KARA THE JUNGLE PRINCESS

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KARA THE JUNGLE PRINCESS

(c) 2010 by Anthony Durrant and based on a story from Better/Nedor/Standard comics.

As Lieutenant Jane Powell helped the shaman Baldayo onto the plane bound for the Limpopo river basin, she saw that the pilot was Major Christopher "Kit" Walker, one of the finest pilots in the U.S. Army Air Force.  A tall sturdy man with short dark hair and laughing blue eyes, Kit had flown a transport plane for seven years.  Jane climbed into the plane and sat beside Baldayo in the back seat as Kit closed the hatch and activated the engine.  As soon as the propellor was spinning, Kit guided it down the runway and into the air.

Baldayo stared out the plane's window as Jane told him:

"Don't be nervous, Baldayo.  We'll be landing at your village very soon."

"It is not me that I am nervous about, memsahib!"  Baldayo replied.  "It is you.  I have been told by the spirits that you will find your destiny below the Limpopo River, and that I will be in the Dreamtime by then."

"The what?" Kit shouted.

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"The Dreamtime is the African native's version of Heaven, Kit!"  Jane replied.

Baldayo handed Jane a pouch and said:

"The time for parting is close at hand, Memsahib.  The powder contained in that pouch will keep you safe from danger, and with a second dose, make you immortal."

At that moment, as the plane was crossing the Limpopo, its fuel tank exploded.  Opening the pouch, Jane ate some of the powder she found within.  Kit pointed the plane's nose downward toward the Limpopo, and seconds later, the burning craft hit the water and zoomed toward the bottom of the river.  As soon as the raft hit the bottom, it was spotted by a pair of Arohitian hunters.  Seeing Jane in the craft's cockpit, they picked up the plane and took it through one of their underwater tunnels into the city of Arohiti.  There, they ripped off the top of the plane's fuselage and pulled Kit and Jane out whole and alive.  Kit took Jane by the hand and led her away from the plane as its fuel tanks exploded.  Baldayo wasn't so lucky - he'd died in the crash.

"Kara!"  a tall female Arohitian warrior cried.

"Kara!"  cried a man.  "Our princess is returned!"

"Hail Kara!"  a second warrior cried.  "Hail Kara!"

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"Why are they calling her 'Kara?'"  Kit asked as he and Jane were led into the palace.

"Because she is our princess!"  the female warrior said.  "Ages ago, she was sent away to the surface world to protect her until she came of age and was prepared to take the throne, but because we Arohitians are immortal, that day never came.  I was there when Kara was sent above, and it broke my heart when I and my brothers and sisters in battle had to bid our little flower farewell forever.  Now that Kara is returned, we can wrest Arohiti's throne from her brother and allow her to rule over us in peace."

As soon as Jane and Kit had entered the palace, they were led to a huge room near the end of the long central corridor.

"You will wait here until you are rested and ready for your confrontation with your brother Yahmose!"  said the warrior as she and her brothers and sisters left the room and Jane and Kit reclined on the cushions on the divans.

"They don't realize I'm not their Kara!"  Jane said.  "And I don't have the heart to tell them that Kara must've died a long time ago!"

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"Then we've got no choice, Jane!"  Kit said.  "You must become the woman, and the princess, the Arohitians believe you to be!"

She turned around, and Kit ripped off her damaged uniform and helped her put on Kara's clothes, which were lying on the edge of the divan.  When she was clad in the royal robes and tiara, Kit saw that she was built like a swimmer, with broad shoulders and a very narrow waist.  Impressed, he bit back a wolf whistle as she turned around and he saw her in the robes for the first time.  Her flat stomach was very visible, and their crimson colour only served to highlight her blonde hair and fair skin.  The royal tiara only barely held back her long hair, which went down to the small of her back, and the rubies set in it highlighted her heart-shaped face.  Kit said with a wry smile:

"You look wonderful, Kara!"

"Yes," Jane - now Kara - said, "but I'm fearful that Yahmose will realize I'm not his sister!"

"Don't worry about that!"  Kit said.  "You're her double, and that'll be enought to upset him!"

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Her handmaidens then took hold of her train, and she and Kit walked out of their chambers and down the long corridor to the throne room, which was at the very end.  The man and woman guarding it opened the doors, and then Kit and Kara walked into the room beyond.  There, seated on a throne, was a tall slender man with a lean, bony face and dark brown eyes that pierced the gentle Kara's heart with their coldness and pure evil.

"Yahmose," Kara said simply, "I have returned."

"LIES!" cried Yahmose - for this evil man must be Kara's brother - angrily.  "You are merely a little fish from the river above us, who has been brought here from the surface world."

"I am your sister, Yahmose," Kara replied, "and I have returned from my long exile from Arohiti to reclaim my kingdom from you."

But Yahmose replied by ordering his guards to seize Kara and Kit and throw them into the dungeon below the castle, which they did.

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"I am sorry, little flower," the warrior who had helped rescue Kit and Kara earlier whispered in her ear, "but I have to follow the Great Lord's orders."

The Great Lord being Yahmose, Kara thoought sadly as she and Kit were taken down to the dungeon where they were locked in a cell with a tall man who came up to them and said:

"I am Kharis, High Priest of Arohiti.  Yahmose has held me in this cell for the past 2000 years.  He is a follower of Set, the god of evil, and must be destroyed before Kara can claim her rightful throne as the Great Lady of Arohiti."

"Then, that's just what we'll do!"  Kara cried.

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Yahmose, meanwhile was signing a document in the throne room that increased his share of the taxes extracted by his warriors from the people of Arohiti daily.  He then placed his seal on the document, making it automatically legal.

