30 - Race to the Olko hill

Chapter 30. (Race to the Olko hill.)

“But… but mother said it was a made up story…”

“Renso….” He began wondering if it was right to let her know this. “He was hurt by the monster and its pursuing me and the beads…”

“I don’t believe you… am going with you up there. To see the wise owl. You said you would take me if I helped you…”

“Makita?”

“You lied!” She barked at him. At this point Thalko’s men were near and they were spreading out…. 

“No I did not lie. Nevertheless, the beads. These beads have known so many things. They know what…”

“No, I’m coming along…!” She barked and took hold of the sides of the chains. She started up but he did not let her up. The guards heard the Makita’s voice and came to a halt. They started spreading out. 

 Five yards away in the east of where they were, up 80 feet into the thick canopy of the trees near the kings hiking campsite, something searching while crouched down on top a thick branch with a canopy opening facing Marakusha. Dark feathers with poisonous smoky quills floated about with it and its eye sockets glowing within like the inside of the dark hole. 

This is when it spots the kings men ridding beyond the bridge and into the forest. Immediately it drew back and like the wind started down through the trees at a speed twice that the rest of the Kurotas normally use swinging through the trees. Claw marks remained like a trail wherever it clutched on branches.

“I’m sorry…” -Is the only thing he could say to her.

“Don’t apologize…!”

“Makita… I do not think I can live with the guilt of this the rest of my life. Please Go back home now. Please …” he told her while leading the Basha dog into a crutch behind a large dead log. Makita followed. Makita was not willing to leave. He instead saw her pulling out her bow and arrows… Thalko’s men were getting nearer to where they were. 

“I’m brave.” She said with a strong voice. “Sakitha says am brave… and with this bow, I can protect you too.” Tsote looked down aside into her eyes. 

She meant what she was saying from the looks of it, and for a second or so, he was lost of words for her confidence. Nevertheless, she clearly had no idea how hopeless her bow and arrows were against the dark ghost Kurota.

 “He has found you…!”

“What…?”

“I’m coming with you…” Makita said as she struggled against him back up onto the Basha dogs’ back. This is when Thalko’s men spotted them. The beads did not say another word but responded to its master’s wish. They spread out again into the usual patterns consuming the animals’ body along. They leaped out of the way as a shower of spreads landed where they were hiding. They turned and started out once more. Tsote could not let her down no more. It was now dangerous!

The warriors came after them. They had nets in the tree canopies weighed down by some heavy material and wherever they passed, nets fell. The guards kept cutting the ropes while pursuing them. Logs swayed from this and that way from above intending to hit the two off the Basha dog. The dog had to dive this and that way for a certain distance before they rushed out into another open space. Most of the trees here were chopped down two week ago. And the logs were oxen transported to Marakusha and used to reconstruct old or rotten shelters and tents around the games fields gone out of shape from last year’s games.

What remained then was a stretch of hundreds of tree stumps. The ground was rising towards the Olko hill. They sped straight towards the Olko hill. Reaching the center of the field, Makita glanced back at the men pursuing them. They had not given in. the edge of the tree stumps field started to fade away into the fog while the canopy alone remained visible! The ground continued to rise but the Basha dog did not reduce pace.

“He is coming for them… ask your friend to hold on well!” The beads spoke.

“Coming… what? Who? They can’t catch up…” Makita spoke taking an arrow from her leather pack and fixing it into her bow. She turned and took aim at one of the wildebeests on her right but the rain obstructed her from clear view.

“I can throw some of them off?” Makita yelled back at Tsote while releasing the first shot. The riders saw her and leaped off his wildebeests half Kurota and half man. He landed on one of the other’s close behind his as his ride crushed with Makita’s arrow stuck into its neck.

“What are we to do now…?” Tsote asked loudly ignoring Makita’s gaze. Meanwhile Makita was jubilating with excitement for the hit she just made. She reached for another arrow her face going into a frown mixed with smiles.

“The attraction has doubled with the sorcerer’s beads…. and they are the most powerful of all Olko beads.”

 “What do you mean…?” Tsote asked the beads adding.  “-you saw what happened!” 

“Necessity it very important.” The beads replied. “We would be far from here but…!” 

All of a sudden, there was yelling in the rare before she could even release the arrow from her bow. Next, her second target was snatched off its wildebeest right before her eye! Makita’s jaw dropped in surprise! Something else twice faster and brutal was attacking their pursuers from the fog in the rare! She froze and squinted through the fog just to be sure. She dared not blink, raindrops washing right into her eyes down! All of a sudden, the second last rider on the opposite side of the team yelled as his wildebeest was snatched away from right under him leaving midair and crushing into a pile discarded logs. 

Next, Makita saw confusion among the men and more of them disappearing off their wildebeests in the blink of an eye, while screaming for help. In a second, the men went into a tumult. The men in the front were bewildered. Something bloodthirsty and dark with floating smoky feathers was reaching out and tackling their animals into a tumult!

