Oontab [Episode 30; Finale]

Samthanasmuths 

Samnas was unscathed as he held the rod in his hand and turned round to repel the creatures. He had been spinning round and catching glimpses of people he knew dying before his eyes. He had tried to save some, but when they had tried to release themselves from the grip of the hideous living shrubs, they did not make it. He had stretched out and pulled some of them to safety, though, and when he turned his back to focus on raising the rod, they disappeared one by one, snatched by the evil beings. The village was disappearing into destruction by the evil, and the only protection was the rod. If only there were two or more of it. A dozen men appeared from hiding and had began rushing to attack the shrubs when there was a loud screech in the air and the creatures began to retreat. Samnas found Queen Dakumet holding her child and appearing from behind the partially broken wall of a hut that was still standing.

“Everybody! Stand behind me! Make contact with whoever you see beside or behind you!” Samnas yelled loud enough for everyone to hear. Queen Dakumet could have sworn she felt an electric shock seep in through her bones and for the second it did, she felt alive. Some of the other men and women that were now present made gasping sounds or exclaimed silently as they built a chain. 

“Move towards them!” He commanded. 

 
“Are you crazy?!” A tall man screamed at Kanaka, consumed by the fear of the creatures. 

“We must send them back from whence they came.” 

“You can do that yourself!” Another man shouted at Kanaka, leaving the group. A few others left running in the opposite direction. 

The others began to press forward, towards the forest, and even if they had to bend through obstacles, they did so and marched on, clinging together in an organized procession. The people followed the creatures, keeping a distance and observing what their next moves might be. The creatures seemed preoccupied with their search for something in particular, and when they found it, they dug the ground where it was hid and brought it out. It was King Greda. Suddenly, they jumped back into their hostile formation and began proceeding towards the line Samnas had formed with the other people. It had added along their way, as people who had scarcely survived joined the chain as they saw it proceeding cautiously towards the creatures. Samnas knew that if the voice he had heard was right, the chain would repel the creatures with a stronger effect. The creatures stopped and looked at themselves and after a few seconds of gurgling among themselves, they started snapping parts of their bodies – heavy parts – and huge stones from the ground, and threw at the people. 

“Don’t move!” Samnas shouted. 

But some saw the sticks and stones and broke contact reflexively, while the others stood their ground as the force field around them threw the stones back at their senders. The fast creatures stepped forward and snatched the fallen from the group and began retreating towards the cliff which had turned into an opening to a dark land. The ones at the front of the procession of the creatures held King Greda by his legs and pulled him deeper into the dark forest. 

Kanaka heard Sapas scream as she struggled to hold on. He had not seen her through the twist in the link the people had made. She was bleeding and there was a stick stabbed to her stomach. Kanaka shrank in hurt and fear that he felt for her. 

The people were still following the shrubs and the other plants. One of the humans screamed for help as he saw his brother that had fallen being dragged away. He left the chain and ran towards the shrubs to collect his brother. Kanaka was the one that yelled this time, “Let him go!” but the boy was hard-headed and kept running to the shrubs for his brother. He had readied himself to fight the creatures but a root sneaked up behind him and threw him against his back, then a huge stump landed on his head and knocked him out. They kept on moving and the people kept on following. The shrubs at the front closer to the cliff now increased their pace as the others stood their ground waiting for more men to fall so that they could snatch and go. Kanaka’s mind was torn between three different decisions, as he heard Sapas cry louder and saw King Greda try to grab hold of soil to stop the creatures from pulling him further, but he could not break the link. 

Kanaka watched with great fear and pity as King Greda cowered in the grip of the creatures. He could not let King Greda go just like that. He pulled the chain to his gesture, connecting the line at another end to make it a circle, beckoning them to follow his lead to make it easier, then the circle flattened as they passed around one tree to maneuver their way round the creatures. As they did, the creatures followed the hypnotic movement of the people, not losing sight of them for one bit and when Kanaka thought he was close enough to let loose, he did not tell anyone, and then he let go, pushing two or three people down to make a deliberate break in the line. 

 
Samnas frowned, holding tight to the chain and struggling to keep his balance when the rod fell and Kanaka flung himself to grab hold of it. Then he sped towards the fast creatures he had marked with his eyes, striking some of them down with the power of the rod. He rolled beneath the creatures, dodging their spit which was dripping all over the ground to trap him. He passed the stronghold that the creatures had made at the front and jumped to the back, where the portal had now been opened by the ones that had King Greda captive. When the shrubs saw that Kanaka had fought his way to save King Greda, they increased their pace and began pulling King Greda in. Kanaka, grabbing hold of the rod with one hand took King Greda with the other, wrapping his arms around him and began to pull with strength and balance resting on one foot. He heard the people scream for help from behind him, because they being heavily attacked and bruised by the creatures now, without the protection of the rod. Samnas took a few bruises, fighting the creatures without the rod, with his bare hands and saving as many as he could save. Kanaka struggled to hold on but he was losing grip. He looked back and saw the people being brutalized by the creatures, and he looked forward and saw the open portal and the head of a murderer lying on his chest as the creatures pulled against his pull from the other side; the King or the people? Three shrubs positioned themselves to pounce on Kanaka, but the rod kept them at bay. 

Kanaka let go. 

Of the rod. 

