The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter (30 page)

“Do you mean it?” replied Farra as she
slowly rolled over to make eye contact.

“Yeah, I do, and if I had to be trapped here
with anyone, I’m glad it’s you.”

“Me too. Oh Bomani, how will we get out of
here?”

“I don’t know yet, but we have to find a
way. Did they hurt you?

“Not really, just tired. I worked alongside
the stinky ogres. They pushed me around a bit, but mostly just made
me dig, and dig, and dig.”

“I’m so sorry Farra. Where is Pupa?”

“Oh my gosh Bomani! It was horrible. The
ogres came, and I didn’t see them, I was thinking about you and
they grabbed me and Pupa tried to help but he’s so little you know
and he got knocked to the ground and he hit his head on a rock and
he wasn’t moving Bomani, he wasn’t moving at all and now
he’s…he’s…. he’s… dead!”

“Dead! No. I’m sorry Farra, so so sorry.
It’s all my fault. I know how much he meant to you.”

“No, you don’t. You couldn’t. Pupa was
becoming a part of me. Our bond was growing, connected at the soul.
You’d have to be an Anifem to understand. I don’t know what I’m
going to do without him!”

XXXIII A
FRIEND INDEED

Baina told them before how the whispers of
the land were carried by the wind, yet only those who knew how to
listen could hear. Such was the case of this voice, this whisper
carried along the current high in the sky. It carried a message,
and so it searched for those that might listen. This wind found a
candidate flying in the night, not far from the Manga village.
Meeka, a sprite, soared about the trees tending to its leaves in
her usual manor when she heard the wind speak.

She immediately dropped what she was doing
and hurried to the Manga village; her green trail like a ray
borrowed from a rainbow followed her ever so brightly in the night.
She gathered five more sprites together and they quickly gathered
herbs from the trees and flowers around them holding the essence in
their tiny baskets. Off they went into the night away from the
Manga village. The trails from many of them together now more
closely resembled a full rainbow brightly shining, following their
path as they sped along. As they left the village, the flowers,
plants, and even the grass, were replaced by lifeless dirt, then
the dark grey/black petrified forest and soon that was replaced by
orange-red rock. They flew over the ridge, into an area of a
grayish, rocky surface. Instead of rolling hills, the ground
consisted of a rocky terrain with many steps and rocky paths. The
sudden cliffs would have made traveling by ground at least
cautionary.

They came to a path that seemed to be half
way between the ground and the rocky peak above it. Down they flew
until arriving at a small mound of fur that lay still on the
terrain. Pupa wasn’t dead, but his life was fading quickly. His
heart beat ever so slowly, and his breathing was so slight that one
could not notice it with the naked eye. The ground next to him was
dark with the blood that he had lost. The little niku beetles had
already begun to drink it, some of them directly from his wound.
The niku did not wait for one to die. They drank blood from the
dead or living. Then they sent out a signal to any nearby niku
making them aware of the meal, and its location – being eaten by
the niku is a slow and painful death.

With the sprites arrival, the niku were
easily scared away. Then they proceeded to work their craft on
little Pupa. They fluttered around him, covering him with the
herbs, pollens, and nectars they gathered in their baskets. Soon
after, they arranged themselves around him, each placing their
hands on a part of his body. Closing their eyes, they concentrated
on finding the
hurt
inside of him; the injury that was
slowly taking his life away. After a brief moment, an ill pool
emerged from him. His eyes opened and he sprang to his feet.

The sprites healing magic was always
impressive, and this was evident in Pupa’s recovery. His tail
wagged and his tongue hung out of his mouth in a happy pant. He
eagerly glanced around at his colorful flying friends and knew that
they had helped him. Meeka placed herself on the back of his head
scratching him behind the ears in just the fashion that animals
such as him adore. Pupa would have stayed and played for a bit, but
soon the sprites waved goodbye, and flew off. Pupa watched them
leave, entertained by the colorful effects of their trails until
those too were gone.

