The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter (9 page)

“How could you have known that? I just found
out a couple days ago,” asked a very skeptical Bomani.

“Ah, but
they
knew.” She said and
pointed upward. She drew a handful of strange rocks from her
raggedy garment, and threw them onto the ground. She gazed upon
them, reading their relative positions to each other and to the
four corners of Madunia.

“Two young ones, they say. One born of the
moon and one born under it.”

The words sounded unpleasant as they fell on
Bomani’s ears, he did not understand them. He dropped his face in
his hands and shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“What is your name, boy?” asked Hagga.

“The prophecies didn’t tell you that? Don’t
you
already know what my name is?”

“Don’t trifle with me, boy. I’m too old for
it.” As she spoke, she grabbed a few glass vials from a rickety
shelf, and sprinkled small portions in the bubbling broth that
simmered in the large cauldron.

“His name is Bomani,” Farra said, “and, I am
Farra, and this is little Pupa.”

“Yes, and you are an Anifem, aren’t you. I
see your mark is not yet complete. Ah, just begun in fact. In time,
your powers will grow.” She leaned over and looked at Bomani. “This
one thinks he already has all the power in the world. There is
always room to grow, boy. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

Bomani was impatient, and he was beginning
to feel agitated by all of this conversation. He hadn’t come this
far just to talk, or meet new people. He came for the Ifa
Scepter.

“I don’t understand. Do you have the Ifa
Scepter?”

“No! What would I do with a thing like
that?” Hagga laughed. “That kind of power is not intended for one
person to possess.”

“You mean it isn’t here?”

“Why, of course it isn’t here. Do you think
I would be selfish enough to keep something like that to
myself?”

“I really don’t know what to think.”

“You should have more faith in Hagga,” Hagga
said.

“But aren’t
you,
Hagga?” Farra
interrupted.

“That’s right! I am!”

“Then this map is useless,” said Bomani.
“Why did Anu have a useless map?”

Hagga continued to add ingredients to her
stew. Bomani and Farra couldn’t identify what most of the
ingredients were, but there were a few items that they could make
out. She added various animal bones, a live nuka, a hairless
rodent-like creature whose skin produced a yellow, slimy, film that
made them difficult to handle once caught. It was amazing that
Hagga was able to pull the creature from its cage with her twisted
fingers. Farra and Bomani turned their noses up, but made no
comment.

“Was the map actually given to you?” Hagga
asked.

“Hmmm, actually no. I sort of took it.”

“Then who are you to complain — a
thief?”

“But he said it was the map to the Ifa
Scepter. Whether I took it or not doesn’t change that. Besides, I
am the king’s son. I am entitled.”

“No one is entitled to steal. Let me see
that map.” Hagga said. She snatched the map from Bomani. “Ah, I
see. Yes, yes, yes.”

“What is it? What do you see?” Bomani
asked.

“There is nothing wrong with your map,
child.”

“I am not a child, I will be king
someday.”

“To be so foolish as to speak to Hagga in
such a manner, makes you very childish.” Hagga reprimanded him.
“Besides, this map doesn’t lead you to the Ifa Scepter.”

“What do you mean it doesn’t lead me to the
scepter? But, Anu — he said…”

“Silence! This map, impatient one, it is
supposed to lead you to
me
.”

“But I don’t understand. How does that help
us?” asked Bomani.

“Oh, just let her finish Bomani,” said
Farra.

Hagga spit into the pot three times, bowed
her head before them, and then continued, “Because, boy,
I
am the map to the scepter you seek.”

Bomani choked back his repulsion and asked,
“Then you know where it is?”

“Yes, I do. This is not the end of your
journey, boy. This is just the beginning. To get what you want, you
must travel much, much, further than Hagga’s little hut.”

“Aw, further?” Farra sighed.

“Yes, a lot further. What makes you children
think you are strong enough for such a task?” Hagga asked.

“Do you think we are strong enough?” Farra
asked.

“Don’t answer questions with questions,
child. It’s rude,” said Hagga.

“But I
must
find it!” Bomani
demanded, “I have to find the scepter.”

