Read The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter Online
Authors: Jason McCammon
Tags: #adventure, #afircanamerican fantasy, #african, #anansi, #best, #black fantasy, #bomani, #epic fantasy, #farra, #favorite, #friendship, #hagga, #hatari, #jason mccammon, #madunia, #magic, #new genre, #ogres, #potter, #pupa, #shaaman, #shango, #shape shifter, #sprite, #swahili, #the ancient lands, #twilka, #ufalme, #warrior quest, #witchdoctor, #wolves
The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter
Written and created by
Jason McCammon
The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest
Search for the Ifa Scepter
Brown-Eyed Dreams LLC.
Published by Brown-Eyed Dreams LLC.
Valley Stream, New York, 11580
Copyright 2009 Jason McCammon
Smashwords Edition 2010
Inside artwork by Shawn Alleyne*
*except runes, runes created by Jason
McCammon.
Art copyright 2009
Cover Bomani image by Shawn Alleyne
Cover design by
Jason McCammon
Ancient Lands logo by Splash @ Shrapnel
Studios
Logo copyright 2009
Other cover art by Jason McCammon
Front cover copyright 2009
Back cover copyright 2009
Back cover design by Jason McCammon
Back cover- mask(family crest) by Shawn
Alleyne
Artwork for, “The Adventures of Farra and
Bomani,” by James Smith
All artwork owned and copyright by Brown-Eyed
Dreams LLC.
Senior Editor Melissa Randel El
Edited by Yanna Bille
Edited by Geneva Gibson
Edited by Gina Kim
Proofread by Candece Brickler
Proofread by Patricia Brickler
ISBN 978-0-9843120-2-3
For ordering information of current and
future books please visit:
-
For My Parents, who would always do
everything within their
power to help.
-
For anyone that ever tried to teach me
something. Especially the
teachers
Preview of,“ The Adventures of
Farra and Bomani.
”
XVI FOLK TALE OF AN ANGRY MOUNTAIN
PROLOGUE
Madunia
. Today, on planet Earth, in a
language called, Swahili, it means
world.
I mention Earth
because in many ways Madunia was just like it. The hearts of the
people were filled with hopes and dreams, and it is these
fundamental virtues that have often carried them through times of
despair and chaos.
The
known
world of Madunia consisted
mostly of one large continent and a few small islands off its
coast. To the north were the endless sands; hot, brutal, and only
inhabited by a few small groups of people. The rest of this large
land mass was surrounded by oceans; also assumed to be endless.
The Madunians knew nothing of the distant
places in the galaxy. And as for the stars, well, to them, those
magnificent points of light were the windows through which the gods
could look down and observe the world which they had created,
Madunia.
Our story takes place during a time when
much of Madunia was in turmoil, filled with war and destruction. It
started with a man named Montok and continued through his children.
After his death, those siblings fought to control all regions of
the world and split the lands amongst themselves.
Montok’s children were fueled by nothing
less than absolute greed, a need to rule, and an undying hunger to
conquer. They built armies, conquered villages and kingdoms, and
sought to destroy the very fabric of humanity. This, of course,
resulted in any number of uprisings and resistance. The people
tried their best to thwart Montok’s insatiable brood, but the
armies of the siblings, the terrible five, were too large, too
brutal, and too well equipped for the people to prevail.
Besides, these
evil
ones took every
advantage of the supernatural powers they had at their disposal.
They channeled into the energies of the dead with an uncanny
understanding of the fluidic connection of the power between the
laws of nature, the power of the spirit, and the life force. And
when it fit their needs, they even twisted the gifts that were
handed down from the gods for their own selfish purposes.
For this story, only one of the siblings
needs introduction, Hatari. While his sister and his brothers waged
war in the northern regions of Madunia, Hatari was held in place at
the region furthest south, often called
The Forbidden
Expanse
.
At the northern border of the Forbidden
Expanse lay the Kingdom of Ufalme. This was the last of the great
Kingdom’s of Madunia that had yet to be conquered; the last that
still stood strong. Hatari had laid claim to Ufalme and the
Forbidden Expanse, and it was his job, among his siblings, to rule
over those territories. Unfortunately for him, King Jumbe and his
army of warriors had proved to be unconquerable, time and time
again. In fact, Hatari’s dignity had taken so many blows from
defeat that he no longer had any humans under his command. His army
now consisted entirely of ogres, which we will touch upon later in
our story.
For now, we won’t focus so much on Hatari
either, for this story is not about him at all. For now, we will
focus on the Kingdom of Ufalme. —The kingdom that raised a boy who
would change the fate of an empire and eventually the fate of the
known world of Madunia, altogether. This is a story about a boy
named Bomani.
Now, don’t ask how I have come to know about
any of the stories of The Ancient Lands, particularly this one. How
I have come to know anything about this planet is quite a story in
itself. Let’s just say that I am a modern day griot, but nowhere
near a real griot, in the real sense of the word. I keep my data
stored on computers like everyone else. When I need information, I
send it to my brain and sift through it as I need.
A
real
griot, on the other hand,
works quite differently. For instance, a griot of The Ancient Lands
would commit all history to memory, and would then tell the story
as it was passed down to him from previous griots. I am more of a
historian and archeologist. If you require any sort of credentials
for proof of validity, keep in mind that I do hold several
high-ranking educational degrees.
To learn and understand a civilization is
both my job and my passion. My only regret is that there are far
too many stories in the universe or even in this one simple galaxy,
for that matter, to learn them all. I study them, not only to
entertain myself, but also to teach others. There are always great
lessons to be learned. There are millions of stories about millions
of things that have happened in a million different places in The
Ancient Lands. This is one of them.
High-pitched screams echoed across the
Kingdom of Ufalme. Only the sun itself could rival the energy of
those participating, which were virtually all those that lived
within the kingdom. A circle of women danced in unison around a
fire that flickered in the night, giving life to their
accommodating and oversized shadows, which danced along the stone
walls that surrounded the encampment — embellishing the effect by
mimicking the dancers precisely. The spectators cheered them on
with tribal yelps and cries that put them in a self-induced,
drunken state. It was a celebratory dance. This manner of
singing
and dancing would go on and off and on, until
morning and then through the night again.
