The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter (25 page)

The ogres would have to answer to Hatari and
face his wrath if they returned empty handed. They refused to give
up their search. On the night when the moon was full, the ogres
split up in several small groups to search the Forbidden Expanse.
One group discovered a peculiar light off in the distance, shooting
into the sky, and he commanded his troops to follow it. They
marched toward the area where the light was seen –The Temple of
Wanyama. Now they had a bearing. They spent the next day searching,
tracking and sniffing until by nightfall they happened upon the
children’s footprints. They slept nestled in a trough in one of the
Red Hills.
They trekked across the hundreds of these small
hills of red dirt traveling from the north before taking
refuge.

Pupa was the first to be awakened by the
ogres' stench. They had the advantage of being down wind. He
growled, and perked up his body stance in one direction. Somehow,
in the midst of all of that, Farra understood him. She’d been
feeling their merger as the days continued on; her bond with the
pup was getting stronger.

The horde of ogres moved into the freshly
abandoned camp; the wood from the campfire that kept them warm
during the cold desert night was still warm. The brutes picked up
speed in pursuit and gained.

A barrage of arrows darted toward the
children. Bomani turned to block them with his shield, but in the
night it was difficult for him to see where the arrows were coming
from. Out of nowhere, it seemed, a miscellaneous arrow shot through
the darkness, piercing Bomani’s back and penetrating his shoulder.
The impact knocked him to the ground, and the pain made him wince
in agony as the crude weapon ripped into his flesh. In spite of the
shock from it, Bomani righted himself swiftly and rolled back onto
his feet.

“Oh, Bomani, you've been hit” Farra cried.
She began to run toward him but he stopped her.

“Keep going. Keep going!” He commanded her.
His voice broke as the pain of the wound bore down on him. They
reached a steep cliff that dropped suddenly. The sharp slope was
rugged enough to give them the purchase they needed to hold onto as
they went down. Farra descended the incline easily but the wound
made Bomani’s arms weak and he couldn’t get his footing. His vision
was beginning to blur and shock had begun to set in as his body
fought infection from the wound. Bomani looked like he would fall
at any moment now, then Farra stopped again.

“Can you make it down?” she yelled.

“I’m not sure,” Bomani replied. “Something
is wrong. I can’t hold on.”

“Bomani! There’s an arrow in your back!”

“I know — just keep going,” Bomani
insisted.

He was almost at the foot of the cliff when
he felt a sharp, startling pain shoot from his wound throughout his
entire body. He winced with pain, but fought it until he finally
managed to touch ground.

“I’ve got to get this arrow out,” Bomani
panted, “but they’re still coming.”

“What’s wrong with you? You can barely
move?”

“I’m not sure,” Bomani knew something was
off. An arrow in his back couldn’t account for his dizziness, his
blurred vision, or lack of coordination and strength.

“Come on,” said Farra, “There’s an opening
in the side of the cliff. We can hide there. Help me move this
boulder. We can use it to block the hole.”

It was obvious that Bomani was in no
condition to move the rock. Instead she first grabbed hold of him
and helped him inside the hollow. She put all of her strength
against the top of the boulder to get it to roll. Even little Pupa
did his best to help pressing his little body up against it. Soon,
the red boulder gave way, and rolled halfway over. It wouldn’t
budge any further.

It was just enough to leave a small opening
for her to climb inside. They lie in the dark hole as quietly and
still as possible. Farra held her breath, hoping that Pupa wouldn’t
bark at the ogres when they came.

The ogres dropped down from the cliff, one
by one. They stood in front of the huge boulder where the children
hid and scanned the field. It was too dark for the ogres to see the
children, but the moon allowed Farra to see their forms through the
crack between the boulder and the slope. To Farra and Bomani’s
relief, the ogres headed in the opposite direction of the opening.
And then, just as the ogres started off to cross the field, one of
the ogres stayed behind and yelled, “Wait!” All the ogres turned
around and one of the asked, “What the problem?”

“Where dey go?” said the first ogre.

