ULAM. -- The Escaped Version

As the train whizzed pass him, Welf ran alongside it, until he saw an opened compartment. He jumped in, closed the door and hid in the dark corner. For a few seconds he closed his eyes, trying to catch his breath. The train was chugging along, picking up speed.

It was dark in the train, safe for some sliver of moonlight that managed to sneak in through the gap between the paneled wall, but Welf could see the angry welt on his arms, the bruises from the beatings he received from Egle. He winched from the memory, but he solemnly reminded on why he was on the train. His hand in his pocket, his fingers curled solidly around a parchment.

+++++++

Welf opened his eyes. A blurry vision was talking to him, shaking him up.

“Wake up, Welf! Wake up!”

His mind dizzy, each of his muscle prostesting in pain, Welf tried to sit up.

“Bae?”

His father’s old friend was helping him to sit up. The man with kind eyes, who Welf regarded as his own father since his own died ten years ago, his grey hair and wrinkled face were the testament to his wisdom. Bae, and his father, sat on the Council of Elders, and were highly regarded as the leaders of the tribe. Bae had earlier pleaded will Egle to spare him from the punishment, but his plea fall into deaf ears. Now that everyone’s left, leaving him alone unconscious, Bae had come to his rescue.

“Wake up, son. You have to leave. You have to bring back the La’am and look for the ‘Ula. Our tribe needs those to survive. You are our only hope.”

“But I’d lost La’am, and there never was ‘Ula to begin with…” Welf’s voice trailed off.

Bae exhaled. “My son, at whatever cost, even if it means you have to again face the dreadful Kunns, you have to recapture La’am. And as for ‘Ula, it exists”.

Bae continued that a thousand of years ago, ever since the first Council of Elders realized how powerful ‘Ula and La’am were if the two revered objects were combined, and how dangerous it would be if they fall in the wrong hand, they decided to separate the two items. The Kunns were given the ‘Ula and La’am remained in the possession of Welf’s tribe. Only the most powerful elders in each tribe knew where the items were hidden, and they passed the secret to their sons who then passed it to their own sons.

“Your dad died before he could tell you, and I think it’s time you know your responsibility. He was our tribe’s guardian, and I do not have an heir, so the task is now yours. We need the great O’om to reveal the prophecy, which is our only chance to save our people, but it will only be revealed with ‘Ula and La’am presented together at the altar to the goddess. It will be hard that now the Kunns have become our enemies - they won’t part with ‘Ula that easy, but you can’t fail us, son”.

Welf was getting confused by the minute. His dad, a guardian to the tribal’s secret? ‘Ula, actually existed? He, the new guardian? And the enormity of the mission! Failure will only bring doom.

“But, what should I do?” he stammered.

Bae took out a crumpled parchment from the inside of his robe. “You have to figure out things by yourself, but this should guide you to the place where U’la is hidden…”

On the parchment was a simple drawing of a circle sitting on top of three triangles. Underneath it was some ancient runes, long-forgotten, but which meanings are well-etched in his mind:

Rise up, O-mother.. by thy lights glowing, thy sons meet where the shadows fade...

“Hurry”, Bae urged. “In three nights…. time is running out!”

++++

The train slowed down. Welf stood up, getting ready to get down, but he got no further than putting his coat on when the train fully stopped, and the door to his compartment was opened. A small shadow stood under the doorway.

“Kella…”, he whispered.

The small girl from the Kunns clan. Memories of his detainment at the Kunns came flashing back.

She took a step forward, holding her hand out. “I know you’ll come looking for this.”

On her palm was the missing La’am.