Beautiful Wild

For those who believe in magic

❤️

Dr. Jackson Haas stumbled out of the puddle jumper with his worn pack clutched against his stomach, attempting to keep the last thing he ate from reappearing. Flying always messed with his inner ear, causing a bit of vertigo and nausea, but it was the only way to reach the remote, unexplored places still left on earth. An expanse of overgrowth in every imaginable shade of green battled against the boundary of the runway, and sticky, humid air invaded his lungs. He took a step toward a thin older man in a large straw hat waiting near a beat-up jeep; somewhere behind him in the jungle was the elusive Haas Frog—a near-extinct amphibious species named for Jackson’s father.

“Dr. Haas.” Dr. Harold White appeared as if he’d just stepped out of the wild. Sweat stained the neck of his shirt, his glasses were visibly smudged, and he carried an overall air of a man living rough. Jackson unconsciously gulped and adjusted his own near-sighted lenses, pristine and clean as the travel-wrinkled, white button-down shirt, and khaki slacks he wore. Dr. White switched his machete to his left hand in order to shake with Jackson. “Finally the son of my late colleague.”

Jackson returned the firm grip. “I’m honored to meet you, Dr. White.”

He held his hat to his head and shouted above the roar of the small plane’s engines taking off behind them. “Harold, please.” He gestured toward his jeep. “We’d better...