The last two in the front sought to flee but the shadowy thing rushed out of the fog and crushed them together. It leaped over them and got up on two limbs like a man of ten feet. Whatever he was scared Makita when she saw it turn to them and increasing pace.

“Tsote?”

“What…?” came Tsote glancing over her shoulder and seeing. His only response in the midst of some sort of deafening silence was. “I told you not to come…” 

“I don’t want to die…”

“Hold on tightly…!” Tsote called back at Makita who took him by the waist. The animal sped forwards towards another line of thicker buttress trees. The ground did not stop rising. However, the fog grew tenser as well meanwhile the sun was falling away into the west. Night was drawing in over the land.

The Basha dog sped across the forest line. When Makita looked back for the third time, the creature was gone. 

“It’s… its gone.” she spoke in confusion.

The moment Tsote heard that, he started up one of the large buttress trees which trunk leaned towards the Olko hill at thirty five degrees, then forty five degrees for another branch, then both smoothly turning this and that way. All of a sudden twinning into one another, and parting into a straight rise towards an unexpected steep rock. After having leaped from this tree branch to the other and another always rising towards the canopy, they saw an opening ahead. Nevertheless, it was seemingly shut by a reflective glowing rock surface. The Basha dog continued straight towards the canopy’s edge without even reducing pace.

“No no no…” Tsote yelled. The rock was an impassable Olko hill cliff steeply rising for some height they couldn’t make out because the top was hidden by another cloud-like shed of the fog sixty feet away. They could go straight for an unending climb on the Basha dog’s back but what about he and Makita. Could they bare to hold on long enough until they saw the peak of the cliff! 

“Hold on tightly…!” the beads told them.

Makita glanced ahead and saw. She heard the beads and her face grew pale while her heart pounded faster than usual.

“We are going for a leap.

“No… please don’t.!” Makita spoke out.  Tsote heard her.

“Don’t…”

“What…!” came the beads confusedly and unwilling to obey this.

“I said don’t. We cannot got straight into the cliff!”

“This the only way we ca reach the safe zone without losing us to the ancient king.” Came the beads

 “No…” Tsote repeated strongly about three seconds before the beads could stubbornly leap the animal at the steep cliff. From the change of his tone, the beads listened and the Basha dog turned sharply to their right. “It’s too steep and she won’t be able to hold on long enough. Who knows if the cliff isn’t rising forever due to the Olko enchantment…!”

“This isn’t a journey to the Untu tree master. You need not mix the tales.” Came the beads. “Because the clifftop lies right where the fog begins master…!” 

“No time to test that…!” came Tsote just when Makita Pointed further ahead. 

“There. We can use that…” She added.

The cliff was falling to a level where they canopy seemingly hang off the cliff’s end! The beads informed him. Yes, he believed the beads and could have leaped straight at the cliff but if Makita did not hold on well, he was bound to lose her in a great fall. 

“The cliff falls ahead…” he spoke to the beads.

 “Okay…

 The cliff fell into a fading shade respectively twenty feet to their left now. The sun passed through windows in the clouds around the Olko hill and when it fell on the cliff side, it was reflected back warm and beautiful. Never the less, it’s as if they had taken a completely undiscovered route around the Olko hill side very unfamiliar to Tsote. The beads must have known this but they hadn’t said anything about it to him. 

They turned off. And as they leaped to land on the cliff top, the ghost Kurota appeared. It missed them by an inch and clung off the cliff side. It was falling but gained its ground. There were holes here as if giant earthworms dug them! They entered as the ghost Kurota came in after them. It was closer than before here… the tunnel sunk for a few feet before it started to turn and then rise towards a water gushing exit with light on the other end.

 They popped out into a strange cave with collapsed pillars and four huge statue faces gushing with water from their mouths. They sped across to the other side whereas the earth seemed to open up along some rising stairs. The stairs widened the further towards the exit. 

They rushed out and were running along an open cliff curved out from the parent rock and on their right there were square pillars which tops were curved out from different animals whereas the pillar bases curved back to meet the steep edge of the runway.

The ghost Kurota rushed out crushing the first the pillars caring not to fall away off the cliff. It broke one and thrust it towards them. 

Fifty feet ahead, a waterfall crushed down from the fog off a ragged cliff on their left and went right under a twenty feet long bridge they were headed for. Some force they could not define engulfed this waterfall’s sounds. The twenty feet high pillar came through the air towards them like a spear’s pointed end slightly out of target.

The spear pointed pillar missed them by an inch and crushed into the bridge that would have got them across onto main ground. Bewildered by the blow, Tsote tried to bring the Basha dog to a halt but it was too late, the bridge was crushing away into pieces below them and the animal was flying midair towards the opposite end of the bridge. Fortunately, they did not fall. The Basha dog was as steady.

It spread out its claws as and clutched the parent rock ten feet below the edge of the bridge as the rest faded away below them! Makita was falling again when the beads clutched around her and drew her back. They glanced up and saw the ghost Kurota come to a halt on the cliff of the opposite end of the bridge and snarling at them. 

