Chap­ter 12 – La Seeks Vengeance begins with Tarzan return­ing through the jun­gle, enjoy­ing the free­dom of his pri­mal exis­tence, unaware of the dan­ger lurk­ing just ahead. While he rev­els in the sim­plic­i­ty of his life, La, the High Priest­ess of Opar, is lead­ing an orches­trat­ed pur­suit to exact revenge on him. Moti­vat­ed by the theft of a sacred sac­ri­fi­cial knife, a pow­er­ful arti­fact passed down from her ancient Atlantean ances­tors, La steps out­side the famil­iar ruins of Opar for the first time. The loss of the knife is more than just a theft; it rep­re­sents a deep des­e­cra­tion of her spir­i­tu­al and roy­al author­i­ty, com­pelling her to take action. This jour­ney is not only about retriev­ing the knife but also about assert­ing her con­trol and restor­ing the sanc­ti­ty of her posi­tion as High Priest­ess.

La’s fury is not only root­ed in the stolen arti­fact but also in her unre­quit­ed love for Tarzan. Unlike the grotesque priests and the anthro­poid bulls who serve her, Tarzan rep­re­sents a ful­fill­ment of an ancient prophe­cy and awak­ens feel­ings in La that she has nev­er known. Her desire for him is fierce and unpar­al­leled, and this unrec­i­p­ro­cat­ed love inten­si­fies her anger, turn­ing what could have been a sim­ple recov­ery of a sacred object into a mis­sion for revenge. Tarzan’s rejec­tion of her advances becomes an affront to her, fuel­ing her deter­mi­na­tion to make him suf­fer. La’s quest, now tinged with per­son­al vengeance, com­bines the sacred with the emo­tion­al, lead­ing her to pur­sue not only the loss of the knife but the destruc­tion of Tarzan’s spir­it. Her moti­va­tions, born from both divine duty and her own desires, make her a com­plex and dri­ven antag­o­nist.

Lead­ing her group of fifty priests, La nav­i­gates the jun­gle with a macabre air of author­i­ty, her entourage armed with knives and blud­geons, all serv­ing her in the pur­suit of vengeance. Despite her lack of expe­ri­ence out­side the walls of Opar, she exhibits sharp lead­er­ship and strate­gic acu­men, com­mand­ing her deformed fol­low­ers who view her as a divine fig­ure. Their jour­ney, filled with rev­er­ence for her and fear of her wrath, seems unevent­ful until an ape scout detects Tarzan’s pres­ence. This dis­cov­ery sparks a silent and swift advance towards him, as La’s forces pre­pare to ambush their prey. Tarzan, still unaware of the impend­ing dan­ger, is com­plete­ly vul­ner­a­ble as he slum­bers, trust­ing in the safe­ty of his sur­round­ings, obliv­i­ous to the cal­cu­lat­ed hunt being set into motion.

As Tarzan sleeps, La gives the order to cap­ture him alive, believ­ing that his fate lies in her hands. Her desire for con­trol over him leads her to dic­tate his pun­ish­ment, deter­mined to exact revenge for both the theft of her knife and the rejec­tion of her love. The ambush unfolds quick­ly and effi­cient­ly, with Tarzan caught off guard by the sud­den onslaught of La’s fol­low­ers. The unex­pect­ed attack marks the begin­ning of his entrap­ment, sig­nal­ing a new chap­ter of uncer­tain­ty and per­il for Tarzan, now at the mer­cy of La’s venge­ful plans. This con­flict embod­ies the clash between civ­i­liza­tion and the untamed laws of the jun­gle, a world where pow­er, desire, and revenge often inter­twine. It show­cas­es the bru­tal real­i­ty of Tarzan’s exis­tence, where even his strength and pri­mal instincts can­not always pro­tect him from the forces of vengeance and betray­al.

La’s pur­suit of Tarzan high­lights the deep ten­sions that run through­out the jun­gle and its inhab­i­tants, where emo­tions, pow­er, and sur­vival con­stant­ly col­lide. Her vengeance is not sim­ply about a stolen arti­fact or a per­son­al slight; it is about her posi­tion, her desires, and her need to dom­i­nate. The jun­gle, in all its beau­ty and dan­ger, becomes the back­drop for La’s inner tur­moil and her exter­nal actions, lead­ing to a con­flict that will test both her lead­er­ship and Tarzan’s sur­vival instincts. The com­plex dynam­ic between them reveals the intri­ca­cies of the jun­gle’s pow­er strug­gles, where emo­tions and ambi­tions often fuel the most dan­ger­ous and unpre­dictable out­comes. This chap­ter sets the stage for a deep­er explo­ration of La’s char­ac­ter and the lengths she will go to, not only to reclaim what was tak­en from her but also to assert her own place in a world defined by strength and sur­vival.