An Amazing Adventure

Dwayne had to exit from his space ship because of some technical problem. He had managed to land safely in the midst of a forest but he had absolutely no idea of where he was. At a far distance, he saw a few men in tribal attire. One of them was staring at him in wonderment.

 Still donning his space attire, he walked towards them clumsily. The tribal stumbled and ran towards his friends.

“Nag, what happened?”

“Atsa`, Atsa`!” cried Nag waving his hands. His friends Chikoto and Mandu at once picked up their arrows as if in readiness to shoot. They were Navojo tribals trained in self defence.

Dwayne was puzzled. ‘What were they screaming? What does Atsa` mean? And why were they acting like they were going to attack him?’

The three of them slowly advanced and circled him. They then broke into a tribal war dance. Dwayne was scared to bits.

‘They look ferocious. Are they going to kill me,’ he wondered.

“Ahoy!” he called. “Please stop and listen.”

The tribals stopped short in surprise and stared at him in bewilderment.

“He speaks English!’ exlaimed Chikoto. Nag and Mandu halted their dance moves, and chattered excitedly in their native tongue, pointed their hands to his garb.

Sudenly Dwayne realized that he was still in his space suit. It must have appeared frightening to them.

‘Probably they think that I am a creature from space or an alien from Mars,’ he thought. He removed his head gear and his space jacket.

The three tribal men broke into smiles. They could now understand that Dwayne was nothing but an ordinary man. Seeing them returning to normalcy, Dwayne too gave a wry smile and held out his hand to them.

“Why did you call out Atsa`, Atsa`?” he asked curiously. “What does Atsa mean?”

“Oh that!” exclaimed Nag. “In our native Navojo language it means eagle, but in war code we call it transport plane. Since you arrived from the sky, I thought that maybe you are some creature from the heavens.”

This brought a great guffaw from Dwayne. The three of them too cackled with laughter as they circled him again but in joy.