The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter (7 page)

Laka rose from her sleep and looked at her
mistress intently. Anika gathered her cloak and staff, and set out
to find her daughter. It was still early, and there were not many
people out yet. She approached a fellow Animan, carrying kindling
wood and stopped him.

“Have you seen Farra?” Anika asked
desperately. He shook his head and she ran toward a group of nearby
children. They were busy playing with the new pups at the outside
kennel, wondering which of the young wolves would be theirs
someday.

“Children!” she shouted. “Have any of you
seen Farra?”

“No ma’am!”

Laka came outside of the house, following
Farra’s scent and barked at Anika signaling that she should follow.
Anika obeyed Laka’s request intuitively and walked with the wolf
until it was clear that Farra had gone far beyond the village.

Anika went back to their village to request
an emergency meeting with the Elders. When she arrived, she found
the dome empty. Personally going to an Elder’s home was a bit
unorthodox, but that is exactly what she did.

She arrived at the First’s house and knocked
on his door impatiently.

“You may come in Anika,” the First said with
his old fragile voice from inside. She wondered, at first how he
knew that it was her, but then she dismissed the thought quickly
—Elders often did strange things like that. But this time it was no
magic, or clairvoyance. He expected that she would be coming.

“Elder! I fear that Farra has disobeyed you
and run off!” The elder chuckled under his breath.

“Elder please,” she pleaded. “She could be in
danger.”

“We already know,” he said.

“You know? Then you have sent someone after
her already? Why didn’t you wake me?”

“I knew before you even left Council hall
last night.”

“I don’t understand. Yesterday, you denied
her request. She didn’t pass your test. She’s not ready,” Anika
pleaded.

“We told her what she needed to hear, and she
saw what she needed to see.”

“Then she was to go all along?”

“We believe that she was meant to go.”

“Then the Council is not worried?”

He put his hand on her shoulder and smiled.
“The Council is always worried. It comes with the job. The question
is, should
you
worry, and the answer is no. You should pray
to the gods for her strength and her safety during the journey. It
will be difficult for her, but we feel this is something that she
must do.”

“I’m sorry for the way that I acted. I will
put my trust in you.”

“No, put your trust in her. Fear not, the
moon shines bright on young Farra.”

VII A NEW
COMPANION

Pupa startled Farra, pulling anxiously at her
arm to wake her. She opened her eyes and felt the ground shaking
beneath them; a roaring rumble could be heard all around. A sudden
spark of fear brought her abruptly out of her sleep, as she looked
up to see Bomani running across the field in the distance. She had
been following close behind him through the night.

“You’d better run!” he said without so much
as stopping.

“What’s happening?” she yelled after him as
she jumped to her feet trying to catch up.

“Early morning hunt,” he yelled back pointing
in the direction in which he came.

She whipped her head around and saw a large
herd of gazelles and zebras headed their way. She couldn’t tell how
many there were, but she figured it had to be more than a hundred.
He wasn’t even going to warn me,
she thought as she gathered
Pupa and her things.

Three hungry lions chased the heard across
the savanna, pushing the limits of the breed. Farra took off
running. The animals quickly gained on them and they found
themselves trapped somewhere in the middle. Farra grabbed Pupa and
quickly nestled the bottom half of his body into her pouch. Blinded
by dust and the animals themselves, they where only inches from
being trampled,

However, unlike Farra, Bomani had experience
in this situation. He had done this many times before— one of his
many ways of testing and pushing himself to the limit. Like a
champion athlete, he pulled his spear from his shield and thrust it
into the ground vaulting himself onto the back of one of the zebra.
Farra looked up to Bomani desperately and reached out her hand for
his help.

“What about me?” she pleaded.

With a sigh and a roll of his eyes, Bomani
extended his hand. “Jump,” he said. And hold on tight.

“Are you crazy? I can’t jump up there!”

“You want help? Then grab my hand!”

Farra grabbed his hand and held on with all
her might as Bomani swung her on to the back of the animal. Bomani
knew that riding an untamed beast was nothing like his trusty
rhino, still he tried to control it the best he could. The defiant
animal began to thrash and buck wildly to throw the unwelcome
guests. Farra frantically clutched on to Bomani as hard as she
could to keep from falling off. “This is not good, not good at all.
Can’t you control this thing?” Farra asked.

“I’m trying!” Bomani yelled. He was annoyed
at his uninvited back seat driver.

The beast lost its footing as they came to a
ditch and collapsed head first onto the ground, tossing Bomani and
Farra into it. Farra tried to stand.

“Stay down!” Bomani said. He pulled her back
down and covered her protectively.

“Pupa!” she yelled and grabbed at him to make
sure he was okay. Farra looked up to see the countless legs and
feet of the animals above jumping across the ditch. There was a
brief pause and then the lions passed, jumping over the ditch
mightily as they chased their lunch.

Bomani waited a moment, then sat up and poked
his head out of the ditch. “They're gone now,” he said, “You can
come out.”

“No thanks. I think I’ll just lie here for a
moment. I’m still thinking about the fact that we just almost got
killed. What were you thinking about — jumping onto that zebra’s
back like that? We could have died!”

“We? What do you mean we? I knew what I was
doing. You asked me to help you up and I did. In fact, I remember
telling you back at the stream not to come with me; that it was too
dangerous. And by the way, I knew you were following me the whole
time.”

