The Angkora Warlands

by K Silvermoon

Back at the Resistance base, Jebat stood guard at the watchtower. Jebat was Arjana’s trusted assistant, rough and tough and a very good dagger thrower. Twenty seven years old.

  He saw something looming over the horizon. “Uma, an airship!”

  “Is it the Shadow Kingdom's?” asked Uma.

  Momentary silence.

  “Incoming! Get into your positions!” yelled Jebat. The crew prepared for the incoming threat. Except for Gajja, who just laid down in his hammock.

  “Wasn’t this all foretold by my grandfather?” Gajja whispered to himself. “After all, my grandfather is the greatest oracle.”

  Uma approached the window and began preparing the cannon.

  Rom was also rushing to prepare another cannon. He was a young fourteen year old boy, a teenage brat. Very good with guns and cannons. He prepared the cannon with glee on his face.

  “We don't need to worry about Rangga,” Arjana said. “Shoot it down.”

  “Are you not overestimating him?” asked Jebat, somewhat surprised.

  Arjana answered with only silence and a smile.

  The airship was now above them.

  “Rom, shoot now! Now!” Jebat shouted. They shot at the ship with their cannons, flaming fireballs hitting the side of the ship. The gunship did not retaliate. Fire spread across the ship.

  The gunship, now in flames, keeled then crashed to the ground nearby. Planks of wood and steel flew everywhere. Rangga climbed out the wreckage and rolled off of it. He brushed the dust off his hair.

  White Naga then stepped out of the wreckage and writhed weakly, transforming back into its human form. A pale demure girl in a white bathing robe laid on the ground where the White Naga had been. She pulled herself up.

  Rangga made his way through the remains of the ship and walked slowly towards Chinta.

  Chinta quivered and asked in a weak voice, “Who are you?”

  Rangga looked puzzled and started looking around, searching frantically for the White Naga. “Where is the White Naga?”

  Chinta looked confused. “What are you talking about?”

  Rangga asked again, forcefully this time. “Are you the White Naga?”

  Chinta replied with a teenage angst, “White Naga? What are you talking about? I just want to go home to my father’s house!”

  Rangga ignored this and said, “I am a descendant of the White Naga Clan. My name is Rangga. Are you the White Naga as prophesied by the Elephants? For the purpose of leading Angkora into the new future?”

  Chinta frowned. She had no idea what he was talking about. “You must have me confused with someone else…”

  Rangga persisted. “I will fight with you, and I will eliminate anything that gets in the way of your will. Anything whatsoever.”

  Chinta shook her head. “I… I don't know what’s going on. I don't understand any of what you’re saying. Where is this place? Where am I?”

  Rangga was angry. Disappointed.

  “Who are you?” Rangga asked. “Was it you who made the Naga vanish?”

  “What are you talking about?” Chinta said, slightly annoyed that she didn’t know what was going on.

  Rangga pulled out his dagger. “Now I understand. You are a spy of the Shadow Kingdom! If that is so, I will kill you!”

  Chinta stepped away from Rangga. Scared.

  Arjana came walking through the wreckage and the flames.“Stand down, Rangga,” he said, before he laughed. ”Long time no see.”

  “Arjana! Do not interfere!” Rangga showed his hot-headedness. It didn’t help that he also had a long-time rivalry with Arjana.

  “That girl,” Arjana said in a calm voice, “you don't need to kill her.”

  “But she made the White Naga vanish!” Rangga said.

  “Is that so?” Arjana said, trying to reason with Rangga. “If we leave her be, she might be useful later. Besides, I don't want to see a girl’s blood shed.”

  But Rangga stood his ground. “I'm not taking any orders from you!”

  With a swift movement, Rangga lunged at Arjana with his bare hands. But Arjana swiftly evaded his attack. Both moved in cautious and calculated movements. They circled each other.

  “Oh, another duel?” Arjana said. “I can still see the uncontrollable anger within you.”

  “I will kill anyone who gets in my way!” Rangga said.

  Arjana grinned. “Try it! If it is not due to the gift you have, your martial arts would be no better than mine,” Arjana replied Rangga, like an elder brother to a junior.

