Sawa laughed. “You cannot kill me!”
Sawa unleashed an explosive power that shook the ground. The cliff collapsed from beneath them. Chinta fell, Rangga dived to save her. Both of them fell through the air.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Garuda appeared and saved both of them. Garuda dived swiftly into the ravine, avoiding the falling rubbles. Speeding past Rangga and Chinta, then positioned itself accurately for Chinta and Rangga to land on its back.
Chinta is surprised. “Garuda?”
“Are you hurt?” Rangga asked.
“I am all right,” Rangga said.
“Hold on tight,” Rangga said.
Garuda landed on the ground. Rangga collapsed from exhaustion.
Chinta shook him. “Rangga? Whats wrong Rangga?”
Blood dripped from Rangga’s lips. He was hurt badly by Sawa’s powers.
Chinta panicked. “Rangga, hold on! Open your eyes! Someone! Isn't there anyone! Someone... someone please help! Someone! Someone, please help!”
Hannu appeared from behind with Rakssa's corpse in his arms.
“Let him die,” Hannu said. “Let that young man's soul be relieved from the sufferings of war. Death was what he sought after. Death is peace.”
“No!” Chinta yelled.
“Sadness... will always be present as long as you are here,” Hannu said.
Chinta began to find her strength. “ Why was he trying to take on all the pain by himself? I want Rangga to live! I will stay near Rangga until he realises he is not alone and until his sadness goes away. I'll stay close to him. Yes, there is no sadness that won't go away eventually. I want to believe. Like how the rain always stops... I believe together we will see the blue sky once again. I will help him…”
THE PUNISHMENT
Sawa knelt in counsel with Lord Karruva. Two other soldiers knelt beside him… trembling. Lord Karruva sat on his throne, his fists clenched tight.
Suddenly, he stood up and screamed. “ Why didn't you follow my orders Sawa? I told you to bring back the Lady White Naga, did I not? Engaging in pointless battles... indulging in slaughter. You fool!”
He lifted and suspended Sawa and the two soldiers in mid-air with his mindpowers. The two soldiers tried to clench onto something helplessly. They floated in mid-air with their backs against the ground.
“Back when you roamed the barren lands with those wild dogs... who picked you up? Who resurrected you?”
Lord Karruva lifted one of the soldiers higher, putting pressure on the neck. The head bent backwards slowly towards the body. The soldier choked and suffocated. The neck snapped. The body fell to the ground.
“Lord Kar….Kar…. Lord Karruva...” Sawa the male could only plead.
The Lord looked into Sawa's eyes. “You command the Shadow Naga's Special Forces... who gave you that position?”
Lord Karruva shifted his attention to the second soldier and flung him towards a pillar. The soldier’s back folded and wrapped around the pillar. The body fell to the ground.
Karruva shifted his attention back towards Sawa. He was breaking Sawa’s bones slowly, painfully. First, the elbow. Sawa screamed in pain. Then, the knee. And then the spine. Sawa dropped to the floor like a lifeless puppet.
Karruva released him. Disgusted. “You disappoint me, Sawa.”
Karruva walked away into another hall, his cape trailing behind him.
THE BLACK NAGA
Soma was chained to the wall. She struggled and tried to break herself free. She tried to see whether she could slip her wrist through the ring. Her wrists were bleeding.
Tears smeared her mascara. Black mascara flowed down her cheeks. “Karruva, you cannot do this to me… Noooo! ”
Old Leech Lady brought back the leeches that sucked Chinta’s blood. The leeches obeyed an order to vomit the blood into a glass vessel. The Alchemists mixed Chinta’s blood with blue blood from the horseshoe crabs. They then injected the concoction into Soma.
After that, the Alchemists injected nerve worms into her veins on the neck. Karruva and the Dark Lord watched from afar in the shadows. Soma’s eyes rolled back white. She murmured something… an ancient strange language. Her body was transforming… slowly.
Black scales started to appear on her abdomen’s skin. Spikes sprouted out from her back. Her legs turned into a tail. Her nose extended out into a snout. Sharp teeth protruded out from her mouth like shark teeth. Six more Naga heads emerged from her shoulders. The chains fell to the floor. The alchemists ran for cover.