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"What do you intend to do about Kara?"  the female warrior who'd helped rescue Kara earlier asked him.

"Let her rot in my dungeons, of course!"  he said.  "No woman - not even my younger sister - may sit on the royal throne of Arohiti, Klematis!  The man from the upper world must rot there, too!"

Shocked, Klematis abandoned her post for the first and only time in her millennia of service to the throne of Arohiti and hurried out of the throne room, heading directly for the dungeon.

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"Kara!  Kara!"  Klematis cried as she ran up to the door of Kara's cell.  "Yahmose intended to allow you to die alone with Kit and the High Priest right there in that cell where you are imprisoned!"

Using her spear, Klematis ripped the cell door off of its hinges, and the three prisoners hurried out of the cell and ran toward the stairs.  There, Kit shot one of the men who guarded the dungeon right between the eyes, and Klematis ran her spear through the other guard's heart.  Once both men were dead, Kara and the others ran up the stairs to the main corridor of the palace.  They then hurried through the corridor

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to the throne room doors, where they were greeted by the guards.

"These two are totally loyal to Yahmose," Klematis told the others, "so do not worry about having to injure or kill the two of them."

"That takes a load off my mind!"  Kit cried as he shot the man in the head with his pistol and Kara grabbed the fallen man's spear and rammed it through the female warrior's heart.

"To the throne room!"  cried Kit.

"To the throne room!"  Kara shouted as they all smashed the doors down and entered the throne room - only to find it empty!

"Yahmose has escaped!" shouted Klematis as the three of them stared at the empty throne.

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"But, how?" Kit cried.  "He must've been in here only a few minutes ago!"

Kara walked over to the throne and examined it carefully.  When she lifted the cushion on the seat, she found herself staring into a 100-foot deep hole underneath!  Disgusted, she said:

"So, that's how the coward escaped.  He simply opened the latch on the seat, lifted it up - it has hinges at the back - and dropped down into the hole.  Because he's an Arohitian, the fall wouldn't even have cut him . . . so, unless we stop him, Yahmose will escape for keeps!"

"Then we must follow him down into the hole as well if we are to capture him!"  cried Kit angrily.  "The only way you can rule legally is if Yahmose abdicates of his own free will."

And so they entered the escape hole and climbed down it into the room below.  There, they found Yahmose in the secret chamber, busily packing for his escape from Arohiti.  Kara shouted:

"We've finally found your hidey-hole, my brother, so you must surely realize you can't escape from us for very long!"

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"Oh, I can't, can't I?"  Yahmose retorted as he tucked his possessions in a bag and then ran to the escape door on the other side.  "I know many of the people of the jungles of Arohiti and they will help me win back my rightful throne."

He then flashed the ring on his right hand at Kara, hypnotizing her with the dazzling gem set in it.  He smiled evilly as he said to her:

"Kara, you were always the favoured one over me, but now I have you in my power.  You will stay frozen here while I make my escape from Arohiti, and you will not send the guards after me."

But Yahmose had reckoned without the speed of Kit's shooting arm.  He drew and fired directly at Yahmose's ring, shattering the gem to pieces in an instant.  Yahmose burst into flames, and when the fire had died down, another man was standing where Yahmose had been only a few minutes before.  He ran up to Kara and asked:

"Oh, Kara, my little flower!  I've missed you so much.  Can you ever forgive your grandfather, your Yuya, for what he has done?"

Kara looked at Kit and then told Yuya:

"Of course I forgive you, Yuya!"

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"What have you done?"  Kit asked Yuya.

"The real Yahmose died of old age after we had attained immortality because he would not drink the serum that would have made him immortal.  On his deathbed, he gave his ring to me, and when I put it on, I became Yahmose and did his evil deeds for over two thousand years.  Now that I am freed of his ring's power, I should like to welcome you back, Kara, Great Lady of Arohiti.  Welcome home."

"Thank you, Yuya!"  Kara cried warmly.

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When the news reached the palace officials, they came to the throne room to welcome Kara into their lives and their hearts.  In turn, Kara was so delighted by their warm greeting that she thanked them all graciously.

"All hail Kara!"  the High Priest cried as Klematis brought him into the throne room.

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"Hail Kara, Great Lady of Arohiti!"  everyone cried.

"Hail Kara!  Hail Kara!"  Yuya shouted.

And everyone in the throne room watched as Kara sat down on the throne for the first time and received from the hand of the High Priest the crook and flail of Arohiti, at which point a small plant suddenly lifted its branches and burst into bloom.  Seeing this, the High Priest cried:

"The Sacred Plant has accepted you as our ruler, Kara.  Your task as Great Lady of Arohiti is to protect the city and its surrounding jungles from those who would exploit or destroy them."

"That, I most certainly can and will do to the very best of my ability!"  Kara replied.  "To that end, I now appoint Kit as my Captain of the Guard, so that he may assist me in protecting it from the forces of evil, High Priest!"

"Well spoken, Little Flower!"  Yuya cried.

"And I accept your appointment with a grateful mind and a thankful heart.  I love you, Kara the Jungle Princess!"  Kit cried happily.

                                                   THE END

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That was a difficult story to conceptualize, but I did it.   The characters and basic storyline are not mine; they derive from the original version, which appeared in EXCITING COMICS #39.  I don't know who created Kara, but I would not only shake his hand, I would give him coauthor credit on my version if I only knew who he was!  The characters were owned by Better/Nedor/Standard and are now public property, which - to those of you not in the know - means anyone can use them.  Merry Christmas!

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When Exciting Comics #39 is finally posted to this site, I should like people to compare my version with the original and tell me what they think.

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Made some long-overdue corrections to the third and second messages from the bottom.  The story now reads much better than it did before as a result of these corrections.