SET DUSK

Part 17's

"Syir, the fog is starting to thicken again. Can you continue the journey?" ask Rizal.

Shamshir noticed the direction of the road they were going to take. The tall man thought for a moment. Scrambling his thick curly hair, then exhaling heavily.

"My God, how about we rest here first? I was a bit hesitant to continue the journey if the fog is thick like this. The road ahead is side by side with a cliff," Syamsyir said later.

"Yes, I'm with you, Syir, I don't really understand the streets here" said Mak Dang.

"Lumayan also this snake can make a wedge of the stomach," kekeh Rizal ruffled his waist to look at the python that was still in place of the fall earlier.

Ida begged to hear Rizal's proposal. It still had not lost its trembling feeling when it saw the snake's mouth protruding towards him.

"Yes, may we be pleased with this snake to fill our middle village, "keh Shamshir agreed to Rizal's proposal.

"Hahaha would-be predators become prey yes," said Mak Dang.

The middle-aged man immediately took out a dagger blade from the blade sheath that was on his belt. Pulling the dead snake from behind the tree where Ida was leaning.

Ida only noticed when the three men began busy weeding the snake to be their meal. Mak Dang and Shamsyir were in charge of skinning the cold-blooded animal.

While Rizal, seemed busy collecting twigs and dried leaves that were around them. Making a hole in the ground, piling dry leaves and twigs that he has collected into the hole.

Then the man with a mature sapodilla skin began to be engrossed in making fire by twirling a wooden stick on a wooden pedestal covered with piles of dry leaves until Ida finally saw a thin smoke and then a small fire began formed.

Deftly Rizal added some twigs and dried leaves into the hole. Meanwhile, two men in charge of weeding the snake seemed to have cut the flesh and thrust it into the branches.

Their faces seemed happy to remember that they could soon eat protein dishes, foods that they had not been able to get for a long time.

Rizal began to burn the snake meat that had been prepared by Shamsyr and Mak Dang.

"Da, why are you still sitting there? Here you help me burn his flesh," said Rizal when he realized Ida was not budging from where she first sat.

Mak Dang turned to Ida, as if he had just realized that his nephew was still sitting quietly where he was almost eaten by snakes that would be their food.

"Why Da?" Mak Dang looked astonished because Ida was just silently sculpting.

"It's okay, Mommy."

"Why don't you come help burn the meat?"

"I still can't get rid of my shock, Mom, can I just stay here first?" ask Ida timidly.

"Yes if you want that." Mak Dang continued to dismember the slithering animal. Put the meat that has been cut on the taro leaves.

Finished cutting all the bodies of the snake, Shamsyr hung the skin of the python on a tree branch. Its tall body easily enclose the snake skin that was wide enough on a fairly high branch.

The atmosphere of the forest quickly darkened. The fog started to thicken. The air that was already cold, the colder the bone pierced. Ida looked around, they were like they were locked up in a smoke dome. Nothing is seen around them. The forest plants looked like a silhouette amongst that thick fog.

Before long Ida's sense of smell smelled the scent of burnt meat, making her stomach cringe. The silent forest and no one talking between them made Ida's stomach voice clearly heard by the three men.

Mak Dang laughed loudly, "Ahahaha. ... You're hungry, Da. Here you need not worry. There's still a lot of meat."

For a long time Ida had not seen her Mak Dang not laughing after that, revealing a row of neat teeth under the thick moustache that covered her lips. All this time she knew, her mom was a hard guy. However, this time he saw the other side of his Mak Dang.

"ah! Belly, why did you betray me!" ida's grumble in the heart.

"You're disgusted Da?" Sela Shamsyir when she saw Ida still did not move from her seat.

"Eh, ... Yaah ... A little bit" said Ida while grinning.

"Have it, if conditions like this we can eat this animal, Da. Moreover, later the air here begins to cool, can hurt you, "interrupted Mak Dang.

"Well," said Ida later.

He rose from his seat, approaching those who had first filled his stomach with some pieces of the flesh of the grilled snake.

"Well, you eat this." Mak Dang handed over the burnt meat placed on the leaves to Ida's hand.

"You just eat Da, you don't have to hide like a cat just wants to eat" said Mak Dang.

Without answering, Ida tried to bite off a bit of the grilled snake's flesh. It was not a disgusting shadow. He ate it quickly.

"Add Da?" ask Syamsyir.

"No, that's enough, '" declined Ida.

"Here you drink." Mak Dang gave her a coconut that was still full of water.

"Thank you, Mommy."

"You rest, so that you can continue the journey later" Mak Dang ordered.

"Yes Mak" Ida got up from her seat intending to return to where she was sitting.

"You should not go far, later it will not seem if there are dangerous forest animals like that" said Mak Dang.

"Good Mom." Ida sat back down, inching toward the fireplace.

"Your feet how is Da?" tegur Shamsyr.

"It's not too painful like that. Thank you, yes" said Ida.

"You've known Ida for a long time, Sir?" Intercrop. Mak Dang's.

"Since he moved to the Sincin only, Ngku. Just found out that Ida's niece to Engku."

"It just so happens that I was sent yesterday to Sicincin to help secure the post there, not unexpectedly to meet this child" explained Mak Dang.

"This boy ran away from home, told to Feed for shopping, he didn't come back. Heboh the people of the village are looking for him," continued Mak Dang. His gaze returned full of anger to Ida.

"I'm sorry Mak" said Ida bowed.

He who had intended to rest again sat upright facing his mother.

"You know not Da? Amai to ask the shaman to look for you, the shaman to raise his hands do not know where you are," explained Mak Dang, but this time his tone has returned low.

"Sorry Mom, Ida only affects Ida's emotions. Ida does not think the consequences of Ida's actions, "sorry Ida.

"Important you survived. Don't you think we didn't lose you, Da. Amai loves you. Although he's hard on you, but he always thinks of your kindness, Da."

Ida just lowered her head, not daring to look at the face of Mak Dang, her ravenous brother. Since his parents died, Mak Dang and Amai were the ones who took care of him and his sister Tini, before he was taken care of by a Chinese family in Bukittinggi.

Although Ida was handed over to a Chinese family who did not have children in Bukittinggi, they both continued to monitor Ida's life. Even after the family that nurtured Ida was gone, those who took Ida back.

Syamsyir and Rizal just silently listened to the conversation between the mother and the niece. They dare not interrupt. Shamshir tried to rest himself by leaning his body against the tree behind him.

While Rizal, he still continued to put some dry twigs into the fire, so as not to be extinguished.

"Ah, even I talk about you. ... Take a break," said Mak Dang.

"Good Mom."

Ida leaned her body against a tree not far from the fireplace. With a bit of fret he looked up, making sure the place he would rest was safe.

"Well, let's change for a break. Now let me take care," Rizal bargained with Mak Dang.

"I'm not sleepy yet, either, Zal, seems to be this afternoon. Just because it's covered in fog it's dark."

"Yes it seems so," Rizal said as he looked around.

Meanwhile Ida began to fall asleep, because from last night, she could not rest properly. He had to keep his energy from running out, because he did not know how much longer the distance he had to travel to get to his village.