  “What are they doing?” Chinta asked the other people who were watching the duel. “Why are those two fighting?” As she said that, Arjana knocked Rangga to the ground. Rangga rolled over and unsheathed his daggers. Arjana unsheathed his own his long sword.

  Jebat was leaning against a wall, balancing a dagger from its hilt on his palm. “Rangga, that's enough,” he said. “If the boss was serious, you'd be dead already.”

  “Rangga, you should fight with us, not against us,” Uma said, trying to reason.

  “Yes, we will be stronger as a team,” Jebat said.

  “Well, that goes without saying!” Uma chided Jebat.

  Rom giggled. “Woohoo! Jebat was scolded by Uma!”

  Jebat got irritated by Rom’s little brother antics. “Rom! Come down here!” Rom replied in a rebellious tone, “Come on now! I was only kidding. And stop talking to me like that, I am not your little brother. Okay?”

  All of them were now surrounding Rangga and Arjana, creating a small arena.

  Gajja then appeared. “Wha…! This must be the prophesised Lady White Naga! She will lead Angkora into a new future! Oh, how wonderful!”

  Rom chided the quack prophet, “Oh, shut up you cheating fortune teller!”

  Gajja levitated and circled around Rom, poking at Rom with his burning cigar and generally getting Rom annoyed.

  “Arjana,” Uma asked. “Is that really her?”

  “I don’t know,” Arjana answered without wanting to give too much hope. “We shall keep her and find out.”

  “Hmm… if she really is the Lady White Naga,” Uma said, a little unconvinced, “she sure doesn't look much different than any of us. At first glance anyway.”

  Dinda, a sixteen year old cute human girl came prancing towards the group. ”Lord Rangga! Stop picking on Lord Rangga!”

  Dinda kicked Jebat. “Owww! That little brat!” groaned Jebat.

  Dinda had lot of affection towards Rangga “Ah… you're bleeding! Hmph! This fool, always putting Rangga in such danger…”

  Dinda lifted Rangga, and stared into his eyes. She was already secretly in love with him and felt like kissing him. Her pink lips were now turning black into poisonous lips. Dinda had the Gift of the Kiss of Death. She could kill by seducing and kissing. She realised what would happen if she kissed Rangga. It would be a Kiss of Death. She quickly turned her face away.

  “Oh, how sad and romantic,” Jebat teased.

  Dinda sent two poisonous butterflies towards Jebat. The black butterflies left a trail of poisonous rainbow-coloured floating dust. Jebat ran away from the butterflies, knowing how poisonous they were.

  Chinta looked confused and scared.

  Arjana comforted Chinta. “Don't worry, Lady. We are here to welcome you. The journey from the heavens must have made you tired. Please have a rest in our base. Give us the strength of the Naga and power of the Heaven. Please come with us.”

  Overwhelmed, Chinta fainted. Everyone sighed with disappointment and doubted whether she truly was the supreme being.

  THE MURDER OF THE KING

  Rangga tossed and turned on his bed. He was having a bad nightmare. Burning ambers floated in the air, slowly falling to the ground.

  The LightKing of Angkora was confronted by a young man, while fire consumed everything behind him. The LightKing looked very old and frail. And poisoned. Blood dripped from his lower lip.

  A few Ninja Assassins slashed at the soldiers that were trying to defend the LightKing. The Ni
nja Assassins used crescent-curved scimitars.

  The Assassins seemed mad and violent and were in hallucination.

  Rangga remembered that the Ninja Assassins smoked a kind of Spice before battle. To make them fight bravely. The room was filled with smoke like an opium den. The Assassins were smoking Spice from a shisha, a device with several differently shaped bottles hooked together with tubes.

  The dying LightKing spoke chokingly, “Is that you Karruva? You are a fool. That's why the legacy was not bestowed upon you.”

  Karruva appeared, tears flowing down his cheek. “I love you father,” he said. “Forgive me.”

  Karruva swung his sword and cut the head off his own father. Blood sprayed into the air. Fire raged around him.

  Rangga woke up, sweating. “Father!”

  THE CONFIRMATION

  In a laboratory dungeon, a few Alchemists unwrapped a mummified body. They were trying to resurrect the body by injecting nerve worms into the dead body via the body’s mouth. The nerve worms would then take over the nervous system and control the body. There was no difference between Science and the Dark Arts for the Alchemists.

