by AA Lee
They approached the Great Fall a few hours later. It was dark, but there was no mistaking the deafening sound of the waterfall. Standing hundreds of meters tall, nobody had ever survived from falling from it. It was the most dangerous part of the path leading into town.
The waterfall isolated Daa and its neighboring two villages from town and the other villages beyond. Townspeople had tried several times to build a road, but all efforts had been in vain. They had tried using big bulldozers, but there were always impediments. The weather was unpredictable, and it had not gone unnoticed that each time they had started to dig near to the waterfall, a violent storm would break out. They had also tried positioning rock and soil to elevate the lower part of the river, but their efforts were always swept away by flooding. Many people had died in the attempts.
The mountain from which the waterfall flowed was composed of toughened rock that made it hard for people to carve through. And it was not only the weather and the terrain that stopped the townspeople from circumventing the waterfall. Wild animals, including bees, were known to attack the workers, while many others had fallen ill in unusual circumstances.
With the stories spreading, construction workers had stopped attempting to build a road, and nobody was even interested in hearing talks about an alternative to the Great Fall path.
Beyond the Great Fall was another world. There were cement roads, houses made of bricks, and cars. Daa and its surrounding two villages were a far cry from the villages below, but those villages themselves were ten times behind the progress of the people living in town. The town had tall buildings ten to twenty times higher than their houses in the village. There had been talk about moving stairways and boxes moving up and down in those buildings, but Goni and the other villagers had never seen them for themselves. Most villagers only went to town to buy goods from the market, and of them, only those who were used to the route went to town often. Normally, they were carriers transporting goods for village merchants.
The market traders would disingenuously try to be nice when facing the villagers in the hope of making a sale. But whenever the villagers left, they mocked them. Other townspeople were different. They openly insulted the villagers to their faces, commenting on their looks, their style of dress, or their language. For that reason, few villagers chose to stay in town.
Jinja’s men gathered dry stalks and bundled them together to create a torch. This Jinja lit using the dying torch that he had been using for the past hour, discarding the dying torch in the river to prevent setting the forest alight.
“Make a big bundle,” Nora motioned to Idja and the other men. They obeyed Nora without question. After it was lit, Nora grabbed one of the torches and threw it down the waterfall. It didn’t reach halfway before its light was extinguished. “I need a bigger bundle!” Nora’s voice competed against the raging waterfall. The men obeyed, scrambling to fashion a much larger torch this time.
After Nora threw the light, the waterfall lit up. Her heart drummed as she saw Kenda climbing down the path beside the waterfall. She was halfway down, but there was still quite a way to go. The light plummeted quickly, but she clearly saw that Kenda was wet. She must be shivering with cold, she thought.
“High Priestess, it is time to make her slow down. I will use the spell now.” Idja inched closer.
“No,” she cut him off before he could say anything more. “It is dangerous. She will fall and surely die.”
“But if we do not act now, High Priestess, it is unlikely that we will catch up with her. If she succeeds in going down, she might ask the villagers for help.”
“We will catch her, I am sure of that,” Nora said, but her voice wasn’t as confident as her words even to her own ears.
Jinja’s nostrils flared. “Go ahead and use it. I can’t allow my bride to jilt me.”
Idja’s eye narrowed on Nora. “High Priestess, we have to do it now. The longer we hesitate, the further she goes.”
“No, I can’t allow my granddaughter to die. It is too dangerous.”
“Do it!” Jinja shouted.
“No! The risk is too great. Do you think I want her to escape?”
“Yes, you do, if you don’t do this!”
“How dare you!” Nora moved closer to Jinja until they were just inches apart. “I’d rather kill you than watch my granddaughter die!”
“High Priestess, I don’t know if this helps, but I can make the spell work so that she will only lose energy and not fall asleep.”
“It is still dangerous. She might fall if she does not have the energy to hold on.”
“Let’s wait.” Jinja’s voice was lower this time. “We wait until she is near the waterfall’s base. Once we’re sure she’ll survive if she falls, we’ll use the spell.”
Nora did not answer, and to her relief, no one pressed on.
“Light.” Jinja gave the orders this time. He stepped forward, and Nora was sure that he purposely did it to block her view. He threw the torch down, and in its descending illumination, Nora saw that Kenda was still halfway down the fall.
His eyes fixed on the small figure traversing the rock, Jinja bellowed, “Now! You have to release the spell now!”
“No!” Nora screamed. “Just wait a little longer.”
“High Priestess, there is no time.” Jinja grabbed Nora’s hand with such callousness that her eyes widened in disbelief. No one dared to touch the high priestess, and the people of Daa followed the tradition fervently. Nora raised her staff and knocked on the ground two times. It was the sign to summon help from the underworld. Jinja snatched the staff, leaving Nora without a weapon and unable to complete her call for help. She raised her hand to slap Jinja, but he caught her hand in mid-air and, gently but firmly, pushed her aside.
“You have failed to lead us in this chase, High Priestess. Let me handle this.” Jinja’s voice was devoid of respect.
