The Lost Tribe: Maliha the Wanderer (Book 1)

Energy

She could feel a small hand that rested on her shoulder, from who she did not know but her body was too weak and lethargic for her to move from her position of prostration at the bed of the Great Tree. Her mind still whirled but she could not visualize the world she had been in. Iy was both the same and yet so different from the place her body now lay anchored in.

"Maliha?"

The questioning voice of Xiuri had Maliha's body finally registering her brains desire, and moving.

"Xiuri," she muttered.

Her head felt heavy and her mouth felt dry but she could not explain why.

At first The Ishanu had made her feel peaceful, as if she had been reborn with energy plentiful but now she felt as if her soul was being drained. As if there was a darkness that had sucked all the light from her being.

Xiuri's mouth gaped open as she stared at Maliha in shock, confusion knitting her brows. The dark skin knitting together but before Maliha could question her friends shocked gasp, her attention was pulled elsewhere.

Maliha's eyes were drawn away from her gaping friend, over her shoulder and to the bushes that marked the beginning of the secret entrance into The Ishanu.

Her nose wrinkled as the entrance to The Ishanu quivered with aggressive tremors. Maliha could clearly see the light energy pulsing, fissures of light striking at the entryway in hostile flashes of blinding white and green light.

"Xiuri, what is happening?"

Maliha couldn't explain how, but she knew something was wrong and from the pensive look that lined her friends face it was clear to see that she was not alone. Xiuri was worried.

The light that gleaned from the Ishanu's flora began to drain, the shining opulence dwindling as their glow filtered along the earths floor toward the entrance. The open buds of the flora snapped shut as the light left their beings, critters scurrying and fluttering around the air in frustrated swarms.

They scattered from their homes and dived for the Great Tree that stood opulently behind Maliha. The great tree's arms hanging wide open in a welcome embrace as all her creatures disappeared into her large leaves just as the flickering light at the entry pulsed one final wave.

The energy snapped and recoiled back into the tree.

Her ears rung. White noise strumming through her ears. She was disoriented, the world moving in slow motion as the remaining fissures of light fluttered above her head and then interspersed into the atmosphere.

Maliha stared unseeingly up into the dimly lit sky as the roots of the Great Tree wound themselves around her ankles. A large root pulsing beneath her back, growing and growing until the root stood tall and Maliha was forced to a kneeling position by its growing force. She staggered to her feet, hands shaking as she tried to centre her being.

Once she was steady on her own feet, the root sunk back into the earth in slumber. Leaving The Ishanu with no light but that of the paling sunlight and the few torches that the tribe members who had gathered their wits, had begun to light.

"Maliha," croaked Xiuri, her eyes full of tears as she staggered towards her.

"What was that?"

"I don't- "

Xiuri's words were cut off by the ear-piercing thwack of a drum cracking in the distance, causing Maliha's head to snap to the side and take in the tribes riveted attention on the entry way.

The tribes unwavering attention to the entryway suddenly made sense as dark figures moved further into the flickering torch light.

There on the other side, behind Makula and the few elder members of the council, stood Tanzim. Her long hair flowing around her shoulders like flames of fire. The image of Tanzim fused with the flickering plumes of smoke that had plagued Maliha's vivid dream.