"I can see them! They're close!" Their pursuers were gaining on them.
Nero's breathing intensified whilst Nate was still feeling the ground for his glasses. (What the heck am I gonna do now?!)He thought to himself. He looked to his left, with his eyebrows furrowed.Quickly he grabbed Nate and rushed in the direction he was looking.
"Where the hell are you taking me!" Nate yelled.
" Bro shut up!"
Again he heard this time multiple drums beating. They started to explode into a fast paced beat and rhythm.
" What the heck is going on!" Nate yelled again.
Nero was asking the same question. Suddenly, something hit a tree near them, it was enough to break it in half. Nate exclaimed in shock, unsure of what he just saw. But Nero saw it clearly, it wasn't so fast that it could evade his eye….
"BUBBLES!?"
He looked behind him and saw a stream of bubbles bouncing off the surfaces of the trees that could barely support the force of their recoils.
" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" They both screamed whilst trying their best to evade this enigmatic assault on them.
DUMBABA! DUMBABA! SNAP! BOOM! shhhhhhoooooOOO…
Drums beating, trees breaking. Nero noticed the sound of the water he heard earlier, grow louder. (I was right, Maybe we have a chance!)
"Come on Nate, we're almost there!"
"WHERE YOU-!"
"ACK!" Nero felt something sweep him off his feet amidst the sound of drums and chaos. It must have been a second, but it felt like a gradual thing, the pain that assaulted him at his left foot. Sharp and unmistakeably as loud us the drums behind him.
Down they went, tumbling down as the forest started to slope. The terrain only added to their momentum. The sound of water running grew louder and louder.
( A river!?) Nate thought whilst he heard it.
Suddenly, their bodies felt weightless. They were rolling but now its like they were rolling on air, they could feel little angels dampening their skin with cold and fresh water ….
( No…. A waterfall…) Nero finished the thought with dread. Below them, they saw the falls stretch below, driving a river below it. Nate's eyesight might have hindered him quite much, but he knew that this time, his eyes didn't lie.
The air resistance finally got their bodies up to speed as they plummeted down to what could be the last bath they would ever take. Well on the bright side, after vomiting allover himself during the trip, maybe Nero needed it.
Suddenly they heard the serenic sound of a flute echo throughout the falls. The sound relaxed them to their very inner cores… ( its okay…) That's what it said. And as if to make good on its promise, they were floating. Nero was trying to understand this phenomenon they were experiencing but he was losing consciousness.
As his eyelids began to heavily shut themselves, he thought he saw a pair of emerald eyes stare down on him.
Darkness, a cold breeze blew on Nero and Nate's bodies as they laid on the ground unconscious. Their wrists and ankles shackled with chains, the room was barely lit, a woman sat In front of them in silence and began to play the flute she held in her hands. With a breath, the woman begins. The first notes emerge, soft and tentative, like whispers of wind through bamboo leaves. Her fingers move with practiced ease, coaxing the flute to sing a tale of forgotten loved ones.
Nero and Nate gain consciousness and hear the mysterious woman's song and decide to continue pretending to be unconscious.
Her head tilts back, eyes closed, lost in the music. Time seems to slow, the world receding into a soft blur. Each note hangs suspended in the air, shimmering with emotion. The melody dips and soars, mirroring the gentle rise and fall of her chest with each breath. It speaks of love and loss, of dreams whispered on the wind, of a yearning for something just beyond reach. The music deepens, gaining a melancholic richness. Her fingers fly across the keys, the notes cascading like tears down her cheeks. Yet, there's a hidden strength in her playing, a resilience that shines through the sorrow. It's the song of a heart unbroken, though forever touched by sadness.
She suddenly stops and a loud silence hits the room. Nero and Nate had already been drenched in her music and without noticing their bodies had been lifted up and were floating, it was as if their minds and bodies had been hypnotized by the music. As they both opened their eyes there she stood looking at both of them, she lights a fire and throws a blue powder on the flame and it instantly roared to a purple flame.
