Die, Lailah, Die!

        The Kingdom of Kula. 

    "You won't stay here forever."

     The sorcerer said, pacing the room. He stopped for a while and acted as though he just remembered something. He resumed the spree. 

    "How about the boatman?"

   Jimin asked, trying to draw an inference. The old man stopped again and gave a stare of intimidation to Jim. Jim didn't bite from such chops. 

     "Thought you were not in good terms."

    Twas rather a scorn than an answer. Jim dragged in a loop of air and shot back,

     "Yes, we WERE not."

    The man began to walk towards where they were seated. 

     "Get up."

   He said looking at Jim, but he meant the two of them. 

    Jim thought for a while that the man was trying to make a payback. 

    Or probably he was trying to hurl them like stones outta the palace to the feet of the protesters.

     They had been sitting on the old man's bed. He got there and climbed unto it. 

    The man seemed to have much strength than he looked. 

     He crawled towards the side of the bed lapping the wall. 

      Jim was alert. He didn't know why he was being negative about the man. 

     The man brought out a staff and climbed off the bed. Jim sighed.  

      The old man's chamber had a secluded place to the left of where the two were standing. 

    The place in seclusion had a cotton like cloth covering it. 

     Jim thought for a while that that was the old man's secret room.  Probably where he did communicate with the gods. 

     Jim noticed that Tzu was sharing his gaze with the place too. He didn't know why Tzu had been that gentle. 

        "Make up your mind now on what you want before we go."

     The sorcerer said. Jim looked at Tzu. He had no faintest idea what the old man was meaning to say. 

     Caught in the claws of making meaning of what the old man had said, they began to hear what was close to rustles from behind. 

    Like when dried leaves set ablaze began to crumble under the weight of the flame's rage. 

    Jim looked at Tzu firstly, and wonder had it that the two of them looked at their back together. 

     Jim noticed two yellow eyeballs staring at him, he began to turn.  The two yellow eyeballs was enveloped by a black mass. 

    He traced the eyes down, and noticed a snorting nose, wider than even putting his and Tzu's together. 

    Then he heard a deep growl. Then two incisors flexing the strength of the jaws. 

    He didn't know when he leapt on the old man as soon as the leopard walked out of its hide. 

    Tzu couldn't move. The experience was fairer when they met with the Hyenas.

    The black panther almost knocked Tzu out but the old man called at it, struggling on his feet. He was savoring the pain in his waist caused by the crazy Jim. 

     "Go back to sleep, cat."

     He said. The panther grunted, then sideyed the old man. Reluctantly, it swayed back into its hide. 

     Tzu ran outta the chamber immediately. He was at the aisle between the palace hall and the chamber panting. 

    Jim walked out to meet him, then the old man. 

    The old man was filled with remonstration,

    "If you'd ran out into the hands of the angry tigers, what would you had done."

    He said eating up Tzu with an odd ogle. Tzu didn't care. 

     "What tigers?"

    Jim started. The sorcerer looked at him briefly and led the way. 

      "Watch your back for the tigers. If they leap on you, you'd be gone."

      He said without looking back. Jim felt like he had forgotten something in the chamber, but he dared not return there. 

     They began to hurry to catch up with the sorcerer walking towards the palace gate. 

     As they walked past the throne hall, Jim looked over, probably the boatman was still there. But it as though he was as far gone. 

     "Where do you think he is?"

     Jim muttered to Tzu who seemed to still be in shock of the black panther. 

     They got to the palace gate. Jim hesitated, but the sorcerer would not wait. 

    Tzu walked past him and followed the old man. Jim took his turn. 

    As he walked hurriedly, he looked left and right and back and front for the supposed tigers. 

   The allusion was beginning to make sense to him. 

     The old man had cut a corner which led to a vast expanse of ruins. Jim didn't know what to think. 

    They had taken the path which led to the back of the palace. A hideous space. 

    Lots of skulls made aisles. They took the rather narrow one. 

    There was what was close to a pinnacle up ahead of them. That was the only thing Jim had set his heart to. 

    The stench emanating from the ruins and the skulls almost made him puked his intestines, but there seemed to be a fragrance inside of him that countered the nauseation. 

     Jim looked behind him, he could see a trace of the path they had taken. There was no building in view anymore. 

    For some moments, he thought they had been teleported. That was the conclusion that was  very easy to arrive at. 

   "Whoever wants to go back now should."

    The sorcerer said as they draw nearer to the Pinnacle. 

    Jim felt like knocking the man from behind but he would hold himself. What back was he taking about when they had been transported? 

    He looked back again to confirm, but he was rather shocked. He could the path that led to the palace dwindling in the height of the distance. 

     He felt stupid. They got to the Pinnacle. 

     "You sure had made a decision."

    The old man said as soon as he had walked round the Pinnacle. He then stood before it. 

     He turned and  walked to the very base and touched his head to the point his head could measure. 

    He walked to Tzu and pulled him to the base. He made him put his head to it. 

     "Restless dog."

   He said as soon as he noticed Jim walking towards there of his own accord. 

     He walked Tzu back to the position he used to assume. 

    He did the same ritual with Jim. 

     The he walked to the base again and bent. He knelt and reached his left hand into a thin hollow in the rock. 

      He gasped and groaned then finally brought out his hand. 

     He turned to the two. His fingers were bleeding. 

     "Come lick and be borne to where the Nymph is."

      "Lick?"

    Jim protested, peering at those filthy fingers of the sorcerer. He scoffed but tuned his gaze when he saw Tzu walking towards the man. 

    Tzu got there and began to lick the oozing fingers. 

    He completed his round and turned to Jim and began to walk towards him. Tzu's eyes had changed. 

   A shot of black mass and stripes of red seemed to linger in his retinas. 

   Jim was left with no choice but to do the same thing. 

   After he was done with his round, the sorcerer called on the two of them. 

   He stood in the middle facing the Pinnacle. He held the two by each of his arms by his sides. 

    A red circle had been drawn around them, they had no idea by who. 

      As the man held unto the two of them, he began to chant. 

    He continued non-stop for a long while. The whooshing winds seemed to be attending to his wills. They could also hear bird cawing. 

     Suddenly, there was a state of chaos. 

    Jim couldn't see clearly, neither could Tzu. 

  At a point, it seemed as though the Pinnacle would crush them. Shapes seemed to play at their mental ken. 

     Then at once, both felt very light. So light that they couldn't feel their heads. 

     Then gloom. 

    Jim and Tzu opened their eyes in a market square. They were hugging each other.