ULAM. -- The Escaped Version

Why me? Why do I have to be the One?

Why can’t I be the bad guy? The one who trades his soul to the devil for glory on Earth. The evil incarnate capable of death and destruction.

Because your father didn’t teach you to be evil Welf. Men with cute names like Welf are suppose to be the hero. The savior of mankind. The bearer of hope.

Yada da did a.

And now I’m stuck with a child, trailing my every move. I tried the old diversion trick but apparently this kid has hound’s blood or something because she showed up in front of me as I was about to sit down and have a quiet rest under this tree.

Kella, that’s your name right?

Yes, I believe so. My father calls me by that name. But I remember being called Freya by someone. I think it was my mother.

Hah. Fancy that. So Kella, or Freya, whichever name you choose to be called, I am about to be on this journey of self discovery and you being here with me will only cramped my style. Plus I might get questions by the authorities here on the count of you being a minor and I’m not a relative of yours. So why not you be a darling and go home to your tribe at this very instance huh?

Look here mister. I need to find my mother. End of story.

So here we are walking down the road when suddenly…

……………

Release my daughter you twisted sick man!!!

……………

The Kuun’s leader, Kella, Freya, whoever she is, father, in front of me, in the flesh. The man who has the bronze plate 'Ula needed to appease the great O’om into revealing the prophecy.

The prophecy needed to save MY tribe.

……………

Now you wait here old man. I never did ask your daughter to come along on my journey of self discovery (do I have to repeat saying this, sounds so Gleeish) for she was the one following me.

Hah! It’s a trap you see. I allowed my daughter to leave the Kuuns so that she would leave tracks for US to follow. Hahahahahaha.

Daddy how could you! You used me!

Shut up Kella! This is none of your business. Now come here to me. Father needs to bleed this Welf man dry!

…………….

No I won't!

....................

So there I was minding my own killings. Bleeding the Kuuns dry. Sword swishing and gutting them clean, when Kella, or Freya, whatever her name be, jumps right in front of me to stop her father from delivering a fatal blow on my head.

I cradled her in my arms as I feel her final breath comes out. No teardrops falling on my face (hey I barely knew the kid anyway) when I heard her final whisper,

You do know you're the One right?

.....................

Back to square one again.

Motionless. His eyes fixed on the bronze plate. Unblinking.

“Curse you!” he mumbled.

No one knew he has the ‘Ula. Those who ever saw the bronze plate in his possession, never get to see it again for the second time. Not just the ‘Ula. They will never see anything again. Ever.

He makes sure of it.

“Curse you!”

++++

He turned his head and saw her, but she quickly turned away. Pretending to look at the street peddlers.

He walked a few more steps, stopped and turned his head again. She was still about twenty meters behind him, pretending to look at another direction.

This girl is stubborn, he thought. She has been following him from the train station. He sternly said no when she asked to tag along. He refused despite her pleading.

He remembered her secret visits while he was imprisoned by her clansmen just to talk quietly to him, asking him this and that, telling him about everything even when he just kept quiet, never talking back. Although he was somewhat thankful that she brought back the La’am, he will not allow her to follow him in his journey. It will be dangerous. She will be a burden.

Suddenly, he turned his whole body around, facing her direction. She pretended not to notice. He was looking towards her direction, but not at her. He was looking at something behind her, intensely.

His eyes widened.

At this point, she could no longer pretend and quickly turned her head to see what was Welf looking at.

Nothing.

She turned his head back towards him and he was no longer there.

++++

“WHAT? You allow that traitor to run away?” Egle shouted at Bea.

Bea remained silent.

“For all we know, he might have conspired with the Kunns to destroy our clan using the ‘Ula and the La’am!” Egle continued his rage.

“No...” Bea’s voice was almost inaudible.

“No? What do you mean no? You know his resentment towards the clan since his father died. He still blames us for Pol’s death! And now he wants revenge!”

“No... he is not one who is revengeful... I know him...”

“You know him? Are you sure you know him? Then, you would have foreseen his treachery!”

