The Emperor's New Emperor

Ch. 8: The Raging River of Death

~~~~~ 3rd Person POV ~~~~~.

     "Scary jungle, right." Kuzco laughs to himself as he walks into the jungle, making fun of harmless little things he sees.

     "Ooh, a leaf. Ooh, it might attack me." He walks further in, following the path till he stops at a tree that arches over it. "Ooh, it's a scary tree. (High voice) I'm afraid."

     He laughs some more before moving forward again and saying, "Please. Never find my way? I'm the emperor. And as such, I'm born with an innate sense of direction."

     Kuzco stops and looks around, realizing he has no idea where he is. A fly flies past his face before flying into and getting caught in a spider's web. The fly cries out for help until it gets ferociously eaten by a spider, saying it's last words "Too late" before a loud crunch is heard.

     "Ok," Kuzco recovers, "that was the freakiest thing I've ever seen."

     Kuzco gasps as some bushes near him start shaking. An animal roar calls out as the shaking limits down to a single bush. He prepares himself for the animal that is going to come out of the bush. Finally, an innocent little squirrel comes out of the bush, scaring Kuzco and causing him to yell.

     "What do you want?" Kuzco angrily asks the squirrel after he realizes it is harmless. In response, the squirrel chatters while offering an acorn to Kuzco.

     "Oh, for me? Why, I don't know what to say." Kuzco said in a sweet voice, taking the acorn from the squirrel. The squirrel chatters again, kicking it's foot like it was embarrassed from the praise. Suddenly, Kuzco throws the acorn back at the squirrel, hitting it in the head.

     "Hit the road, bucky!" Kuzco yells at it. It mutters to itself while Kuzco walks away, turning back to blow a raspberry at it. When he turns back around, he falls, hitting a couple branches on the way down before finally landing. However, he landed in an area full of sleeping jaguars, multiple holding on to bones from their last meal.

     As he looks at all the jaguars, freaking out and trying to think about what to do, the squirrel from earlier joins him. It blows up a red balloon and twists it into a llama-looking shape. Then it grabs a thorn from the branch it is sitting on and threatens to pop the balloon. Kuzco pleads that the squirrel doesn't pop the balloon, but the squirrel still threatens to pop it. Finally, the squirrel gets a crazy look in its eyes and pops it anyway. Surprisingly, the loud balloon pop doesn't wake up the jaguars, but Kuzco's satisfied "Ha!" does.

     The jaguars chase Kuzco as he runs to get away from them. At one point, he even ends up on top of them, yelling in fear. The jaguar he is on throws Kuzco off, making him tumble down to a ledge. A ledge where he is trapped: on one side by the jaguars, where even the cubs look like they are ready to eat him, and a big drop on the other side.

     As the jaguars get closer and closer to Kuzco, a war-like yell comes from a distance. Both Kuzco and the jaguars turn to see (Y/N) swinging in on a vine. However, the vine snaps, causing (Y/N) to land in front of Kuzco.

     "Wow, my hero," Kuzco says sarcastically as he rolls his eyes and glares at (Y/N).

     "At least I tried to save you, Emperor Kuzco," (Y/N) shot back, saying Kuzco's name mockingly.

     They both turn back to the jaguars as they continue growling and coming closer. Then, another call is heard, this time from Pacha.

     "Ha!" (Y/N) said, "You thought I came alone?"

     However, Pacha swings in between the jaguars and them. When everyone thinks he is gone, Pacha swings back and grabs Kuzco and (Y/N). Kuzco fearfully yells in (Y/N)'s ear as (Y/N) focuses on holding on to Pacha tightly.

     "Don't worry, your highness, I got ya!" You're safe now!" Pacha said cheerfully.

     Then the vine wrapped around a big branch, Pacha stuck on one side and Kuzco and (Y/N) on the other.

     "Maybe I'm just new to this whole rescuing thing, but this, to me, might be considered kind of a step backwards, wouldn't you say?"

     "It's better falling off a cliff or being eaten by jaguars," (Y/N) responded.

     "(Y/N) is right. We should stay positive. We can figure this out." Pacha stated.

     The branch suddenly cracked, causing it to lean down.

     "I'm positive I hate you," Kuzco said to Pacha, before the whole branch fell into the river below as everyone yelled and screamed.

     The branch finally lifted up to the surface of the water, allowing Pacha, (Y/N), and Kuzco to gasp for breath. The river's rapids pushed the big branch all around, causing it to spin and hit rocks. Finally, the water calmed, letting the trio cough up all the water and stop yelling.

     "I don't know about you two, but I'm getting all funned out," Kuzco said.

     "Uh oh," Pacha uttered.

     "Don't tell me," Kuzco stated. "We're about to go over a huge waterfall."

     "Yep"

     "Sharp rocks at the bottom?"

     "Mostly likely"

     (Y/N) takes a deep breath and says, "Bring it on."