“Don’t know. Maybe they run out over there.”
Farra could see the ogre’s thick, stubby finger as he pointed
towards the fields. The first ogre looked around also. They all
looked below and around and beyond the base of the cliff, and they
all ended up staring back toward the place where they landed, in
front of the opening.

The inquisitive ogre walked slightly past
the front of the boulder and stood in front of the opening where
the children hid. Pupa began to scuffle as the ogre approached. The
children could see his large, hairy arm dangle before them. Farra
immediately grabbed Pupa back and whispered to him to keep
quiet.

“Hmmm, if they go that-a-way,” the ogre
said, pointing toward the field, “We still see them. No more hills
data way. Me don’t think they can run that fast.”

“Well, that the only way to go.”

“Okay, we go that way. Hurry. Must catch dem
kids.”

Just as the ogres headed off again, Bomani
let out a loud grunt. The pain had become unbearable; he couldn’t
refrain.

“Shush, Bomani, I think they heard you.”

“It hurts,” he hissed.

The leader walked over to the opening and
looked at the boulder in front of it oddly. He looked at the crack
between the boulder and the hollow wall, and then he studied it
again. All of the other ogres stood quietly and patiently, allowing
their curious mate to solve this riddle. Finally it came to him:
this just might be the place where two small kids could hide. The
other ogres came close behind him waiting to hear or see what he
thought he might have found.

“Bomani,” Farra whispered as she watched the
ogre get closer to the hole, “Do you think you can run now?”

“Yes, I think so.” The ogre came closer. He
looked past the boulder, sniffing the area like an animal would and
then peered into the hole. His nose told him what his eyes could
not; something was there
.
He placed his hands on the boulder
and with one quick movement he tossed it out of the way. As soon as
they were exposed, Farra shouted, “Moon Glow! Come on Bomani!
Run!”

She shot that agonizing beam of light at the
ogres, once again blinding them. Then she helped Bomani out of the
hole. While the ogre’s where stunned, the children ran as fast as
they could into the open field, which, very soon, for Bomani was
not fast at all. His limbs felt so heavy that he had to stop. He
tried to draw in air but it became more and more difficult for him
to catch his breath.

“Bomani? Are you okay?” Farra asked softly.
She could see the arrow in his shoulder blade and she knew that he
couldn’t possibly be well.

“I know that you’re hurting, but we have to
keep going,” she began to encourage him. But as she said this,
Bomani fell to the ground. He lay on his stomach panting; his lungs
were trying to grasp the air around him. Farra now saw what was the
problem was. When she kneeled down to aid him, she whispered to her
staff, “glow”. The staff gave off a dull, quick glow, which allowed
Farra a glimpse of the wound in Bomani’s back. The skin around the
wound had turned black, blue and green. Tributaries of black veins
on his skin sprouted from the wounded area.

“A poisoned arrow!” Farra declared “Oh
Bomani, no wonder you can’t breath. You’ve been poisoned.”

Bomani’s eyes rolled back as his eyes
closed, and he fell feverishly in and out of consciousness. She
didn’t know what to do. She was not skilled in medicine as were
many of the other Anifems of her village.

Bomani managed to get one final command out,
“You go. Leave me.”

“No, never give up without a fight!” she
yelled to him.

“Okay,” he said, then he lost consciousness
altogether. She didn’t know what to do, but she was not going to
leave him —that much she knew. Farra was otherwise bewildered. She
sat on the ground and cradled Bomani in her arms hoping and wishing
that somehow he would awaken.

. . .

“Go to other side!” said Eeyu, the ogres'
leader. The others looked confused for a moment. “So they don’t
escape this time!” he said, sensing their perplexity. The ogres
obeyed Eeyu’s command and caught up with the children quickly. They
circled them completely, and still holding a grudge from their last
encounter, they growled at Farra angrily. Their hideous faces
looked huge and monstrous under the flickering light of their
torches and Farra was terrified.