  Inside the royal bedroom, Soma the blue Snake Princess performed the Apsara dance, alone. Her dance movements were very sensual and seductive. She was clothed very, very lightly.

  Karruva lay in the corner, smoking a shisha. “So, is the girl the prophesied saviour?”

  Soma froze like a statue of a goddess. “Yes,” she said slowly. “And she has now learned of her destiny.”

  “So,” Karruva said. ”The Prophecy has come true…”

  Karruva’s eyes glistened diabolically as smoke wisped across his face.

  THE LITTLE GIRL

  It was a usual busy day at the market bazaar. A four year old girl was shopping with her mother, a lollipop stuck in her mouth. She saw a stray white rabbit hopping into one of the street stalls. She started chasing after it.

  Suddenly, a paratrooper dropped in front of her and kicked up dust from the ground. Mayhem and panic quickly took over the market. People started running. The little girl dropped her lollipop, and realised that she had lost her mother. She screamed and cried for her mother.”

  The Commander had arrived. “Burn everything,” he ordered. “Everything!

  The little girl looked up to the sky. Paratroopers were diving down from the airships. There were thousands of Shadow Kingdom airships in the air, raining down thousands of paratrooper soldiers. The airships were grand-looking and well-armed. They looked like an armada of temples sailing through the air.

  The little girl stood in the corner. “Mummy! Mummmmmy!”

  Thousands of soldiers from the Shadow Kingdom marched through the city, destroying everything in their paths. Stalls were overturned. The street traders quickly grabbed whatever goods that could be carried with them and ran for cover.

  The mother searched frantically for her little girl and grabbed a stranger. “Did you see a little girl in red?” she asked. “She was holding a lollipop.”

  The mother turned around when she heard a little girl crying from afar. The little girl looked up. “Mummy! I have been looking for you!”

  The little girl ran towards her mother. But suddenly, a high speed arrow pierced through the mother’s neck. She held her arms up wanting to embrace the little girl as she fell. Her eyes were still open when she hit the ground.

  The little girl hugged the lifeless body and cried and wailed.

  The Commander arrived and screamed into the panicked crowd. “The Shadow Kingdom will rule all nations!”

  Hannu, a Monkey General riding atop a horse, listened from afar on the cliff. Hannu was half-monkey, half-man. An experienced and noble-looking warrior. More than a hundred years old.

  Although he was blind, he could hear the screams of the city. The fact that his hearing was even more acute due to his blindness, made the screams even more chilling.

  The paratroopers, when on the ground, used flying guillotines to decapitate their victims. A wounded man tried running away from a paratrooper soldier. The paratrooper adjusted his guillotine, which looked like a dome-shaped helmet with blades inside. He let it down on a chain, made a few circular swings then threw it into the air. The flying guillotine flew through the air, emitting the chilling sound of steel slicing through the air, while the blades spun inside the helmet, and landed on the head of the running man.

  The running man was stunned when he was suddenly covered blind. The paratrooper pulled the chain taut and jerked it hard. The helmet fell off the shoulder of the running man, taking his head with it. He was now but a headless corpse with a fountain of blood spurting into the air.

  The sound of flight of the guillotines sent chills down Hannu’s spine. Hannu sighed. His eyes closed, flashing back a scene from the past.

  He was on his knees, holding a dying human woman in his arms. Fire raged behind him. The woman looked into Hannu’s eyes, smiled and then faded away.

  THE DARK LORD

  A shrouded figure moved through the harrowing labyrinth, arriving at a secret temple hidden in the floating fortress. Lord Karruva sought counsel from the Dark Lord. Hiding in the shadows, no one had seen the Dark Lord's face properly. He looked like something, not someone, more than a thousand years old.

  There were human babies in bird cages hanging from the ceiling. The babies seemed to be crying weakly due to starvation.

  A chained female fox—half human, half fox—looked aimless and scared in front of the throne. She knew she was there as a sacrifice. She was trying too see whether she could escape but the Alchemists kept their eyes on her.