His attention changed now, focused on Farra.
The last image that he had was of an ogre attacking her. After that
was a blank. He didn’t even remember hitting the rock. Still, his
natural instinct was to be with her, and to find her, wherever she
was.

Pupa began searching for her with his nose
to the ground. Her scent was easy to pick up. Even easier was that
of the stinky ogres that nabbed her. He followed it on the path
around the bend of the rocky terrain and kept on until it led him
to the cave.

The ogres still guarded the entrance. They
may have let a young pup walk through anyway, but Pupa’s last mark
had left him with
an
ability that would
now come to his aid. It was night, and he instinctively took to the
shadows, blending in with them. He walked in silently toward the
entrance hugging the wall and merging with the darkness until he
was inside, and then Pupa received another mark….

One ogre guarded Farra and Bomani while they
slept. Suddenly, the sensation of a new mark had awakened Farra
from her sleep. Gasping in excitement, she whispered as loudly as
she could to Bomani, waking him as well.

“Bomani! It’s Pupa, he’s alive.”

“What do you mean? I thought you said he was
dead.”

“No, he’s not, he’s alive. And I can feel
him. He’s close!”

Bomani looked at the ogre sitting across the
room. “He’ll never get past the ogre. If they catch him, they’ll
lock him up too, or worse.”

“I can talk to him, I can tell him to stay
put,” she said.

“You can do that?” Bomani asked. “Since when
could you do that? Hmm, never mind. Tell him to hide somewhere
until we can figure out what to do.”

Farra did just that. She concentrated on
Pupa and spoke to him. It wasn’t a conversation filled with words,
phrases and sentences, but more of an understanding.

The darkness of the caves and the sporadic
placement of the torches throughout made it easy for Pupa to find
places where he couldn’t be seen. Meanwhile, the ogre guarding the
children had grown tired and fell asleep in the chair where he sat.
Farra once again put her thoughts on Pupa, telling him to come to
them.

He made his way through the hallways and
into the room where Bomani and Farra were being kept captive. Farra
reached her hand out to him when he entered the room. Her smile
stretched from ear to ear. She was barely able to contain herself;
relieved at seeing her soul-companion again.

He walked past the ogre, still deep in his
sleep, sitting in the chair and went straight to Farra’s cell. She
welcomed him with open arms and tried to squeeze him tight through
the wooden bars.

“Oh, I missed you so much,” Farra said.

“Ssshh,” Bomani Responded. “Don’t wake the
ogre.” Then he turned his thoughts to more intimate matters, “Pupa
it’s good to see you. We thought you were dead.” It was slight, but
Bomani could have sworn that Pupa looked at him, and smiled.

“Okay Pupa,” Farra instructed him. “You have
to be very quiet. We don’t want to wake that stinky ogre. You have
to set us free. We need you to pull the pin from the latch.
Okay?”

Pupa understood. He walked over to the metal
pin in the latch, gripped his teeth on it tightly, slowly pulling
it out. Farra gave a small push on the cell door; she was free. She
immediately went and pulled the pin on Bomani’s latch and gently
placed it on the floor. Bomani’s cage opened with ease as well.

Once out, Farra rushed into Bomani spreading
her arms, and then squeezing him tight. Almost immediately she
caught herself and jumped back releasing him. Her friendship with
Bomani was in a good place. She didn’t want to insult Bomani by her
hugging affection, which she knew he hated so much.

“Oh, I’m sorry Bomani. I know how you hate
to be hugged.”

Bomani frowned at her for a moment and
lifted his brow. Then he reached out to her and hugged her back
even more tightly.

“Farra, I can’t think of anything I’d like
better from you.”

She smiled and wrapped her arms around him
to meet his gesture. When they released, he smiled at her and
nodded. They had an understanding, one that had been developed by
the summation of their journey thus far.

“We got out,” said Farra. “Just like you
promised.”

“All thanks to Pupa,” Bomani responded.

“Now, we’ve come this far so let’s get the
Scepter.”

Pupa joined in on the happiness. He let out
a loud bark, well beyond the whisper that Farra and Bomani were
maintaining and dropped the metal pin on the floor.