Suddenly she remembered the runes. She
reached into her pouch and grabbed the air rune and held it for a
second, praying over the jagged, soothing stone as if it were a
god. With that, she tossed it up. It flew high into the night air
and then sparked against the dark sky. She thought that it would
perhaps bring a tornado or a giant gust of wind that would come and
knock down all of their foes and whisk them away, but nothing
happened. Farra’s heart sank, and fear rose in place of it. The
ogres closed in on the children even more so, and Farra was certain
that she would panic, but then by instinct she grabbed her staff
and yelled out desperately, “Moon glow!”

The blinding light from her staff struck the
ogres’ vision once again, and once again the ogres that stood
around the children were disoriented. The vision of the ogres that
stood behind them was only mildly affected. Their tempers, however,
had been provoked highly, and the ogres closed in on the children
angrily.

Farra held Bomani closely. Pupa nuzzled
between Farra and Bomani on her lap. She knew that he was terrified
because she could feel his small body trembling against her belly.
As a last resort, she went into Bomani’s pouch and grabbed his
space rune. She didn’t want to use it yet, Hagga had told her to
wait until the end, but she didn’t know what else to do. She only
had seconds to make her decision.

As the ogres advanced, she too trembled with
fear, and then suddenly she realized that something was lifting her
and Bomani up into the air. Pupa almost fell back to the ground and
Farra pulled him up in just enough time. As they were being lifted,
she looked down and saw the dark forms of the ogres below. Their
torches formed a circle of light that grew smaller and smaller as
the children ascended upward into the dark sky.

Bomani’s body lay limp next to Farra. His
head was still cradled in her lap, when it occurred to her that
they had not only been lifted from the throws of the angry ogres,
but they had been swept up so gently that she hadn’t realized that
they were in the clutches of a large, winged creature. Farra looked
overhead and gasped when she saw the underside of an enormous
golden creature with large golden wings that, in spite of its size,
flapped through the air soundlessly. Farra had never seen such a
creature. She had no idea where it was taking her, but for some
reason she felt safe.

XXVIII THE ILL
POOL

This flight through the night was so calming
that Farra’s tired little body dozed in and out of sleep. They
soared over a dark grey rocky terrain that soon gave way to a black
petrified forest. To walk would have been a treacherous journey
—twenty miles of dead trees that had given way long ago to minerals
and calcification. What was left was a dangerous forest that was as
hard as stone, and the disorderly fashion that mangled branches lay
about, cracked and broken, left endless points and edges that were
razor sharp. More times than not, this was a death sentence to
those who trespassed by foot.

At the center of this dead forest —an oasis
of
life.
(The village of the Mangabangabana.) Upon their
arrival, the trees that covered the village spread apart, just
enough for the large golden creature to make its way through. They
did that sometimes. Actually, they did it often. By day the trees
would spread their branches, laying their leaves end to end to form
a thin canopy, just enough to shield the inhabitants from the harsh
sun rays, while still keeping mindful to let enough energy through
where it was appropriate. And when it was suitable, on a cloudy
day, or to see the stars on a clear night, they would fold their
leaves back in line with the branches.

Yes, the trees here were
alive
. Their
roots dug deeply into the water table for fresh water to drink. The
Mangabangabana, those who live here, drank the water straight out
of a spouting branch from the trunk of the trees. When the water
table became low, the roots traveled under ground to search for
more.

With unspoken words, the trees collaborated
with each other, sharing their fruits and creating different kinds
of sap to dispense to the Mangabangabana to use medicinally or as
refreshment and nourishment. The trees enjoyed their work in the
Manga village. Now, in the night, the trees also provided light.
Some of them grew flowers that glowed. Some with luminous branches,
and others had leaves that would emit just the right amount of
light. The trees themselves controlled all illumination for the
Manga.

The golden creature swooped through the
opening of the trees and into the village and sat the children down
gently next to a tree. The tree grew a moss under them; its hard
shell became soft and comfortable. Farra could feel the comfort in
the village. It wasn’t just the comfortable moss, it was as if she
could feel comfort and tranquility flowing through the air; this
gave her a sense of hope.