"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Sriga whispered, gesturing to Dinda to be as quiet as possible. Dinda nodded back repeatedly. Yes, yes.
The Giant they were watching had turned suspicious and was sniffing into the air, trying to smell for the human and asura. Dinda thought the Giant was acting a little strange, he looked frenetic and traumatized and it sounded like he was crying.
She ducked her head lower and took a step back, but her foot landed on a branch, letting out a sharp crack into the still air.
Oh No.
The Giant turned and looked at the stone where Sriga and Dinda had been hiding and her heart sank to her stomach. Sriga lifted his finger to his lips, gesturing to Dinda not to panic. The Giant walked slowly toward the stone, sniffing as the scent got stronger, and he picked up his pace until he was running toward the stone.
"Ruuun!" Sriga screamed.
Sriga darted out from the stone to distract the giant. He leaped onto the nearest tree and ran up its trunk, hiding in its thick leaves. The Giant grabbed the tree trunk and uprooted it effortlessly, like uprooting a carrot from the ground. He peered into the leaves and shook it. Nothing dropped out. He uprooted another tree and shook it violently. Sriga managed to leap out and land on another tree. The Giant lifted his leg and stomped down on the tree, crushing it into pieces. But Sriga had already managed to elude the massive beast, jumping onto the next tree. He ran on all fours along a high branch and quickly leapt again into yet another tree, leading the giant away from Dinda.
With a booming roar, the Giant rampaged through the forest, knocking down rows of trees, carving a path in his wake, and the whole forest tremored with his thumping steps, the birds panicking and flying away.
Dinda ran the opposite direction, looking back every few steps to see whether Sriga was safe. After some time, Sriga and the Giant were both out of sight. She hid behind another large stone and waited for Sriga to find her. She could feel the tremors getting fainter.
Eventually, the thundering steps stopped. She looked up from the stone but Sriga was nowhere in sight. She sat back in her chosen hiding place and waited, pulling out her dagger and examining it, wondering how she would have used it against the giant. The ankle? The shin? The knee? She swung it lightly and pretended to have stabbed the giant.
"Yup, that's how you do it," a voice came from above. "You would have to run up him and stab him in the eye though." Sriga chuckled, hanging upside down from a branch.
Dinda looked up. "Sriga!" she exclaimed with relief, joy in her voice.
Sriga summersaulted before landing gracefully in front of her. She rushed forward and hugged her friend. Sriga sank into Dinda's arms, but when he started wrapping his arms around her cautiously, she quickly pulled away, turned around, and pointed, stating, "That way!" and started walking in the direction she had indicated. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Sriga frown, but he decided to follow.
After walking a distance in silence, Sriga quipped, "That was a baby."
"What....?" Dinda was stunned.
"Yeah, he's just a baby. Something must have happened to his Mama." Sriga opined.
"What?" she repeated, still in shock at the thought. "How big is the Mama?" she looked at Sriga with wide eyes.
"As tall as the mountain." Sriga pointed to the mountain in the horizon. "Halfway reaching the SkyOcean."
Dinda's eyes widened even more. "So, what happened to his Mama?"
"The Shamans. They hunt them."
"They hunt them?"
"Yeah, the Shamans hunt Giants. For their blood."
"And how would you know?"
"Oh, if you live on the streets, you hear many stories. Lore."
"Ewwww, they drink Giant's blood?"
Sriga looked at Dinda and nodded a few times. "Black Magic. Very dark magic." He made a ghoulish face with his tongue wagging toward her.
"Not funny." Dinda gave him an annoyed look.
Sriga looked down at her hand, still holding onto the dagger, and he smiled. She slid the dagger back into its sheath and tucked it at the back of her hip.
"I've been wanting to ask you, where did you get this dagger from?" She looked up at him as they continued walking through the forest.
"It was my dad's. Mom gave the dagger to me before she died. She said it would protect me. The dagger will unleash its magic when it's in the right hands, she said."
Dinda suddenly felt the importance of the gift, that it had meant something special to him. She double checked on the dagger, making sure it was securely tucked at her back.
"How much farther to your cave?" he asked.
"We're halfway there," she said, wiping away sweat from her forehead.
"Are you certain this is the way?"
"Trust me." Dinda looked sharply at him, but they slowed their pace as they trekked deeper into the forest.
"Sriga, what's Angkhora like?" she asked, attempting to keep his mind occupied.
"It's a beautiful place," he answered. He stopped and pointed back at the mountain behind them. "Beyond that mountain, beyond the river, and beyond the grasslands, it's the most beautiful city in the whole kingdom. Glorious temples and giant statues are erected all through the land. It's unlike any other place you will ever see."
"I haven't seen many places," Dinda said.
"You've never seen a levitating airship? The monks control the airships with their minds. They fly them so high that it looks like they're sailing beneath the SkyOcean. It's an amazing sight to behold," Sriga shared.
"But how do they do it?" Dinda asked.
"They use mindpower and Divine Matematika. They teach that at RAMMA. Those who master the skills can build temples and airships, as well as fly them," he explained. Dinda listened attentively, as if she were a child being told a bedtime story.
Finally, they stopped in front of a giant tree with branches and leaves that extended into the blue sky. It was tall, massive, and ancient.
"It's in there." She pointed toward the entrance of a cave under the giant tree. Sriga looked at her nervously. "It's okay," she assured him and grabbed his hand, leading him into the cave.
