A Flower of Flames

Ahanlem was drowning.

She did not know how to swim in the first place. And the ghost skeletons that emerged from the lake were forcefully pulling her body in fast, agitatedly. How the hell is she going to escape this situation?

For a long while, Ahanlem struggled to breathe, trying to fight her way out of the tight grasp of these evil creatures. But in the cold lake water, with her thin arms flapping weakly like a wet sparrow, she was completely helpless.

A grim thought crossed her mind.

Maybe, she should just give up struggling like this. Maybe, she should just give up everything altogether. And die.

After all, it's been nothing but trouble ever since she came here.

She was all alone, snatched away from her family and friends. What is she doing in this strange place and these stranger people?

She should just die. If she did, maybe, she will be able to return back to her timeline?

The very thought was tempting and oddly comforting.

So, Ahanlem closed her eyes slowly.

She was already worn down from all the fatigue and stress she was having all this time. The chilling water flowed in steadily into her body as she gradually kept losing her breath.

Everything darkened. A deep black space consumed her all around.

Then, Ahanlem suddenly started to dream. In the dream, she wasn't drowning, instead she felt like she was standing on solid ground but she didn't know where she was. Something soft and smooth seemed to be falling all over her from somewhere above. She reached out her hand and the soft thing fell on the pale palm of her right hand.

It was a bright crimson flower. Its vivid shape began as a little star which rose out to five red petals that spread out like deep flames.

This flower felt quite familiar, like she had always seen it often. Ahanlem tried to remember the flower, she thought hard. Then, she finally remembered.

"Ah, of course, this flower is-"

All of sudden, something jerked her body and Ahanlem awoke from the dream.

She opened her eyes and saw a strong sturdy arm lifting her out of the water briskly.

The action allowed Ahanlem to inhale a large intake of air but before she could feel any sort of relief, she was suddenly tossed like a fish onto the hard ground. She coughed violently trying to get some of the water out from her lungs. Then, she squinted her eyes trying to see properly.

What is happening?

There, in her blurred vision she saw all the five men who were struggling towards the shore, being fished out from the lake, away from the treacherous grasp of those ghost skeletons, one by one.

Ahanlem rubbed her eyes to see more clearly. In the near distance, she saw two men hacking, or rather tearing those wretched skeletons trying to climb ashore into bloody pieces.

Upon closer inspection, she recognised the familiar looking figures. These two men where the ones who had rescued them from the vicious tiger days ago. The handsome man and his older companion were destroying the bloodthirsty creatures with clean, elegant slashes of their swords.

Finally feeling a bit better, Ahanlem finally came to her senses. She got up and hastily made her way towards Tomba who was lying and having his own violent coughing fit. She yelled to him, "It's dangerous. Let's get of here while we can!"

But Tomba couldn't respond, his eyes were red, his face pale white and still coughing madly like he was going to die. Ahanlem had no choice but to help him and wait.

But the ghost skeletons were crazy relentless, one of them crawled upto the ground and grabbed for Ahanlem's leg and started dragging her aggressively into the lake.

Before the fiend could drown her again, Ahanlem was suddenly hoisted up by the handsome man into his arm.

This sudden action had them facing each other so abruptly. Ahanlem was stunned as she caught his dark bright eyes looking a bit intensely at her own. It almost looked as if he was seeing her for the very first time.

Then, Ahanlem realised the momentary awkwardness, broke their gazes and looked away immediately. The handsome young man seemed to notice his own odd behavior at the same time and put her down lightly.

Then, the man's older companion came up behind them and said seriously, "Korou, there's too many of them, better to get away!"

KorouNganba nodded in agreement and went away to help. At the same time, the older man shouted loudly,

"EVERYONE RUN! RUN TOWARDS THE VILLAGE NOW! HURRY!

This call for alarm caught everyone's attention without fail. The ones who were less injured grabbed the rest of the men and started to run towards the village as directed. But the ghost skeletons, still unrelenting like cockroaches started to chase after the living.

The dancing skeletons as well as the ones who emerged from the lake were all chasing after the humans like mad. Altogether, they numbered almost upto a hundred. This grouping of the undead seemed to cackle sinisterly going after their preys who were all frightened out of their wits.

It was chaos all over.

Then, one of the men in his panic-stricken state dropped those cursed coins he was carrying onto a burning torch. At this very moment, a loud terrifying screech rang loud in the air.

Everyone running stopped their tracks to look and they saw two ghost skeletons screaming. Upon closer inspection, their skeleton bodies seemed to be burning as black smokes seeps out of them.

For a moment, all of them stood in silence, both confused and amazed.

Ahanlem who had encountered a similar incident finally got the gist of the situation. She immediately grabbed a handful of coins bundled in Tomba's shirt and hastily threw them onto the fire.

The result that followed immediately was more ugly screeches from these ghost skeletons.

