Oontab [Debut, Episode 1]

Oontab [Son], a Fantasy Novel by Telsum Bini

A people must resist an ominous fate as spelled by a prophecy concerning their King's son, else they will all be destroyed in a great disaster.

The least expected to be their redemption is an abomination; a child born of a King's infidelity. Will the people find their needed Savior?

Enter the magical and dark existence of Gardutkar village.

Prologue

The evening crickets’ chirping and ringing percolated the hunter’s head as he jogged farther away from the ruins; burnt thatch roofs oozed with thick white smoke and hardened clay lay shattered. Trees had lost their green as they rotted and gave off pungent smells; the moisture left in them was in white vapor. A few tall trees still bearing fruit which were unscathed stood out among the dead trees and there was disarray of unripe mangoes scattered underneath many of the mango trees in the village, as though they had been plucked and thrown. Goats lay slain in open fields, as well as the people, some of which might have owned the goats.

The brown soil of the farms near the village stream was drenched in blood and water from the stream. Nature had its way of connecting its elements above and below to a common fortune, and perhaps that was why the evening sun shone fiercely red as the sunset lingered its last, so that the tip of that red sun could be seen at the horizon; Blood and death. The towering mountains, however, were an exception to the chaos, as its rich meadows encumbered the village on every side; it was supposed to be the protective hand of the gods.

The hunter had heard a woman scream from one of the burning huts. He had thought it was just the fire that had frightened her, but when he had skittered into the hut from the front to help her, he caught a horrific glance of the grotesque creatures – two of them – for the first time. As it was that they were already retreating, all he could see was roots and branches to which the woman was firmly attached as they dragged her along. He also noticed that her stomach was oddly bulged; she was pregnant. Even though he was shaken to the marrow, he ignored his fear and bolted out after the creatures.

To be continued...

- Telsum Bini