The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter
Page 16
Chapter 11
WHERE BLOOM FLOWERS
BLOOM
When Bomani awoke, he found himself lying on the ground and squinting from the sharp pain caused by the sunlight as it entering his eyes. It warmed his face. He was sweating, but his legs and his back were cold, not just cold but they were freezing. Sitting up amplified this headache.
He held his head and one thought entered his brain, it’s freezing. He looked down and was surprised that he was sitting in snow. All round him, he could see it on the peak of the mountaintop where he sat. They were high enough for the thin air to be cold. He looked over and saw Farra lying motionless in the snow.
“Hey,” he said to her as he nudged her. “Farra, are you all right?”
Farra moaned lightly as she awoke. She looked up to see Bomani kneeling over her.
“What happened?” she asked.
“The last thing I remember was flying through the top of the volcano. We must have hit the ground pretty hard,” Bomani said.
“Where’s Pupa? Pupa. Pupa! Where are you?”
Pupa’s head popped out of a mound of snow and he dashed forward and jumped onto Farra. He licked her joyously while she giggled with relief, happy to see that her companion was all right.
“Hey, what’s that?”
“What’s what?” Farra asked.
“I don’t know. I saw something moving in the snow — something small, just under the surface.
They were all curious, and looked on intently, especially Pupa. Something mysterious poked through the snow, and it grew. Pupa’s curiosity brought him closer.
“Pupa, be careful!” Farra shouted.
The young wolf’s instincts persuaded him to move closer. As they watched, the strange green thing grew a bit taller and began to sprout petals, right before their eyes. Pupa jumped back. The petals were thin, pear shaped and multicolored. Each petal revealed an array of colors, displaying an entire rainbow. Each rainbow moved and twirled fluidly upon its petal.
“It’s so beautiful", Farra exclaimed. She moved closer to the fascinating plant and then they heard a strange voice.
“Must be careful.”
They turned around to see a small creature behind them digging up from under the snow. When it stood up, it was about two feet tall. It was hunched over a bit, and its limbs were bent at the knees and elbows like a little monkey. Its skin was gray with a brownish hue, and it had patches of long fur near its elbows and its calves. It wore pieces of jewelry that hung from its tiny frame awkwardly. The small creature had three fingers and a thumb on each hand, and two toes on each foot with more rings, bracelets, and toe rings with jewels in them.
“What?” Bomani asked.
“Must be careful,” the thing repeated.
“Who — No, what are you?” Bomani asked.
“It’s a tree imp,” said Farra.
“Yes, tree imp. Me, Zerggie,” the imp introduced himself. Zerggie hopped around on all four limbs, then he jumped on Farra’s lap and quickly climbed up to her shoulder, before she could stop him.
“Hey!” she said. She twisted around and tried to reach him as he skittered across her shoulders and smelled her hair and clothing.
“Hey, you’re cute,” Farra laughed.
“I wouldn’t say cute,” Bomani insisted. He turned up his nose and looked at the troll-like creature, disapprovingly.
“What are you doing?” Farra laughed.
Zerggie climbed to the other side of Farra and ran back across her shoulders. He scurried down to her bag and began to burglarize it. He picked out a twilka berry and helped himself to that as well, nibbling with his small teeth. Farra glanced down at him.
“Hello, Zerggie, I am Farra. You like twilka berries, I see.” Zerggie tossed the rest of the bunch into his mouth and then jumped down.
“Hey!” Farra reached in her bag, and pulled out a few bare stems. “You ate all of them!”
Before Bomani could stop him, Zerggie climbed up his leg and burrowed into Bomani’s sac.
“Hey!” Bomani exclaimed. The little thing was beginning to annoy him.
Zerggie fumbled through Bomani’s belongings and pulled out a rune. “What this?”
“What are you doing? It’s a rune, give it back,” Bomani commanded.
“What it do?” The curious imp asked.
“It’s magical. Give it back!” Bomani insisted.