The young man and his older companion too, understood the situation. They put together the torches into a heap, throwing dry twigs and leaves to make it into a bigger fire. Then, the older man shouted,

"THROW THE COINS INTO THE FIRE NOW!"

By then, most of the people understood what had to be done, the men with the coins clumsily spilled out the coins from their hold and threw them into the fire. The others picked up the remaining coins that were scattered on the ground everywhere and started to toss it all onto the burning blaze. One of the men was reluctant to lose his preciously earned coins but the older man wilfully snatched it from him and threw them onto the fire.

Soon horrible screeches followed one after the other as the ghost skeletons were smoked into ashes. The mad screams from them sounded as if they were actually alive and burning.

The villagers, along with the travellers, all watched with eyes wide open as the bane of their existence that haunted them disappeared with the black smokes.

As if in a trance, the village people watched as the sacred element of fire finally extinguished these evils that caused them grieve and terror for so long. Some of the villagers couldn't help but broke down in tears as they remembered the yearlong suffering and miseries as well as their dead ancestors.

Everything was over now.

Mangi, the older man stooped down and picked up one half charred gold coin. He blew off the dust and examined it for a while and said,

"The symbols in the coins, I thought they looked familiar. These coins were used four decades ago, I was a young man when the king then decided to redesigned the currency, which is why is different from today's."

"They were from decades ago so it made sense. But is there anything else strange about it?" the younger man asked.

At the question, the older man narrowed his eyes and said, "Well, the real strange thing about them is that despite being in the lake inside a pot for so many years, none of them have rusted. On the contrary, these coins are good and shiny as if they were all just made yesterday..."

"Why is that?"

Ahanlem, who was beside them, suddenly blurted out. She couldn't help but ask.

The old man seems surprised but answered anyway, "Hm, the only explanation I can come up with is very foolish..."

The young man sighed, "Tell us anyway, Eyamba."

The older warrior looked at the shiny coin between his fingers and said seriously, "Dark magic."

"And not just the shabby kind. Something or only someone powerful can only do this practice. This is out of the domains of mere men." He added grimly.

After that, everyone returned to the village to rest after all that mayhem.

But Ahanlem couldn't sleep at all.

She thought about that odd flower dream she had when she blacked out, she couldn't recall what flower that was no matter what, although she had this feeling that she knew it somehow. She also thought about those coins which that man said had traces of evil magic. It seems these coins where the ones that tempted all those dead men brought by the ghost skeletons and they had all been drown to death after trying to possess it. Likewise, the same tragic end was about to happen to them but they were all fortunately saved by those two warriors.

At this point, Ahanlem felt all the things that had happened along the way weren't coincidences at all. But someone, something was instigating the events on purpose. It was all too bizarre to say they were unrelated to each other.

But the real frightening thing was that in all of them, Tomba and herself were always involved. What could this mean? Whatever it is, it's definitely not good.

Still what is this development? It was like she was in a horror ghost movie and it felt terrible.

The next morning, the group of travellers all wanted to be on their way home. But the villagers wanted to organise a grand celebration in thanks and so, it was decided they would have a feast and gratefully send the people off who helped them with goodwill this time.

A sumptuous meal with fine wines was held as everyone rejoiced with tears. As they ate, the village elders talked about their resentful ancestors whom all must have finally found peace and freedom from the wretched curse.

It was sad actually. It so appears that the origin of those ghost skeletons was that, they were the people of lifetimes ago who died tragically without having their last wishes granted. And therefore, in these stolen lifetimes, their nether forms rose to fulfill themselves these wishes, over and over.

But now everything has ended and they were freed.

The chieftain promised that they will conduct a ritual so that those resentful souls may pass on peacefully.

The villagers and travellers also thanked the two brave men who came to rescue them right on time. The men introduced themselves as warriors from a noble clan house from the capital. The older warrior said that they were initially on a hunt for the dangerous tiger which was prowling about on the main road and causing trouble. They were following its trail which disappeared out of nowhere and ended up to this place much to everyone's fortunes.

Everyone drink and dine merrily, all's well that ends well.

At noon, the travellers finally set out for their homes eagerly after the satisfying meal. Ahanlem too got ready to leave for their hometown of Chengmei along with Tomba.

She turned back and saw the two warriors mounting onto their horses, getting ready to leave too. Ahanlem wanted to thank them again for saving their lives but somehow she felt awkward after recalling that chanceful eye contact she had with the younger man.

In the end, she gave up, turned around and left.

But unbeknownst to her, the handsome young warrior was looking as they disappeared down the road, with a thoughtful gaze.

That very night, the villagers performed a holy ritual to pray for the souls to pass on to the afterlife properly. They prepared new lanterns and hung them up in all their houses. They also prepared hundreds of earthen lamps and put them onto the lake lighting them up with the many little flames.

It was a beautiful night as all the fiery lights brightened the whole village anew giving way to an auspicious new beginning.