Father suddenly turned away and covered his face with his hands. ‘Kacho,’ I heard him sob. ‘Kacho.’
I was only a child. A child does not think to say, well, why didn’t Lumawig warn us? Why couldn’t the portents just tell us exactly what we had to do to avoid danger? Why didn’t the spirits drop a boulder on the heads of the strangers before they could do us harm?
The two strangers had beguiled people with gifts of sticky cakes and sweet drinks, speaking many kindly sounding words that nobody could understand. But they brought something deadly with them. Because within a few hours of their arrival, people began to die.
The first to die were those who most enthusiastically accepted their gifts: Kacho’s family.
They all fell ill. Kacho. His wife. His two children. Both his old parents – who were the first to die.
By nightfall, Kacho’s children were also dead. Kacho and his wife followed swiftly after.
As Kacho’s family lay dying, the ancients, panicked and terrified, had the strangers marched to the House for Men. The old men ordered a small group of heavily armed young warriors to escort the strangers across several valleys, with their pony and all their goods. After they had walked two days, they bade the strangers keep walking. When the strangers looked confused, they struck them and chased them until they fled, taking their vile spirits with them.
But the problem was not like a boil that you could lance to remove its poisons. The damage had already been done.
Before the week was over, there were twenty more freshly dug graves in the village.
So Father had been right to stay in the forest. The ancients plied him with questions. ‘Did a spirit whisper in your ear, Samkad? You were right to stay away … but how did you know to do that?’
Father just shrugged. ‘I know nothing,’ he said. ‘All I know is what it’s like to lose everything.’
From that time, no strangers were allowed to enter our village. When goods needed to be traded, the ancients selected a few people to leave the village. But the rest of us had to stay behind.
It was for our own good. Strangers meant danger and we were better off without them.
11
The day passed happily enough. We lazed on the grass and ate our packed lunches when the sun reached its zenith. We had to leave Second Best Valley to take the babies to their mothers to feed. Bitteg didn’t bother to protest when we returned. He just rolled his eyes and let us through. He barely looked up when we returned.
Later, lying on our grassy verge and staring up at the wisps of cloud blowing across the sky, I wondered what Father was doing. Was he resting by the side of the trail somewhere, enjoying the sunshine?
Luki reached across, shook my elbow. ‘Sam, get up. There is no time to waste. We should be planning how you’re going to catch your Mangili.’
‘No time to waste? Plan? We?’ I groaned as I sat up. ‘Since when was this about “we”? It’s none of your business, Luki! Besides, do you really think I can just stroll into the forest and capture a Mangili without getting my head chopped off?’
Luki ignored me. ‘I don’t think we have anything to worry about. We’ll find one. My mother told me there are plenty of Mangili to catch. They are everywhere.’
‘Your mother was just trying to scare you!’
‘Scare me! Nobody scares me!’
‘She’s just trying to stop you going into the forest!’
‘Mother says there have been many sightings.’ Luki scowled. ‘The Mangili live to hunt us, so why don’t we hunt them? I’ll bet there are some hiding in this valley right now.’
‘There’s nobody here but us!’
‘But what if there was? What would you do if one turned up, huh? Are you going to run? Or are you going to fight?’
I opened my mouth to reply, but couldn’t quite think of anything to say, so I shut it again.
Luki smirked. ‘I knew it.’
I scowled. ‘Knew what?’
‘Everything you say is just buffalo dung, Samkad. You’re just planning to sit on your heels and wait for someone to say, “It’s time!” You’ve never been the type to go out and get what you want!’
‘You take that back!’ I shoved her in the chest.
For a moment Luki teetered, eyes round. And then she disappeared from view, landing on the terrace below us with a squelch.
I peered over the edge.
She was lying on her back, embedded in the slimy soup of manure and mud, with only the top slice of her body showing.
‘UGH! UGH! UGH!’ she screamed.
‘Um, I didn’t realize you were so close to the edge. Let me help you up,’ I said meekly. I offered her my hand.