Bea did not respond. His eyes seemed to wonder away into deep thoughts.

“If it’s not for your status in this clan, I would have thrown you in prison for helping the traitor!” Egle hissed, before dashing out from the chamber.

“Gather the men. We’re going traitor hunting!” he ordered.

“Curse him...” he muttered through clenched teeth.

p/s: too short. not black enough.

She smoothed the wrinkles out of her skirts. Planting her small feet firmly on the platform, she looked at the tall man in front of her. He looked worst than he did before, before he escaped from the prison of her clan. She was curious, but tried hard to keep the question down. This is my only chance, I won’t let myself be distracted by trivial thing.


“I know you’ll come looking for this. That’s why I took it from you when you left.”


It was a pretty thing. She could understand why the man cherished it but there’s something wrong with that thing, she couldn’t point it out. It creep the hell out of her, and she can’t wait to get rid of it. For days she held on to it, hoping that soon the man would come to claim it. When she saw him disembarked from the train, she almost cried of relief. But that’s for her to know, and for him not to find out.


The man stared at her, wide-eyed. He almost looked, frightened. She cocked her head on one side, puzzled. Why would he be scared to see me? I couldn’t harm him. I should be the one that’s scared. If he decided to hurt me, I couldn’t do anything to defend myself. Adults are weird. She blinked her eyes again.


“Kella… What are you doing here?” The man croaked at her. His voice was scratchy, he sounded as if it took all of his effort to talk. She could see him unconsciously twitched, he was really nervous to see her there. His hands twitched nervously, and there were beads of sweat on his forehead. Red marks criss-crossed his arms with patches of blue and yellow bruises.


“I came to see you. To give you this,” showing the spoon on her palm. “I ran away from them. I was hoping for you to let me come with you.”


Hard headed and determined, Kella ran away from her clan in order to find her mother. No one knew what happened to her mother, and those who knew, clamped up when she asked. Her father refused to talk to her about her mom. He even insisted that she didn’t exist, that Kella came into the world by some sort of magickal thing summoned by him because he wanted a daughter. As if she would believe that. She’s already 10, he couldn’t lie to her anymore, like when she was 9.


She suspected that her disappearance had something to do with the thing she’s holding. Rumors about her mom flared up when the stranger appeared, bringing the thing called La’am to her clan. She sneaked around, eavesdropping on adults conversations. They didn’t see her, it’s easy to dismiss a child, especially when she’s dressing up like one of the lesser clans members. Heck, sometimes she didn’t even disguise herself!


So when the stranger escaped from the prison (how could her father put someone in there? It’s ridden with rats as big as her!), she followed him here and stole the golden spoon when he was out cold. What she didn’t expect was it would took him 2 days to come searching for the darned spoon and she was forced to sleep on the cold, cold tiles of the platform. It’s a good thing she remembered to bring some food and a change of clothes along. Then again, her teddy bag was too cute to be left with her brute father.


The man looked nervously around him. Eyes darting, he searched for the tell-tale signs of a trap. He saw none. There wasn’t even a sign of a search party. The clan’s leader daughter was here, and no one came to look for her? Smelled fishy enough for the hardened heart of Welf. It was either no one knew she was missing, or someone deliberately sent her here, without her knowledge. He decided to tread carefully on the matter, always ready to run at the first minute of danger.

“No one follows you here? Did your father know that you’re gone? What about your clansmen? Did they know?”

“I’m not that stupid you know. Daddy doesn’t know I’m here. And don’t worry, no one followed me here. Things were hectic back home when you escaped, and I took advantage of that. It’ll be days before they realized I was gone. And by then, I was hoping to be gone from here”

From a distance, they heard the rustle of a crowd.

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.

In April..

We will all die anyway. Why wait a few more years? Why not go out in a blazing glory? A famous rock star once said, "It is better to burn out than to fade away."

"Tyzen..."
"Huh?"
"Why Ulam is called Ulam?"

Tyzen sat up and looked at Sara, gave her a light kiss on her lips. Sara looks so beautiful under the starry night.