"Wanene ku kuma me ya sa kuka zo ƙasar nan" (who are you people and why have you come to this land). The woman spoke
"The heck is she saying can't she see we're not from here and can't speak her language?" Nate asked Nero.
"Hey maybe she's just checking to make sure we understand but she does kinda look dumb" Nero replied.
"Only a fool would assume that their enemy is of low intellectual capacity" The woman replied
"what the hell she can understand us and not only that she called Nero a frog" Nate commented
"I'm not a frog you moon fly!"
"Says the idiot who just called a total stranger dumb"
"Silence" the woman commanded
"Now I'd like you to state your names where you're from and why you're here"
"Well my name is Nate and my idiot associate is Nero we come from a little village on a small island, I don't remember the name though and we just happened to find ourselves on a boat that happened to come here and we ran trying to survive and then boom we passed out and we're here listening to a woman playing a flute"
"Yeah what he said" Nero comments sarcastically.
BOOM BOOM! A loud sound of a beating drum is heard from a distance.
"Hmm I shall deal with the two of you when I'm done with my important business I still have a few questions to ask especially concerning this stringed instrument I found you holding tightly" she points the violin at Nero.
The mysterious woman walks away with the violin leaving Nero and Nate tied up.
"damn… her aura was something else and those eyes were so mesmerizing" Say's Nero
"what eyes I couldn't see a thing I still can't see a thing" Nate comments
"Oh yeah I forgot you're a blind fly without your glasses"
"Screw you!"
"Ha! No comebacks for me this time what happened can't think of one"
"Yes I can't because unlike you I'm thinking of ways to get out of this mess we knew we would find some weird stuff out here but I didn't know that on our first day we'd get captured and chained up"
Then suddenly both fell to the ground.
"Dammit that hurt! Did that weird woman just drop us for fun?" Nate angrily asks.
"Yeah it does hurt but why did she drop us now instead of when she was here?" replied Nero.
" I don't know, but all I can say is that she's really good with that flute."
Meanwhile, in the streets, the sounds of busy hands filled the air. Children ran around, waving colorfully patterned cloths around. Drum beats echoed along with the sound of womens' voices as they danced along. Decorations were being put up all over the place. The circular buildings skillfully constructed to mimic the form of huge trunked trees.
As the sun cast its light upon this city, a structure near the horizon, much more bigger and beautiful than the rest, stood tall. One could see bubbles floating patiently in the sky above, which only served to enhance this beautiful scenery. This is the Kingdom of Litemwe, the land of thundering bubbles. The first of the worlds that stood beyond Chordiyalor, the land of strings.
"THIEF!!!!"
The sounds of the drums beating were drowned out by the beating of even more vigorous drumming sounds. A man ran across the streets with a bag on his back and bearing a drum.
" Hahaha! I bet you couldn't even catch Chickens!" He said as he ran while beating his drum, propelling himself forward. Something seemed to be bursting at his feet each time he leaped forward, following the rhythm of the cascading drums.
The thief wore a monochrome of a brown, patterned cloth around his waist. His upper body remained naked, like most of the men in the place. He was barefoot as well. The dark color of his skin blended in with the different shades of brown on his cloth.
Behind him, were two men who also beared drums. They both wore loose deep blue circle patterned pants with sandals. They each had Blue and yellow coloured beads wrapped around their waists. They were chasing behind him, moving in pretty much the same fashion that he did.
They ran through the streets, running with the drums beating.
" When we catch you, expect to have your hands CUT OFF SO YOU NEVER STEAL AGAIN!!"
Said one of the pursuers as they dashed forward. A stream of bubbles began to shoot forward. But the thief continued to dodge each of them very swiftly.
"Agh! He's like a stubborn mosquito!"
"Haha! So you can't even manage insects!?" The thief taunted.
The woman stood on the rooftops of the hut shaped buildings that for the majority, went about two stories high in this area. She heard the vigorous drums beating west of where she was standing. The wind played gently with the cloth around her waist. She had a case strapped on like a back pack.