The sleeping ogre got startled and awoke,
abruptly coming to his feet. “You no escape,” he grunted and rushed
them both, grabbing them by their necks.

They had no weapons, and without such, they
had little chance of overcoming an ogre’s strength in hand-to-hand
combat. The ogre lifted them into the air, holding them each by
their necks. He was squeezing so tight that neither of them could
even manage to grasp the slightest bit of air. The children
wrestled with him as best they could, but the ogre was too
strong.

Just as Bomani felt that at any moment, he
could pass out. THUMP! The ogre was hit from behind, smashed in the
head with a very large rock. He released his grip and the three of
them fell to the ground. Farra and Bomani inhaled deeply, coughing,
trying to catch their breath. They looked up only to see an ogre
with a familiar face.

Torik, the former general of Hatari’s ogre
army, knew his way around the mountain. Hatari had used his twisted
witchdoctor magic to make sure there was enough water to support
his minions. After all, even ogres need to drink. Even the
day-to-day work of mining diamonds required a fair amount of water
in itself.

The giant well inside the mountain connected
to a pond at its base. It was a long swim, too long for most things
that required oxygen to breath. Every once in a while, some strong
lunged badger swam in from outside and ran amuck inside the mines,
moving things around and chewing up tools. As a result, Hatari
ordered the ogres to close up the tunnel by filling it with large
rocks, but leaving enough space so that the water could still make
its way in freely.

While the children were in their cages,
Torik had stood in front of the pond and jumped in. He
shape-shifted his body into a half-shark trying his best to keep
his yelling of pain down to a minimum. He swam underground, through
the river, with his ogre legs flailing behind him having no worry
about coming up for air.

He didn’t know how long he could keep this
shape. It was painful. And so he swam as fast as he could to make
his way through. The end was blocked by a mass of boulders doing
the job of keeping big things out, and unfortunately, sharks had
neither the strength nor the arms to move them.

Air bubbles escaped from his mouth as he
struggled with the pain to shift into his gorilla form. Now he had
the strength but had to move fast – not knowing how long his
primate lungs could go without air. He moved the boulders one by
one until finally, he made a hole large enough for his large frame
to fit through.

****

“Torik!” Farra yelled. “Is it you?” Before
he could answer, she was already hugging him.

His answer was a shape shift into a
half-serpent and giving himself some relief. This was the form the
curse wanted at the time. To infiltrate the mines, he had to fight
it, and bear the pain of keeping himself in the ogre form.

“Yessss, it’s me,” he said.

“Oh, I thought you weren’t coming,” said
Farra.

“Yea,” said Bomani, “And you brought our
weapons. What made you change your mind?”

“Your weapons weren’t hard to find. They
were in a room, just down the corridor, but the real reason I came
was to give you thissss,” Torik lifted up Farra’s father’s charm.
“After you left, I searched for it. I knew leaving it behind would
haunt you, and one day, you would come searching for it. Sifting
through bones, looking for her father is no way for a young girl to
spend her time.”

Farra was in tears, “You came all this way
to give this to me?” “You sir, have more honor than I ever
imagined.” Bomani said sincerely.

“I figured that you should have it.
Ssssssss,” Torik replied. “Besides, what kind of person would I be
if I let you face Hatari alone?”

“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!” Farra
cried.

“Now,” said Torik. “We can’t waste time
here. We must get what you came for, before the rest of the army is
alerted of your release.”

“The Ifa Scepter.” Bomani said.

“Yes,” Torik replied. “I can take you to
it.”

On the way to the chamber, two ogres
confronted them. It wasn’t a problem, especially with Torik helping
with the fight. With a few blows to the stomach and head, they
quickly rendered the ogres unconscious and hid their bodies in the
dark. Soon, they came to what seemed like a dead end, but it
wasn’t. It was the door to the chamber holding the Ifa Scepter.

The curse had its way with Torik, and he
changed back into his ogre form. “The door can only be opened from
here by Hatari himself.” Torik explained. “You must wait here while
I make my way through the upper tunnels above us. There, there is a
wheel I must turn to open the door.”