The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter (15 page)

He took it to Tuana who had been longing for
his return. They were happy, and the flower remained in bloom in a
house that he had built for her. He again asked the God Shango if
he might wield his hammer for the construction of the wall that he
had promised Byo. And again, impressed with Tumba’s honor,
determination, and skill, Shango came down and placed his hammer in
Tumba’s hand.

He began building the wall during the day,
and at night, Shango would come back for his hammer. Tumba would go
with Tuana. They began wanting to see each other more and more
until his work on the wall slowed. He decided that again, he would
take some time off and spend it solely with Tuana.

The Sorceress protested. “You must finish my
wall,” she said, my enemies are drawing near. You are the only one
who can wield the god Shango’s hammer. I can’t let you leave until
the wall is finished.

“
I will finish your wall,”
he said, but for the first time, he cared nothing
about his promise. All he cared about was being
with Tuana. Their lives had left them with little time to embrace
each other, and it gradually wore on him. He went to
Tuana.

“
You must go away with
me,” he said.

“
But my cousin, Byo will
not allow it. I want to be with you, only you, but we must
wait.”

“
I cannot wait,” he
exclaimed. “She will always want me to build something for her, she
will never let me out of her clutches. We must leave now, and never
come back to this place.”

“
If we leave now, people
will see us.” She pleaded. Let’s at least wait until the height of
night, when all are sleeping.”

“
Fine then,” he agreed,
“but I will leave now. Meet me on the Green Mountain to the south.
I will wait there for you. I will not leave until you have
come.”

It was settled. Tumba set out for the Green
Mountain leaving the wall unfinished.

That night members of the Mumba Clan snuck
into the fortress. They stole trinkets and gems. They also
kidnapped people for trade. They came into Tuana’s quarters and
bound and gagged her too quickly for her to resist, and they were
off.

The next Day, Tumba waited for Tuana, but
she never came. He wondered what happened to her. Perhaps she was
unable to sneak away and he would have to wait another day. And
that he did, wait for her for another day, and another and another
and another. Months went by and still Tuana never came.

Meanwhile Byo was angered at Tumba for
fleeing. She was angry with the Mumba tribe for their theft and
sent troops out to retrieve her little cousin, but it was too late.
Tuana had been sold and taken far away. For a moment Byo thought
that maybe Tumba had been taken too, but a man that had traveled to
Green Mountain revealed that Tumba was living there, alive and
well. So, she went to him.

“
Why did you leave my
fortress?” she asked. “Why did you not finish my wall?”

Tumba was disgusted with her. “I left to be
with Tuana, I no longer wish to build for you.”

“
But you PROMISED me a
wall, a wall that no one could penetrate aside for the gods
themselves. And besides, Tuana has been taken and sold. She is
nowhere to be found. For all I know, she could be dead by
now.”

“
Tuana is not dead! She
and I share a true love. I am in favor with the gods; they would
never do such a thing to me. I will wait here until she
returns.”

“
Then you rescind your
promise to me? Foolish boy, had you built my wall in the first
place, we would not be in this predicament.”

“
I will not leave this
mountain until Tuana returns.” He turned his back on her and went
up the mountain.

Byo was furious. She went to her fortress
and sent men out to bring Tumba back. Tumba saw the men coming up
the mountain, and asked the god Shango once again for his hammer.
Once again, Shango allowed him to wield his mighty hammer of
lighting thunder.

For ten years Byo sent men up the mountain
to bring Tumba back, and for ten years he swung the mighty Shango
hammer causing thunder and lightning on the mountain. But this was
not how it got the name Angry Mountain.

Finally, Byo gave up, she let Tumba stay on
that mountain, and for twenty more years, he sat waiting. Byo had
some trying times. She had wall after wall built, but eventually
all were taken down by her enemies. One day, her wall was again
breeched, and her fortress was entered. She was defeated, and lost
her kingdom.

She went back to the mountain to see Tumba.
“I have been defeated.” She said. “All because you broke your
promise to me.

“
I will not come off this
mountain, until Tuana returns to me, “ he replied.