As her loose, purple bottoms faced the Royal palace for a bit. Her bottoms hugged her near the ankles, the blue rings overlapping the yellow waves in forming a patterned design unique only to the Royal family of the Kingdom of Litemwe.
Meanwhile, the thief was approaching on the streets beneath her. The drums getting louder.
"Iyeh!"
" And if you knock over my tomatoes!!"
" Ahh!"
People were exclaiming, concerned about the chaos unveiling before them. The woman listened silently as the sounds got louder. Now she could hear the sound of bubbles popping at the feet of the thief and his pursuers.
The thief was laughing and taunting the town's guards, unaware of the snare that he was about to fall into. She slowly lifted her flute to her mouth. And just when the thief was right below her she cut short the rhythm of the drums with the swift play of notes that lasted no longer than a second.
They reverberated and swept the thief off of his feet, causing him to crash into a stall set up by a merchant. The guards managed to catch up to the thief, who was disoriented. The merchant yelled out in dismay for his stock being scattered all over the ground.
People started to gather around to see the commotion. Meanwhile, the guards took his drum and kicked him a few times.
"Now we're going to cut your hands off!-" one of the guards exclaimed
"No one is cutting anything!" The woman spoke
Everyone turned their heads to the rooftop. The sun caused the yellow glass beads around her neck to glow. Accentuating her beauty even more.
"Ah ah! I thought I heard a flute somewhere, kansi it's our mother!" the guards teased.
" Not your nonsense! You guys should just do your job and throw that thief in prison."
" Wala! Us we're tired of chasing this idiot up and down the kingdom. The only way he's going to stop is by amputating his hands!" the guards argued.
" If I come down there, you're all going to beat your drums with your feet…" The woman threatened them with a straight face.
They all knew she was the only one who successfully managed to sharpen bubbles. No one was as skilled in the Temwa Libuli ( Thundering bubbles ) technique as she was.
"Now now, Daughter of Sarkin! I know that your heart is as beautiful as your face, perhaps even more!."
The woman narrowed her eyes in clear disgust. But the people began to cheer.
" Look! It's the Son of great quakes." they muttered among themselves.
" Nkandu has arrived!!!" The guards welcomed the man who was approaching the scene.
He walked like a force to be reckoned with. Tall, dark and well built in body structure, His eyes were dark, almost black. He Wore a pair of loose pants that were this time patterned red. The yellow beads around his neck swirled left and right with each step.
Anyone who took one glance at him could easily tell that he was somebody.
"But you see, my dear Ndiaye…that heart is better off warming mine, than a criminal who doesn't deserve it. " Said Nkandu with a smile.
Meanwhile, in a huge chamber, guards stood straight in line. Each of them having a drum strapped to their back. The chamber had statues of elephants on the left and the right. Flags hang down, bearing wavy lines encased by a circle as an emblem.
Older men were seated north of the chamber. And a throne stood tall in their center. There sat Sarkin, a man who appeared to be in his 60s. A crown of gold sat on his head. He bore an expression that gave off his introspective nature. He tapped his lap as he sat in silence.
The huge double doors leading to the chamber opened up. Sarkin looked forward to see who had come through. Enter an old woman with a cane. She moved slowly but patiently towards Sarkin, bearing a calm smile.
Sarkin started to speak before she even got closer to him…
" You move like you're going to buy Okra from the market, you dare make your king wait like this?"
" Considering the nature of your summoning, I wouldn't have showed up in the first place."
Sarkin clicked his tongue in annoyance,
" Just tell me where my daughter is. Then you can go back to your home."
" She'll be here soon. And she has something interesting for you, but that's not why I came here."
" …hm? Then why are you here?"
The woman finally stood in front of Sarkin. She looked up at him…
" I have bad news for you. Your kingdom and its peace, as well as your lives…are under threat."
Sarkin furrowed his eyebrows and sat up on his throne…
" Speak…Ima"