The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter (11 page)

Bomani tossed his weapons inside, then Farra
and Pupa climbed into the boat, with a big push from Bomani, the
boat slid into the water. He was up to his waist in the river
before he tried to jump in, but when he lifted his leg, he realized
that it was stuck. He tugged and pulled, but something held him
firmly. He was caught by a
river-worm
and it wasn’t letting
go.

The body of a river-worm resembles that of a
turtle, with its hard shell. Its feet bore claws with three-inch
nails that it used to borrow into the sand or mud in the side of
the riverbed. Its five-foot tongue stretched out into the water
just waiting for an unsuspecting meal to get caught as it floated
down stream – In this case, Bomani.

The tongue was as strong as any python of
equivalent size. The underside was equipped with hundreds of tiny
hooked teeth serving as anchors once the tongue was wrapped around
its prey.

The river-worm yanked Bomani into the
shallow water. Instinctively, he held his breath and part of him
wanted to panic. The other part, the warrior part, the part that
kept him disciplined and focused told him that if he panicked he
would die. He took no more than a second to gather himself and then
went to work on getting whatever this thing was off of his leg.

He managed to get his head above water for a
breath of air before he was pulled under again. He struggled as he
fought the strength of the tongue. It seemed that the more he
pulled at it, the more it hurt – Its teeth pulled at every nerve
ending under his skin. Fighting the pain, he managed to get part of
it off of him for a moment only for it to once again wrap its grip
around him.

Bomani could have saved himself a great deal
of pain had he not fought the thing. Generally once an animal
realized that fighting only made the pain worse, it would give into
the river-worm, only to be digested slowly by teeth and the
digestive juices of the tongue, if it didn’t drown, it would bleed
to death within an hour.

It was no use; Bomani could never have
pulled all five feet of the tongue off of him, and with each
struggle, the stinging pain increased. He changed tactics and began
pulling at the other end, toward the body of the thing. Tugging on
the tongue, he pulled himself to the side of the riverbed, where
the creature had its body anchored in the sand. He pulled with all
of his might until the turtle-like body was dragged out. Then he
stood on the hard shell and yanked harder than ever on the tongue
until he had ripped it completely from its body. The animal let out
a shriek of pain and ran off.

Bomani dragged himself to the side of the
river where he began to remove the limp, lifeless tongue off of his
leg. The hundreds of teeth still pierced every nerve. He couldn’t
help but to scream out.

“Bomani! Are you okay?” Farra had just
managed to paddle the boat to the side of the river and ran to his
aid. “Nice of you to show up. Yes, I’m fine.”

“I was in the boat. What happened to
you?”

Bomani picked up the long slug-like tongue
lying on the ground. “I don’t know, but this is part of it.”

“Eww, pretty nasty.”

“Yeah, the rest of it ran off.” He stood up
only to feel a sharp pain throbbing through his leg. He did his
best to ignore it, but when he tried to step forward, the pain only
increased, he fell forward and Farra quickly caught him. “I’m
fine,” he claimed.

“But your leg, and your arm, look at it,
it’s all bloody and nasty and yucky and…” Farra turned away, her
attention caught by the sound of Pupa yelping from down stream. The
current had pulled the boat back in the water with Pupa still
inside.

“The boat!” Farra yelled. “Pupa!”

She ran along the river trying to catch up
with Pupa and the boat. Bomani followed as far as he could, in
spite of the pain of his injured limbs. When she ran far enough,
Farra dove into the water with both arms, she was totally unaware
that he had tossed her staff in the process. Without contact from
its owner, the crystal that hovered at the top of the staff sank
down until it was in contact with the shaft below it.

Excited to see her, Pupa leaned over the
side of the boat as if he was going to jump in. “No Pupa, stay in
the boat,” Farra yelled between desperate gasps for breath. Farra
made it to the boat and hauled herself in. She only took a moment
to relax before she grabbed one of the oars and paddled her way
toward Bomani, at the edge of the river. Once there, an exhausted
Farra and Bomani pulled the boat onto the riverbed.

