The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter (28 page)

“You are not my father.” He said. “You are
not the King. My father loves me, and if he were here, he would
destroy you, whoever you are. I don’t need your approval to know
who I am; I don’t need anyone’s. I will always strive to be the
best that
I
can be. I am Bomani!”

With that, the image of his father chuckled
and faded away, followed by his warriors. Bomani turned his
attention to Farra, in the grips of the Kitunusi. Without further
hesitation, he rushed forward.

“Bomani, run, save yourself,” Farra
screamed, as she got closer to the beast’s mouth.

“I will not leave you!” Bomani yelled back
to her as he lunged his spear into the achilles tendon of the
Kitunusi. It let out a loud yell followed by a swipe with its hand
that just missed Bomani as he rolled out of the way. The Kitunusi’s
skin was overrun by scars from previous encounters. The pain from
the spear in his foot was minor in comparison to other battles he
had been through. Bomani pulled the spear out and once again rammed
it into another spot on his foot. Again, a swat came his way, this
time connecting and sending Bomani flying against the rocks. The
Kitunusi grabbed the young warrior. Now he had each of the children
in one of his hands. But by this time, he had it in for Bomani.
“Perhaps I will eat you first,” he said blowing his strong breath
onto Bomani. As he raised him up, Bomani fidgeted inside his pouch.
As his mouth opened wide to place the boy inside, Bomani pulled out
his
ill pool.

“How about an appetizer first,” Bomani
yelled as he threw the ill pool into the Kitunusi’s mouth. It
lodged itself in the back of his throat causing him to choke and
gag until he finally swallowed it whole. He dropped the children to
the ground grabbing his stomach. All of Bomani’s illnesses that had
been trapped inside the ill pool were released into the beast’s
stomach, twisting and turning it.

Bomani hit the ground and yanked his spear
from the monster’s foot, then put himself into a defensive stance.
Farra too hit the ground rolling, and got herself back up to her
feet.

The Kitunusi moaned. His stomach felt like a
hundred men were inside of him trying to cut their way out. He
wanted to throw up. He lapped over clutching his stomach in
pain.

Farra was not sure what had happened, but
she was glad that Bomani didn’t leave her as she had instructed him
to. She ran over to him with a big hug. “Thank you for not leaving
me!”

Bomani shrugged and tried to push her off of
him. “It’s okay, but we should get out of here.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“I threw my ill pool into his mouth. Must’ve
made him sick.”

“Yuck, you kept that thing?”

“Heh, yup, I thought it was kind of
cool.”

“Hmph, boys,” she responded shaking her
head.

“C’mon, now is our chance to get past
him.”

The beast lay on his back gripping his
stomach. Soon, his size diminished, he returned to his previous old
form. The old man lay on the ground tossing and turning and now
throwing up, unable to stop. They left the sickened Kitunusi
behind, and proceeded past the Gates of Fear.

space

An hour or so had passed. They continued
walking across a rocky canyon. Bomani had been silent the whole
time, ignoring Farra. He made sure that he was always ahead of her
in an attempt to walk alone. Inside, he was struggling with
himself. Had he been alone, he would be crying by now, and he kept
his distance to insure that if a tear or two got free, Farra
wouldn’t see it.

The image of his father took its toll on
him. For some reason, he couldn’t shake it. Perhaps because deep
down, he always thought that was how his father felt. He always
thought his father favored Mongo, and he was just the younger and
weaker son, unfit for anything of sufficient magnitude in his life.
Deep in his mind, these thoughts had always plagued him on some
level. He had been able, from time to time, to push these feelings
of insecurity back into the depths of his mind; but they were
always there. Now, to have actually seen his father, the King, say
this to his face was too much for him to bear. Never mind that what
he saw wasn’t real. He still saw it. It was real to him!

Farra knew that something was wrong. Her
attempts at casual conversation had failed, and after a short
while, she gave up and let him travel ahead. How long would he be
like this? She thought she had made a new friend, she thought that
their journey so far had brought them closer together, but now they
seemed further apart than ever. She made the decision to intervene
again. This time she would hold him in place, if she had to, if she
could, until he spoke to her. She grabbed him firmly by the arm. He
stopped and turned to her with a glare that is usually saved for
his enemies. For a moment she wanted to let go; but she didn’t.

“Bomani, what’s wrong?” she asked firmly.
The cheerful one had become stern. Bomani continued to glare at her
for a couple of seconds before he spoke. “Nothing!”

“It doesn’t seem like nothing to me.”

“I said nothing.”

“It has to be something.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“I see, back to the old Bomani is it? The
mean boy that I met back at the stream.”

“Would you just leave me alone?”

“I could, but I’m not going to. Look, what
you saw back there wasn’t real. That wasn’t your father.”

“Shut up, you don’t know what you are
talking about.”

“Like it or not, we are in this together,
and we have become friends. I know that you didn’t want me to see
what you were afraid of, but I have, and it’s okay, everyone is
afraid of something. You’re scared that your father and everyone
else won’t approve of you, but I have seen the person you are, you
have more strength inside and out than most people.”

Her speech did not bring Bomani solace. He
grabbed her by the shoulders.

“You know what your problem is?” he yelled
at her. “You’re always talking. That’s all you do is talk. Talk
talk talk, blah blah blah. Sometimes I wish you would just SHUT UP!
Why don’t you walk over there, and I’ll walk over here.”

“So, we’re not friends anymore?”

“Friends?” he shouted even louder and more
angrily. “Um, newsflash Farra. We were NEVER friends. I don’t like
you, I never did!”

“You take that back, you don’t mean it.”

