Into the clearing, runs a bipedal, grey-faced figure, covered with black fur. It roars fiercely. Gary approaches the beast, and pulls its head off, revealing the face of Tucker. Beasts in the wilderness, says Tucker, have always scared people - not just known predators, but creatures who defy certainty - such as the Abominable Snowman of Tibet, the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland, or the flesh eating Giants of Mandalay. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, he calls this story "The Tale of the Manaha."
In preparation for a camping hike, leader Lonnie inspects and berates his charges. Jonah arrives to join them. Initially dismissed for his relatively lesser height, he reports having been given permission by Mr Ostrowski.
In the woods, Lonnie, as punishment for Jonah's offer of advice, assigns him to carry the pack. Lonnie fumbles with a tin, Jonah offers him a tin opener. Humiliated, Lonnie pushes the boy over, causing him to drop the pack over a sheer ledge. Furious, he tells Jonah to go and get it.
Down below, in the wall of the ledge, behind a growth of bushes, is a hole. He has a look inside.
On cave wall is a painting of some looming humanoid beast. On a rock sits a stone figurine. Jonah lifts it. From a hole beneath the seated effigy issues a jet of illuminated smoke. Into the cave before Jonah steps a bare-chested man in animal skins, whose upper and lower face is respectively painted black and red. He warns of the Manaha, who have once more smelt human flesh.
Lonnie leads the other boys into the cave. Jonah warns them of the Manaha. He looks to the Shaman for support - but the man has mysteriously vanished.
Lonnie inspects the cave artwork, and, for discovering it, catches a scent of fame and fortune. He takes the stone figurine.
Beneath some leaves by a tree, Lonnie buries the Manaha statue. They arrive at the open hut of the ranger station. Lonnie wonders where the ranger is.
Outside, they pitch their tents. Lonnie grumpily gathers wood. He trips over onto his back. Behind him, a huge, black, human-shaped silhouette strides between the trees. Lonnie catches a glimpse of the unfamiliar figure. A deep, lowing roar shakes the air.
Jonah rallies the other boys to rescue their troop leader.
Jonah and the others hurry to the rescue. All they find is Lonnie’s whistle - and a footprint, about three times the size of a human foot. The others hurry to the ranger station. While Jonah looks at the footprint, its indented soil rises back into place, and the shape fades from the forest floor.
Night having fallen, the boys reach the ranger station. Inside, the place has been ransacked. Jonah finds the radio to have been sabotaged. He urges them back to camp.
Alex fears that doing so by night may be unmanageable. Jonah counsels use of the stars and a compass.
Jonah consults his compass, and directs the others down the left trail. He pauses, and looks back inside the hut. The wrecked interior is suddenly covered with a strange smoke, which billows rightward, and fades. When it clears, the room is neat and tidy, as if no disturbance has been made. Perplexed, Jonah runs after the others.
Between two trees, they all inspect two huge crossed branches, distantly lit by a shaft of soft white light. The others suppose themselves to have taken the wrong path, and flee. Jonah calls after them. He turns, and finds himself once more face to face with the Shaman, who gloatingly laughs.
Jonah catches up with the other boys, bar Eddy, who has suddenly disappeared.
Lost, Eddy runs through the trees. Through the night echoes a low, heavy growl. Eddy backs against the wall of a rock face. Above him, a gigantic hairy figure spreads its arms and roars. Eddy screams.
The others run in the direction of Eddy’s scream. Beneath a tree, they find the Manaha statue, previously buried by Lonnie, to be unearthed. From within, its eyes, nose and mouth glow brilliant yellow. Jonah suspects the bestial manifestations to be infused with the boys' fear thereof. In defiance of his fear, Jonah picks up the statue, whose glow instantly fades.
Alone, Jonah walks cautiously through the trees. By the cave, he returns to the clearing, now lit by mounted burning torches. Strung from a high branch, each wrapped in and gagged with animal skins, are Lonnie, Eddy and the ranger. Jonah stares defiantly into the trees. A distant, hairy hulk flits between them, followed by another. As they stalk ever closer, Jonah denies their reality.
A nearby branch is brushed aside by two towering, bidepal, simian figures. Another looms between the trees. Just as they enter the clearing, they each dematerialise in a flash of white.
As Jonah starts to cut the others free, a third figure arrives - the Shaman. The power-hungry sorcerer, once sealed in a cave by his people, is free to reclaim the forest. With a torch, he sets fire to a mound of twigs beneath Eddy’s dangling feet.
Jonah takes the statue, and summons the Manaha. The hulking beasts once more emerge between the distant trees. In vain, the Shaman commands them to retreat.
Jonah and the Manaha back the Shaman into his cave prison. The statue starts to glow once more. Jonah sets it on the rock. From the cave ceiling, rocks fall.
As Jonah runs outside, the mouth of the cave is filled with heavy rocks. Eddy, Lonnie and the ranger approach in bemusement.
He calls forth his Manaha henchmen. In hooded anoraks approach Alex, Steve and Carl, each banging a set of twigs.
Another day, Jonah, now promoted to troop later, happily directs the others on their next march. Lonnie, now laden with supplies, struggles to keep up.
Tucker closes with a note of the distinction between size, brain and bravery. Just then, a shrill chatter sounds through the distant trees. To the status of short stature, Tucker adds a greater need for speed - and takes flight.
This episode provides examples of:
- Badass Bookworm: Despite mockery of his relatively lesser height, Jonah’s devotion to Oscar Butz’s How to Survive in the Bush teaches skill which he uses competently and bravely.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Invoked by the hulking, bipedal, hairy Manaha.
- Book Ends: The story begins with Lonnie as the leader of the group and Jonah as the underdog who has to carry his backpack. The story ends with Jonah risen as the camp's new leader, and Lonnie reduced to carrying all the campers' backpacks.
- Creepy Cave: Jonah finds a cave adorned with ominous paintings, set with a sinister statue, and occupied by a sternly foreboding shaman, who suddenly vanishes.
- Don't Go in the Woods: These woods are a domain of mystical menace.
- Jerkass: Lonnie is often verbally abusive to his young charges.
- The Leader: By his level-headed competence, Jonah earns troop leadership.
- The Mutiny: The boys eventually overrule Lonnie, and put Jonah in charge.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: Jonah realises the physical threat of the Manaha depends on the fear they induce. He endeavours to defy this.
- Nothing Is Scarier: At first, the Manaha are seen in distant silhouette.
- Offscreen Teleportation: The Shaman instantaneously vanishes. Later, instant restoration of the ransacked hut makes Jonah wonder what kind of force is at work here...
- Scenery Porn: Some lovely shots of the forest setting.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The malicious, power-hungry Shaman was trapped in the cave by his people.
- Shout-Out: Encounter by several isolated boys of a bestial, supernatural menace whose reality depends on their fear of it - albeit in this case, resulting in tangible manifestation - somewhat recalls Lord of the Flies.
- Sorcerous Overlord: The Shaman’s past tyrannical tendencies are hinted.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Jonah realises that the tangible effects of the fabled Manaha depend on the fear thereof instilled by the Shaman.