“
So be it, then,” she
said, and cast a spell on him and the mountain. The spell killed
him, took his soul from his body, and placed it in the mountain.
“Now you will never leave this mountain!”

She left the mountain. Tumba's soul was so
angered, that when he became enraged, the mountain shook; the
boulders roared and tumbled, lava spewed up from its belly.

This began to bear it the name Angry
Mountain, for he was so enraged at the sorceress for putting his
soul inside of it, and even more angry because he missed his love,
Tuana. So from time to time, he yelled and he roared, and the angry
mountain was responsible for many deaths of anyone that traveled
near by.

Byo, being defeated, became a wonderer, with
no kingdom of her own. She used her sorcery to get what she needed,
and live her life. A hundred years had passed; she traveled to a
village in the north. She was old, but did not look it, for her
sorcery had kept her young. She saw an old woman that looked
familiar in the market place skinning a possum. “Excuse me,” she
said, “but do I know you?”

“
Of course you do.” The
old woman said. “I am Tuana, your little cousin.”

“
My gosh, Tuana! I thought
you had died, long ago!”

“
I was captured, she said,
and a slave for many years. When I got free, I went to your
fortress, but it was ruled by another. Then, I went to the green
mountain since I was supposed to meet Tumba there. Alas, he must
have died, for I could not find him either, so, now I just roam
alone.

Then Byo told her, how Tumba, had gone to
the mountain and the years that he waited for her. She told her how
Tumba did not finish his wall as he had promised, and she also told
her that she killed him, and placed his soul in the mountain.

Tuana became furious. With one quick motion,
she cut of Byo’s head with her knife. Byo would have been strong
enough to easily defeat Tuana, but she did not expect the attack.
Byo’s body dropped to the ground but her powers were not lost. All
of Byo’s great power and knowledge entered Tuana, because she was
the closest family member to Byo at the time. She regained her
youth as well.

Tuana went to the mountain. When she got
there it rumbled loudly.

Then the mountain calmed, but Tumba could
not speak. She sat there, for two hundred more years, because she
truly loved him, until even her magic could not keep her young
anymore. Soon she knew that she would die and that they would no
longer be together. So she devised a plan.

She went to the Lemadu cave and grabbed the
tears from the young one. She mixed those tears with water. She
went to the tree with the large blue flowers and crawled her old
body through the tunnel. She got the bloom flower and placed the
stem into a container and brought it to the mountain.

“
Now, my dear, what you
once have done for me, I have done for you.”

She poured the water and tears into the soil
of his mountain and planted the flower. The flower sat there in the
ground, beautiful as always. Next, she knelt down beside it and
died pouring all of herself into the flower, until she became a
part of it.

More Bloom Flowers sprouted and they too
were also a part of her. And so, they were joined, Tumba and Tuana;
him being the mountain, and her being the flowers that grew upon
it. There they would stay forever………

Zerggie ran over to Bomani and cried out,
“No pick flowers! No pick flowers!”

But, he was too late. Bomani had already
plucked a handful of bloom flowers from the ground and began
placing them into his bag. Zerggie pulled on Bomani desperately to
get him to stop pulling the flowers out of the ground, but the
little imp just wasn’t strong enough. Farra did not quite
understand why the flowers couldn’t be picked, but she rushed over
to help restrain Bomani, who was now completely mesmerized by the
plants hypnotic petals. He pulled away from Farra and the imp, and
stared at the flowers desperately.

“Bomani, stop it. What are you doing?” Farra
cried.

“I just want to get a few,” Bomani said.

“I don’t think you should be picking the
flowers because Zerggie says it’s bad and I don’t know why it’s bad
but he must know what he is talking about cuz he lives here and you
should listen to him and stop picking stop picking Bomani, stop
picking!” Farra pleaded, but Bomani kept pulling at the
exhilarating flowers.

“Just a couple more,” he promised.

Just then the ground began to shake beneath
them. Farra had never felt anything like it before and she was
terrified. She looked around, and saw the whole mountaintop rumble.
Zerggie was frantic.

