Traveling by foot was taking its toll on the children and the little blue pup that followed. Bomani was a warrior; the hard leather-like bottoms of his feet were supposed to be tough enough to endure hard conditions. Warriors in Ufalme trained barefoot most of the time. So taking this long trek in a nice pair of sandals should have been a piece of cake for him. On the contrary, part of him was so annoyed by the pounding pain of each step that he wanted to complain out about it.
Of course, he could not do so. Especially since poor Farra had not yet broken down and complained, herself. The Animen people did not do the rigorous walking in their bare feet like the warriors from Ufalme. They seldom went on long journeys. Bomani had seen the blisters on Farra’s feet, but she had not uttered a single complaint.
It had been two days since they encountered Onoc and the Panthers. The terrain flattened and they found themselves in a dry wilderness of nothing but dirt and sun for miles on end. Finding water was proving to be difficult. Bomani found a few pulu plants along the way. He showed Farra how to carefully pull them out of the ground so that they could suck the water out of the swollen sacks of the roots.
There were not many pulu plants around, nor did they feel as if they had the time to search for them. Bomani insisted on keeping a brisk pace to stay ahead of the Ogres. Something inside him told him that they were still being followed and that time was not on their side.
They walked a quick pace, breathing heavily through their nostrils trying to let their hearts and lungs keep up with their bodies. Their shoulder straps bothered them from time to time so they switched the strap from one shoulder to the other, trying to give each one a break.
Their brown skin, many shades darker now, only gave them so much protection from the sun’s continuous rays, drawing a very fine line between toughening and damaging their skin.
What bothered them most of all where the mosquitoes that picked at them mile after mile. Smacking themselves and swatting became as regular as putting one foot in front of the other.
Bomani looked at Farra and smiled, but she was so focused on moving forward that she did not notice. He knew that these conditions were eating away at her. She had been silent for quite some time; it was not like her at all. She must have been absolutely miserable.
She’s a warrior, he thought to himself. He then noticed little Pupa trotting right alongside them. Pupa too.
Then, just as he thought that to himself, Farra said something that he did not expect. “My feet hurt!” she said sternly.
Bomani chuckled in a sigh of relief. He was glad that he could finally say something about his own aching feet.
“Heh, mine too, Farra, and they have been for some time. I don’t know how much more of these mosquitoes I can take, either.”
They proceeded until came to a cliff and began to negotiate their way down it. It was slow going for both of them, but they managed to make their way down the side. Bomani had started the decent before her, and he glanced up to see how she was fairing. He carefully and constantly searched the rocky wall for footholds and little crevices to stick his hands and feet into for leverage. He grunted and gasped, shifting between strength and agility, moving his weight to his feet and then betting all of his life on the strength of his arms. He was strong, a good climber, good at descending as well. “You doing alright?” he asked her. He was continually worried about the little sorceress, and at the same time continually impressed by the tasks that she could achieve. She followed, putting her hands and feet exactly where Bomani had. What she did not have in size and strength, she made up for in heart, and that part of her reminded him of himself.
“Fine,” she grunted, moving her hand into a small crack and then checking on Pupa who stayed nestled in her pouch.
They were close to the bottom. Bomani paused on the rocks at the sound of a low buzzing, and then he felt something brush across his back. He shifted his shoulders at the odd tingle and discomfort, almost losing his balance. The buzzing came around again, this time circling to the side of him enough to be seen.
Bomani let out a loud shriek at a large insect buzzing around him.
“It’s a bui bui fly,” Farra shouted. “Don’t let it bite you, it will hurt!”
“I wasn’t planning on it,” he shouted back, now swatting it. The bui bui flies were big, about two inches wide. They had eight legs like a spider, and to accompany that characteristic, multiple eyes and fangs. Their poison was nothing but a mild sedative to humans, so there was no danger there, but it did hurt when they bit, and scaling down the side of a cliff was harder with them buzzing about.
The bui bui flies have a larva stage, as normal flies do. The adults like to place their eggs deep inside of meat so that the larvae have plenty of food when they hatch. Only problem was, they did not care whether that meat was alive or dead.
More of bugs flew around them. The two moved as fast as their skills would allow them, until Farra was almost bitten and lost her footing on the wall. She would have fallen right past Bomani had he not reached out and grabbed her.
“I got you,” he shouted. “Try to grab on to the wall.”
But, she was too heavy. His grip slipped from the wall and down they went the remaining yards to the ground. They did not have much time to ponder their pain. The bui bui flies were back at them, buzzing loudly, allured by their warm-blooded flesh.