Its nostrils flared jets of hot steam. The Black Naga was ferocious, pouncing on the walls, trying to break the walls. The Black Naga gave out a loud roar. The walls trembled.
The Dark Lord smiled.
THE OMEN
At the Resistance Headquarters, Arjana and the rest of the gang sat around a round table.
Arjana looked very worried. “The Shadow Kingdom has brought out the Black Naga? How did they manage to do that?”
“The Old Leech Lady,” Jebat said. “She managed to get Chinta’s blood.”
Arjana slammed his fist on the table. “Damn it all!”
“Soros's spy told us,” Jebat said.
“You still don't know about Chinta and Rangga's whereabouts?” Arjana asked.
Jebat shook his head.
“I am sure those two are still alive,” Uma said. “Rangga will take Chinta to Tanamera, I am sure.”
“Karruva will also probably head for Tanamera,” Arjana said. “We have to hurry.” There was a sense of emergency in Arjana’s eyes.
THE ELDERS OF LANGKASUKA
The rainforest was lush and green, with giant ancient trees. A few flying foxes glided from tree to tree.
A beautiful middle-aged Lady Herbalist approached Chinta in the hut. She walked slowly with a gentle swaying hip, carrying a tray of soup.
“Here’s some soup,” offered the Lady Herbalist. “It’s highly nutritional and will heal your wounds faster.”
“Ah, yes,” Chinta said. “Thank you.”
Lady Herbalist gave the bowl of soup to Chinta. She smiled, exposing her black teeth but quickly closed her lips again. “Be careful. It’s very hot…”
Chinta looked inside the bowl. It looked like egg white stirred in hot water. Except that the little white strips have two little dotted eyes on them. And they were swimming very actively in very hot water. “Excuse me… what exactly is this?” she asked.
“Ah, they are little white anchovies from the hot spring nearby,” said the Lady Herbalist. “Please drink it while it’s hot.” The Lady Herbalist smiled.
Chinta took a sip. She could hardly swallow it. A lot of things wriggled in her mouth. But she gulped it down all the same.
“We are washing your clothes right now,” Lady Herbalist said. “You will have to wait a while.”
“You've been very kind to me,” Chinta said. “I don't know how to thank you.”
Lady Herbalist lifted the covers off several little bowls in front of her. She raised a green leaf as big as her palm and picked up a fat beetle from one of the bowls.
The fat beetle’s legs wriggled in the air. She wrapped it into a leaf. Then she took a pinch of termites from another bowl and wrapped them into the leaf. Then pinched a cockroach from another bowl. Wrapped it into the leaf. She opened her mouth big and wide and shoved the bulging leaf into her mouth. There was a sound of crunching as she bit into the leaf inside her mouth.
“This land of Langkasuka does not reject anyone,” the Lady Herbalist said. “Can I... see Rangga?” Chinta asked.
“Erm… they are still treating him,” Lady Herbalist said.
“But who are ‘they’?”
Lady Herbalist responded softly, “‘They’ are ‘they’.”
Lady Herbalist stood up. She had a tail. A very long tail that trailed on the floor. A monkey tail. “Come, follow me.”
Chinta followed the Lady Herbalist through the corridors. They came to a huge room.
The room was fille
d with Monkey-like Elders with very long white eyebrows and beard and moustaches. There were about twenty of them, praying and chanting around Rangga, who was lying flat on the ground.
Smoke from spiral joss sticks filled the room. The smoke
lingered and danced in the air. When Chinta approached
the entrance, the Elders stopped chanting and praying.
They spoke all at once. “Come in please. Worry do not. Survive he will. Heal wounds will.”
Chinta looked very worried and tried to call out to him, but the Elders simply said, “Worry do not. Rise he will. Naga you are. Prince he is. Angkora will rise. Angkora. Angkora. Angkora.”
Rangga lay motionless in the centre. The Elders kept chanting, “Angkora, Angkora, Angkora…”
A small little transparent jelly-like creature crawled out from Rangga’s nostrils. The creature was in a humanoid form, with arms and legs, the size of a fly. But he was faceless.
Seconds later, more creatures crawled out from the nostrils and ears. More creatures crawled out from under the blanket sheet that was covering Rangga’s lower half of the body.
