Chapters 10-12

Alex and Nadia begin by telling Dr. Omayra Torres about how Karakawe had been searching through the vaccine supplies. Torres seemed uneasy during the telling, but she was relieved when the kids told her that Karakawe had not broken the seals on the vaccines. Following the incident with the attack on the crew member, it was decided that no one could leave the camp alone. Later on, Nadia and Alex went into the forest once again because they suspected the People of the Mist had returned. They were correct in their assumption, and they were carried off by the People of the Mist to be taken to Tapirawa-teri, the village of the People of the Mist. On the way, they were required to climb a sheer cliff behind a waterfall. Nadia, who was afraid of heights, would not have been able to climb the cliff if it had not been for Alex coming up with the idea of tying a rope between the two of them. The cliff had only one path up to the top, and if the route is unknown, the cliff is unclimbable. Mokarita, the chieftain of the People of the Mist, nearly perished on the ascent, but was saved thanks to the rope furnished out of lianas. After scaling the cliff, they, Alex, Nadia, and the group of warriors from the People of the Mist tribe, set out on a long journey to reach Tapirawa-teri. The village came upon them out of nowhere. It seemed invisible to Alex and Nadia until they were right on top of it. After the initial surprise, Alex and Nadia became essentially part of the tribe. They participated in the daily chores of the People of the Mist. Soon after arriving, Mokarita died. The men of the tribe induced visions to discover who was to be the next tribal leader and who had killed Mokarita. In one man's vision, he saw that it was Alex who had killed M0karita. This unwarranted accusation led to Alex being chased for several hours, and him being tied up to a tree. During this time, Nadia had blown her talisman from Walimai to summon him. Upon his arrival, he exerted his leadership and helped chose a new leader. The new leader was Iyomi, the wife of Mokarita. As leader, she decided to name chiefs of certain things, "A chief for war and hunting: Tahama. A chief for soothing the Rahakanariwa: the honey-colored girl called Eagle. A chief for negotiating with the nahab and their birds of noise and wind: the foreigner named Jaguar. A chief for visiting the gods: Walimai. A chief for the chiefs: Iyomi" (230). Following Alex's naming as "chief for negotiating with the nahab and their birds of noise and wind," he underwent a series of rites to become a man, which included sticking his arm in a sieve filled with red ants.
During these three chapters, Alex and Nadia underwent many changes. Alex became almost formally known as "Jaguar," and Nadia found her totemic animal to be the Eagle. Each of these animals is symbolic of certain aspects that each of them possess. The Jaguar symbolizes strength and invincibility, while the Eagle represents freedom and vision. In one of the induced visions, Nadia, or Eagle, viewed three crystal eggs in a nest atop one of the most ancient mountains in the entire rain forest. This vision led to Walimai declaring that Eagle and Jaguar must go on a journey together to locate and return the eggs, or "eggs", to Tapirawa-teri.
Throughout these chapters, more and more native tongue words are added, and an increasing amount of knowledge is discovered on the subject of the People of the Mist.