Munra fell backward again, his head banging hard against the stone bridge.
Munra felt helpless, it was as if he couldn't feel at this moment, his vision dimmed. The blood flowing from the broken nose, as well as from the broken lip almost killed Munra because it caught in his throat.
Munra choked, blood gushing out of his mouth. He gasped and stared up at the sky. At the thought of the buffalo, he turned around. But, he no longer saw the bandits, nor the buffalo.
Munra cries, he doesn't have any martial skills to protect his own life. He is only a Sudra who does not have that privilege. Martial arts, magic, or whatever else he could use to defend his rights.
Not at all.
The middle-aged man was still crying and fell back on the ground, he turned back to look at the sky which was getting blurry in his vision. Then hope that there will be a god or a goddess who appears in front of him and then helps him get the buffalo back.
But no, Munra was just too hopeful for the very unlikely thing to happen to him.
All he could do was cry and cry. Crying for the fate that will befall him later, also to his family.
"Ooh, Gods in the Swargaloka… Goddesses, don't any of you feel sorry for me? To my unfortunate fate?"
Munra's voice seemed to be lost in the dry season wind and only made his tears flow even harder.
But Munra knew very well this was their fate as Sudras. Not only forgotten by those of a higher caste, becoming easy targets for bandits and robbers but also forgotten by gods and goddesses.
Then, Munra stopped his crying that mixed with the flying dust. This time, he felt tired of praying to the gods and goddesses in Swargaloka. Munra was tired of hoping for help from the rulers of the heavenly kingdoms.
He wiped his tears with the back of his dirty hand. Wiping the blood that covered his nostrils, mouth, chin, and neck.
Slowly, Munra rose to his feet, approaching his cart. And now, how am I going to bring this grass home with me? Munra asked in his heart.
The middle-aged man tried to pull the cart, but he couldn't. Maybe it was because there was too much grass that the weight was too heavy for his thin body. So Munra, with a broken feeling, threw away a few bunches of grass.
But he did not throw the grass into the river. No. Munra arranged the grass on the edge of the stone bridge itself.
Thus, Munra hoped that someone would take the grass later. Grass seekers, or anyone who sees the need for fresh grass for their livestock. Let it be, Munra thought. A little kindness may be rewarded with kindness too.
After only four bunches of grass were left in the cart, Munra was able to pull the cart. With stumbling steps and a screaming heart through the sky, Munra stomped his thin, barefoot feet across bridges and dusty dirt roads.
The road home is still very far, maybe in the fall of the night, he will just arrive at his hut.
***
In the afternoon, when the sun is already at a third point to the west. In the thick of the jungle, not far from the Last River, there was a hut. The hut made of bamboo has three small rooms and only the soil as the floor.
In the front room, there was a woman who was very old, her skin was wrinkled, her hair had turned gray. So did her eyes, and it seemed the old woman was blind. She was sitting on a chair made of rattan.
Then there was the second room, but it looked empty. There was only one bamboo divan and one bamboo table in the room with some clothes on it.
And in the last room at the back. The 16-year-old girl treated the wounds on Leyman's body. The man was still unconscious, lying on his back on a bamboo divan.
The girl had managed to bring Leyman to the hut before. She had also removed all the clothes of the cowardly commander of the Angholi army.
And as it turned out, it was not only the wound on his left shoulder to his left chest that made Leyman lose a lot of blood. However, a long wound was also found in the abdomen to his right thigh.
Yes, for that reason the girl was forced to take off all the clothes on Leyman's body until Leyman was lying on the divan completely naked.
Even though the girl knew for sure that with the naked adult man's body in front of her, she would be awkward and her face flushed red, she felt that she had to do it. The girl felt she had to save the life of a human being.
The girl persevering cleaned Leyman's entire body. She used fine fibers from plants, then moistened them with water, and then rubbed them on Leyman's body. From the man's head, face, neck, chest, stomach, groin, down to the tips of his toes. And after that, she cleaned up the wounds.
The girl then left the room, she headed to the courtyard in front of her hut, where there was a stone stove. Above the stone stove was an old, blackened pot. Inside the pot, there are various leaves, roots, tree bark, and certain insects. It seemed that the girl was cooking some kind of medicinal herb.
Near the stove, there were also two baskets. One of a small basket, the basket that the girl had been carrying earlier, the fern shoots, and the mushrooms, were still in the basket. And another one, a large basket containing pieces of dry twigs and firewoods.
Near one of the walls at the front of the hut, there is a wooden barrel filled with clean water, also with a dipper in the form of a coconut shell with a handle.
Near the barrel, at the bottom, was a small bamboo table. On the small table were several plates made of woven coconut leaf sticks, and several cups made of pieces of bamboo.
TO BE CONTINUED ...