The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter (14 page)

“Mean? He was stealing from us,” Bomani
pleaded.

“He wasn’t going to keep it. He was just
curious,” Farra reasoned.

“How do you know that? Where do you think he
got all that jewelry?”

Farra continued to coddle Zerggie, despite
Bomani’s apparent disapproval. “You weren’t going to steal it were
you? She cooed at the sedated little monkey. Zerggie looked into
her eyes innocently and shook his head. “Me no steal.”

“See!” Farra confirmed to Bomani. “I told
you.”

“I doubt that,” Bomani disagreed.

She sat the imp down on a rock carefully,
and soothed him, “There you go. That big, bad Bomani won’t bother
you anymore,” she promised.

“But you should be careful, and not take
things that don’t belong to you without permission. You could make
someone angry — especially a warrior like him.” She continued,
pointing to Bomani, “He has no patience. Now, do you know what
those flowers are?” Bomani shook his head in disbelief, and then
looked at Zerggie impatiently as he waited for the answer.

“Bloom,” Zerggie said.

“You mean they bloom?” Farra asked.

“They are bloom,” Zerggie corrected her.
“Bloom flowers.” His mouth and hands were wet from the juice of the
fruit and he cleaned his wrinkled little fingers with his tongue,
like an animal, giving Bomani very little regard now that he had
Farra’s loyalty.

“That’s a silly name for a flower. That’s
like calling a tree a
growing
tree,” Bomani said.

“Silly maybe, but they are bloom flower.
Growing tree
on other mountain,” Zerggie replied. He pointed
in the direction of the mountain on the other side of the
valley.

Bomani sighed. At first he thought that
Zerggie was mocking him, but then he realized that the imp was
serious, and that apparently there really was a tree called
growing tree
growing somewhere on the mountains toward the
horizon. Bomani finally accepted Zerggie’s odd name for the curious
plant called the
bloom flower
.

More of the intriguing plants began
spouting. Their fluid petals were so attractive that Farra could
not resist the desire to pick one.

“Bloom flower, huh?” she said. She reached
out to pick one, but Zerggie jumped between Farra and the hypnotic
plant and scolded her.

“No pick flowers!” He exclaimed.

“Oh, I see,” said Bomani, “It’s fine for you
to help yourself to our belongings, but we can’t touch your
flowers?”

“No look at bloom flower too long either.”
Zerggie insisted.

“Okay little buddy. Do you know where Angry
Mountain is?” Zerggie began jumping up and down, excitedly. “This
Angry Mountain!”

“Really? I thought this was a volcano.”

“This
is
volcano. This volcano, Angry
Mountain.”

“Is that why they call it Angry Mountain?
Because it’s a volcano?”

“No.”

“Then why do they call it Angry
Mountain?”

Bomani wasn’t paying attention to Farra and
the imp anymore. He stood where the first bloom flowers grew and
his eyes followed the vibrant plants as if he was in a trance. He
stood in awe of the beautiful flowers, and the stirring colors of
the petals beckoned him closer. Soon it was impossible for him to
resist and he moved mechanically toward the dazzling plant as if
something beyond his control was pulling him toward them. He had to
have one.

“Maybe I should pick some — take some home
to mother,” he murmured. He no longer even sounded like himself.
“She loves flowers. She has a garden.”

Zerggie jumped around erratically now, and
pointed at Bomani. “
That
why they call it Angry
Mountain!”

MOUNTAIN

Some six hundred years
ago, well before the Forbidden Expanse had gotten its name, a man
named Tumba once lived nearby what we now call, the Angry
Mountain.
He was a brilliant man, educated
in art, war, weaponry and engineering. As men began to make better
and more destructive weapons, he began to build better houses,
fortresses, and walls, to keep them out. He was good at what he
did, building. No one in the Ancient Lands could match his
skill.

A sorceress, by the name of Byo learned of
his skill, and needed his assistance.

“
I have many enemies,” she
explained to him. “This is simply a dangerous world that we live
in, and there will always be those who wish to take my
power.”

“
What is it that you need
from me?” Tumba asked.

“
My fortress is strong,
but I wish for it to be stronger. I want you to build me a wall
around it so that should my enemies come, they will fail. If you do
this for me, you will never go hungry, and you will never be
poor.”

Tumba had no family and spent his life
traveling from village to village. He figured he had nothing to
lose and accepted the offer of the sorceress. So it began. He began
planning the wall, and lived inside her fortress for his stay.

Tumba’s skill was so great, that it got the
attention of the god Shango. Shango was the god of lighting and he
wielded a mighty hammer. Shango told Tumba that he was so impressed
by his work, that he could use one of his godly hammers for his
craft whenever he needed. When it became time, he asked the god
Shango for his hammer and used it to begin building the wall.

Soon he came to meet a young maiden, Tuana
(Too-wana). Tuana was beautiful and in no time they found
themselves spending every free moment together. After a while,
Tuana became distant. She had been in situations like this before.
She had been in love affairs with men that did not love her, but
were only mesmerized by her beauty.

“
Do you love me?” she
asked.

“
Yes, I do.” Tumba
desperately answered. “I am yours forever and will prove it to you
if need be by any means.”

So, she set him to a task.

“
Three days walk from
here,” she said, “there is a field with only one tree. The tree is
large and can’t be missed. Its leaves are small, but its flowers
are large and blue. When the wind blows, the flowers scatter all
around, so when you begin to see them on the ground, you will know
that you are close. The tree’s
trunk is
large and a hole at its base will lead you inside. Go into it and
follow it down. The cavern is tight, and far, but if you keep your
wits, you can make it through. It will lead you to a cave that sits
under a nearby pond. The cave’s ceiling is made of crystal. It is
hard to see what is on the other side, none the less, when the sun
shines through the pond, that light will reach the cave
below.”