As Idja started his enchantment, Nora’s mind raced as to what kind of magic she could use. Her knowledge only covered healing and summoning the souls. Goni, she thought. She wanted to tell Goni to save Kenda, but she could not speak, or Jinja would stop him. Slowly, she turned her head only to see that Goni had his magic powder prepared.
As Idja blew his powders to activate his spell, he was thrown back as though he had been hit by a flying object. He scrambled to get up, but he was unable to plant his feet on the ground, let alone push his hand down to support his weight. He looked to have run out of energy. Goni’s mouth curved into a smile
“You bastard!” Idja pointed to Goni, his face crimson with anger. “You are a traitor to your village!”.
Goni rushed to the path next to the waterfall.
“Catch him!” Jinja shouted to his other men. “Don’t let him escape!”
A man blocked Goni’s escape. His head was bald and shiny, and the light from the red flames of the torches made his head appear red. His body was bulging with muscles, and his sleeveless shirt was doing a poor job of hiding them.
Goni’s right foot connected with the man’s neck, but, surprisingly, the man did not go down. The kick only seemed to make his head grew redder with anger.
The man lunged for Goni, using the full weight of his muscle-toned body to attack him, but there was no technique to his fighting style. He used sheer force alone in fighting. The man’s body connected with Goni’s and they fell hard together, splashing water on the other men and extinguishing some of the torches.
Nora dashed to her discarded staff on the riverbank, but as she drew close, Jinja picked it up. Nora clenched her fists, but she had no way of helping Goni.
A few men moved closer but did not position themselves close enough to stop the fight. The man Goni was fighting was the biggest of them all, and by the look on their faces, they were confident that Goni would not be able to escape. Goni quickly regained his footing before the man could have a chance of hitting him again.
“You think you’re that good, little magic man?” The bald man grinned like a maniac, pr
oud to show his fighting skills.
“Better than a brainless muscle.”
“Let’s see what magic you’ve got there, little man. Come on, show me some magic. Your magic doesn’t work on me.” The bald man beat his chest. When he was close enough, Goni punched him on the chin. The man froze. Goni threw another punch, and the bald man fell down. Goni sprung toward the path going down the waterfall but was caught by two men.
“Quick! Grab him! You’re all dead if he escapes!” Jinja barked, unmoving.
“Idja, release the magic! That bitch might be able to reach the bottom otherwise. And deal with this pest who’s wasting our time.”
Idja tried to stand, but to no avail. The obstruction spell had not worn off, and he could barely move.
Goni’s left elbow connected with the taller man’s ribs. Once their grip had loosened, his right fist sent the other man a few inches backward. Goni hurried closer to the waterfall as the two men regained their footing.
“Goni! Behind!” Nora screamed. But it was late. The branch hit Goni’s head. Blood trickled down his forehead. He seemed to fall in a slow motion until his body hit the riverbank.
Nora screamed as Dasig, a Nayon warrior took another swing. Goni raised his arm and held on to the branch. Dasig’s eyes widened in surprise, but he kept ahold of the other end. Goni pushed him back using the branch, but two more men joined Dasig on the other end.
“Push!” Dasig shouted to his allies.
“Let go!” Nora screamed. But it was too late for Goni to let go. He went rolling down the path he had planned to take earlier.
Chapter 11
Kenda
Kenda’s hands were numb, and her body shivered uncontrollably. The night was cruelly cold, and she had not made a lot of progress due to the darkness. She used her feet to feel the stones beneath them, hoping they would lead her on the correct path, gasping each time a torch was thrown from above. Her heart pounded faster as she saw men fighting near the waterfall. She knew Goni would be among them.
Horror-stricken, she watched as the men encircled Goni and forced him backward onto the path. As he came rolling down the steep path, Kenda moved quickly to her right to catch him. The impact knocked the wind out of her. The vine she was holding onto was ripped from the rocks, and both Kenda and Goni plunged from the rock face.
There was no chance of survival from a fall at their current height. They were still high up, and the bottom of the path was rocky. Kenda just hoped that they would fall into the water instead of striking the rocks below.
As she fell, Kenda suddenly remembered Goni saying that water obeyed her commands. With her life in imminent danger, she commanded the water. “Rise up and catch us!”
They continued tumbling down, and Kenda wondered if she had gone crazy by talking to the water. She tried to hold on to anything her hand could reach, but they were falling at an uncontrollable speed. Nothing she grasped would be enough to break their fall.
Something cold touched her body, and they stopped rolling. She wondered if she had hit her head and was hallucinating, but then the coldness enveloped her softly. Flashes of memory entered her mind, but they weren’t hers. Her brows furrowed in concentration as she tried to understand what was going on. It seemed as though she was taken back to an ancient time she had never dreamed of. It felt so real that for a moment, the Great Fall disappeared before her eyes. She gasped as bolts of magic lights escaped the magicians and priestesses’ hands with immeasurable power. In the center of the stage was a woman, no, a girl. A half-naked man was begging the priestesses and the magicians to stop. Kenda could feel the girl’s pain. She wanted them to stop, too, but was aware that she couldn’t do anything because it was just a memory. But whose memory?
