Oontab [Episode 29]

Dakumet

The creatures broke the palace into pieces with a substance that created a large ball of fire and engulfed whatever they were put in. They took Dakumet’ child and were headed towards the forbidden forest with it. The whole land, under the subduing of unknown evil had now become forbidden. Dakumet ran towards the chaos while others were running away from it. She had been cut across the face when the palace was thrown into the chaos of the ball of fire. Luckily she had run out of the house just in time, reacting to the signals her instincts had sent her before it happened. She had been terrified that those instincts were right when she heard gurgles around the palace and hideous creatures whispering and scratching against the windows of her child’s room.

The creatures had killed some servants and scattered the others running helter-skelter in different directions; the guards who had heard the noises from the village and run to the palace to make sure that the Queen was safe, met huge plant creatures and were instantly flung into the air in different directions by their roots which they had dug into the soil. There was a loud thump each against the hard ground and one or two of the guards landed directly on the pointed sticks that had served as pillars for the fence of the palace. A group of shrubs put some female palace servants in one corner, tying them with strips of their own firm roots which they had cut from their bodies and dropped the ball of fire right in their middle, retreating to hide and as it went up into flames, it sent gore flying in all directions.

Dakumet could think of nothing else but her son. But he was too far away to be saved.

Tandoop 

Tandoop ran back into his house to keep his wife and daughter safe, but when he entered the hut, it was in complete shambles as many things in the house lay displaced or turned to ash. He could not pick out anything that still had its value for use. He panicked. Where could they be? He came home to warn them and to take them beneath the house to the hidden room he had dug as a special room to practice his writing. They could be there hiding! 

He jumped through the debris of the room and rushed to a round flat stone that seemed to be covering a hole in the ground. He rolled it away and jumped in immediately. To his relief, he saw all of them cuddled in one corner of the room shivering and praying to the gods. He reached over to them and hugged them in his wide arms, as much of them as it could swallow in one arm hold. His daughters continued to weep, as it was obvious from the look in their eyes that they had been crying. 

“Did they come inside?” 

They nodded. His wife, still cuddled at the corner nodded too. 

“The gods! What are those things?! I went out for a moment and they have come here and gone… Did anyone of you get hurt?” 

As he spoke he held Chaniwa and looked into her eyes and checked her skin to find any cuts or bruises. He found none. He rushed over to check his wife. Her hair had been ripped off from above the left ear, and he had to turn her face towards himself to see it because she sat leaning the wounded side against the wall. 

“Aooorrrrrgggh!” He reacted when he saw the bloodied head. 

Just then, they heard a very low thump on the floor of the main room above them, then a few gurgles faded in and out, and there was a big deep sound that dug the floor beneath which they had been hiding and threw bunches of thatch from the roof down at them. The place was in small flames as the family lay beneath their fallen thatch roof, fighting to live even though they could not move their bodies while doing it. A stump and a handful of shrubs came and looked, but seeing no one, they slid away from the hut on their roots. 

Qwindri 

“Master, shall we burn them?” Qwindri asked, clapping his branches and nodding his leaves. 

“Take the King first, then have any to yourselves.” The Master gargled. 

At that, Qwindri sent a loud screech into the sky to signal the master’s minions. They heard, “Find the King! Take it, it is ours now.” 

Dakumet 

It was Dakumet and the creatures now. She had cornered them. Or was it the other way round? She stood shivering and rubbing her skin from the itch-pain effect the toxic air was having on her. She looked around and noticed all the dead animals lying around, sucked till they were completely dried of blood; chunks of their flesh had been eaten into by some of the creatures whose bloody mouths now bent into a smile when they saw Dakumet standing in their presence. 

 
They had her son, and it seemed like they were teasing her with the way they held him, spinning him upside down and right side up and passing him round like a plaything. The boy was weeping, and even if he had found it amusing, the creatures carried a powerful aura of evil. 

 
She wiped her face, flinching from the pain it gave her because of the wound on the back of her palm she did not see. She had no idea what next to do because they had become bored with teasing her and began moving towards her, dragging lazily against the soil. Suddenly they heard a screech in the atmosphere that they recognized – Queen Dakumet could not bear to hear it – and they dropped the boy on his head and when Dakumet screamed, they all hissed at her, almost spitting their toxic substance in her face. When they had slid along away, she grabbed hold of her son who had landed well on the back of his head and was now screaming and wailing. But he was alive. Yes; he was alive. Thank the gods! 

Kanaka 

Kanaka rose to the sharp stems of the tall plant. It seemed slender and weak, but it was fatal and it had used its small leaves to bruise his face and draw deep cut strokes on it. It had torn halfway through one of his nostril and eaten his right cheek. He was on his knees trying to fight the very last of them and through the corner of his eyes he saw hundreds lying dead on the streets and in the market where he was kneeling close to. At that moment, he thought of Sapas. 

Where could she be? Dead? 

He was counting the last moments of his life, dreading the actions of King Mogg, and King Greda, over two generations. Now, Greda had murdered Fonjam, for the reasons he was yet to know, and as if it was not enough, he had brought the creatures, and they poured their rampage on Gardutkar, and in a matter of time, Gardutkar would be swallowed in death. Before the creature could do any more harm to him, he landed face-first to the ground. Then there was a loud screech in the air and the creature departed. Kanaka thought he had already died at the sound of that screech.

To be continued...

- Telsum Bini