“Oh, I mean it. I never wanted you to come
with me in the first place, but you just had to come, didn’t you.
‘Oh, my mark, and the gods and Pupa and the union and blah blah
blah!’ I wish I had never met you. You’ve been nothing but bad luck
for me.”

“Stop it! It’s not true!”

“The
truth is;
I don’t want you with
me. You slow me up and you weigh me down. I hate listening to your
annoying little voice, and to sum it up, I hate YOU!”

His speech was finished. He turned away from
her and left her standing there. Farra couldn’t move. She didn’t
know what she felt. Was it anger, despair, confusion, fear, a sense
of abandonment? Maybe it was all of it and it left her shocked and
paralyzed. She may as well have been standing in front of the
Kitunusi again. As she watched him leave, she gathered just enough
energy for a couple of words to creep out.

“Bomani, why…”

He was more than frustrated with her at this
point. Why couldn’t she just leave him alone? He turned back and
stepped toward her.

“Farra, how much clearer can I make this?
I…. don’t……. want…… you…..with…. me.” He spoke slowly, steadily,
and firmly to make sure that she understood. “You still have the
space rune. Use it to take you back to the shaman. You can get
yourself home from there.”

Pupa gave Bomani a mean face. “What are you
looking at? You stupid useless dog!” And then he left them.

Farra didn’t move. She stood there well
beyond the point where Bomani vanished into the horizon.

XXXI FOOTPRINTS OF

DESTINY

Morning came. Pupa had just caught himself
an early morning breakfast, a nigila. The little beast gave him a
bit of trouble as it scurried along with its six hairy legs. Its
legs give it excellent speed and traction on the trees, but Pupa
was hungry and when the little guy ran up the tree, Pupa was right
after it. When the nigila ran back down, Pupa made the daring
decision to jump all the way down to the ground, catching it in his
claws. He brought the food over to Farra who was lying under a
giant five-foot tall red leaf. The leaf had hairs on the underside
keeping her warm through the night, but the topside was smooth and
shiny, repelling the sun.

Pupa licked her hand that was just barely
sticking out from under the leaf. She slowly woke and sat up as he
presented her with breakfast in bed. Unfortunately, most people
were not used to eating such things as nigila. For Pupa, meat was
meat.

“Thanks Pupa, but I’m not hungry. That, you
can eat all by yourself.”

Pupa didn’t feel rejected at all. He happily
tore into the raw meat. Farra used her staff to help herself up to
her feet.

“What do you think Pupa? Should we go home?”
The sadness from the night before set back into her mind. She sat
on a rock running her staff across the dirt, drawing abstracts for
an hour or so, while her mind focused on Bomani, contemplating
whether to go back home, or to go onward and find him.

“I mean, if I follow him, he may just get
mad again. Maybe if I give him some time, he’ll be all right. What
do you think?”

Pupa lay in her lap quite busy still
indulging himself with his food. If she wasn’t so deep in thought,
Farra might have noticed the dark shape consuming her shadow. By
the time she noticed something was off, it was too late. An ogre
grabbed her from behind, wrapping his arms around hers. Her staff
dropped to the ground.

She violently kicked and thrashed to get
loose, but her small arms did little to overcome the ogre’s
strength. She managed to give one of his ogre companions a swift
kick to the face, which angered him more than it hurt. Pupa sprang
to the aid of his soul companion. He jumped up high enough to sink
his teeth and claws into the arm of the ogre holding Farra. The
ogre let out a painful grunt swinging his arm.

Pupa was shaken loose, and his body hurled
through the air until his motion was stopped suddenly by the hard
surface of a nearby rock. These rocks were not forgiving. The hard
surface was only matched by the razor sharp edges of its contours.
He hit the ground almost as hard as he had hit the rock, rolling
over and over like the proverbial rag doll. The bluish fur on his
head became dark red and wet with blood. Another ogre gave Pupa a
final kick, which rolled him over yet again.

In that moment, Farra broke free from the
wounded ogre. She gasped at the site of Pupa being abused and cried
out to him. She only had a second to rush to his aid before another
ogre grabbed her again. She reached out, hoping that somehow she
would be able to help him, but it was no use. Pupa barely moved. He
slowly stood up on his front two paws as they wobbled like an old
man with no strength. It only lasted a moment until he fell back to
the ground and lay motionless.

An ogre lifted Pupa up just slightly. Pupa
did not respond. His eyes didn’t open, his limbs dropped with no
sign of life. The ogre let lout a grunting chuckle, then dropped
Pupa back to the ground.

The five of them carried Farra off. Her
thoughts were not on her capture, but on Pupa’s well being.. She
was able to keep him in view for just a little while longer until
they carried her around the bend. She screamed and yelled all the
way, leaving behind a lifeless Pupa.

Hatari’s mountain had one entrance at its
base. Laying low behind a nearby hill, Bomani watched the ogres
guarding it for hours trying to figure out the best way in. He knew
ogres weren’t too smart, and perhaps when night came, he would try
something simple to distract them from their duties. Night would
not come for a few hours though, so for now, he would just keep a
watchful eye on the guards.

Then he saw a troop of ogres coming in from
the north. Two of them carried a long stick, stuck through netting,
and inside, a prized gift for Hatari. Bomani looked closer, it was
Farra. A sudden overwhelming sense of guilt filled him.

“Oh Farra, what have I done? Why didn’t you
use the rune to go home?”

This feeling of guilt quickly changed to
rage. “They better not harm her,” he thought to himself.

The ogres finally approached the entrance.
“Hey, what your name?” The guard asked one of the ogres carrying
Farra.

“Boonda.” the ogre responded.