  Suddenly, the shrouded Dark Lord lunged at her from within the shadows. The female fox screamed helpless in pain as the Dark Lord sank his teeth into her neck, sucking her blood slowly, her life being drained away as she clawed at the back of the Dark Lord’s wrist.

  A blood droplet dripped from the Dark Lord’s wrist. The droplet looked thick and heavy. As it hit the floor, it turned into a leech and squirmed away.

  Lord Karruva approached the Dark Lord. He could see the Dark Lord’s pale blue skin partially inside the shroud.

  The Dark Lord was in a very foul mood. “I know your worries before you even arrived. We have the wrong baby. We need to bring the Black Naga out from her…” The Dark Lord spoke in a hissing but mesmerizing tone, a legion of voices that spoke simultaneously.

  The Alchemists smiled impishly, lusting over something they had been waiting for a long time. Something they knew would happen one day if the Prophecy came true.

  THE EXPLANATION

  Chinta awoke on a bed. She stared at the ceiling.

  “You're finally awake,” Uma said, comfortingly. “I was worried if you were suffering from some kind of ailment.”

  “What?” Chinta still looking dazed. Uma opened the window, taking in a breath of fresh air and said, “We can't just let you die anyway.”

  “What are you talking about?” Chinta said, still a little dazed. “This is a dream. This has to be a dream! All just a dream! I just have to wake up!”

  Uma slapped her. Chinta was taken aback. “What did you do that for?” she asked.

  “Well then,” Uma said. “Now you realise it’s not a dream. Come here for a moment.”

  She grabbed Chinta's hand and pulled her off the bed. Chinta fought back “No! Please stop! I'm sorry. No!”

  Uma shoved Chinta to the window. Chinta covered her face from the blinding light. Uma held on to Chinta's shoulders. “How is it? Did the sunshine wake you up?”

  Chinta clears her throat “Er, yes. Thank you.”

  “You will have to stay here for a while,” Uma said.

  “But why?” Chinta asked.

  “Until we confirm that you really are the Lady White Naga.”

  “The Lady White Naga?” Chinta said. “But what if I am not who you seek?”

  Uma shook her head. “No matter how I look at you, you don't look like the Lady White Naga to me.”

/>   “But how would the Lady White Naga look like? Chinta asked.

  Uma just smiled. “What’s your name?”

  Chinta eased herself a little. “Chinta… just call me Chinta.”

  “Chinta… sounds cute,” Uma said. “It's a good name. I'm Uma. We are called the ’Resistance’ here in Angkora.”

  “The Resistance?”

  “Survivors from countries destroyed by the Shadow Kingdom. That’s why we fight them.”

  “Survivors?” Chinta asked.

  “The White Naga is our protector. It will grant us strength and fulfil our wishes. The Elephant Oracle once said: ‘From the Blue Moon the Lady will come and let the White Naga rise once again.’”

  Chinta looked puzzled “And I am supposed to be the White Naga? I don't understand. I'm sorry, I don't really understand anything at all.”

  “Never mind,” Uma said. “Don’t worry about it for now. You must be hungry…”

  Chinta was not sure whether she wanted to accept Uma’s offer. “No, I think I am fine.”

  “Please, don’t be shy,” Uma said. “And you need your strength after what you’ve been through.”

  THE PLAN

  Jebat was in counsel with Arjana. Rangga was pacing around.

  “If she really is the One,” Jebat said, “Lord Karruva will surely come for her.”

  Arjana stood and contemplated. “We cannot let them have the Lady. We must protect her at all cost.”

  “I don't believe she is the Lady White Naga”, Rangga murmured.

  “What are you afraid of?” Arjana said. “If she is the prophesied Saviour, the White Naga would appear again and it would seek for Angkora.”

  Rangga kept silent.

  “Let’s go to Tanamera to seek Soros’s advice,” Arjana said, after some thought.

  “Who is Soros?” asked Rangga.

  Jebat explained with the passion of a secret revealed. “Aha, it’s time that you met him. Some people say he is a pirate. Some people say he is a saviour. Some people say he is a lover. He is the one who has been financing the cause of the Resistance.”

  Arjana nodded. “But nobody really knows who he is,” he said. “Except for us.”

  PIRATES IN THE SKY