She shook her head to banish the vision but confusion clouded her mind upon seeing the water supporting Goni’s bloodied body. Instead of falling into the water at the bottom of the fall, they were suspended in mid-air, cradled by a body of water that was shaped like a boat. The water neither moved up or down.
Disbelief flowed through Kenda, but there could be no other explanation other than her ability to command the water. Hesitantly, she decided to put the theory to the test. “Thank you, water,” she said. “Now, I want you to bring us down slowly to the riverbank.” The water moved slowly, as if it had understood Kenda’s words.
Goni smiled weakly. “I told you that you are the Bringer of Equality.”
Kenda turned to him in surprise. She had thought that he was unconscious. “I want to believe you, Uncle, but I don’t know what to do to break this curse. I just told the water to catch us, that’s all. And it caught us.”
They came to rest gently on the sand that was as black as the night, the water suddenly losing its form and being absorbed by the ground beneath them.
Goni looked at her with sadness in his eyes. “I wish that I could teach you what I know, but we don’t have enough time. For now, the most important thing is that you escape from here. Legend speaks of the Bringer of Equality awakening the one who is cursed. The Bringer of Equality is said to be young and unmarried, so we must do all we can to keep it that way. You must escape this marriage, and I will try to find you later to enhance your magic.”
“Uncle, I don’t know what to do,” Kenda pleaded. “I really don’t. Maybe I can ask the water to help us both escape from here and then you can train me more.”
“No, I am weak. I have used up all my energy. I will just become one more person for you to worry about. Besides, I think the obstruction spell that I used against Idja has worn out by now. I will use my remaining tricks to slow them down. Go and discover your gift on your own.”
“No, I won’t leave you,” Kenda protested, her hands curled at her sides. “You are wounded. I am afraid you are too weak to stay in this cold. You will not survive.”
“Trust me, child. I have been through worse. I am strong.”
“But… what about me?” Kenda’s tears welled up. She couldn’t help but cry in front of the man she thought of as a mentor. “You were the only one who helped me. My grandmother…” Her voice cracked. “Grandma sold me to those pigs.”
“Kenda, it was not your grandmother’s intention. She was trying to protect you in her own way, in the way she sees the world. That’s why you should make your own destiny. If you’re given no other option, you must make another one for yourself, and I believe that you can do the same for the rest of the girls back in our village. You are very brave. I have never seen such passion to break free, despite the odds. Others just succumb to fate, but not you. Others surrender to death, but not you. You refuse to accept what the world has to offer, just as you refuse the offerings of the afterlife. You fight. You have it in you to pave a new way in this world. Don’t be afraid to do so alone.”
“Can I really do it? The town is a long way from here, and I don’t know where to go.”
“Remember, you have always been independent, ever since you were young. You loved to explore the forest alone. Just think of this as a way of exploring life.”
Torches lit the top of the waterfall. The two of them fell silent as the torches slowly traversed down the path.
“Go. Hurry. I will slow them down. You have come this far. Don’t let them catch you.”
“Uncle, what are you going to do? Can’t you just hide from them?” Kenda stood up, fear coursing through her at the sight of the torches that were coming nearer.
“No, they will go on hunting you if I do that. They have a gifted hunter. Go, don’t worry about me. Go!”
Goni’s angry voice prompted Kenda’s feet to walk, even though every fiber of her being told her not to leave the only one who helped her in her escape. She was too cold to return to the water, and so she refused the urge to ask the water to carry her, despite her exhaustion and the pain she felt from falling. She rubbed her hands together to try to warm them and ran into the black night, praying that she would succeed in her escape.
Chapter 12
The Fal
l Guardian
The Fall Guardian stretched his hand after the girl. He wanted to know more. He wanted to be sure that it was him, that it was his memory, but the girl ran, leaving the lanky man to lie on the sand at the base of the waterfall. The thought that he was once human never crossed his mind. The sudden fear of what happened to him made him stop and let the girl flee.
The memory haunted him. What could I have done to anger such a powerful human? Will the girl return to show me my memory again? The girl’s call confused him. It was the first time he woke up from a human’s call, and it felt strange.
Normally, he was disturbed whenever there was danger in either the Great Fall or the waterfall facing Daa, which he called the upper falls. Danger usually meant humans were trying to destroy it. He controlled the water to scare them off. He had no memory of who had ordered him to be the guardian of the two waterfalls, but ever since the first time he had woken up several hundred years ago, he felt obliged to protect them.
He was the constant protector of the upper and The Great Fall, and so he called himself the Fall Guardian. He had heard humans calling each other by their names, but nobody had ever given him one and he figured that he should do so himself. He floated through the air like a spirit, invisible, and yet he was there, at one with the wind. In peaceful days, he fell into a deep slumber, allowing the wind to carry him. There was no yesterday, nor tomorrow, for the Fall Guardian. Each day was the same, except for when the rain was torrential and it forced him to stay awake to stop the water from destroying people’s homes.
One thing that the Fall Guardian could not do was wander beyond the two falls. He could travel and observe the three villages within the upper waterfall and The Great Fall. He had tried millions of times, but each time, he had failed to go past either of them. It felt like there was an invisible wall that stopped him from leaving, and that made him feel like a prisoner.