Cursed Banyan Grove

Jasmine rubbed her forehead trying desperately to think through the situation, trying hard to make the right decision, but it was nearly impossible.

She could not think coherent thoughts.

Images of falling to her death through that open window kept popping up in her mind, making her wary of shutting her eyes for fear of falling. Maybe she was going crazy.

Oh lord, she needed to see some good shrinks when she got back to Los Angeles.

But what could she possibly tell them? That she had fallen to her death seven hundred years ago? They would really think she was looney toons.

Jasmine looked out into the distance where a sliver of gold had just peeked from behind one of the outlying Champa temples.

Its beauty took her breath away despite the years that had worn down the sharp edges and carved surfaces and the war bombs that had destroyed most of what time had spared.

Although the overgrown domed top had a bushy look to it from centuries of arboreal growth, the elegance and regal beauty of the temple stood as silent witness to that once proud but disappearing civilization.

Through the ages, it continued to stand firm and stoic in the face of impending extinction. It was this thought of its looming extinction that cleared much of the confusion from Jasmine's mind and brought her clarity.

If Americans could spend so much effort in trying to preserve a dying species of animal or bird, then she had to do as much as possible to preserve this dying culture of humanity.

"Let's do it. I also want to know where the bodies have been buried." She said with finality.

=========

It was almost noon.

After a hasty lunch at one of the small village inns in Myson, the group consisting of Jasmine, her aunt, the Overlord Anh Hai, and six of his black-clad men, loaded up on three Jeeps and headed back toward the Holy City of Champa.

They took with them various equipment for the dig and enough food and supplies to last a few days, as well as a gas-powered electric generator.

The drive back to the Holy City was brief, but once Aunt Tien Ha caught sight of the crumbling temple towers, she made the drivers turn left and head farther up into the mountain ranges to the east.

By this point, Aunt Tien Ha was mumbling to herself, as if she was trying to reconstruct the landscape of centuries past.

"No, this wasn't here…ah, I remember this. Further up there should be…a ford?…oh look, it's gone. Filled in, but I can see the river bed bending over there, so that's right…keep going that way…"

Jasmine looked at Anh Hai's grim face.

She could tell he was worried because Aunt Tien Ha had taken them farther and farther away from the Holy City and the village of Myson, but they had no choice.

They had to trust that Aunt Tien Ha could still remember how to get to a place that existed seven hundred years ago. There was no one else who would have the knowledge to get there.

"Wait!" Aunt Tien Ha poked at the driver's back.

"Slow down. Make a right at the foot of the ridge and stop…HERE!" She proclaimed with a triumphant ring in her voice.

Turning to Anh Hai, she pointed with an excited finger towards the direction that the Jeeps were heading.

"What you seek lies within that mangrove."

Anh Hai, with a look that spoke of disbelief and incredulity, jumped off the jeep without taking his eyes off what Aunt Tien Ha had pointed at.

There was a large outcropping of banyan trees that had originally stemmed from one lone tree.

However, after seven centuries of undisturbed growth, the single tree had sent from its high branches so many roots into the ground around it that it had given birth to a multitude of banyans all connected to each other via the aerial roots.

It had multiplied unchecked all those centuries until it had formed an impenetrable thicket so dense with gnarled roots the size of huge tree trunks, crisscrossing every which way, that there was no entry point from the outside.

One of Anh Hai's men followed him to the periphery of the mangrove.

"What do you think, Brother Cao?"

"I must warn you, Anh Hai." Cao leaned back and looked up into the branches. "There is a curse on this place that the locals all know about. Ordinarily, no one cuts down banyan trees anyway because they're sacred, but this one in particular is problematic."

"How so?"

"This grove is especially perilous. It's been shown that if a person cuts any part of this particular banyan group down, he and possibly all his family members die a horrific unholy death."

"Is that right? What else do we know about it?"

"It is said that the beast demon Macarong has been seen around this area at night, prowling in search of prey. There have also been many unexplained disappearances and deaths linked to this site. It is rumored to have an ancient curse on it."

He looked back at the nun and the young female who was with her.

"Do you think the nun gave us correct directions? This seems way off from my estimation, and the Holy City of Champa is quite a ways from this site."

"If what has been going on around here is an indication of the powerful forces that can be attracted to such a site, then the nun has pin-pointed your location."

Cao furrowed his forehead.

"I don't understand."

Anh Hai sighed.

"Most of the Champa Kings were not buried within the Holy City because it would be the first and most obvious site that grave looters would think to search. This seems to be a logical place for a gravesite of importance that needed to be protected."

"What about this mangrove?" Cao rubbed his chin. "Are you worried about the consequences of destroying this banyan thicket?"

Anh Hai stared at the massive growth that extended far and wide along both longitude and latitude axes.

"Shiva, the Destruction God is my God. I have seen much during my years as a Brahmin priest, possibly far worse than what Macarong can do."

Cao sighed. "It is the curse that I am worried about."

"Then you can stop worrying." Anh Hai snapped his fingers. "I will make it safe for all of us. I want you men to start digging a shallow trench all around the mangrove."

He turned away.

"Where are you going?" Cao asked his retreating back.

"You shall see." Anh Hai answered.