She peeled her arm out of the mud and slapped my hand away. ‘UGH! UGH! UGH!’ she cried again.
The bushy baby, as if sensing that Luki was in trouble, began to miaow like a little cat.
‘The baby wants you?’ I said in a small voice.
‘SHUT UP!’ Luki yelled, sitting up with an effort. The movement made her legs sink deeper into the mud. There was a tiny grey crab dangling from her hair.
‘Oh look, a crab,’ I mumbled.
She snatched the crab from her hair and threw it at me. It bounced off my chest and back into the paddy below.
Luki squelched to her feet, grasped the lip of the ledge and dragged herself up.
I backed away in case she was feeling vengeful enough to push me over the side.
But Luki ignored me, snatching up the bushy baby. She began to trudge up the steps leading to the next valley.
‘Luki, come back!’ I called.
She didn’t reply. She just climbed up to the ridge and disappeared down the other side.
Glumly, I stared down at Baby Baba, gurgling and laughing on the blanket.
Why did Luki and I always end up fighting? I picked up a stone and, with all my strength, threw it deep into the empty valley. It made a thin splash as it disappeared beyond the firs at the bottom.
The sound cheered me up. I searched the terrace for more rocks. Soon I was pitching rock after rock down the mountain, enjoying the satisfying splashes as they landed in the invisible stream.
I checked on Baby Baba. He was fast asleep now, one arm out-flung, hand gathered in a fat fist, as if he had fallen asleep in the middle of trying to punch somebody.
I threw another stone, this time looping it high, high, high. I realized that I’d thrown it short when it peaked and began to drop, plummeting towards a paddy that was only midway down the mountain.
It fell into a wild clump of bamboo and shrubbery.
Was I imagining it or did one of the shrubs yelp in pain?
‘Is anyone there?’ I called.
The bamboo canes rattled against each other and the shrubs rustled.
‘Stop!’ I commanded, even though in my chest my heart had begun to pound. ‘Who are you?’
With shaking fingers, I fumbled with my belt to free a sling I had made out of braided hide. ‘Quickly, Samkad,’ I panted as I began to fit a stone into the pad. I could hear Luki chanting, Fight a war. Kill a wild boar. Kill a Mangili. I could almost see her mango face, nose in a twist, voice accusing: ‘It’s not just an opportunity. It’s a gift! Are you going to do anything about it?’
I got the stone into the pad and I raised the sling to catapult it at the enemy. But the stone dropped to the ground and I had to refit it on the pad all over again. And then it was too late because when I looked up, there he was, standing in the paddy just below mine.
He was covered all over with thick grey sludge. He must have fallen into the paddy, like Luki. He had a small boulder in his hands which he lifted to throw at me.
The sludge split open to reveal a red mouth with white teeth.
‘Rrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaah!’ he roared as he threw the boulder.
But he was too far away and it was too heavy. It landed harmlessly in front of me.
I backed away, edging towards Baby Baba. I had to grab the baby and run. Are you goin
g to run? Or are you going to fight?
But I couldn’t run – my knees had turned to water and I crumpled to the ground.
The mud-covered Mangili quickly leaped up to my grassy ledge.
All I could do was throw myself at his legs. Wrapping my arms around his shins I managed to topple him over. But he was up again in a flash, grabbing me by the shoulders and slamming me painfully against the stone embankment behind us.
What did Tambul say about close combat? I thought frantically as I flailed about under my attacker’s weight. Ram your opponent with your forehead? No! He said something else.
Then I remembered. I could hear Tambul’s voice, as if he was shouting in my ear. Use your knee. Whack him in the groin. I willed my knee to move. But it was impossible. I was pinned to the wall.
The stone knuckled painfully into my back as I tried to slide out from under him. And then his mouth opened wide. It took him a moment to release the scream, and when he did, I thought my ears would burst. His weight lifted.
I saw that Chuka had my enemy’s ankle firmly gripped between her jaws.
