The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter (18 page)

Farra was still blindly making her way
through the fog, and carefully footing herself to keep from falling
into the holes. At first, it was the sound of the ogres around her
that fueled her fear. Now it was the silence. She heard no
footsteps, no growling, no yelling, and no panting. The field was
both sight and soundless.

She jumped when Bomani grabbed her by the
arm. “Farra, it’s me.”

“Bomani! I thought I had lost you. How did
you find me, I can’t see a thing!”

“I lay on my stomach, and watched for your
feet,” he said.

She was holding Pupa in her arms. The young
pup felt that something was off. He growled at Bomani.

“Pupa, stop it!” she scolded him. “That’s
not nice.”

“Uhh…he’s alright. Probably just scared,”
said Bomani.

“The ogres, I don’t hear them anymore.”

“Um…I think they are gone. We should go
too.”

“Pupa is low to the ground,” she thought.
“If you can see down there, then he can too. He can guide us
out.”

“Yeah, that’s a pretty good Idea.”

Again, Pupa growled at Bomani. “Pupa, I said
stop it,” Farra told him and then put him on the ground, reached
into her pouch and pulled out some rope that she tied around him.
“You have to guide us out of here, understand?”

“You want me to hold your staff for you?”
Bomani asked her.

“No, I've got it.”

They held hands and with Pupa guiding, they
eventually made their way out of the fog.

“Let’s just take a second to figure out
where we are going,” Bomani said.

“I don’t get it,” said Farra. “Did all of
the ogres just fall into the holes? That’s a nasty way to go, even
for an ogre. I heard one fall in. His voice went on forever.
There’s no end to the holes.”

“Yeah, I heard it too. Scary!” There was an
apparent tremble in Bomani’s voice.

Pupa looked up at him and started barking
again. He could sense every nervous reaction in Bomani’s body.

Farra’s back was turned to the fog. She had
no idea that something was emerging behind her. She continued to
try and deal with Pupa and his barking, bending down and rubbing
him behind the ears to try and calm him.

“Pupa, I said stop it. Bomani is our friend.
I’m sorry; I don’t know why he’s acting this way. You’ve seen him.
He’s usually much nicer. He’s probably still spooked from being in
the fog.”

Bomani watched as two ogres approached her
from behind. It wasn’t until they were right up on top of her did
she turn to notice them. “Ogres!” she yelled and stood up. Quickly,
Bomani snatched her staff out of her hand.

“Bomani! What are you doing?” Then the two
ogres grabbed her. “Let go!” she yelled and then turned her
attention back to Bomani. “Bomani, help me! What are you
doing?”

“I’m sorry Farra. It’s better this way.” His
head was bent down toward the ground. He couldn’t even look at
her.

“Better? Better for whom? What are you
talking about?” she struggled against the ogres, but she was no
match for their superior strength. “Pupa knew something was wrong.
I should have listened to him.” Pupa was still barking, even more
madly now.

Then, in both the ogres’ necklaces, Hatari’s
image appeared. “Good work my young warrior. You see, everything
runs smoother with a little cooperation.”

“What we do with her now master?” one of the
stinky ogres asked.

“We have her staff,” Hatari replied. “Throw
her into the holes.”

“Roger roger master.”

As the ogres made their way back toward the
fog with Farra, Bomani pulled his stolen necklace out of his pouch
and starred into it. “You said you wouldn’t hurt her.”

“Trust me Bomani, it is better this way. It
is easier to get rid of her now instead of having her trampling on
your heels if she gets away. Don’t forget the big picture. I will
make you King, you can save the world!”

It was hard for Bomani to think straight
with the idea of greatness dangling in front of him.
“Bomaniiiiiiii.” He heard the cry of Farra as she finally
disappeared back into the fog.

“It can’t happen this way.” he said to
himself.

Hatari’s image faded. Bomani was left
staring at a fractured reflection of himself in the large
diamond.

“No!” He had finally come to his senses. He
threw the necklace back into his pouch and started after them.

“This hole good.” Farra heard one of the
ogres say. “Yeah, throw her in dis one.” Then, she felt herself
being lifted up and thrown downward. She screamed in fright,
falling downward through the air until something grabbed her by the
arm.