“I can’t!” Bomani exclaimed. He was still
hurt, but angrier with himself for not being able to deal with the
pain. Farra continued to pull the boat several feet from the edge
of the river before she collapsed. Now, they both lay on the ground
with heaving chests and muscles that seemed too tired to move.
Farra closed her eyes for a few moments until she realized her
staff was missing.

“Oh, my goodness! We have to go back.” Farra
yelled.

“What? Go back? Why? Look at my leg.”

“My staff, I threw it down to swim to the
boat.”

“It’s your fault the boat got away in the
first place, now you say we have to go back for it?”

“I was coming to help YOU!” Farra reminded
him.

“I didn’t need your help, I took care of it
on my own. I didn’t ask you to leave the boat. You’d think a good
sorceress would be careful to keep up with something that important
to her.”

“Of course you didn’t ask for my help, I
wasn’t going to wait for an invitation. When I see someone in need,
I help. At least that is the way of the Anifem.”

“Fine then, you can fetch it. But, don’t
expect me to go with you. I’ll wait here by boat.” Farra noticed
Bomani still favoring his leg and the nasty wound on it.

“My goodness.” She said, as it struck her.
She pulled the bandages that Hagga had given them from her pouch.
“I forgot all about them. Remember, Hagga gave us these? She said
it was for that nasty wound on your leg, and your arm. She foresaw
all of this. Here, use them.”

She didn’t wait for Bomani to accept the
bandages. By the time she finished her rendition of Hagga’s
prophecy, she had already kneeled down to dress the wound on his
leg with the black bandages that Hagga had given them.

“I can do it,” Bomani affirmed. He reached
down to take over her work on his leg, but Farra stopped him.
“You’re ridiculous. Are you going to wrap your own arm too, with
one hand? Don’t be silly! I can see right through you Bomani. It’s
your pride that gets hurt more than anything. Why don’t you work on
that, and I’ll put the bandages on.”

Bomani tightened his face, but said nothing.
He winced in pain as she continued to dress his wound with Hagga’s
black bandages, but to his surprise, the pain only lasted for a
second, very quickly he felt the wound healing.

It was the most soothing sensation he had
ever felt. The wound on his leg stretched from his ankle to the
middle of his thigh, and as Farra wrapped the bandages upward he
felt every inch of their healing; like a burn soothed by healing
waters.

“Wow,” he said. “Where did she say she got
these from?”

“I don’t know,” Farra replied. “She just
said they were old. But they don’t look very old. Now, give your
arm.” She started wrapping his arm, wrapping the binding from his
wrist, going around and around in both directions all the way up
past his elbow.

“Does that feel better?”

Bomani moved his arm around and stood up,
putting a little pressure on his leg. “Yes, it actually does. A lot
better,” he rhythmically jumped from one leg to the other. “You
stayed to help me, instead of looking for your staff?”

“I guess I did.”

“Why?”

“It’s a nasty wound. It needed some
attention.”

“All right, we’d better go find your staff
then.”

“I thought you weren’t going to help me find
it?” Farra sarcastically reminded him of his earlier
declaration.

“I changed my mind, okay?” he said.

“It’s okay,” Farra responded. She smiled at
him, warmly. “We don’t need to look for it anymore”

“What do you mean? I thought you needed
it?”

“Oh yes, definitely. We just don’t need to
look for it. It’s already here.”

She walked over to the riverbank as the
current was bringing the staff her way. It floated on the water
toward them, as if guided by a magical force.

“It’s like something my mother told me.”
said Farra.

“What’s that?”

“A staff is bound to its owner. Should they
be separated, it will find its way back.” She reached into the
water and grabbed it. The crystal once again began to hover,
coinciding with the reunion between sorcerer and staff.

“Humph. It didn’t find its way back. You
just got lucky. Besides, it’s made of wood, so it floated down
stream.”

Farra smiled, “Oh, you wouldn’t understand,
but it’s true.”

They drifted down river for the remainder of
the night; though seemingly uneventful, they found it hard to
relax. Bomani unwrapped the bandages and checked his wounds,
impressed by how quickly they were healing. Then wrapped them
again.

