt them on her behind; massaging it strongly enough for her to be sure she would have bruises there for quite a while afterwards. She felt something on her neck – it did not feel like a hand, more like a mouth. She believed she could make out teeth that were biting her strong enough to hurt, but gently enough to make her moan with pleasure instead of pain.

The hands, or mouths, or whatever they were, seemed to change their form and their texture all the time. She couldn't possibly guess what they were. At times they felt smooth, like the leaves of some of the trees, or cold like the water of the jungle rivers. Sometimes they were rough like the bark on the trees.

Maybe it was the fever, maybe it was the fact that she was lost in the jungle, or maybe the realization that she could not stop this and get away – but whatever the reason, Rosa Luz had given up her fear. She gave in to what her body felt. When her body writhed, it wasn't to get out of her ties anymore – she was trying to meet the thrusts, to open herself even more, offer her whole body to whoever was there. She no longer wondered who was doing this to her, she just wanted it to go on. She wanted to stay here forever.

Another wave of pleasure overwhelmed her; she wasn't sure how many times this had happened by now, but it was stronger this time. So strong that she wasn't sure she would be able to take it. The sound that escaped her lips echoed through the forest.

At that moment, the hands that had been covering her eyes disappeared, as did the other hands that had been touching her, and everything else. Rosa Luz needed a second to be able see in the still dark jungle – but when she could, she did not see anything but the jungle. Around her were only trees. There was only her and the jungle.

She was still lifted up into the air by something she could not make out. She could see it wasn't a snake. It seemed more like it was the branch of one of the huge trees. And it was starting to lift her up higher and higher, further away from the ground. Leaves and other parts of trees brushed past her on her way up. Then her eyes caught a glimpse of something in the existence of which she had almost stopped believing – the sky. It was covered with thousands of beautiful stars, and it was huge, wide, from horizon to horizon, just like the jungle underneath it. She could feel the cold wind, fresh air, and when she looked up, the darkness was not green anymore, but blue – calming her eyes.

She was held above the jungle, just on top of what seemed the tallest tree of the whole forest, and she could see it stretch out beneath her, never-ending, and she believed she could feel it breathing calmly, like a animal. As if it was alive. And she suddenly realized again, that she was alone with the jungle. The jungle was holding her up here, allowing her one last look at the sky. The jungle had claimed her as his. Her eyes went back up to the stars that were growing more faint, as the sky was slowly changing its dark blue into a lighter color, with pink and orange lights appearing on the horizon. Then, she felt she was sinking back down, into the jungle, and soon the darkness closed around her again.

***

Over two centuries passed before another white person entered that part of the jungle. Since the cauchú boom, the little jungle settlement had grown, and was now an important city. Tourists had started appearing to explore the surrounding jungles. But none ever came close to that secluded area where the tallest trees grew, and where there was so much growth that it swallowed even the sounds of the insects and birds.

Even the few remaining people of the jungle tribes usually kept away from the area. It was said to be sacred, the centre of the jungle. It was not a place where people were allowed. Once or twice, the big enterprises who took expensive wood out of the jungle to sell it to rich countries had wanted to send their workers there, but after a few of those workers had died of mysterious diseases, no one dared to go back.

Finally though, a scientist arrived. He was in search of new information about jungle plants and animals, and he finally talked some of the locals into leading him into this mysterious part of the jungle. His modern equipment made the journey through the jungle a lot easier than it had been for people in the past. So, finally, he stepped into that part of the jungle in which no one had entered for such a long time.

There, he found a small clearing in which there grew some beautiful flowers – more beautiful than anything he had ever seen. His guide could not give him a name for the flowers, but he told him of an old legend according to which a girl had got lost in the jungle a long time ago – a girl so beautiful that even the jungle fell in love with her, and turned her into a flower to keep her forever.

The scientist decided to take some of those flowers with him, but as soon as he left those parts of the jungle, they withered and died. He concluded that they could only live in the special climate of this one jungle clearing. He decided to spend some time there and study them, hopefully to find out how to grow them elsewhere, because he wanted to share their beauty with the world. He called them Jungle Roses, because of their beauty and sweet fragrance. One day though, he hoped, they'd be given his name, though as a modest person of course he couldn't do so himself.

Thus, soon after the flowers he had taken back with himself died, he got ready for a new journey, to return to the clearing, study the mysterious flowers, and write many articles about them for scientific and flower lovers' magazines. But before he reached the place, the fever of the jungle caught him. The scientist died, without being able to tell anyone about the flowers, except for his local guides, who had come with him on the first journey.

And they knew better than to tell anyone. They knew that these flowers were the jungle's, and only the jungle's. Because the jungle doesn't let go of that which it once claims as his.