The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter

by Jason McCammon

Zerggie ran over to Bomani and cried out, “No pick flowers! No pick flowers!”

  But, he was too late. Bomani had already plucked a handful of bloom flowers from the ground and began placing them into his bag. Zerggie pulled on Bomani desperately to get him to stop pulling the flowers out of the ground, but the little imp just was not strong enough. Farra rushed over to help restrain Bomani, who was now completely mesmerized by the plants hypnotic petals. He pulled away from Farra and the imp, and stared at the flowers desperately.

  “Bomani, stop it. What are you doing?” Farra cried.

  “I just want to get a few,” Bomani said calmly.

  “I don’t think you should be picking the flowers because Zerggie says it’s bad and I don’t know why it’s bad but he must know what he is talking about cuz he lives here and you should listen to him and stop picking stop picking Bomani, stop picking!” Farra pleaded, but Bomani kept pulling at the exhilarating flowers

  “Just a couple more,” he promised.

  Just then the ground began to shake beneath them. Farra had never felt anything like it before and she was terrified. She looked around, and saw the whole mountaintop rumble. Zerggie was frantic.

  “See! Picking bloom flower make mountain angry. Angry Mountain angry!”

  “What should I do? He won’t stop,” Farra pleaded.

  “Time for Zerggie to go bye-bye,” Zerggie said.

  “Bye-bye? Wait! How do I make him stop?” she cried.

  “Hit him,” said Zerggie.

  “Hit him?”

  “Hit him head, then he stop.”

  Zerggie had nothing more to say. He scurried along and quickly burrowed into the snow until he was gone. Farra reluctantly watched him leave, and then she looked back at Bomani, who sat in the snow with a bloom flower in his hand. His eyes were locked on the twirling colors of the petals.

  Pupa pulled at Bomani’s hand gently with his teeth, trying to get him up, but Bomani just ignored him. Farra grabbed her staff and held it tightly. She really liked Bomani in spite of how stubborn and proud he could be. The last thing she wanted to do was hit him — especially not on his head, but she had no choice.

  The angry mountain rumbled beneath them and from Zerggie’s cue she knew that they needed to leave as fast as they could. She closed her eyes and began to swing her staff at Bomani’s head hesitantly, but to no avail. She could not bring herself to hurt him.

  The mountain began to shake even more violently and when she looked up she realized that there was no time to doubt or question what must be done. Rocks and snow rolled down from the top of the mountain, heading in their direction.

  “I hope you forgive me for this, Bomani,” she said.

  She took a deep breath, pulled back her staff, and for a moment, it seemed as though everything stood still and went silent — even the sound of the rumbling mountain. She swung solidly and the only thing she heard was her staff cutting through the air and making contact with Bomani’s head with a loud THUMP!

  Bomani fell to the ground. He looked up angrily and he immediately saw the culprit holding her staff as she looked on remorsefully.

  “Owww! What’s the matter with you!” he shouted at her.

  “Oh Bomani, are you okay?” Farra cried.

  “Am I okay? You just hit me in the head. Of course I’m not okay!” He rubbed his head gently.

  “I'm sorry, Bomani. I’m so sorry, but Zerggie said it was the only way to make you stop picking the flowers. You just kept picking them and picking them and you wouldn't stop and when you did stop you were still in some sort of daze and now the ground is shaking because the mountain has gotten angry and Bomani we’ve got to get out of here!”

  She said this in what seemed to be one breath. When she finished, she was practically panting like a dog. Bomani looked around and saw pieces of the rumbling mountaintop crumbling around them.

  “What is it, an earthquake?” Bomani yelled.

  “No, it’s the Angry Mountain! Come on!” Farra said. She followed Pupa, whose animal instincts seemed to guide him toward the best route down the mountain. Farra and Bomani ran as fast as they could. The deep snow made for a slow escape, especially for Pupa.

  As they clumsily slid and fled down the hillside, large boulders broke from the cliffs above and rolled past, barely missing them. An enormous boulder headed straight for Farra. Bomani reacted quickly and dove into her — knocking her out of its path.

  “That was close!” he said.

  “Yes, it was,” Farra gulped. “Let’s get out of here!” She got up quickly, trying to balance herself so that they could hurry, but Bomani looked up disheartened.

  “We have another problem.”

  Lava spewed from the crown of the mountain. It rolled down the mountainside, furiously, like an ocean of fire, bubbling and engulfing everything in its path. The thick, hot lava branded the mountainside with trenches of lava that rushed toward them vengefully. It was too fast for them to outrun. It was evident that soon, this Angry Mountain would overtake them — a hefty price to pay for picking flowers.

  “We’ll ride my shield down.” Bomani said. He raised his shield as he presented the idea, and then set it in the snow as he gestured to Farra to get on.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  Farra nodded after she and Pupa sat on the shield, and she held on tightly. Bomani pushed them to get a running start, and then he hopped on. The shield picked up speed like a sled, quickly sliding across the snow down the mountain. Bomani steered the shield instinctively and expertly — miraculously dodging rocks and debris. They dodged an avalanche of snow only to move in front of a boiling hot lava flow, but the shield went faster and they were able to outrun it.

  Farra gasped! Ahead of them there was a large slap of rock. She held on tight and could only hope that Bomani could somehow dodge it. She and Pupa looked on with terror as the velocity of their makeshift sled picked up speed.

  “Bomani!” she shouted and pointed.

  “I see it, it see it.” he responded.

  “But it’s right there, we’re going to hit it.”

  “I said I see it!”

  “Stay close to me, Pupa,” Farra said, and the frightened pup climbed into her pouch. “Lean Bomani lean!” she shouted.

  They tipped over so far to one side that her shoulder skimmed the snow, and she let out a short cry as it still seem like they would hit the rock. She shut her eyes and held her breath. Every bone in her body anticipated the crash ahead, but at the last second, Bomani placed his hand into the snow to anchor them. He allowed his hand to drag just long enough to turn them, as they cleared the huge rock. As they sailed by it, neither one of them could help giving a sigh of relief as they raced down the slope.

  They picked up speed again, and this time they sped down the slope even faster than before.

  “I think we’re going to be okay if we...” Bomani began, but before he could finish, Farra screamed a sharp, horrific, piercing cry and quickly Bomani was screaming right along with her. In the next moment, they were flying through the air for what seemed like a very long time until they finally landed, splashing into a river.

  They skipped along the water until the shield crashed into a riverbank, tossing them onto the land, and they rolled onto the ground.

  Farra let out a painful moan. “You know, in different circumstances, that might have been fun,” she said, rubbing her shoulder.

  “I’m not sure about that, but I’d choose sliding down a volcano over being inside of one any day.” Bomani got up and frowned as he touched his head, “I’m not sure if this headache is from our crash, or from you hitting me,” he reminded Farra.

  “I said that I was sorry. I had no choice,” Farra defended herself.

  Bomani opened his pouch to remove the troublesome bloom flowers that had gotten them into such a predicament.

  “What’s wrong?” Farra asked.

 
He reached his hand inside and pulled it out, watching as it dripped from his fingers. He tilted his pouch and the last of the bloom flowers spilled out and soon dissipated into black film right before their eyes.

  “All the color is fading away” said Farra.

  “Looks like someone angered the mountain!” said a familiar voice, and when they turned around to see to whom it belonged, the face was also familiar.

  “Hagga!” Farra called out in amazement. “How did you get here?”

  “Not Hagga, my dear, Shagga. I am Hagga’s twin sister.”

  “Great,” Bomani sighed with contempt as he rolled his eyes. “There are two of them.”

  Chapter 14

  SISTER SISTER