Were to Start

Part 1

Where to start? Were to start? I guess, that would be South America, Brazil to be exact. I Jason, and my wife Emily wanted to see The Amazon, and tour Brazil to see if any of the sights from Fast Five showed up. The trip was mainly to see the rainforests, though we'd be in some populated areas quite frequently, so the movie came to mind while we were planning our little expedition.

We flew into Rio, spending a long weekend there, but moved to Salvador for a couple days as well. Spanish from our days of being educated helped, but it wasn't much better than only knowing English would be. Nothing really stood out from the movie, so we weren't inclined to stay any longer than necessary by the coast. Catching an early flight, leaving Salvador behind us, we flew to Manaus.

Other than the sight of the muddy Amazon River, meeting the nearly black waters of the Rio Negro, there really wasn't much to see there, so we spent most of our time in Manaus getting some hiking gear put together. We'd found a guide to help us traverse the rainforests before we left Stuart Florida, we just needed to contact him and let him know we were in the area now, and ready to head out whenever he was. We ended up having to kill one more day in Manaus before he said he'd meet us at the rental company to return our car.

Luiz had a rather spacious amphibious car, not much smaller than a Range Rover. After introductions, Luiz suggested we stop for some camping food, in case we were too far from accommodations when we decided to turn in for the day during the next couple of weeks.

"For the next three weeks, we'll be in and out of jungle habitat," Luiz told us. "There are two places where I will not leave the car. Both have had reports of supernatural occurrences that I'm not willing to be near. I will give some advice, that you can regard as you like, but at those two locations, you are on your own." His warning came across as ominous, neither I nor Emily are superstitious, but we are open minded. We would listen to his advice, and take it from there.

The rainforests were beautiful to all three of us. I can understand why Luiz would keep working as a guide around The Amazon, it was simply breathtaking in many locations. The first site we saw that Luiz warned us about was similar to the Incas in Peru. "I'll stay here on the access road, but if you hear rumbling and the ground feels like it's quaking, move away from any of the dwellings until the calm returns."

We walked the settlement for a bit, until we noticed the rumbling. I wouldn't say what we felt was anywhere near what California's earthquakes, likely felt like. Nor what I would expect to feel at the foot of a volcano starting to erupt, but it was enough to take Luiz' words to heart. Some stray animals were in the area, they too moved away from the structures, except for a small dog that didn't get far enough away. We only noticed the dog when we heard it yelp. Looking in that direction, we saw the end of what I would call a hot spring geyser. Being a lawyer, my mind went to reasons why the geysers were just around the structures. I concluded it had to have something to do with construction of the buildings weakening the ground that they were built on.

When the area returned to its calm state, we tried to check on the dog, but it was standoffish, not an animal you want to get too near, even if only to help it. We looked around a bit more, before heading back to Luiz and his car.

"Got an idea of what you were talking about Luiz," I told him. "Even the animals moved away from any of the structures, except a dog that seemed not much older than a pup."

"Poor beast," he replied. "If it's lucky, it will die soon from its injuries. If not, it could be a horrible existence until it does finally die. Those springs from what I understand are quite painful if they come in contact with the body."

"Is there anyone to notify of the dog?" Emily asked him.

"We don't really have anyone that looks for animals in the rainforests like your humane societies in the states," he answered. "Law of the land here, really. Survival of the fittest, however you want to put it. The cats will probably find the dog before anyone looking would stand a chance."

"The cats?" I asked.

"Jaguars, other big cats, the predators of the rainforests and jungles," he explained. I guess that made sense. "There is a shrine, nobody knows where it came from, or who built it, but that's the other place I will let you out and wait in the car. Several of the big cats are represented, mainly it's statues, but there is also an altar.

We were in our second week with Luiz guiding us when we made it to the shrine. There was an archway that looked like it was crafted out of stone cats piled on top of each other. The archway was the beginning of a long corridor that lead to an immense walled area. The interior of the walled area had to be larger than a professional football stadium. All along the walls were carvings of trees, with large cats prowling their branches. The details were exquisite, so much so, that Emily and I just stood there gawking for several long moments. As the sun grew higher in the sky, it appeared as though color was filling the scenery that we were taking in.

It was nearing midday, and the cats and trees carved into the walls gave a sense of being real. The beasts didn't move an inch, but the colors were what we would expect the live cats to look like. The trees were the color of leaves and bark. The eye colors of the cats varied, yellow, gold, green, a striking slate blue, almost like they were alive with lightning. The ones that looked the most alive were the ones that were green, blue, or a combination of the two.