Bomani pulled her up. “I’m sorry,” he said
and held her staff out to her. For a moment, she just looked at
him. “Take it,” he insisted. She snatched it from him and ran.
“Farra!” He shouted darting after her.

He emerged from the fog and grabbed her.
“Farra, stop. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

Farra looked at him with eyes of fear,
distrust, and shame. “How could you do that? How could you betray
us like that? Get away from me. Let me go!”

He was forced to let her go. The two ogres
had come back, emerging from the fog. He wasn’t going to let them
take her again. He released Farra and turned to the ogres.

The ogres were a bit confused at this point.
“I thought him was our friend now,” said one of them.

“Yeah, me too,” said the other.

“Don’t think.” Hatari’s voice echoed.
“Things have changed. Kill the boy and the girl!”

Bomani rushed toward the ogres. One ogre
carried a large club, and the other held a rusty, jagged piece of
metal. They both charged him at once. Bomani put his shield up to
block the blows. One of the ogres pushed Bomani to the ground, but
Bomani was clever and swift. He allowed the momentum to work on his
behalf and he rolled backwards onto his feet. He charged them, and
again they swung at him, again he blocked them with his shield. He
swung around swiftly and sliced one of the ogres in the chest with
his blade, raising his shield again as he anticipated the next
blow. He blocked again, and this time, like lightning, he moved
around the ogre, plunged forward and stabbed the half-beast in the
back with his spear. He immediately yanked his spear out of the
ogre’s flesh and stabbed him again.

In the next moment, Bomani looked for Farra.
She and Pupa had run off. In the distance he could barely make her
out, as she fled. He wanted to run after her, but he still had this
ogre business to tend to.

The other ogre got back on his feet ready to
resume the fight. He looked at his chest and blood oozed from the
gash that Bomani made. He wiped at it with his hand flinging blood
toward Bomani and snarled. Bomani flinched when the blood hit his
face, but he didn’t wipe if off. He glared at the ogre, as the ogre
glared at him. For a moment they just stared at one another with
nothing but hate in their eyes. The ogre roared and pounded his
fist onto his chest, as if he were insensitive to the gash there.
Bomani threw down his shield confidently and stood before this
insensible beast, with his blade poised in his hand. He wasn’t
going to flinch. However intimidating the ogre seemed to be, Bomani
was not going to move. He would wait for the ogre to make his move
first, then react.

When the ogre charged, Bomani jumped back,
dodging the ogre’s awkward lunge. The ogre swung at Bomani with his
makeshift weapon again, and again, but Bomani’s feet reacted faster
than the ogre could think. He jumped back and then swung his blade
at the ogre, knocking his weapon out of his hand.

Their motion continued as they both turned
into each other. Moving back to back, Bomani grabbed the ogre’s
arm, flipped his blade around and jabbed it upward into the ogre’s
side. Now, they both stood, their backs together, Bomani holding
the ogre’s arm back while gripping his blade, which was lodged into
the ogre’s side piercing upward under his rib cage. The ogre was in
so much pain that he couldn’t move. Bomani finished him by pulling
his blade out and giving one last plunge of his weapon into the
ogre’s chest. The ogre fell to the ground.

Bomani stood over him, his chest heaving
deeply –his mind temporarily in the intoxicating state of a
warrior’s triumph. He took a moment to relish in his opponent’s
defeat until he reminded himself of his friend.

“Farra,” he gasped, and took off after
her.

Just as he was leaving, the rest of the ogre
horde appeared from out of the fog. He didn’t know if they had been
lost all of this time, or if Hatari had held them back as a course
of their bargain —the bargain that he had broken.

Farra’s tracks were hard to follow in the
night, but he had a pretty good fix on her direction. She had
entered a ravine with walls of rock, at least forty feet high. They
created a pathway in one direction. Then, far ahead of him, he saw
a faint glow. She was using her staff to light her way. He
followed.

The light moved back and forth, and then it
came toward him until they met.

“No, Farra. You can’t go that way. The ogres
are coming.”

“Did you send them?” she asked in
distrust.

“What? No Farra come on.”

