Lorna the Jungle Queen #1
The Coming of Lorna
One day at the trading post in the African jungle that has been home for 35 years, an old trader spends time with his daughter Lorna. However their relaxation comes to a fatal end when Numa the lion attacks, Lorna's father shoots the beast dead but is wounded himself. Their native friend M'Tuba rushes to their aid and is forced to amputate her father's leg. While her father recovers from his wounds, Lorna decides to provide for them using her hunting rifle to fell a rhino as her father taught her. However she misses and the rhino continues it's charge but Lorna finds safety in a tree and the rhino is killed by a spear thrown by M'Tuba. However, soon after Lorna's father dies and so she buries him. Recalling how her father always wanted a son who would grow up to be a great hunter, Lorna asks M'Tuba to train her to be a great hunter like her father. M'Tuba agrees and teaches Lorna everything he knows about hunting in the jungle.
During her training she fells a leopard and fashions an outfit from it's skin. After their training, M'Tuba tells Lorna -- now calling herself the jungle queen -- that he has taught her all he knows. Soon the pair are surrounded by warriors of the headhunting Wafisi tribe. They are taking back to the Wafisi village where they are tied to a stake in preparation to be sacrificed. Upon his command, M'Tuba's pet monkey Mikki takes his knife and uses it to free Lorna, who uses her sudden freedom to trick the Wafisi into thinking she used magic to get free. She then challenges the leader of the Wafisi to a duel she easily defeats their leader, earning the title herself. Wishing to use her skills to help those in the jungle in need, Lorna appoints M'Tuba to rule in her place. Before leaving, Lorna is given Mikki as a gift and she then travels out into the jungle, and so the legend of Lorna the Jungle Queen is born.
Recurring Characters
Lorna the Jungle Queen
Greg Knight
M’Tuba
Mikki
Agu the Giant
While travelling through the jungle, Lorna finds a safe tree to sleep in for the night unaware that some creature is watching her. The creature -- Agu the giant ape -- reveals itself to her, frightening Lorna, but the ape suddenly saves her life when she is attacked by a large python, and the giant ape disappears as suddenly as it appeared. Lorna theorizes that although Agu is feared in the jungle, he only attacks those who attack him first. Lorna soon spots a fire nearby and goes to investigate, coming across warriors of the Itibi tribe. She learns that they are on the hunt for the creature that set fire to their village, Agu the giant.
She learns that the Itibi attacked Agu when the giant ape came close to their village to drink water from a river, and his counter attack send a burning branch onto their huts creating the inferno. The warriors then storm off to find Agu, ignoring Lorna's pleas that Agu will only attack if provoked. Lorna follows after them in order to stop them before anyone gets killed.
The Itibi warriors come across Agu as the massive ape is sleeping. When the leader of the warriors throws a spear at the sleeping primate, Lorna sweeps in and knocks it out of the way. Agu is awoken by the noise, and Lorna shows them that the ape is harmless, allowing it to pick her up and place her on a tree branch before walking off into the jungle again.
Recurring Characters
Lorna the Jungle Queen
Agu the Giant
Mikki
The Magic of M'Tuba
M'Tuba is meeting with the young men of his village and tells them the importance to follow the laws of their tribe. He recounts a tale of an event that happened years earlier, how he told the boys fathers the importance of not harming the sacred white pig so as not to harm the gods and recounts how Kubali, a fellow tribesman, was exiled from their village for harming the pig earlier. As M'Tuba finishes his tale he is unaware that Kubali had been watching the whole time and plotting a means to get out of exile by using M'Tuba as a pawn.
Later that night, Kubali gets the drop on M'Tuba with a knife, and threatens to kill him if he does not go to the tribal elders and tell them that the gods spoke to him and have rescinded their law regarding the white pig and allow Kubali to return to the tribe. M'Tuba does just that and Kubali forces him to retreat into the jungle to "proves" the gods spoke through him by "disappearing" in the jungle. In reality however, Kubali intends to kill M'Tuba and ties the warrior to a tree and leaves a hank of meat dangling to attract a predator.
When Numba the lion approaches, Kubali's fear over the big cat causes it to attack him instead. M'Tuba however orders the beast to stop and amazingly the animal complies and then leaves. Kubali then turns to try and kill M'Tuba anyway, but Numba returns and slays him, then frees M'Tuba. In the aftermath, M'Tuba returns to his village and tells his people the truth of what happened.
Recurring Characters
M’Tuba
Jungle Uprising
A diamond hunter named Putnam is being led to the location of a secret cache of diamonds which he seeks to claim. However drums begin to play alerting his guides and the nearby Lorna that the jungle is unhappy with the sudden intrusion. When the lead guide refuses to go any further, Putnam shoots him dead, frightening the rest of the guides into complying. Putnam muses about how one of his colleagues returned from his African expedition with a story about valuable stones but frightened about something that he encountered in the jungles. Putnam then slew his colleague, stealing his map before he could destroy it and went on an expedition of his own, unwilling to back down for anything.
Lorna then intervenes telling Putnam to turn back, but he forces his guides to take her prisoner. Lorna then sends her trusty monkey Mikki off to warn the Ukaki tribe of Putnams approach. The Ukaki are waiting and ready to battle when Putnam arrives, but he sends them scattering with his rifle. While Putnam rushes into the mouth of the cave to find the diamonds he seeks, Mikki unties Lorna. The leader of the Ukaki asks Lorna to stop Putnam before he can harm the creature they worship. As Lorna rushes into the cave the Ukaki begin playing their drums. Inside Lorna warns Putnam to flee but he has found a large sum of diamonds and refuses to leave and Lorna is forced to leave the cave. Just then the "cave" -- in reality a giant snail that the Ukaki worship as a god -- consumes Putnam.
In the aftermath, Lorna learns from the tribal leader that they worship the snail, which eats diamonds for food and explains that the last explorer who sought to take their jewels fled in fear before he could become Ukaki's next meal.
Recurring Characters
Lorna the Jungle Queen
Mikki