Tyzen hold Sara closer to him, "Sara my love.. 'Ulam' means 'far away' in our ancient language..."

"Far away?"
"..yes.. far away... like the ancient time was far away from the present; like the present is far away from the future..."

*********************************************************

"THAT'S really FAAAR AWAY~~ Sara, " Marz started to rumble, waking Sara up from all her memories with Tyzen, "are we there yet?"

"..erm... almost.." Sara wasn't paying attention. She started to bring Duncan and Marz went around the bushes 1 hour before, when she started to feel hesitate about her plan with Lang.

"Here's the plan -- I know you want to be with Tyzen; and that's bring both of us to have a same purpose -- so you get Duncan to ULAM, and I'll bring Suki there. Duncan is the offering to reach the purpose, but he needs to agree to sacrifice 'willingly', at least we have to make him to, that's why we need Suki as a bait. How's that?" Lang approached Sara the night when she called Tyzen out using Brutus' plates.

Calling out Tyzen wasn't a good idea at all. Sara thought she's got Tyzen over but she's not. She was totally defeated by Tyzen's reappearance in front of her, and her weakness was witnessed by Lang, a man who always knows the perfect timing to use someone's weak points as an opportunity.

Today is the day -- the 16th day of summer in Ulam, the day when the full moon is the fullest, the day when Lang will receive his immortality, the day Sara will be with her Tyzen, forever and ever -- but Sara wasn't so sure about that, but she knew Tyzen will suport her decision.

-- In fact, this is what Tyzen wanted, this is why Tyzen released Lang from the Forest of Sin. "Because I love you Sara, and I miss you so much, and Lang is the only way could help me to have you -- we'll be in Ulam, we'll not separate from each other, in Ulam.." This was what came out from Tyzen's mouth that night, the night that Sara for the first time saw Tyzen in tears, the night that Sara realized both of them are so much inseparable...

Sara stopped. The hidden path lay on their left was the one would lead them to the sacred place. Sara could choose to keep on deviating from the path as what she did for the past 1 hour. Her hand inside her pocket reached the Brutus' plates. She had made up her mind.

"Turn left. We almost there." She instructed.

************************************************************

"Hey.. you are so beautiful.. It's just too bad you're the chosen one..." Almost whispered, Lang smiled at his sleeping beauty in his arm. Suki fell asleep soundly after the long deep kiss with Lang. Obviously the poison on his lips was effective.

Not bad. Lang tasted his own lips. The poison has a flavor that couldn't be defined. He found this poison in The Forest of Sin. He was caged there by the Ulam locals after he came down from the mountain, because they believed the new Langkasuka could only be officialized with the declaration of the old one. Without that, The Forest of Sin would be the place for the potential new Langkasuka, to spend his remaining time, until his destiny released him.

The local believes, The Forest of Sin is the place of condemnation. All bad intentions will be revealed and will be punished -- regardless of whether the bad things have been done, or not.

Lang just shouldn't have showed off his new power to the locals. He spent his most humiliated days in the Forest of Sin, and he cursed so much and swore to destroy the Forest of Sin, and the whole Ulam, one day, when he became the Langkasuka.

Lang lifted Suki up, and started to move toward the sacred place. The full moon was rising from the horizon.

**********************************************************

"But I still don't understand, Dunk," trying hardly to make way out of the think bushes, Marz raised his question, "..you said the reign of a Langkasuka is.. erm.. what.. 5 generations? Then that's not immortality, right?"

"...ye--ah.. in a way.. I don't know... but nobody really wants to be immortal, right? Try imagine if you are immortal but not your loved ones. How torturing it could be to see them dying one after one, leaving you day after day...." Duncan tried to not sound sentimental, "..it's gonna be lonely, man.."

"... you're right bro... what's the whole world mean to you if you don't have that someone you love?" Marz clearly fell into his blues to think of his own loneliness.

Sara was listening to their conversation, quietly, until the last sentence came out from Marz, she was stunned.

