Thiago and Carlito were twin brothers. They lived in a small hut in the middle of a forest village with their mother and father. One day, their family ran out of food, so their father went out to hunt for deer. The boys were never allowed to go because it was too dangerous. There were a lot of wild animals and insects that lurked in the forest and some of them even had the power of transformation. These animals and insects were able to make themselves walk and talk.
Their father always told them about his hunting trips when he came home. One time, he told about a jaguar, who failed to catch him, even though jaguars are very fast. The jaguar had other tricks to use though. It stood and began talking in a friendly voice to their father.
"You must be thirsty," the jaguar said. "Come follow me and I will show you a stream that has the most refreshing water you will have ever tasted. It is an enchanted stream, which is how all of the forest animals and insects are able to walk and talk. If you drink from the stream, you will never be hungry again."
Their father was indeed very thirsty, but instead of following the jaguar, he asked, "How do I know you will not eat me before we get to the stream?"
The jaguar said it would go first and leave a trail of paw prints in the dirt for their father to follow. He could count to 100 before he started to follow the paw prints. So, Thiago and Carlito's father had counted to 100 and started to follow the paw prints. When he got to the tenth paw print though, he stopped following and climbed up a tree to see where the jaguar was. From the top of the tree, he could see the stream and the jaguar walking toward it. So he quickly climbed down and ran back home. He had managed to trick the jaguar, but had not caught any food for the family.
Thiago and Carlito were very smart and after listening to this story, they came up with a plan to get some of the water from the stream, so that their family would never be hungry again. They each held a small jug and assured their mother and father they would be okay. Then, they headed into the forest. Before they got to a point where they might meet the jaguar, they each climbed a tree. Carlito climbed a tree closer to the path that a lot of hunters and animals went down. Thiago climbed a tree that was deeper in the forest and hidden among other trees.
Carlito swung on vines from tree to tree. Suddenly, the jaguar noticed him. It stood up and began to talk, just like it had with his father. The jaguar told Carlito that it could show him the enchanted stream. Carlito agreed to follow from the tree tops. The jaguar began to run toward the stream, when Carlito had reached the final tree top before the stream, he stopped and told the jaguar he didn't know how to get down. While the jaguar was trying to coax him into climbing down, Thiago ran down from a tree on the other side of them and scooped water from the stream into his jug. As soon as he was safely back on top of the other tree, Carlito pretended to climb down behind the tree he was on. He hid between some thick leaves on one of the branches and waited for a few minutes. The jaguar was circling the tree looking for him.
Suddenly, Thiago called out from the other side. "Hey, I got the water, thank you Jaguar." He began swinging from tree to tree. The jaguar ran over, thinking it was Carlito and began following him from the ground. Meanwhile, Carlito jumped down and scooped up water from the stream into his jug. He climbed back up the tree and hurried home.
Thiago led the jaguar deep into the forest, where has father had been working to set up a trap. The deep hole was hidden underneath a pile of thick leaves. The jaguar fell into the hole. Thiago jumped down and ran home with his father, who had been hiding on top of a nearby tree. When they got home, the whole family drank from the water in the two jugs. They were never hungry again.