It though they had fallen but when it saw them clinging on it disappeared back away from the cliff. The Basha dog froze for a moment as the two looked at the spot where it had stood.

“Is it gone…?”

“I don’t know…”

“He won’t give up until…”

Just then, they saw the creature leaping from one side of the fallen bridge to the other. It landed on the edge and almost fell but clung on. 

“We are trapped.

“Not yet…” came the beads. There is an old passage back here.” suddenly the Basha dog started around their left again and around the waterfall. When the creature gained its footing on the other end of the bridge and looking back down at them, they were gone. Impossible! It saw the Basha dog’s tail fadeing away behind the waterfall and without a second thought dived down at the tail for about twenty feet. Behind the waterfall, the ghost Kurota saw another passage. It started in after them only to pop out in a very bright opening leading into another large opening with three different reflective old pans directing the last rays of the sun towards the passage exit.

 Whatever this was for in the past, no one knew but it produced hit and blinding light. At once, the Ghost Kurota drew back into the shadow of the passage to escape the burning. Somewhere above the Kurota’s back another tunnel rose ninety degrees upwards. And somewhere half way up, the two sat waiting for the Kurota to pass only to see it drawing back with a groan from the sun’s burn. It hadn’t realized that the tunnel had a branching.

They though the creature would pass distracted by the light straight ahead. Unfortunately on drawing back from the light, it became aware of the glow above. Slowly it looked upwards and saw them! Their eyes met and immediately Tsote requested the beads took the Basha dog on. The trick had failed. They would come to agree these tunnels made the journey longer and they confused whoever used them. They hoped it would pass and they returned the same way to follow the bridge.

Therefore, they had agreed to wait here for the ghost Kurota to pass so they could return to follow the bridge. The plan failed when the ghost Kurota started up after them faster than before! They started out of the passage into a wide opening at the center of the forest. This spot looked familiar but he could not recall very well where he last saw it. 

The only difference here was everything was clear and the falling sun could be spotted in the horizon off to their right! However, the moment the ghost Kurota leaped out from the hole in the ground, things turned greyer and faded fogy. Even ground, which appeared to rise before them all of a sudden flattened before them at a second glance!

The usual forest and its trees around then thickened and grew mossy and creepy with clusters of fern plants! Similarly, the fog thickened until they could see no further than thirty feet in all directions. All the same, the animal started forwards in a random direction. Many dead logs fell flat and slanted across their path making their escape difficulty.

 They leaped over these trying to avoid some here and there! They came across a seven feet high anthill over grown with tiny flowery weeds. Makita saw it and held her breath. This was the second time they were going to leap over the slant tree trunk once again.

 “Looks like I’m seeing that anthill the second time…” Makita spoke before they could go under the tree trunk this time. Nevertheless, Tsote did not recognize it.

All of a sudden, they could hear nothing behind them. Tsote slowed down the animal. They a looked back and around them only to realize they were running from nothing.

“Where is it gone…?” Tsote asked.

“Nowhere…”

“Welcome… welcome to the unending grey forest.” came a deep and very course creepy voice from the fog all around them. The welcome was followed by a sinister laughter what was followed by total silence and a sudden wisp of wind across his face. 

“We are trapped in the Olko Enchantment as long as out tracks are marked with the ghost Kurota’s… we are directionless.” The beads spoke.

 “Impossible…” Tsote replied.

“True. And there are just two things you can do… to break the enchantment around us…”

“Okay?” Tsote yelled as the creature popped out from the hole behind them and sped after them into the fog. They could no longer see where they were headed!

“You must face him or…”

“Hell no!” came Makita. “You can’t”

“That thing? No! I saw what he did to the master of the games and the king’s men last night and a while back….”

“Listen…” Came the beads adding. “The other is your Yakunko friend. You must get rid of her at once!” The beads spoke with strong conviction. Wherever the Kurota had gone, they had no idea but the beads knew he was around.

“Who? Her?” came Tsote.

“Her…” responded the beads.

“Not doing that either…”

“Let her off. I will ask you one last time…” The beads spoke as they started up many streams through the trees. 

 “I cannot do that… I’ll face him come what may.” Tsote spoke just when Makita took hold of his hand in interrupted.

“That’s yet another poor decision…” came the beads

“No…!” Makita interrupted

“What…?” Tsote asked her.

“Together as we have always done…” Makita spoke taking hold of an arrow and fitting it in her bow. And jumping down.

 “What!”

“We can face it… just hand me this.” Makita spoke as she took the second beads from Tsote. He tried to stop her but she was already on the ground putting with the beads he had taken from the king around her neck. Tsote followed! They stood back to back in a clearing seemingly at the center of the endless foggy forest. All of a sudden, there was snorting from the fog around them.

Tsote could hear his heart pounding as he held out a dagger in one of his hands, which he thought, was not enough. He reached down and picked a twig in the other hand jus when the creature started crawling down the tree in front of them dark and unchallengeable.