"What?!!" They exclaimed low enough for everyone to hear themselves.
It was some human beings like them, they were dressed in animal furs. Everyone watched from their hidden places as they moved closer to their trapped meat. It was then that the crew realized that they were the ones that laid down the trap that had just caught the cheetah.
"Look, this is big meat. I was expecting a raccoon or any other smaller animals",one of them said.
They were around eight, but what was even more surprising to the crew was that they also spoke English.
"Don't you think we should approach them?" one of the crew asked in a persuasive manner.
James paused for a while before finally saying something.
"Let us wait a little. I know them and I once stalked them to their village. There were a few thousand in the population, and they are not really aggressive, but I think we should spy on them for a while before making any. It is just a suggestion that can be ignored if there are any better ideas".
"We will go with that" Malcom concluded as they watched the villagers take away their catch happily.
A few days passed, and they had gathered enough information, and had even discovered the name of the village, and even most of the people there.
They now know that they can approach them without fearing, and they know already that they are a clan willing to negotiate something that will benefit them.
They all journeyed to the Kulum clan hoping for a positive outcome.
Their plan was to see if they sought help in taking down the jaguar clan.
They were sure that the two clans were rivals, and wanted to get the "Emerald idol".
As soon as they got there, they met some of the villagers who directed them to the king of the village palace.
It was just like one of the smallest houses you would find in the city, that is, even if you see one built with mud. The village head only permitted two guests, so they had to decide among themselves who the duo would be.
They all thought for a while before Ryan broke the silence.
"I think it should be me and you, Malcom. Is there anyone that would be able to handle this matter better than us?" Ryan said.
"I don't think it should be the two of us, Mr. James knows more about them than both of us, so maybe one of them should go with him…" Malcom replied, knowing how hard it might be to persuade someone.
Malcom hardly finished speaking before one of the guards cut in. "Finish up quickly, don't you have a leader?"
That word, "don't you have a leader" struck most of the crew.
It is high time they needed a leader. They only refer to everyone with respect to their archeological achievements and rankings, but they don't have anytime to do that now, they will have to leave that for later.
In a short time, they decided that James and Ryan should go together. Malcom couldn't go because of his temper. They also considered Darren, but she said she wouldn't be of help since it is not something about any spiritual means.
After they got into the palace, they met the king sitting at the right end of the palace. The king was an old man, old enough to be their father with mixed gray and white-colored hair.
He had two concubines, on his right and left sides of the sofa-like wood chair. They were not so sure if they were concubines, but they looked and acted like one.
"Hello sir" they both chorused on getting to the palace as they were shown a seat some feet away from the king's seat.
They knew they had to be respectful to the king.
"Hello, you requested a meeting, and I grant you one, so, what is it that you wanted to talk about so badly" the king said, making a sign to the ladies to stop their services temporarily.
"We found out that you are rivals with the jaguar clan, and, we are offering to help you with that," Ryan said, starting the discussions.
"I don't need help with that, and I can tell you that you are surely spies from the jaguar clan".
"I would have had your heads cut off, or you two thrown into prison, but, I will decide not to decide because I am in a good mood right now, so I would advise you to leave with your dirty tricks to tell your master that I am not in for games".
"We are not troublemakers from the jaguar clan, we are just trying to help you get rid of them", James said and further added, "we noticed they are a bad clan with no justice, and we are offering to get rid of injustice".
"Who are you, and why are you offering to help? I can't just trust you men that I know from nowhere".
"Give me a solid reason or perhaps tell me the truth if you are lying about something. Has he done something bad to you before?".
James and Ryan saw that they couldn't hide anything from the experienced old man and decided to tell him all they wanted and why they wanted it.
Since he also had a grudge against the jaguar clan, he decided to help them but for a price.
"I would only be able to help for a price, and as you know, business people don't do things for free".
"We have nothing to help with. After all, we are just visitors here and didn't come with anything precious enough for your status", James said in a rather persuasive voice.
"You said you were an archeologists, right?"
"Then you should have some artifacts you brought with you or some that you found on your way here" the king said without waiting for them to answer his questions.
"We have a few artifacts that we brought on our way here and some of them will be worth thousands of bucks, so, we will give one of those precious gems in exchange for 1000 soldiers?" Ryan said, the discussion down to a negotiation which he was very good at.
"That sounds right, I will give you 3000 soldiers in exchange for three worthy gems?".
"Let us make this 5000 for five gems".
And what looked like eternity, they finalized the deal and stood on 5000 for five gems.
All this time there was more like a commotion outside the palace.
A child had been stung by a wild poisonous bat but, luckily, the shaman was there to save the child. Everyone was thankful and impressed by what the shaman had just done.
This led them to inform their king about what had just happened.
"I heard that a savior had come to our village here and has just saved a boy" the king stated as soon as he left the palace.
"I also heard that she is one of the team that offered to help us defeat the jaguar, and you all know they are our greatest rival on earth".
"As a reward I would like to add another 10000 soldiers to go with them to defeat the jaguar clan. As you all know, the safety of the people is more important to me than any other thing" these were the last words of the king as he retired back to his palace followed by some hailing from the impressed villagers.