Bomani and Farra spent the next minute or so on the ground, swatting at more flies. They smashed some of them against their skin when they landed —killing a bui bui fly like that leaves an awful gooey mess on the skin.
“Are you alright?” Bomani asked. Farra was too tired, too hurt, and too aggravated to answer. Just as he spoke, a bui bui fly landed on his bandaged leg and took a bite. Bomani hardy felt a thing. Suddenly a light came from his bandage. Some weird glyphic shone brightly as if someone had written all over his bandages with the sun. The light only lasted a second, and then faded. The bug, fell to the ground, dead.
Both Farra and Bomani looked at the bandages, confused at what they saw, while at the same time swatting at more of the flies.
“There is something very different about these bandages,” he said.
They had no time to discuss it. They had to keep moving if they were to get away from the insects. They were on open dry, flat, land. Behind them, the wall that they had just come down; in front of them, an ocean of red dirt that stretched its way to the horizon. Then Bomani noticed a rock pillar of some sort far ahead of them to the South West.
A cool breeze met them. It was the most refreshing thing they had felt in days. Even better, the wind was powerful enough to overcome the flapping of those pesky flies. In one swift moment, they were rid of the flies and rid of the heat. They both stopped in their tracks and bathed in its relief.
“Doesn’t that feel great?” Bomani said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever felt a breeze this good before. C’mon Farra, you have to admit, this feels pretty fantastic. It’s like something my mother used to say, ‘sometimes it’s the simple things.’ She must have been talking about breezes like this.” Bomani dropped to his knees and closed his eyes. His mind drifted into nothing but the nurturing wind against his skin.
“Yeah,” she said in a soft dry voice, “feels good.” She was busy checking Pupa for any bite marks that the flies left. Then she stood up and looked toward the structure at the horizon. She put her staff into the ground and looked through the crystal, using it as a lens.
“What is it?” Bomani asked, coming out of his trance and to his feet. “What do you see?"
For some reason that Bomani could not tell, Farra was not offering any answers.
“Well, what
is it?”
She finally spoke in a solemn voice. “The Temple of Wanyama.”
Bomani could not tell if she was disturbed by the place, or if she was just in a strange mood. But it was obvious that the chatty little sorceress had b
ecome quiet.
“What? Let me see. Bomani jumped up and butted his way to get a clear picture through the crystal. “I don’t see anything. It’s all blurry.”
“Of course you can’t. Why would you be able to see through my staff? It only works for me.”
“What is the temple for?”
“Shape-shifters.”
“Well, is it a good thing or a bad thing?” Bomani now had to drag answers out of her, which he did not like at all.
“I don’t know,” she said, pulling her staff out of the ground.
“Well should we go, or shouldn’t we?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is it me, or has this breeze turned into a strong wind?” Bomani asked, as he noticed his shield being tugged by a gust. He was right. The wind was getting stronger. The nice breeze had slowly escalated and they had not even noticed at first. The wind blew from directly ahead of them, pushing back towards the cliff.
“We’d better keep moving, Farra,” he said.
She nodded, but did not speak.
In a place so barren, Bomani’s curiosity brought him in the direction of the temple. He did not even bother to check the compass rune. Farra was not offering up any answers, and he wanted to know what this place was.
With each passing minute, the wind grew stronger. Soon it was not just the elements of the air that they were fighting. They became nearly blinded by the dirt carried by the current. Like fine bits of sand, the dirt brushed its way into their faces. Farra once again picked Pupa up and placed him into her pouch. Bomani shifted his shield, holding it in front of himself for protection.
“What about the air rune,” Bomani said. “Maybe we can use it in the wind.”
“No,” she said. “It doesn’t feel right.”
“Are you sure?” Bomani asked.
“I said no,” she stated firmly. “It doesn’t feel right.”
She pulled on her hood and nestled her head as far back into it as she could. Then she unfolded the flap at the bottom of her hood, which normally came down mid-bicep so that now it reached the middle of her forearms.
The dirt and sand whipped at their skin. Bomani grabbed her hand and pulled her close to him as he shielded them both. In that way, the shield was doing its job, but pushing against the wind with a giant surface proved to be exhausting. They struggled for over an hour, moving toward the Temple and the shelter they hoped that it would provide.
It seemed to be toying with them. At one second Bomani would peek around his shield and guess the distance, and then a few minutes later he would peek again without even noticing a gain. Still, they kept moving, for they had no other place to go.
“Don’t worry,” Bomani said. “We’re going to make it.”
As the winds became more intense, they leaned into it even more, staying on their toes to use the full strength of their legs. The wind, dirt, and small pieces of rock came at them even harder, giving stinging abrasions to any part of them that was not covered.