The waxing moon, just days from being full,
was covered in cloud, leaving a soft glow to light the way. They
slept in only spans of a half hour or so, awakened from time to
time by the many sounds of animals and insects that were unfamiliar
to them. The animals were watching. Both curious and afraid of
these newcomers to their world, the baboons followed them for a
good hour by land and by the thin rows of dry tress that lined the
riverbank. Their eyes glowed red and their heinous calls to one
another echoed throughout the dark keeping tabs on the children
until finally they became uninterested.

In the morning, Bomani continued to perfect
his fishing technique. They docked just long enough for them to
build a fire and eat, but they didn’t waste any time lounging
around. Bomani felt that it was necessary to get back on the river
as soon as possible.

Finally, in the daylight, Farra’s fears
subsided enough for her to get some good sleep. That is until she
was awakened by the sound of thrusting air and felt a spray of
water all over her. Bomani stood at the bow of the boat peeking
into the water.

“What is it?” she asked.

Bomani was silent, only pointing into the
water. A herd of hippo-whales sat almost entirely submerged in the
water, only their eyes and their blowholes peeking over the top.
With walrus – like feet, these animals were slow on land, but no
doubt swift and agile in the water. They cautiously glared at the
strange boat that passed by them. The largest one submerged
entirely, its where-abouts only came to be known when it butted its
head against the boat from underneath. The boat shook violently as
Farra and Bomani rocked with it trying to keep their balance.

The boat settled, and then once again they
were hit! Bomani caught Farra as she nearly fell over the side.

“This is no good!” Farra shouted. “No good
at all! We have to paddle away from here.”

“Sshhh,” Bomani said. “I know animals. He’s
just testing us. We don’t want to provoke any more of them. I’ll
paddle, slowly. Just try to keep your balance if we get hit again.
You don’t want to fall in there, with them!”

Bomani guided the small boat, cautiously and
precisely through the herd; tip-toeing through the lion’s den. It
seemed that just when he had them all counted, another would
emerge, clearing its blowhole with a violent sound, meant to scare.
The eyes of twenty hippo-whales were locked firmly on them, just
waiting for the slightest reason to all attack at once. Farra
looked on cautiously, rubbing Pupa gently behind his ears to keep
him calm.

After they passed the herd, Farra kept
watch, making sure that none of the hippo-whales were following,
while Bomani stayed at the bow of the boat, looking ahead
attentively for danger. He wanted to be ready for anything that
might come their way.

“We’ve been on this river almost a whole
day, how much further do you think we have to go?” Farra asked. It
had become his practice during this journey to ignore her.

“I said, how much further do you think we
should go?” Farra repeated.

“I don’t know,” Bomani replied. “Hagga
wasn’t too specific.”

Another ten minutes of silence passed until
Farra spoke again. “So, what does your name mean?”

“Why?” he replied.

“I don’t know. I was just making
conversation.”

“Does it really matter?”

“No, but if I had to guess, I’d say it
meant,
mean little boy
.”

“And if I had to guess, yours means,
girl
who talks too much
.”

“Well, if you would speak sometimes, I
wouldn’t have to do all the talking. You just sit there not saying
anything, like I’m not even here. Like you’re alone. Well, you are
not alone, you have company.”

“I’m paying attention to where we are going.
Keeping an eye out.”

“Cheerful one.”

“What?”

“My name, it means cheerful one.”

Bomani rolled his eyes and then refocused
ahead. “It figures. Why are you so happy all the time anyway?”

“It feels better to be cheerful than to be
sad or mad all the time. If I had my pick, I’d rather be
happy.”

“Humph”

“I mean what’s the point of being angry and
tough all the time?”

“Warrior.”

“Huh?”

“You asked what my name meant. It means,
warrior
. My father gave it to me. He too is a great
warrior.”

“My father gave me this trinket around my
head. But I haven’t…

The arrow that missed her by inches pierced
into the side of the boat, cutting her sentence short. She fell
back, and screamed. Bomani looked back to see two boats carrying
five ogres in each, aggressively pursuing them. He quickly grabbed
his shield and spear. “Ogres!” he yelled to Farra, “Get down!”