“What is so special about the Ifa Scepter
anyway?” asked Farra.

“Ah, a history lesson. Regarding the future
and prophecies, you come to Hagga. For the past, you must ask the
Griot.”

“What’s a Griot?”

“A Griot knows all things of the past. He is
a verbal library, the keeper of our ancestry, a historian, and my
husband.”

She pointed to what seemed to be a wall.
“Hey hubby, wake up! We have guests. They want to ask you
something.”

Farra and Bomani followed her finger to the
wall but saw nothing, and then in the dimness of the poorly lit
room amongst the horribly decorated wall, they saw two eyes
materialize in a slow and surreal flicker. They were both startled
and confused because just as quickly as the eyes materialized, they
disappeared. Farra grabbed Bomani’s arm. This time he didn’t push
her away and secretly he was glad to have her nearby. Then, a
distorted image stepped forward in a movement that made it appear
to pull away from the flatness of the wall into the third
dimension. They both gasped and then they realized that it was an
old man. He had been standing there sleeping the entire time. Like
his wife, he was also very wrinkled and haggard and he had to be
more than six feet tall. He towered over everyone else in the room,
and like Hagga, he was dressed in wears that seemed as though he
had worn them for a hundred years.
He was the Griot.

A sash made of decayed rat femurs draped
across his tall, withered frame, and Bomani was flabbergasted. It
took him a moment but after he collected his courage, he walked
right up to the Griot and asked, “Are you
the Griot
?” The
Griot glared down at Bomani and nodded as he gave an affirmative
moan.

“Hi Mr. Griot.” Farra greeted him
hesitantly. “Can you tell us of the history of the Ifa
Scepter?”

The Griot’s eyes closed. He began to murmur
in a deep, low voice in a foreign tongue that they could not
understand.

A Griot cannot simply deliver a piece of
history; he must go through it from the beginning until he arrives
at the moment one is looking for. He began at the beginning when
the God Olorun lowered a gold chain from the sky. And how Obatala
climbed down this chain and proceeded to create the dry land. He
traveled through the creation of man and man’s history, as he knew
it, until he arrived finally at the Ifa Scepter, then spoke in a
manner in which they could understand.

“Ah,” said the Griot, “Here we are, the Ifa
Scepter.” He placed his staff into the cauldron; an image appeared
as he spoke:

Well after the beginnings of creation, yet
well before all that you know came to be, the god of harvest
En-Kai, who rules over rain, vegetation, and blessings, took
pleasure in providing man with what he needed. The plentiful land
always produced enough to keep their bellies full and the people
strong. The people were grateful and gave praise to En-Kai, and all
of the gods that touched their world. Generations passed, the
people began to forget, they took the gods for granted and they
stopped giving thanks. The people had completely forgotten that it
is was En-Kai that made their land so fertile. The angry god
decided he would forsake man. He then took his nourishing hands off
of Madunia, and the land became infertile. The people soon begged
and pleaded to the gods, but the gods would say, "Why should we
provide for you when you are so quick to forget us?" So a pact was
made, and together the gods and man forged the Ifa Scepter. And
from then on, man was required to actively use the scepter to
communicate with the god of harvest. Man later learned that the
scepter carried other attributes as well. He later learned that
through the scepter, man could gain power. It is for this power
that men of greed have sought after it, for many would selfishly
use it to gain power for themselves.”

In the image of his cauldron the Ifa Scepter
sat in a diamond cave in a large, dark clearing, lit by the
shimmers of thousands and thousands of small diamonds and other
colored jewels embedded in the cavern walls. Beautifully, they
reflected the light of the Ifa Scepter���

AND POWER

—At this point, Dear Reader, I find it
necessary to give you a brief schooling on man, magic, power, and
staffs and how they all connect.

Man-

Man’s continual quest for knowledge and
power has always proved to be a temptation, hard to overcome. When
man first discovered crystals and gems, it was only their beauty
that enticed him, using them for decoration and trade. Soon, with
the rise of magic, man discovered that these same crystals and gems
could amplify their power, and they soon became the tool of
sorcery.