The ground, which was flat before, became noticeably bumpy and rugged. They found themselves feeling around with their feet for proper footing until Bomani’s foot became lodged and he lost his balance all together.
They both hit the ground and Bomani landed on the skeletal remains of something, of what, he was not sure. It looked like it could be human. There just was not enough of it to be sure.
Farra quickly scurried away from it and over to Bomani who was busy putting his shield back into place to block the wind.
“It would probably be easier just to crawl from here,” he shouted, trying to keep his voice above the wind.
With his shield held horizontally, they crawled side by side over the land. Only, as they quickly noticed, this was not just land. Every foot that they moved forward unveiled another skeleton. And it was apparent that many of them were human.
The thought had crossed Bomani’s mind that these people were either going to, or coming from the temple. He kept this thought to himself. He did not see any use in disturbing Farra any more than he already knew she was.
They made their way toward the temple, crawling over rock, dirt, skulls, rib cages, femurs, the bones of the hands, and feet, some of them strong, some of them old and brittle enough to give way with the slightest bit of weight.
Then, even louder than the constant roaring of the winds, they heard something or someone yell from far away. It sounded like a horrible scream of pain. They could not tell from what direction it came. Nor were they sure if it was from man or beast. They both looked at each other, but neither said anything.
They crawled about 150 more yards until through the wind and over skeleton after skeleton, finally, they reached the outside of the temple with battered hands, knees, and skin that looked as if it had been whipped with a broom. It was worth letting the wind hit them in the face just to get a glimpse of the size and shape of the building. It was mainly a giant rock pillar that rose to about a hundred feet up. From where they stood, it looked as if it touched the height of the sky itself. At the top, the front half figures of animals protruded from the side as if they were jumping out to attack —an eagle, a leopard, and a shark. The statues circled the top of the thick pillar and Bomani could only assume that the other side had animals carved out of it as well.
At the bottom, the temple was surrounded by a dry moat, the bottom layered by more of the dead. They moved over a single stone bridge that extended across it, and anxiously entered the building. The brisk breeze that had given them so much relief before was now a relief to escape.
They entered the opening of the temple. It was about 7 ft high, wide enough for any large-sized man to easily make his way through. The corridor only extended fifteen feet before making a 90-degree right turn. Then, it reached far enough to escape the ambient sunlight and faded into darkness.
They turned the corner and were safe from the wind, but they only walked until they were still satisfied with the light bouncing off of the corner wall.
“Here,” Bomani said in the tender way a mother speaks to her child. “This should be good.”
Farra was as quiet as ever. She put her back against the hard wall and slid down to the ground, wrapping her arms around her knees. She was shaking, even though it was not cold. Pupa crawled around her and even he was noticeably distraught. She picked him up and held him tight.
Bomani could see the wind abrasions on her face and the trickles of blood painted on her knuckles. From the way he felt, he figured he might as well be looking in a mirror.
They had no water. He thought that perhaps he might be able to find some water inside the temple that had not been banished by the sun’s heat.
“Are you thirsty?” he asked.
Farra looked at him, but did not bother to answer.
“I’m going to go see if there is some water in here.”
As he turned away, Farra grabbed his hand and squeezed tightly. She did not even look at him this time. Her head looked forward at a blank wall, and she shivered as if she was just pulled out of a freezing lake.
“Are you cold?” Bomani asked and took off his cape and placed it around her. “Look Farra, I know you are thirsty, I have to find water. I’ll be right back, okay?”
Again, she grabbed at him, begging him to stay by squeeze his hand.
“Farra, I’m not sure what’s wrong with you. But I need you to be strong. Do you hear me? You need to be strong right now.”
The words fell on her ears like an insult. “I JUST CRAWLED OVER HUNDREDS OF DEAD BODIES!” she yelled. Her voice traveled down the corridor into the darkness and then echoed back again. She broke into a soft whimper, “I want to go home.”
Bomani realized that she was tired, battered, bruised, and scared. He understood why she did not want to move. He understood that she had gone through so much discomfort that right now she was broken. She was broken, and he had no idea ho
w to fix her.
Bomani looked at her for a moment before giving in. He sat down next to her against the wall and was totally confused as to what to do next.
Farra’s whimpering had stopped. No tears had fallen from her face; she was beyond that now. She leaned over and rested her head on Bomani’s shoulder and fell asleep. It was at that point that Bomani understood. He did not need to do anything more. He felt a wave of pleasure as the small girl lay against him. It was comforting. They both need to be comforted. He felt like a parent and a child all at the same time. He embraced both these feelings and, before long, he laid his head back on top of hers and he too fell asleep.
The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter Page 28