Chinta wanted to scream but one of the Elders, Old Lady Monkey quickly covered her mouth. “Shhhh… they are the Rainforest People. Spirits of the Forest.”
There were about fifty of the jelly creatures now, walking towards a gathering on Rangga’s bare chest. They seemed to be having a serious discussion. After several moments, they crawled back to where they had come from. When they tried to squirm back into the holes, they looked like worms.
“Angkora, Angkora, Angkora…” they Elders kept on chanting.
Chinta looking at Rangga, hoping that he would wake up. Rangga’s closed eyelids moved a little.
Then he coughed and spluttered awake.
THE HEALING
Out in the woods, an Elder and Rangga sat in the middle of a clearing in the middle of the rainforest. Leaves fell gently behind them.
Rangga was not wearing a shirt. The Elder put his palms on Rangga’s back. Both the Elder’s eyes and Rangga’s eyes were closed.
“Focus Rangga, focus…” the Elder said.
Rangga focused hard. He looked calm. There was a sudden gush of wind that swept through the forest. The leaves rustled. The birds flew off into the trees.
The Elder whispered to Rangga “You can control the trees…” Something snaked under the ground towards Rangga and the Elder. The trees listened to Rangga’s call and the roots were snaking their way towards Rangga. Hundreds of roots were snaking their way from all angles towards a circle with Rangga and Elder in the middle.
The Elder was delighted. “Good, very good.”
Rangga coughed and held his hand towards his chest.
“Ah, Prince must rest,” the Elder said. “Rest…”
THE NEEDLES
It was raining.
Deep in the dark forest, a few flying foxes hung upside down high above on the towering trees. One of them was not a flying fox. It was Sawa.
Inside the hut, Lady Herbalist had let go of her hair in front of a mirror, and was preparing to sleep. While she combed her hair, she saw a huge patch of white hair. Lady Herbalist looked worried while she sifted her hands through the white patch.
Suddenly, her long hair took a life of its own and started to twirl around Lady Herbalist’s neck. She gasped.
On the mirror’s reflection, she could see Sawa morphing out from the shadows. Lady Herbalist held onto the dressing table as she choked for air. Sawa the female, from inside the mirror said, “I know who you are…” She laughed a sickly laugh.
From the reflection in the mirror, Sawa pulled out a needle from Lady Herbalist’s cheekbone. The skin around her cheekbone immediately shrivelled into something that looked like it was a thousand years old.
Lady Herbalist cried and pleaded, “No, no, please, no…” She cried and choked but it was useless.
Sawa the female ridiculed her. “Let me see how beautiful you truly are.”
Sawa put both his palms around Lady Herbalist’s face. Hundreds of needles pushed their way out from Lady Herbalist’s skin pores. Lady Herbalist cried and choked.
Needles dropped onto the floor one by one.
Lady Herbalist’s face had turned into an old lady monkey face that looked a thousand years old. Her mascara was smeared down her cheek bones. She looked extremely ugly with her lipstick on.
Sawa whispered into Lady Herbalist’s ear, “Where is Rangga?”
THE KISS
The rain had stopped.
Rangga was still weak, and sleeping inside his room. A silhouette dropped from the trees. Sawa crept up from the shadows.
Rangga woke up. A fierce duel of mindpowers happened again. A massive explosion happened. Both were flung apart. Rangga was flung into the pillars, and knocked unconscious.
Sawa’s body slammed into a pillar and it was obvious that his backbone had been broken and his body landed on the ground in a twisted manner. But slowly, he healed himself. Sawa picked himself up and walked towards Rangga.
Sawa let out a laugh like a hyena.
Sawa picked up a sword, and made to thrust it into Rangga’s heart. But Dinda suddenly appeared from within the trees, dropping towards Sawa, and holding a dagger with both her hands.
Sawa turned around and thrust the sword into Dinda instead. Dinda clung onto Sawa, groaning in pain. Dinda seduced Sawa with a kiss. Sawa could not resist Dinda, and kissed her back. Suddenly, dark veins start to swell all over Sawa's face. Sawa choked uncontrollably and fell to the ground, mouth filled with green foam. Sawa died from the Kiss of Death.