“Who are you?” she asked, afraid of this
person that stood before her.

“I’m Bomani, Farra, it’s me.”

“At least I know where I stand with the
ogres. I don’t know who you are.”

“I…am…with… you… We… have…to…. go!”

Farra just looked at him. She wanted to cry.
“Perhaps,” she thought to herself, “I should get away from these
ogres, and then figure out what

to do about this traitor.

“Well we can’t go that way,” she said. “It’s
blocked.”

“We have to try, there are too many ogres,
c’mon.”

Farra reluctantly followed him back the way
she came until the two walls of the ravine circled and
converged.”

“See,” Farra said. “I told you, it’s
blocked!”

Bomani started to climb the wall. “Maybe…”
He said grunting as he hoisted himself up. “Maybe we can climb
it.”

“I can climb, but I can’t climb
that
,” Farra assured him. “Are you crazy?”

Bomani lost his grip and slid down to the
ground. He immediately jumped up and tried again. “We have to try,”
he said, again grunting between each word as he strained. He was
trying to move so fast that every inch of him was shaking.

But, Farra was right; the wall was too
smooth – not enough cracks or crevices to hold on to. Bomani fell
to the ground with a THUD, landing on his back.

“Are you okay?” Farra asked.

“It’s useless. You’re right, we can’t climb
it,” Bomani said, and his ears focused on the sound of ogre feet
trotting through the ravine toward them. Farra heard them too, and
yet in the night neither of them could see them coming.

They backed up against the wall behind them.
The sound of ogre movement came ever closer and oddly enough as
soon as they were close enough for our heroes to make out a faint
image, Farra was the first to strike. With the shake of her staff,
Farra shouted, “Moon glow!” The staff let off a brilliant light,
blinding the ogres closest to them and repelling the others. Bomani
attacked as many of the disoriented ogres as he could, and Farra
followed striking a few of them with her staff, but it was useless.
There were too many of them. They were thinking the same thing.
They were losing, and if they didn’t do something quickly, they
would be killed.

“Air or earth?” Farra shouted, trying to be
heard over the growls and snarls of the chaotic brood.

“What?” Bomani answered as he was tossed to
the ground.

“The runes — air or earth?

“I don’t car, earth.”

Farra assumed that the earth rune would go
on the ground, so she tossed it in front of her and quickly covered
it with dirt.

“What happened?” Bomani asked.

“It’s gone.” Farra was puzzled.

“What do you mean, it’s gone?”

Before she could elaborate, the ground began
to rumble. Little specs of light twinkled through the soil, and
suddenly out of the sparkles of light, small plants sprouted up and
grew. Then large, giant leaves emerged creating a barrier between
the children and the ogres.

The ogres desperately tore at the leaves to
break through, and just as it seemed that Bomani and Farra were at
their grasp, a tree shot up from the ground and began to grow
rapidly. As the incredible tree sprouted, it picked up the children
and carried them skyward. It grew taller and wider as it shot
upward, and Bomani and Farra held on tightly to its branches as
they watched in astonishment.

When the tree finished growing, it had
reached the top of the wall and the children were able to climb
from the treetop onto the cliff. They looked back down at the
bottom of the ravine, and the ogres had begun to climb up the
tree.

“Whoa,” Farra said. She let out deep
sigh.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Let’s go before they get up here.”

“No, this way. We can attack them one at a
time, as they get off of the tree,” Bomani suggested.

They waited as the ogres climbed the thick,
strong tree and they braced themselves to attack. It didn’t take
the ogres long to make their way up the tree. Although they were
large, clumsy creatures, they were quite arboreal, and they climbed
the tree with ease.

Suddenly they all heard a loud cracking
sound. Even the ogres stopped for a moment to tune into what was
happening. And then they all realized that the branches of the tree
were turning hard. The tree had begun to age just as fast as it had
sprouted. And in a matter of seconds, the tree had not only aged
its entire life span, but it was dying and had instantaneously
become brittle and frail. It could no longer support itself, and it
surely could not support the weight of the ogres. The tree
crumbled, and the ogres fell with it. Its pieces scattered to the
ground and dissolved into a pile of splinters as quickly as it had
appeared. The children were safe.