She sat next to him, and took his hand. “My
love, in this cave is a flower that only blooms with the energy of
the sun. It is called a Bloom Flower. Every night, after the sun
has finished its journey across the sky, its petals close, and the
stem of the flower recedes back into the soil. The task I ask of
you is to bring me one of these flowers alive and well. If you do,
I will be yours forever.”

Without hesitation, he agreed. He first told
his employer, Byo that he would be leaving for a week or so, then
he set out, with the wall unfinished.

The journey was not too
hard for him. He walked for days until he saw the blue petals, and
followed them to the tree. He found the hole and went inside. He
slowly made his way down the dark
tunnel
where he squeezed through the moist soil, and into the
cave.

He wondered how she had
known
of this place, and of the flower
that grew here. Had she, herself, been here before? He didn’t know.
He gazed at the rays of sunlight that found their way through the
pond and the crystal ceiling above. All around him, were the
flowers, bright with moving colors of liquid. She had never
described the flowers themselves too him. He was delighted that she
hadn’t. To experience them in this way, first hand without
expectation was a pleasure all its own.

He grabbed a few, and made his way back
through the tunnel and out of the tree. As he walked, he reached
into his pouch to once again gaze upon the beauty of the flowers.
He smiled, both in admiration of the flower, and foreseeing his
return to his love. His smile faded as he noticed the movement of
the color on the flower slowed. The stem became limp, and the color
itself, like a liquid began to pour off of the petal onto the dirt
by his feet.

He tried to catch it with his hand, and
managed to save some, but the color itself faded and what once was
a moving vibrant color, was now a still black sludge. The stem also
wilted and was now a limp black strand. His heart dropped into his
stomach. “Bring me one of these flowers alive and well,” she had
said to him. This flower was not alive and well at all.

He desperately went back to the cave
desperate to get another, but he had the same result. The flowers
only lasted a short time after they were picked, before they died.
It seemed that he could do nothing to stop it, but he kept
trying.

He tried carrying dirt
with it, he tried keeping them in water, and he tried dirt and
water. He tried for days and nothing he did seemed to work. He was
frustrated, but determined. He went back to Byo’s fortress to Tuana
and told her of his failure. She was disappointed and did not want
give herself to him until he had
finished
that task he had promised. But then she realized how much she truly
loved him, and told him that it did not matter. She was still
impressed that he had spent so much effort in trying. There was no
longer a need for him to bring her the flower.

But he persisted and again promised her that
he would bring back the flower. He went to Byo and again told her
that he would be leaving for a while. Byo still was concerned about
the integrity of her fortress. “I need a wall,” she said. “One that
surrounds my fortress. One big enough and strong enough that no one
could penetrate it. One that only you can build.”

“
I cannot build you a wall
at this time my lady. I have a task to perform. I cannot build it
until I am done.”

“
Task? What task? Why can
you not build this wall for me? Have I not treated you
well?”

“
My apologies, yes, you
have treated me well, but I must perform this task. I cannot tell
you what it is, for it is of a personal nature.”

Annoyed, Byo agreed. “Fine, hurry with your
task, whatever it may be. But know that any harm that comes to my
people while you are gone is on your head. No one has the skill you
do.”

So Tumba set off to find the answer to the
flower. He called upon the god Shango to give him back his hammer,
and for two years, he was gone, no one saw him. But he still did
not have a way to carry the flower. He went to different lands to
find answers, but found none.

Byo had someone else build her a wall, and
when war came it was not strong enough to keep her enemies out.
Many people died. When Tumba came back and faced the Sorceress, she
asked him, “Do you see what has happened? “Do you see the ruins of
the wall that failed? I triumphed over my enemy, no thanks to you,
and many of my people died in the attack. Well, did you at least
finish your task?”

“
I did not.” He replied,
dropping to his knees. “I was to find a way to carry the Bloom
flower back to Tuana without it dying. This, I promised her, but
for years, I have failed.”

Byo laughed.

“
What is so funny?” Tumba
asked.

“
If you would have told me
this before, I could have given you the answer. I am a sorceress,
we know these things.”

Tumba was both happy and disturbed by this.
He cried out to Byo “Please, he asked, I beg you to tell me. I have
sought long and hard to bring this flower to my love as I have
promised her.”

“
I will tell you the
secret, but if I do, will you build me my wall?”

“
Yes, I will build you
your wall, I will build a wall that only the gods themselves could
penetrate.”

“
Okay then. Here is what
you already may know about the Bloom Flowers. At night, they suck
them selves back into the soil. If you pluck them, they won’t even
last an hour before they die. But, if you can let their stems feed
directly off of the suns energy, they will live for quite some
time, for they don’t need much water.”

“
What must I do?” he
desperately asked.

She continued, “most animals do not cry, or
shed tears, but there is one that does. The Lemadu is a nocturnal
animal. They cannot stand the sunlight, and so they sleep in caves
as bats do. So if you were to bring one of its young, out during
the day, the strength of the sun’s energy would be too much for it.
It will cry in the sunshine. You must bottle up its tears for only
they have the magical ability to store the sun’s energy in its
purist form. A couple of drops of their tears mixed with water
should do the trick. Just be careful, Bloom Flowers don’t need much
water, but when yours runs out, you will have to get more tears to
keep them alive.”

Tumba was graciously happy and went on his
way. He found the Lemadu cave. He waited ‘til day, snuck in and
brought one of the young into the daylight. In moments, the little
animal started screaming, and like Byo had told him, the tears came
rushing out. He collected them in a leather vial and was
relieved.

He took the tears, mixed them with some
water, put the mixture in a container, plucked his flower, put it
in the container, and waited. An hour went past and the flower had
not died. Two hours went past, and still the flower stood
strong.