Once inside the cavern, they walked around carefully, stepping over giant roots that lined the ground. It was pitch black inside and Dinda struggled to see anything. When she looked back, she saw Sriga's eyes were illuminated. Red eyes. "Seeing in the dark is a perk of being a werewolf," he said.
After they walked a little further, they arrived at a large hall inside the cave where stones embedded in the walls gave off a natural low glow, just enough to see by once her eyes adjusted. "Mummy's here!" Dinda called out, her voice echoing throughout the darkness.
Suddenly, they could hear the faint sound of flapping wings and a breeze blowing through the passage. As she and Sriga stood in the middle of the cave, the flapping got louder and louder and the breeze turned into a strong gust of wind. That's when he looked up and Dinda watched his expression as a swarm of butterflies descended from the ceiling of the cave. Thousands of butterflies began to circle around him, and he watched in bewilderment as their fluttering created a soft storm of wings like a moving coccoon around him.
"Err, Dinda, are they going to bite me....?" Sriga stood motionless, clearly not sure what to do.
She giggled when she saw how helpless the normally strong and fierce werewolf was. She wasn't accustomed to seeing him cowering. Then Sriga started to swat at them, shooing them away. Several of the butterflies started to peck at Sriga with their sharp tails to defend themselves against his swatting.
"Ouch... ouch..." he cried.
"Hey, don't hurt them," Dinda pleaded after realizing what could happen if Sriga transformed into his wolf form. She raised her arms as though she was preparing to give someone a loving hug. "Come to Mummy," she commanded the swarm. The butterflies gracefully descended on Dinda and gathered near her face in anticipation of her speaking to them. "Okay, okay, my loves. I brought you all something."
She pulled out a bag of red roselle flowers and threw it on the ground. The flowers spilled onto the floor and the butterflies immediately settled onto the blooms and started suckling on the nectar. There were so many butterflies that they completely covered the flowers, making the ground looked like it was alive.
"Wow. That's incredible, Dinda," commented Sriga. "How do you... how do you... you can talk to them?" he asked. Dinda smiled and nodded as she watched the butterflies devour the flowers.
"But... how is that possible?" he asked again.
"I'm not sure. They just seem to understand me," Dinda answered proudly.
"But how did you find them?"
"I didn't. They found me. Or at least..." Suddenly one of the butterflies left the swarm and landed on Dinda's shoulder. She looked over at it and smiled. "...He did. Hello, Purple." Her eyes squinted at the big black and purple butterfly on her shoulder.
"How do you know it's a he?" Sriga asked.
"I just do. One day, I was in the forest looking for mushrooms to make soup for Mother. All of a sudden, this little guy appeared and flew around me, he kept pecking my face."
"Weren't you afraid?" Sriga asked.
"No. I guess I should have been. But as he kept pecking, he was so persistent." She looked at the purple butterfly resting on her shoulder and giggled. "Then I realized it was trying to peck my lips. My black lips." The butterfly simultaneously started to flap it's wings like it was its way of laughing. Dinda continued, "It started to seem like he wanted me to follow him. So I did. He brought me here, inside this tree cave. And that's when I saw the rest of them."
Purple flew toward Dinda's back. "Hey, where are you going?" She reached for her back and took out the red jaded dagger. She lifted the blade in front Purple. The butterfly lingered above it, fluttering in the air as it studied it attentively. "You like this?" Dinda asked Purple. Purple glowed slightly, like a firefly, flew around the dagger, and made another stop to study the dagger. "He does that sometimes," Dinda said, "when he's excited."
"Are they dangerous?" Sriga asked.
"Not to me," she responded. "But you can let one of them bite you if you'd like to find out."
"Err, no thanks," he said nervously. "You know, communicating with them the way that you do is a special gift. You may even be able to join RAMMA with such a gift."
Dinda's eyes lit up with excitement, "You think so?"
"There's only one way to find out."
"How?"
"We can go and tell them about your gift and see if they'd accept you," he said.
"Really? You would take me there?" she asked excitedly.
Sriga responded, "Of course. The journey would take a few days by foot though."
Before Dinda had a chance to respond, the buzz of the butterflies suckling on the flowers stopped and the group rose from the ground, the roselle flowers completely devoured. The butterflies slowly floated upward and moved around in strange patterns.
"What are they doing?" Sriga wondered.
"I'm not sure," Dinda replied.
Finally, when the butterflies stopped flying in their strange patterns, Dinda and Sriga were amazed to see that they'd formed a love symbol in midair. Purple, the butterfly that was resting on Dinda's shoulder, floated up and gently kissed her on the cheek.
"I love you too," Dinda said affectionately.
"Wow, it's like you're commanding your own little army," Sriga said as he realized the potential of Dinda's gift.
"Do you really think RAMMA would accept me?" Dinda asked.
"I do," he replied.
Dinda looked at Sriga. She looked back at the swarm then back at Sriga one more time before yelling, "Attack!" Sriga's eyes widened in shock. He swiftly scurried away as though he'd just stolen meat from the butcher.
Dinda laughed hysterically, holding her stomach as she dropped to the floor. The butterflies circled above her, joining in on her laughter. Sriga slowly walked back into the cave, embarrassed but smiling. "Very funny. Ha ha." Dinda couldn't stop laughing. Then he joined her.