Knowledge of sorcery grew. Its power was
handed down by teachings and bloodlines until new races of man
emerged: shaman, witch doctors, and sorcerers such as the Animen
and the Leopard Cult. Sorcery was a gift from the gods, usually
subject to their rules and approval. Though, man’s thirst for power
led them to obtain sorcery by unnatural means, without the gods’
approval. Thus, were subject to the wrath of the gods, punished by
death or cursed.

Staffs-

The knowledge of staff making is only known
by a select few. Yet, all sorcerers
may
wield one. Usually
forged from a sacred tree, (trees being a conduit —a connection
between man’s world and the next.) each staff is to be used by only
one sorcerer, and it is therefore, bound to him alone. Only on very
rare occasions has a staff ever allowed itself to be used by
another. Let me stress this point again; only on very, very, rare
occasions.

The bond between a sorcerer and his staff
continues throughout the sorcerer’s life, and beyond death. Even a
staff that is given to a young boy newly using his magic will grow
as the boy does. So, this symbiotic relationship between man and
his staff is not one to be taken lightly. Also, there is one other
valid point to make about staffs; they cannot be destroyed by any
worldly
means.

Crystals-

Most crystals or gems will amplify a
sorcerer’s power to some degree, but there is always a perfect
match for him. One that will do for him what no other can. And at
times it is a combination of crystals that will do the trick. That
is why you will see different sorcerers with different gems
embedded in their staffs. Some use rubies, some use onyx, and
others, diamonds perhaps.

And so, the staff became a combination of
crystal and staff; where the crystal could be interchanged, but the
staff could not. (Again, there are always exceptions to every
rule.)

A witch doctor named Hatari used diamonds.
Witch doctors are not inherently evil. Hatari, however, had chosen
to use his power for his own greed. Like his brothers and his
sister, Nyani, he too was cruel. They all sought to obtain more
power. They wanted to control the Ancient Lands. They took over
most of Madunia, each doing his share of destruction and chaos in
their own regions. For some time, Hatari had been the laughing
stock among his siblings. He was the only one who had not obtained
control over any of the inhabited lands. King Jott, Jumbe’s
grandfather had managed to keep him at bay, convincing him not to
enter his kingdom or go beyond the boundaries of the
Forbidden
Expanse,
located at the southern end of Madunia.

Hatari knew that getting control of the Ifa
Scepter would take its toll on the well-being of the Kingdom of
Ufalme, the only kingdom that stood in his way of moving his army
north, into the inhabited lands of Madunia.

Hatari chose his time of attack wisely. He
waited until King Jott was on his deathbed, and using the slight
confusion of
the change of power
to his advantage, he posted
his troops just out the view of Ufalme’s guards until he heard word
of the funeral. Then he ordered his army to attack.

He knew that he couldn’t win the battle.
Ufalme’s army was far too large and too well trained by Jott’s
generals to be beaten by his ogre’s, but there was enough of a
distraction for him to sneak himself inside and grab the Ifa
Scepter. King Jumbe’s father, Haki was less of a mystical man than
his father, Jott. And when his time came to rule, he did not pursue
the scepter. Sadly, his reign was short. In a sickened state, he
fell into a deep sleep and never woke up. When Jumbe received the
throne, he was young. He followed in his father’s footsteps, never
giving the Ifa Scepter a second thought.

So, the scepter remained with Hatari. Thus
he built his army, larger, and stronger, while the prosperity of
Ufalme dwindled. Over time, the scepter was making him more
powerful than ever before.

He combined the scepter's power with the
crystals he knew that would make him stronger —diamonds. Yet he
wasn’t satisfied with the two that he kept in the eyes of his skull
and bones staff. Insatiably, he wanted a mountain filled with them.
He would use them and the scepter to reach the height of his power.
He wouldn’t leave before his power was at its peak, and yes, this
took years.

He employed the work of ogres to mine the
mountains for him and to do most of his bidding. It wasn’t hard for
him to convince the ogre-kind that man was their enemy and that
they should obey and work for him. Man had treated them as outcasts
since their race emerged. He told them that they must rise up and
destroy mankind, or man would eventually destroy them.