Wiping the sweat out of his eyes Alex swung his machete once again, chopping at the dense foliage of the rain forest.  He'd traveled several miles from the village and it felt like days- the oppressive humidity and intense heat literally sucking the energy out of him.  More and more he began to see the folly in this expedition, much as his colleagues had back in the states.  A human plant hybrid?  Such a thing couldn't exist.  Even the locals wouldn't serve as guides, though they seemed to embrace the legend with an almost religious fervor.  But  Dr. Jenkins wanted to prove that such a thing not only could exist, but that it did.<br/><br/>The ruined temple that he sought lay just up ahead.  The natives assured him that “she”-for the creature was supposedly female as were all of her kind according to legend- would be found there.  In his pack he had all manner of photographic and sampling equipment.  But what he really wanted was to take her back alive and intact.  But first he had to see her.  It.  He had no real expectations but couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement as the temple came into view.<br/><br/>The structure was in ruins as they'd told him.  The jungle was in the process of absorbing it back into itself.  The foliage had taken over, revealing only exposed parts of the stone structure here and there.  The air was sweet with a hundred species of jungle flowers. How would he even know her when he saw her?  He took out his camera and began taking pictures of the site as the light of day faded into evening.  He'd make camp here- it seemed safe enough, and he did have a gun in the event that any of the jungle's nocturnal predators took interest.  Then at dawn he'd begin scouring the grounds, hoping to find something that he and th e world at large had never seen before.