Then we noticed the statues in the center of the area. Two golden cats stood facing each other, as if trying to get a read on what the other cat was thinking. Walking closer to the two, you could see the detail that they had. If they had been a natural color, one might think twice about approaching them. The smaller of the two had those same blue eyes that many of the ones carved into the walls had. Being a little closer, it was similar to the color you see of the oceans in the tropics that stands out so well in magazines. The larger of the two had the combination of green and blue. Just around the pupil, the green was more vibrant, deeper, richer than any green I had seen before. Imagine a richer green similar to Mountain Dew, that faded into a brilliant aqua.

Both of the cats, although golden, appeared to have real coats of fur. Surely, my eyes had to be playing a trick on me. "Em, does that look like gold fur to you?"

"Yes Hon, that's exactly what it looks like."

Holding hands with Emily, as we do most of the time we are anywhere together, we reached up to feel the cats statues. Em reached for the smaller one, and I reached for other larger one. It felt like real fur, but that was my last thought before I felt a tingling sensation, and lost consciousness. When I felt myself returning to awareness, I looked for Emily. She too was in a state of waking, but her eyes. Holy smokes, they were the same as the smaller cat. I heard a honk, then Luiz yelling, "Mr. and Mrs. Weaver, can you hear me?" He didn't sound very far away, so I called back that I could, getting no reply from him.

I looked at my watch, 11:45. That's odd, we got here around 8:30, it couldn't have been three hours already. Emily was looking at me, and I think she noticed my eyes, as hers were like saucers. "What?" I asked her.

"Your eyes, they match the larger cat's."

"And yours, the smaller cat," I informed her.

We picked ourselves up, and dusted off. Resuming our hand holding, we made our way back out, not even looking for the aforementioned alter. Luiz called us a couple times, and we replied, but we got the feeling he couldn't hear us. He did finally hear us when we got about halfway back out the corridor. I could hear his car running, I could hear the air conditioner, and the radio station he was listening too. More than just my eyes have changed if I'm not mistaken.

We were just about to the car when Luiz looked up from his phone. "Holy Shit," he exclaimed. "That's what gave me the feeling of static electricity two hours ago."

"Huh, what's that Luiz," I asked him.

"About forty-five minutes after you went through the archway, I had a feeling of static cling," he said. "My radio cut out for a couple of seconds, but I thought maybe it was just the reception. What happened in there?"

"That was about the time we checked to see if the statues felt as much like fur as they looked like," Emily explained. "Was that really two hours ago? We heard you call for us about five minutes ago, and called back, but until we got halfway back down the corridor, it didn't sound like you could hear us."

"First time I heard you call back was just a couple minutes ago, I've been calling out to you for half an hour," Luiz explained. "I think it best to make sure you are ready to travel home, then we should get to the airport, and get you the next flight back to the states. You've both already changed eye colors, and I don't know if anything else will happen. This is a place with supernatural tendencies like I said earlier, if more changes happen, I don't think your papers will get you home."

Being lawyers, his last point struck a chord. We readily agreed, and checked our belongings to make sure we were ready to fly. Manaus was only a few hours away, by five we were on First Class standby, with a notation that Business Class would be preferable to a later flight. The last warning we got from Luiz after we thanked him for being our guide was, Stay Awake. Keep an eye on each other for changes, and try to think of something to tell the customs officers about changes we noticed.

We flew home Business class, departure time was 7:55PM. Landing just after midnight on the non-stop flight, we just had to deal with Customs. That was certainly a stalemate for a couple hours. They were of course worried about communicable diseases, since both of us had different eye color to our passports. Mine said hazel, and Emily was listed with green. A bit after 3:00AM we had finally convinced them, with the help of our law degrees that we'd been splashed in the eyes at one of the primitive sites in the rainforest, and we'd need our optometrist to check us out, to make sure we weren't at risk of losing our vision. It was the reason we gave for coming directly home.

We didn't actually make it into Stuart until nearly six in the morning. Once we got in the house both of us passed out, on top of the covers, fully dressed. I opened my eyes, the light was always bright in the early afternoon in our bedroom. Sheer blue curtains mainly colored the room, doing little to block out the sun. The curtains only provided minimal privacy, since our bedroom faced the fenced in backyard. I could smell the male laying close to me, I was ready for him to mount me. That thought seems strange. Then another thought, that seems equally strange, was I would be happy giving birth to two cubs, but three or four would be better.

I saw him sprawled out on the floor, there was a spot of white grass he was laying on. Something wasn't right, why was the grass white? What am I laying on? it doesn't feel like grass. I got up and stretched, then moved towards the male. The dirt is too hard, and why is it this color?

'Jason, can you hear me?' the male growled.

I growled too, 'Of course I can.'

'Jason, I think we are the cats from the statue.' Oh shit! I thought. 'We have to find a way to turn back to human.' he growled.