“Like magic. Make it do magic,” Zerggie requested.
Now, completely frustrated, Bomani grabbed Zerggie by the neck and began to shake him. He threatened to hit him and demanded that he returned the rune.
“Don’t hurt him!” Farra cried. She got up quickly so that she could help the little creature.
“Don’t hurt him? He ate all of your berries, and now he’s got my rune!” Bomani glared at the imp angrily. He let out a sigh, and then lightened his grip on the wiry imp. “I won’t hurt him if he gives me the rune back.”
Zerggie slowly handed him the rune and Bomani sat him down. Zerggie seemed to sense Farra’s compassion and scurried up to her arms, where she cradled him like a baby. Bomani stepped toward them, and Zerggie swiped at him with his thin long fingers as if to ward Bomani off.
“Aw,” Farra cooed at the imp. “Look at the little guy. You’ve frightened him. Did you have to be so mean? Everybody likes twilka berries.”
“Mean? He was stealing from us,” Bomani pleaded.
“He wasn’t going to keep it. He was just curious.”
“How do you know that? Where do you think he got all that jewelry?”
Farra continued to coddle Zerggie, despite Bomani’s apparent disapproval. “You weren’t going to steal it, were you?”
Zerggie looked into her eyes innocently and shook his head. “Me no steal.”
“See!” Farra confirmed to Bomani. “I told you.”
“I doubt that,” Bomani disagreed.
She sat the imp down and soothed him, “There you go. That big, bad Bomani won’t bother you anymore. Tell us, do you know what those flowers are?”
“Bloom,” Zerggie said.
“You mean they bloom?” Farra asked.
“They are bloom,” Zerggie corrected her. “Bloom flowers.” His mouth and hands were wet from the juice of the fruit and he cleaned his wrinkled little fingers with his tongue, like an animal, giving Bomani very little regard now that he had Farra’s loyalty.
“That’s a silly name for a flower. That’s like calling a tree a growing tree,” said Bomani.
“Silly maybe, but they are bloom flower. Growing tree on other mountain,” Zerggie replied. He pointed in the direction of a mountain in the distance.
Bomani sighed. At first he thought that Zerggie was mocking him, but then he realized that the imp was serious, and that apparently there really was a tree called growing tree growing somewhere on the mountains toward the horizon. Bomani finally accepted Zerggie’s odd name for the curious plant called the bloom flower.
Suddenly, more of the intriguing plants began spouting. Their fluid petals were so attractive that Farra could not resist the desire to pick one.
“Bloom flower, huh?” she said as she reached out to pick one, but Zerggie jumped in front of her.
“No pick flowers!” he exclaimed.
“Oh, I see,” said Bomani, “It’s fine for you to help yourself to our belongings, but we can’t touch your flowers?”
“No look at bloom flower too long either.” Zerggie insisted.
“That’s okay,” said Farra. We are not even here for the flowers, even though they are beautiful. We are looking for the Angry Mountain, do you know where it is?”
Zerggie began jumping up and down, excitedly. “This Angry Mountain!”
“Really? I thought this was a volcano.”
“This is volcano. This volcano, Angry Mountain.”
“Is that why they call it Angry Mountain? Because it’s
a volcano?”
“No.”
“Then why do they call it Angry Mountain?” Farra asked.
Bomani was not paying attention to Farra and the imp anymore. He stood where the first bloom flowers grew, and his eyes followed the vibrant plants as if he was in a trance. He stood in awe of them, and the stirring colors of the petals beckoned him closer. Soon it was impossible for him to resist and he moved mechanically toward the dazzling plant as if something beyond his control was pulling him toward them. He had to have one.
“Maybe I should pick some — take some home to mother,” he murmured. “She loves flowers. She has a garden.”
Zerggie jumped around erratically now, and pointed at Bomani. “That why they call it Angry Mountain!
Chapter 12
FOLK TALE OF AN ANGRY
MOUNTAIN