Dinda dropped to the ground, gasping for air. Rangga woke up, saw Dinda and held Dinda in his arms. “Dinda...”
Tears flowed down Dinda's cheek. “Why, Rangga… why?”
“Shhh, Dinda,” Rangga said in a useless attempt to comfort her. “You will be all right.”
Dinda asked, “Why is the Gift also a Curse?”
Rangga kept silent.
“Rangga,” Dinda said. “You are the only person I have ever wanted to kiss.”
Rangga stroked her forehead. “Shhh, Dinda…”
“I love you, Rangga,” she said, weak. “I love you…”
With tears in her eyes, she breathed her last. Her black lips turned pink again. Rangga kissed her gently.
A butterfly landed on her lifeless wrist.
A CHOKING ENGAGEMENT
The next day, the Shadow Kingdom forces flew over Tanamera and rained their troops onto the streets, anchoring the flying fortress to the city. Dust was kicked into the air as the anchors were shot into the ground. The chains were gigantic, and trailed back into the sky up to the Flying Fortress.
Thousands of armed forces paratrooped down to the city. A few of the soldiers immediately set up post near the main gateway, inspecting everybody that was entering the city. They turned away some much needed supplies, choking the city.
Inside the Floating Fortress, a different kind of engagement was happening. In the royal bedroom, two silhouettes were drunken in lust, seducing each other. Soma caressed Lord Karruva, momentarily turning into a serpent, twirling around his body. She looked like a big blue python.
A forked tongue licked Karruva’s eye. Then the chin. The serpent opened its mouth wide and landed a gentle love-bite on Karruva’s neck. Karruva grinned widely.
The serpent’s body slowly caressed and tightened around Karruva’s body, its tail wrapped around Karruva’s upper thigh. The tail then moved upward towards Karruva's upper torso, tightening its grip slowly.
Lord Karruva groaned and sighed in ecstasy. Choked and coughed a little. Then grinned again.
THE BODHI TREE AND THE GARUDA
Rangga and Chinta were sitting under a giant ancient bodhi tree. The sun was setting. Leaves fell slowly on the two individuals that were slowly falling in love with each other. The leaves were yellow and red.
There was a gentle rainbow wave reflection from the SkyOce
an over the tree.
“My land was destroyed by the Dark Lord of the Shadow Kingdom,” Rangga was saying. “His daughter, Soma the Snake Princess seduced my
elder Brother, Karruva. He now rules the Shadow Kingdom.”
Chinta could see the sadness in Rangga’s eyes. Chinta empathised with Rangga’s agony. “Your brother? Why?”
“In Angkora,” Rangga said, “when a king's wife bears children, the legacy is chosen through prophecy. The prophecy did not choose him, it chose me instead.”
He killed Father and took the throne.
“So now you seek revenge?” Chinta asked.
“As the sole survivor of Angkora, I have to claim back the land,” Rangga said. “It is my responsibility. Also, I have to stop him. He’s causing too much destruction.”
Rangga stood up and looked into the horizon. He saw Garuda flying towards him from the horizon. Garuda landed majestically. Leaping in small steps towards Rangga then sitting in front of Rangga like a giant puppy.
Rangga stroked Garuda’s forehead. A light gust of wind fluttered Garuda’s feathers. Chinta stood up and stroked Garuda too.
“Hey, Chinta,” Rangga said suddenly. “Let’s go for a ride!”
Chinta shouted with joy. “Sounds fun! Let's do it!”
Garuda extended its wings wide, nodded and agreeing to the suggestion.
“Let’s go, my friend.” Rangga patted Garuda on the neck and stroked its feathers.
Rangga helped Chinta onto the Garuda. Then he leapt and sat in front of her.
“You ready?” Rangga asked.
“Let’s go already!” Chinta said, giggling.
Chinta tightened her arms around Rangga’s body. Rangga looked at her and smiled.
Garuda swooped down the cliff.
Chinta screamed in delight.
Garuda dived for thousands of feet before swooping up again. They flew through a flock of white birds. Garuda flapped its wings hard to gain height, and moved upwards. The air was getting thinner. Garuda soared and rode on the wind.