I grabbed the Mangili’s shoulders and with a quick, hard jerk, kneed him in the groin.
He howled, staggering backwards, hands clutching between his legs.
I gathered my right hand into a fist – correctly, the way Tambul always made me practise – and drew my arm back to hit him in the jaw.
He crumpled to the ground.
The unconscious creature was curled at my feet like a new baby, his hands tucked between his legs. My knuckles were throbbing now and i sucked on them to cool the pain. Chuka wriggled out from under the man and, turning her head sideways, slipped it under my hand. I smoothed her head and her eyes closed with pleasure. ‘Good dog,’ I whispered. ‘Fierce dog.’
I had actually captured a Mangili.
12
A tingle thrilled up my spine. Here at last was proof that I could hold my own. Soon the ancients would be telling the story of Samkad, who overcame disappointment and showed the whole of Bontok what a real man was made of.
Weh. It was rich, Luki running off in a temper just when an actual Mangili turned up.
Baby Baba’s great brown eyes stared up at me, mouth open, trying to decide whether or not to cry.
‘Hush,’ I said and miraculously Baba shut his mouth.
I dropped to my knees and rolled the Mangili onto his back. Chuka crept close, still growling inside her chest. I spat into my palm several times until it was wet – then I began to rub away the mud that caked his face. Clumps fell away to reveal thick black brows. The beginnings of a moustache on the upper lip. Black hair that fell over his forehead, but was cut around his ears and short in the back. Father had never mentioned that the Mangili cut their hair short.
It was a boyish face. He looked younger even than Tambul.
I wanted to see his tattoos. But when I scraped the mud off, there was only a narrow, brown chest. No tattoo. Not even a tiny caterpillar.
I sat back on my heels, disappointed. Didn’t Father say you could tell how important a Mangili was to his community by how elaborately tattooed he was? This Mangili had nothing to show. The ancients would roar with laughter. Captured a Mangili, Samkad? Was it worth even capturing this one?
But what was he doing here, alone, in our valley? Or maybe … he wasn’t alone. Maybe there were Mangili hiding all over Second Best, waiting for their chance to attack. Suddenly all the blood flowing inside me turned into icy river water.
I listened. I could hear the deep kaw kaw of a hornbill, the trill of crickets, the clicks and clacks of insects in the weeds … or perhaps it was a hidden army, signalling each other up and down the rice terraces? What if all this weedy mud suddenly cracked open to reveal bloodthirsty enemy warriors?
‘Chuka,’ I muttered. ‘Can you smell anybody else here?’
But the dog had wandered several paddy fields below mine and was peeing on a random bush. No Mangili behind that bush then.
I relaxed. If there were strangers in the valley, surely Chuka would be barking her head off.
I dragged Baby Baba up onto my hip, and climbed to a higher terrace. I should go now, get help, while the Mangili was still unconscious.
‘That Bitteg is never going to be a warrior.’ The voice punctured the silence so suddenly I almost lost my balance.
It was Luki, peering down at me from the high ridge with the bushy baby clamped to her hip. She had washed the mud from her hair even though the rest of her was still covered in it.
‘What a mouse that Bitteg is. He just lets me in and out without a question. I have a mind to tell the ancients!’ She frowned. ‘What? Why are you looking at me like that?’
‘Get help!’ I yelled. ‘There’s a Mangili!’
‘Eheh?’ Luki hefted the baby and began to make her way down the stone steps. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘A Mangili! He attacked me! I—’
‘Attacked you?’ She looked doubtful.
‘I fought him and—’
‘Where? Where is he?’
‘Over there, on the ledge.’
I turned to point at the unconscious stranger.
But there was nobody on the grassy verge. The Mangili had disappeared.
For a long moment, I stood there, opening and closing my mouth like a fish gasping in a net. How could I have turned my back on my prisoner? How could I have allowed him to escape?
‘He was here! I swear it!’
Luki groaned. ‘This is one of your stupid pranks, isn’t it? You? Capture a Mangili single-handed? Do you take me for an idiot?’