What's the whole world mean to you if you don't have that someone you love?
She started to see a point that she'd never thought of before... The face of Tyzen started to flash in her mind.. Her heart started to pump vigorously, she felt harder to breath.. All what she heard from Tyzen before, bore another meaning now--

-- "Because I love you Sara, and I miss you so much, and Lang is the only way could help me to have you -- we'll be in Ulam, we'll not separate from each other, in Ulam.." -- "Ulam' means 'far away' in our ancient language.. far away... like the ancient time was far away from the present; like the present is far away from the future..."

...................

Now she understood. Both her legs became weak, she fell on her knee... "no way.." she murmured..

All these while, she thought she's helping Tyzen to be mortal, so that they can finally be together, like a normal human..; All these while, Lang thought he's on his way to be immortal... All these while, Sara and Lang thought they were executing a plan that planned by Lang....

..It was all wrong..

It was Tyzen's plan, all these while..

The full moon rose. Sara, Duncan and Marz could see the silhouette of the sacred place, ahead of them, in the deep deep jungle..

Truly, her reputation doesn’t precede her. Suki smiled at the clear blue sky, the crystal-like water and the warm breeze that slapped her face gently. Between her fingers were another set of whom she Simply feel in love with, Lang’s.

Both of them arrived at Ulam exactly the day after they crazily jump into something that both of them didn’t expect. Well, atleast, maybe not for Suki.

“Hey what are you smiling about? What do you think of this place?” Lang asked Suki as he noticed her smile was even rosier than usual.

“Hmmmm, sigh. Simply amazing.” You Are simply amazing. Added Suki in silent.

“Come, let’s have a quick change, I wanna show you something.” Winking, Lang grabbed Suki’s hand and make way into a resort.

Oh my…


**************************************


“You know what? Thank God, this place is Always worth the journey. Always worth it even with the worst flight ever!!” Said Marz sarcastically, rolling his eyes to Duncan.

“Hey it’s last minute, and that’s all we have.” Explained Duncan while helping Sara with her luggage.

“Let’s go, let’s just check in somewhere and… Sara, you can help to lead us to the sacred place? Sara?”
“Uh oh, okay..”
“Hey you ok? You seem quiet… If it’s about…”
“You bet it’s about the flight! I even smell like sardines now…” Marz cut in.
“Cut it off guys. It’s getting late, come on.” Sara broke the argument, hoping it will give her some peace of mind.

The one thing she’s desperately need now.


********************


Am I doing the right thing? Won’t it be too selfish? I do want to be with him. But does someone really need to die? Duncan is my best friend…

“Sara! Are you done? I need to use the bathroom now.” Marz banged on the bathroom door.
“Yea, just a minute!” Startled, Sara quickly finished her shower.

Is Lang being serious?


*********************


“Alright, here we are! Now, look at these...” Lang pointed to Suki a wall of stones of different colors.

No way Sara’s going to chicken out of the plan. He was lost in his thoughts looking at Suki wondering around the place, amazed by the colourful stones, not knowing what was really happening.

She loves Tyzen, she wants him to be mortal. And I need Duncan’s blood, well to be immortal. Hahaha how ironic!

“Hey, you said something?” asked Suki as she thought she heard laughter.
“Ah no, just some wishful thinking I have on you.” Lang smiled.

You Are to make my wish come true. Let’s pray that Duncan would buy this.


*****************************


“Sara, are you sure this is ONLY the second time you went here? You seemed to know this place pretty well” Duncan was impressed with Sara memory.

“Seems like someone has been making out more frequent than we thought.” Teased Marz while three of them making their way in the forest to the sacred place. But Sara did not respond to the joke; her mind was occupied with the thoughts of her own.

What’s wrong with Sara? And why do I feel everything is too easy… TOO easy for my liking... Thought Duncan, sensing something fishy is going on.

Marz, being the level headed person he was, said “No worries, I got contacts in the immigration, so we can settle our visas ASAP. The only problem now is securing tickets to Ulam. As you guys know, now is the peak season of Ulam. Hopefully there’ll be empty seats for today’s flight there. Dunk, you better bring Sara home to pack. I don’t think she can fly to Ulam with just what she’s wearing now. After all, there’s someone in Ulam that she wants to dress up for…”

Duncan only shook his head in disbelieve. He couldn’t believe that in emergency times like this Sara could still think about clothes, shoes and accessories. “Women...” he mumbled under his breath, before he realized something.