“See! Picking Bloom flower make mountain
angry. Angry Mountain angry!”

“What should I do? He won’t stop,” Farra
pleaded.

“Time for Zerggie to go bye-bye,” Zerggie
said.

“Bye-bye? Wait! How do I make him stop?” she
cried

“Hit him,” said Zerggie.

“Hit him?”

“Hit him head, then he stop.”

Zerggie had nothing more to say. He knew
that it was time to go. He scurried along and quickly burrowed
through the snow and the ground below. His claws allowed him to dig
through the earth effortlessly, and in an instant he was gone.
Farra reluctantly watched him leave, and then she looked back at
Bomani, who sat in the snow with a bloom flower in his hand. His
eyes were locked on the twirling colors of the petals.

Pupa pulled at Bomani’s hand gently with his
teeth, trying to get him up and about, without biting him, but
Bomani just ignored him. Farra grabbed her staff and held it
tightly. She really liked Bomani in spite of how stubborn and proud
he could be. The last thing she wanted to do was hit him —
especially not on his head, but she had no choice.

The angry mountain rumbled beneath them and
from Zerggie’s cue she knew that they needed to leave as fast as
they could. She closed her eyes and began to swing her staff at
Bomani’s head hesitantly, but to no avail. She could not bring
herself to hurt him.

The mountain began to shake even more
violently than before, and when she looked up she realized that
there was no time to doubt or question what must be done. Rocks and
dust rolled down the top of the mountain, heading in their
direction.

“I hope you forgive me for this, Bomani,”
she said. She took a deep breath, pulled back her staff, and for a
moment, it seemed as though everything stood still and went silent
— even the sound of the rumbling mountain. She swung solidly and
the only thing she heard was her staff cutting through the air and
making contact with Bomani’s head with a loud THUMP!

Bomani fell to the ground with a thud. When
he awoke, he was bewildered and had no idea that he had been in a
trance, but he was keenly aware that he had been struck by
something, and struck hard. He looked up angrily and he immediately
saw the culprit holding her staff as she looked on
remorsefully.

“Owww! What’s the matter with you!” he
shouted at her.

“Oh Bomani, are you okay?” Farra cried.

“Am I okay? You just hit me in the head. Of
course I’m not okay!” He rubbed his head gently, trying to soothe
his throbbing skull, and checked for bruised skin and blood with
his fingers.

“I'm sorry, Bomani. I’m so sorry, but
Zerggie said it was the only way to make you stop picking the
flowers. You just kept picking them and picking them and you
wouldn't stop, and when you did stop, you were still in some sort
of daze, and now the ground is shaking because the mountain has
gotten angry — and Bomani, we’ve got to get out of here!”

She said this in what seemed to be one
breath. When she finished, she was practically panting like a dog.
Bomani looked around and saw pieces of the rumbling mountaintop
crumbling around them.

“What is it, an earthquake?” Bomani
yelled.

“No, it’s the Angry Mountain! Come on!”
Farra said. She followed Pupa, whose animal instincts seemed to
guide him toward the best route down the mountain. Bomani was still
gathering his wits when he realized the mountain was rumbling, and
as soon as he stood, Farra grabbed him by the hand and they ran as
fast as they could down the side of the mountain. The snow made for
a slow escape, especially for Pupa.

As they clumsily slid and fled down the
hillside, large boulders broke from the cliffs above and rolled
past, barely missing them. An enormous boulder headed straight for
Farra. Bomani reacted quickly and dove into her — knocking her out
of its path.

“Whoa, that was close!” he said.

“I’ll say,” replied Farra. “Let’s get out of
here!” She got up quickly trying to balance herself so that they
could hurry, but Bomani looked up disheartened.

“We have another problem.”

Lava spewed from the crown of the mountain.
It rolled down the mountainside, furiously, like an ocean of fire,
bubbling and engulfing everything in its path. The thick, hot lava,
branded the mountainside with trenches of lava that rushed toward
them vengefully. It was too fast for them to outrun. It was evident
that soon, this
Angry Mountain
would
overtake
them — a hefty price to pay for picking
flowers.