‘Yes,’ I snapped. ‘I definitely take you for an idiot … because you don’t believe me! He might attack again while you’re sniggering!’
‘Oh, shut up, Samkad. You must be really desperate to make up something stupid like this. There’s nobody here.’
‘WE’VE GOT TO GET HELP,’ I roared. ‘WE’VE GOT TO WARN EVERYBODY.’
Luki grinned. ‘Sure! Let’s warn the ancients that there’s an invisible Mangili hiding in the valley! Then the men can come and search the valley armed with invisible spears.’ She reached the grassy ledge and knelt right where the Mangili had lain. She began to untie the baby from her waist, talking to it the whole time. ‘Are you hungry, baby? Don’t worry, Samkad here will get an invisible mother to nurse you with her invisible milk!’
All around her the grass was trampled and flattened by my struggle with the Mangili. But of course, she didn’t notice this, she was so determined not to believe me. I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her until she listened.
It was only then I heard the barking.
‘Listen. Do you hear that?’ I said. ‘Chuka’s gone after him.’
‘Gone after who?’ Luki was still settling herself down on the grass.
I stared down the rice paddies, descending like steps carved for a giant. Even though it was far away, Chuka’s barking sounded desperate. It was coming from somewhere down below, where this mountain ended and the next one began.
Baby Baba squealed as I hoisted him high on my shoulder and set off.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Chuka’s got the Mangili!’ I yelled as I hurried down the stone steps.
‘Wait for me,’ Luki cried, gathering up the bushy baby.
I didn’t think what I would do when I got there. Didn’t think about how I was going to subdue the enemy with a huge baby over my shoulder. Didn’t think that this wasn’t a job for a scrawny boy but a proper warrior, with an axe to fight with. What did come to mind, as I picked my way down from paddy to paddy, was my dream. The one with the Tree of Bones, dripping with snakes, leaning into my open grave. Was this what the ancestors were warning me about? When I reached the foot of the mountain where the stream threaded its way between gawky pine trees and mossy boulders, I thought I could hear snakes hissing.
But it was just the soft rush of the water flowing into the cave.
And over it all, th
e barking continued from deep inside the cave’s great black mouth.
13
Luki and I stepped into the cave and Chuka’s barking was instantly thunderous, echo upon echo bouncing around in the hollows of the cavern so that it sounded like there were a thousand ferocious dogs waiting inside.
‘We can’t go in without a light,’ Luki said. I rolled my eyes – I was already searching the ground outside for a stick with which to make a torch.
The pine trees at the bottom of the mountain were scraggly and scarred, seeping plenty of sticky pitch for burning. I needed a handle, but the twigs and branches that littered the ground were too dry and brittle. They would burn up faster than the pitch. I needed a greenish piece of wood that could stay unburned for a long while.
I put Baby Baba down on the stony ground and he burst out screaming.
‘Wah-wah-wah!’
‘Bark-bark-bark!’
I looked around wildly and grabbed a random stick with the barest tinge of green on it.
‘Wah-wah-wah!’
‘Bark-bark-bark!’
The noise made me clumsy as I scraped a lump of pitch off the nearest tree with the stick.
‘Hurry up, Sam!’ Luki called. She was clutching the bushy baby so tightly it was squeaking.
Laying the torch on the ground, I scraped up a handful of pine needles for tinder. I sprinkled the needles onto the pitch and began rubbing stones over them. Soon enough, one of the stones sparked and the tinder caught.
I felt Luki’s breath hot on my shoulder as the torch burst into flames.
‘Sam, you haven’t got enough pitch!’
I was going to reply but then I realized that something was different. I could hear hollow echoing noises. The drip drip of water.
I could not hear any barking.
‘Chuka!’ I screamed, lugging Baby Baba onto my shoulder. The huge baby clawed at my neck, his weight almost pulling my arm out of its socket. I gritted my teeth and held him tight with one hand, snatching up the torch with the other. ‘I’m coming!’
Bone Talk Page 5