“Wait, are you telling me that I have to drive Sara home to pack and drive AGAIN to here to take the flight to Ulam? Are you crazy?! We don’t have the time! If Lang and Suki had eloped this morning from New York, that means they are reaching Ulam now! Sara, just wear whatever you have. It’s not like you don’t have extra clothes at his house, right?”

“And another thing, what this shit about visas and all? We can just visit Ulam! It’s not under any country’s law; we’re not even bound to have legal identification papers there! So just buy the damn tickets, okay?!”

“We met in a dream. Somehow I stumbled into his dream when we were in Ulam. In his dreams, I always saw him with families, and friends. He’s always laughing. And then, suddenly he was left all alone. Always like that, the dream will start happy and ended sadly. I was like looking through a glass, until one day, I had the courage to break it. That’s how I knew Tyzen. Through a dream...” Sara smiled, remembering the first time she met him.

“A dream? Are you telling me that you fell in love with the guy that you met in your dreams?” Marz shook his head in disbelieve.

“I know it’s not the usual way, but all my dreams of him are so vivid, it’s hard to believe that it’s not real. Until the day when the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was his face. Then the dreams weren’t as real as they were before.”

“Guys, Lang had already flown Suki to Ulam. We had to hurry! Enough reminiscing already Sara!” said Duncan after he hung up.

“Oh no! Tickets, we have to book flight tickets now! And packing and immigrations and visas…oh! Will we be able to catch him in time?” Sara had started panicking...

N0 1: Get a hot chick for the altar of sacrifice.

Check.

No 2: Obtain the highest order of existence from the high priestess of ULAM.

On the way.

................................................................................

So Lang found himself in bed with Suki. Mission accomplished. Now all he had to do was convinced the obviously smitten Suki to follow him to a romantic getaway on a magical island filled with amazing adventures waiting to be discovered.

That was easy. All he had to say was, "Baby, I own a mansion on that island, the biggest one so far, built on top of a scenic hill overlooking the ocean. We'll take my private plane and the trip is less than a few snuggles away."

Suki, teary eyed (finally all these years of starving myself to death to attract wealthy gazzilionaires paid off) leaped into Lang' s waiting arms and smooches him into a close coma.

Lang: Whoa there princess. All in good times.

Suki: Of course my love. I'm yours like that Mraz song no?

Lang: You bet!

........................................................................

Duncan, Sara and Marz (no, not Jason Mraz, Mars Bar, MarZ) rushed out to the airport. They already confirmed Suki's whereabouts by calling her mother aka talent modelling agent who happens to be at the bar where Lang picked Suki up, (Lang almost took the mother home by mistake, at 40, she had Suki when she was barely 16 years old, Suki's mom was still a knock out classic beauty).

Suki's Mom: Duncan? I remember you! You broke Suki's heart a year ago. Suki still talks about you once in a while. How you've been?

Duncan: Baaaa (feeling sheepish, he did broke Suki's heart, and sending her for a job in New York was beyond cold) Mommy, I need to talk to Suki. Is she with you?

Duncan always call all his exes mothers Mommy. He thinks its cute. The mothers feel flattered.

Suki's Mom: But darling, I thought you knew. Lang used your name when he came up to us last night. I was out partying with the girls, we just had a show you see, Suki needed her tequila shots, and this amazing hunk came up to us and said your name. He took Suki's home.

Duncan: So Suki's still in New York? Whose home Mommy? Suki's apartment? Le Hotel?

Suki's Mom: Well. Suki left me a message on my cell this morning. Apparently she has eloped!

Duncan: The f!@#$%?

Suki's Mom: Now young man, there's no need to use such language with me. Suki said Lang is bringing her to a mystical island called...for the life of me I can't remember the name. Starts with a "U" I think.

Duncan: Ulam???