Samnas stood and hit the other creatures that were waiting to have Kanaka into the portal. Kanaka put both hands into it and pulled King Greda out, then standing behind Kanaka, he raised a heavy stone, and aiming it at the hand or branch of the creature that was pulling, dropped the stone to break contact. King Greda screamed painfully as the stone landed straight on one of his feet. The creature screeched and let itself fall into the hole. There were not up to a dozen of the shrubs left, so the people left built another chain and surrounded them, sending them back to where they came from. But as the very last entered the hole, the dark land that had first appeared when King Greda had used the red dust began to spread faster as the portal where the creatures had gone through closed up.
Then a red river began to flow towards Gardutkar as the men and women left stood together to see what came next. King Greda’s foot had been shattered, his face torn open, swollen and disfigured beyond recognition, and Kanaka held him up to join the chain as the red water approached. It grew intensely with heat. The people stood their ground, not seeing the sense in going anywhere since the flood of red water would drown them all, Samnas holding them together with the rod in his hand. The red water began to roar and climb into a wall towards them with great speed, but they stood and waited. Samnas closed his watery eyes, 

“Great gods…”

 
Before he could say more, the red water covered them as they felt heat so overwhelming swallowing them up. Their skins fizzed away at the contact of the red water, yet Samnas stood raising the rod as high as he could.

Suddenly, they all fell on hot hard black rock, almost completely unscathed by the water of fire.
And the cliff was no more. There was land where there was once a cliff.
Samnas or his rod could not be found. 

Dakumet 

At the sound of the boy’s voice, calling her “Mama”, Dakumet burst into tears all over. He had since stopped crying, and clueless about the present situation, Badakan giggled away the moment like nothing happened. But everyone knew that it was either they had all run mad at once, or they were dead, but seeing an environment so physical in contrast to the all-spiritual and intangible life after death the writings about the gods talked of, they became awed and started to mope, one not knowing another by recognition any longer. 

Greda 

Greda could not move, but he could see. “Where am I?” he said to himself. He pushed his chest against the ground with the little strength he had and tilted his head to look up. There was nothing but rocky flatland and… wait! There were a few withered trees ahead! From what he had seen they were all going to die, but somehow, he was alive, but he did not know about the others. Somehow, his body came back to life and he stood up to look around. They were all gone. Dead; he thought. He bowed his head in shame and let the pain from his crushed foot seep through the bone in his body from top to bottom. He had scars on his face from different objects he could not tell, and his crown was gone. He could as well be dead. He wished he was dead, because he did not deserve to live. He was running away from disaster, yet he had been in the middle of it all. 

And what was it with that man on the hills? He knew one thing for sure, that that man was not from the gods. He had been tricked. And the red dust he was given was like a key to the gateway for the creatures to come through and devour. The pieces of an age-long puzzle came together in his head. The path was much better either with the spell that had concealed it broken or just the way it had been since his father had been King; out of bounds. For some reason, the creatures had wanted him to disappear through the portal with them and Kanaka had tried to save him… Kanaka! His pulse quickened as he struggled to hop on one foot around in a circle to look around for signs of Kanaka, then he noticed a head just behind a rock that seemed connected to the ground. He bent to his knees and began crawling to see who it was because his foot was hurting. He painfully dragged his knees to the head behind the rock, slightly brushing the hanging flesh of his destroyed foot on the ground as he got nearer. It was Kanaka. 

He fell on his stomach and grabbed Kanaka’s head, starting to sob. In all the pain he had brought his own Kingdom, in just one night, Kanaka had stood by him even at the very last moments of his folly. Greda decided that it would truly be his last. He prayed to the gods he did not know that Kanaka was not dead. He shook the head as the body followed the rhythmic movement of the trembling head, but the body could not move on its own. He begged the gods, if they were still watching, to let the last piece of his family wake up, so that he would not live with the hurt of watching everyone die because of him. He begged and he threatened the gods that he would take his life because there was nothing else to live by or for. The gods could not talk, because the shrine had disappeared. The gods seemed to have died with the shrine. He shouted with all the strength he could muster, but everybody is dead, he thought. Until Kanaka’s eyes twitched. Kanaka let out a loud gasp and at the sound of it, Greda jumped up with fear and noticing he was alive, flung himself over him on the ground to clasp hands with him in greeting to see if he could move. Kanaka responded, with a confused look on his half-burnt and bruised face. 

For the first time in his whole life, he called the chief palace guard ‘brother’, but he did not let out as much as a smile on his grief covered and mutilated face. He could not, because he deserved to die in the hands of Kanaka.




Kanaka 

“Is that you, My King?” Kanaka coughed. 

Greda did not answer, instead he struggled to balance himself so that Kanaka could see his face properly. Kanaka swallowed when Greda came closer. 

“My King…your hair is gone.” 

It was then Greda put a hand on his head to check if this was true, and he noticed to his greatest shock, that his head hurt and his hair had been burnt off by a fire. It must have been the heat from the red water because the mere looking into it pained the eyes. Greda remembered looking into it before they ended up on the flatland. 

His loss of hair was not what really triggered the thoughts that came next to King Greda’s mind, but as he sobbed some more, he reflected on his near past, how he had been privileged to live a new life, uninfluenced by his father’s decisions, but squandered the opportunity for his own selfish interests, not even that of his people. And as his hair had been burnt off of his head, the symbol of his crown was burnt along with it. His crown symbolized integrity, nobility, strength and unity of his people. But he had driven them farther into weakness and hatred, and opened them prey to disaster. He did not deserve to be King. 

Greda sighed. “Brother, I cannot bear the weight of my actions… it is better I am dead…” 

“My King…?” 

“I am no longer your King…” 

“What do you mean?” 

Just then, Kanaka saw, through the corner of his eye, the King’s crown, bent and squeezed, but somehow, portions of it that could still fit on the head were intact. While he was still looking at it, King Greda limped to the crown and picked it up. Kanaka watched, dumbfounded, as King Greda limped towards him holding the crown. In the moment as he watched King Greda approach, fear washed over him as the prophecy breezed through his mind, and he realized – and it darkened any light that remained therein – that the prophecy was not due to happen yet. 

When he had collected it, he knew that in the near future, as long as he became King, his death would satisfy the prophecy.

To be continued...

- Telsum Bini