Mother and Daughter

Last Evening

There’s a party at the inn tonight. Sara jokes that it’s to celebrate our leaving. I suspect that it’s the opposite. We’ve made quite a few friends during our time here, and I think they wanted to send us off with a bang.

The toughest part is to drag Hannah away from the archeology table. But I manage to, and we go home to change into more party-appropriate outfits.

My kid knows how to make an entrance in style.

She’s ready to demonstrate that she’s got some moves, too! She got them from her mamma.

A few of us join her on the dancefloor. Simrumba time!

The inn owner is a bit shy with selfies, but Hannah is really convincing. To her, too, she promises that we’ll be back, and they hug like old friends.

She also takes selfies with Sara, and she spends most of the night talking to her. They don’t have a lot in common, but they’re fascinated with each other, and I can tell that they’re becoming best friends even faster than I’m getting drunk on the local alcohol.

And finally, she takes selfies with me.

Madre Cosecha

At the inn I finally find a working payphone to contact Hugo, confirming the time of our arrival tomorrow.

And that’s when he tells me about Mom and Mam. He’s got tears in his voice as he tells me the full story. Grandma is with him, as he has refused to let her stay alone in Brindleton Bay. He gives her the phone, and Grandma and I talk. We’re both grief-stricken, but neither of us cries. In a way we’re both happy, impossibly happy to have each other.

When I hang up, I hang around the marketplace aimlessly. I know I’ll have to tell Hannah — but not tonight.

My feet bring me to the statue of Madre Cosecha.

She’s a mother figure to the Selvadoradans, They respect her, and honor her, for bringing their community to life. I pay her my respects, and to my own beloved mothers, as well.

The Last Morning

This is our last day in Selvadorada. The bags are packed, and now it’s all about making the most of the time we have left. We can’t risk another trip into the jungle — it would be too easy to get lost and miss the plane home, so the motorboat doesn’t leave the pier.

One last time, we head to the food stall in the marketplace for lunch. We’re starting to get the hang out of Selvadoradan cuisine.

Quite eyeing my food, Hannah, you’re not getting any of it.

We’ve mastered the Selvadoradan tastes and spices. Granted I had a headstart on Hannah, after living for years just above the Spice Market.

After lunch, Hannah goes to the pier to make her dad proud and bring him back some pictures of Selvadoradan fishes.

In the meantime, I find Sara again, at her usual spot at the market.

How do you thank someone who saved your daughter’s life?

You can’t, not really. But it doesn’t stop me from trying.

“It’s okay, Azalea!” she smiles. We’re obviously on a first-name basis now. “Just promise me that you’ll come back to Selvadorada, and that you’ll be more careful next time.”

Meanwhile, Hannah’s reeling something in.

She somehow found another omiscan treasure while fishing — this kid has a gift.

Back to her exploring roots, she sets out to explore every single suspect-looking rock around the marketplace.

The Cure

We exit the temple in haste, and we don’t even stop by the bungalow. Hannah’s getting worse. The adrenaline rush of finding the treasure has kept her energized for a while, but now I can see that she’s degrading. She can barely stand, and I fear for her life.

She’s also got a terrible breath, so she makes sure to take care of that first. She has a favor to ask someone, and she doesn’t want them to turn away from her.

In the meantime, I ask around to learn exactly who to ask, who can help Hannah understand what’s happening, and most importantly, help her heal.

It’s her. Her name is Sara, and she knows everything about what they call the Illness. Many wannabe-explorers, and even some unlucky locals, have contracted it over the years upon coming to close to one of the ancient omiscan monuments.

“So you know how to cure it?”

“Not just that, I have the remedy here! You just need to ask some bone powder, if you have some.”

“Oh, I do! I made a friend in the temple, and he left me some!”

“Bottoms up, Hannah!”

“Thank you, thank you so much!”

We dance all night to celebrate her getting better — and in the end it’s the embarrassment of seeing her mother simrumba under the encouragement of strangers that figuratively kills her.

Better that than literally, if you ask me.

The Last Puzzle

I managed to unlock the way to the very last corridor — no thanks to Hannah’s new friend — and we are now faced with one single mystery.

There’s an elevated slab on the floor, that clearly demands to be stepped on. Hannah can smell a trap, though, and she starts examining it.

I’m on the other side of the room, digging up old relics for her to examine later.

Hannah tells me that, according to what she’s observed, one needs a spirited state of mind to activate the switch. She says the glyphs on the slab seem to depict some sort of food, a mystical offering that would bring you to the right spiritual space.

“Mom, I know. The berries! The berries you found! Give me the green ones!”

An energized step…

It works! The whole room is now bathed in a mystical blue light, and on the other end of the corridor, a gateway opens.

The treasure room.

Hannah steps into that magical space, and she might as well be walking among the stars. The walls glitter with a billion gems, and the gems themselves cast an eerie blue light on the two chests in the middle of the room.

In the first, most plain of the two treasure chests, there’s a golden, ancient plate, and many coins.

Trembling, and not just with poison fever, Hannah places her hands on the second chest, the most heavily decorated of the two.

She pushes against the lid. Golden light pours out.

She knows what this is — our friend at then inn talked about them — what Hannah is holding, she knows, is an item of immense power.

It’s an ancient relic.

A Blue Friend

Just because he’s possibly dead and shines like turquoise doesn’t mean we shouldn’t greet him like anybody else. And in the customary Selvadoradan manner, as well!

“Yeah, we’re trying to get past this next trap,” Hannah explains in a rudimentary Selvadoradan. I just start examining the pillar she was looking at. I’m not about that whole talking skeleton business.

“Sorry,” the blue dude says. “I was a bit busy when they built this room, I have no idea how to deal with this. However, if you want, I can dance the simrumba like no one else alive!”

Hannah doesn’t have the heart to correct him.

She also doesn’t dare ask where he found these bones, since they’re obviously not a part of his, er, body.

Poisoned

Hannah goes and takes pictures of everything pertaining to ancient Selvadoradan lore, and she takes notes as well. My budding archeologist.

There’s another trap ahead, so we divide the tasks and start problem-solving together, mother and daughter. We’re each in a different corner of the room, but we’re bonding, sharing details we noticed and insight on mysteries from behind our notebooks.

Hannah is the first to crack her code — or at least she thinks she has.

Bravely, she sticks her hand into an opening in the pillar.

Another tarantula!

With a bit less class than for her first spider attack, she jerks her hand away.

The spider is off her skin, but unfortunately this has distracted her from the real peril.

A dart flies across the room and sticks itself straight into Hannah’s neck. Her whole body tenses up. Poison!

The effects are instantaneous. Hannah’s skin gets bloated and fluorescent green, and she develops an immediate headache and nausea.

… Seriously?

The First Room

Finally, we walk through that first gate, between the sculpted llama faces and their watchful eyes.

the first thing we do is set up a few excavation sites. This first hall is a mess of broken items and turned up tiles — oh, the treasures we’re going to find here!

After her trip by the flower bush, Hannah doesn’t smell the best either, so I pass her one shower in a bottle.

Trying to find more info about dug up artifacts.

In the next room, another challenge awaits us. This door is electrified, and Hannah and I have had our share of electricity over the past few days. So we’re not even going to THINK about risking it.