“You knew?”

“Yeah."

“Then why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because you are not my responsibility,
that’s why.”

“You’re just mean.”

“Take it or leave it.”

“What does that mean?”

“What is that?” Bomani pointed to a mark on
her face that he hadn’t noticed before.

“What?”

“That mark on your face. It wasn’t there
before.”

“Oh gosh!” Farra yelled. She was excited and
touched the mark on her face gently. “Its my mark of joining. It
means that our
sacred union
has begun. See, Pupa has one
too. You know what that means?”

“Yeah, yeah, your sacred thingy with your
dog.”

“He’s a wolf. And it means much more than
that. It means we are supposed to come with you. It means that the
gods have approved my journey with you. It means I’m on the right
track. It means….”

“Wait, wait, wait a minute! Does this mean
I’m stuck with you?”

“Oh don’t be a fuss pot.”

“No, no, I mean it. Does this mean that
you’ve made up your mind about following me around?”

“Yesterday, I went to see the Council and
they gave me a test but I failed it because I let go of the crystal
and there was a lot of crazy stuff happening in there but I thought
I shouldn’t go because they said no but I came anyway and I wasn’t
sure but now I am! Isn’t that great?”

“Yeah, just wonderful.”

“Don’t worry, if the gods have granted us the
mark, it is for a good reason. It means you will need my help.”

Bomani was insulted. He was supposed to do
this alone. At least, that’s what he wanted. Besides all his
training had made him the strong warrior that he wanted to be. He
didn’t need this little girl hanging around with her dog slowing
things up. He turned around and walked off.

“I am a warrior from Ufalme. I don’t
need
anyone’s help. But since you’re just going to follow me
anyway, you can tag along. C’mon.” He gestured to her with his hand
to follow him, and Farra and Pupa trotted behind. They had only
walked for ten minutes before Farra began to drill him with
questions. Bomani was quiet. He didn’t offer conversation or
information about where he was going or why, and being kept in the
dark was eating Farra up inside.

“Sooooo,” she broke in — an undeniable
attempt at drawing something, anything from him.

“So, what?”

“Where are we going?”

“
I
am going to find a scepter.”

“You? But you said I could come.”

Bomani sighs, “Fine.
We
are going to
find the magical Ifa Scepter of the gods.”

“Hah! No, really. Where are we going?”

“Yes, really. Long ago, we used it to keep
relations with the god of harvest. That’s why everything has been
drying up.”

“You mean the Ifa Scepter really exists?”

“Yep, and I’m going to get it, bring it
back—and save the Kingdom, along with all the lands around it.”

“I have heard stories about it. They say that
soon, our land will be affected by the drought as well. But, it is
said that the Ifa Scepter can only be claimed by someone of royal
blood, not just by some random boy.”

“I just found out about it. How would you
know anything?”

“My people are sorcerers. They teach us
things that a warrior wouldn’t learn.”

“I’m not some random boy, I am King Jumbe’s
son, and someday,
I
will be king.”

“Wow, then you are
Prince
Bomani!”

“Yup.”

“You’re kidding?”

“Nope.”

“Son of the King of Ufalme?”

“Yup,” Bomani was finally glad to be of
service to answer her questions.

“How cool. I’m going to tell everyone when I
get back. That means Mongo is your Brother!”

“Uh, yeah,” his heart sank into his
stomach.

“Wow, Mongo’s brother!”

“Well, yeah.”

“And so, where is it supposed to be?”

“The Scepter?”

“Yeah.”

“In the Forbidden Expanse.”

“What? The Forbidden Expanse? We aren’t
supposed to go into the Forbidden Expanse. It’s forbidden.”

“Where did you think we were going? We’ve
been heading south the entire time.”

“We don’t leave our village much. We don’t
care to—especially not at my age, and we never, never, never
venture south. Why would your father send you on such a quest
alone?”

“He didn’t. I took it upon myself. Once I
bring back the scepter, everyone will see that
I
am worthy
to be king,
not
my brother Mongo.”

“Oh my goodness, you’re doing this just to
prove something. So basically, you don’t care about saving anyone,
you just want to be king.
You
have an ego problem.”

“Hey, you wanna tag along? Deal with it.”

They traveled a good ways south toward the
border of the Forbidden Expanse. Such a journey was quite unusual
for anyone to make. Very few people had ventured far enough to bear
witness to any part of it, and what was unknown was left to build
fear into the speculation. It was rumored to smell of death. It was
said that the inhabiting creatures were the dreadful kind that
would suck the life right out of you – literally. Not to mention
that everyone knew that Hatari dwelled somewhere deep into the
territory.

The brush from the savanna flourished less
and less. As they walked, Farra did most of the talking and Bomani
did most of the ignoring. She talked about Pupa with whom she was
connected and loved dearly. She spoke of her village, the Animen
and how they lived their day-to-day lives. She talked about her
meeting with the Elders, and how she had come to the decision to
leave and follow Bomani. She talked and talked and most of Bomani’s
responses were nothing but,
yeah, really, uh huh, wow,
and
that’s nice.
Short, clipped answers that discouraged
conversation, yet Farra never seemed to run out of things to
say.