The Angkhora Warriors

Part 11: UMA

Her heart stopped and she faded into stealth.

Unknown to the others, Uma watched silently from far above. The young woman with a svelte build watched the disciples of the Snake Clan leap through the forest like ghosts. No one noticed her amongst the leaves, silent and still, hanging upside down like a flying fox.

A young adept trailing at the back struggled to keep up with the rest of the team. A little unstable and breathless, she tried catching up to other members who were moving fast through the dark forest.

Then Uma heard the snake call. The young adept had slipped and lost her balance. Uma snapped out of hibernation and dropped onto the branch below, running parallel along the branch above the young adept. She dived as she saw the young one falling. Dropping through a few branches, Uma grabbed onto the young one's wrist, summersaulted and pulled the adept into her fold and landed on another branch below. The young one smiled at her elder sister, her face awed by her athletic skills.

The thin branch bent a little, unable to withstand both their weight and Uma quickly sprang off, summersaulted, and tried to reach the closest branch, but it was too far. Attempting to grab the branch below, her fingers slid past it and her heart clenched as she fell through hundreds of feet. With a thud she hit the ground hard, rolled, and diffused the fall, catching herself after a few rolls. Aaarghhh, she allowed an internal moan as she clutched her wrist and held in her scream.

No! Not the left wrist!

She bit her lips to hold in the pain.

A shadow dropped slowly onto a branch above.

"Are you alright?" whispered her friend.

"Ugh... I'm fine," Uma answered her best friend, Oja.

She looked up the tree trunk which extended hundreds of feet into the air and said, "Let's continue."

"Are you sure?" Oja asked again. She hanged upside down and extended her hand to help Uma stand up.

Uma grabbed Oja's palm with her right hand and pulled herself to her feet.

"Be careful," Oja said as she used two trees to jump in-between the trunks and branches, bouncing off them until she reached the top.

Uma took in a deep breath, then followed Oja's way of getting to the top. Another branch bent unevenly, but she managed to push off it and kept going.

As they reached the edge of the rainforest, her friend spoke. "Okay, I think we have enough training for today," Oja, the team leader, told the disciples. "Let's go back to the village." The team began to slowly disperse.

"Thank you for saving me, big sis," the young adept approached Uma.

"Oh, don't mention it." Uma looked at the adept who had the same short hairstyle as hers. "What's your name?" Uma asked.

"Lili," the girl answered.

"Stay strong, Lili."

"You are inspiration to all of us," Lili smiled at her big sister.

Waving a little goodbye, Lili leaped onto another branch and followed the others.

Having made sure everyone had left, Uma and Oja descended from the trees and ran along the dirt trail that wound through the large rocky crags covered in tendrils of roots and vines. The sounds of the native snakes slithering in their hideouts echoed every time they passed one of the cracks in the rock walls.

They took the splits in the path which they knew would lead them home. The rocks opened up to a grotto surrounded by forest-covered cliffs; a hidden village, Snake Village, home of the Snake Clan, the deadliest assassins in Angkhora. All the rooftops had gardens grown atop them, so that they camouflaged as part of the forest from high above.