Storms On Mount Ciremai

The atmosphere is gripping in Pendem II Village

The night is getting late, the weather is so cold, making many residents more asleep in their sleep. The influence of the cold weather also hit the residents who were on patrol in their respective regions, they finally loosened supervision by resting at the guard post.

Rangkayu could not force others to always be vigilant, because he also understood, the residents around Pendem Village were not from the warrior class or warriors who were used to guard for days. Finally Rangkayu went around alone around the houses of the citizens.

When the morning arrived, Rangkayu briefly saw the shadow of a human who moved quickly to the east, it was seen that the shadow had just come out of one of the houses, then he was chasing after it.

Rangkayu ran quickly, trying to catch up with the human shadow, "heii stop!" rangkayu's loud screams sounded, but the shadow was not affected by Rangkayu's scream, he continued to run faster and faster.

As Rangkayu got closer, he made a long leap and tried to hit the back of the shadow "Hiaaath...desh.."argkh. Rangkayu will continue another attack.."wait Rangkayu! it's aku!" when he saw the figure of the person calling his real name, Rangkayu stopped his attack, how shocked Rangkayu when he saw the person who fell was a figure he knew very well, "you are raden?" then he quickly helped to stand up, "you almost killed me Rangkayu!", "Sorry raden I did not know that it was you, besides what are you gonna do in the early hours like this to get into the house?"

Then they walked together and sat on the moor of the rice field, "i have searched for you for days around Mount Kemukus, but I have found no trace of you 'raden!"

"I lost Rangkayu, until I had to live in the village next to Pendem Village." 'Raden are we going back to Kotaraja?", "I don't know Rangkayu yet, what do you think?"

When the two of them were silent, there was a clanging sound coming from the direction of the village, Rangkayu rushed to his feet, "raden, come with me! there is a danger sign from the direction of Pendem Village!", "Sorry Rangkayu, I cannot come with you at this time, I will just wait for you here". The sound of the danger sign continued to sound making Rangkayu anxious, "you wait here raden first! I have to know what dangers are currently afflicting the residents of Pendem Village", then Rangkayu ran away from Arya Permana heading into the village.

"Tong..tong...tong"..the beeping of the sound of kentongan made some male Pendem Village residents out of their homes with their respective weapons, when Rangkayu arrived, the, they were surrounding a dead body that was stiffened, the corpse was dry and blackened, similar to the condition of the previous corpse.

One of the young men who had been patrolling approached Rangkayu, "Rakang Sumantri, tonight there was another victim, Kang Karso who last night patrolled with us, has become a victim!" Rangkayu stood stunned, his mind floated with the incident earlier, did he not see Arya Permana out of the house of Warso that had been pursued, was Arya Permana related to the death of Warso?

"I have to ask this to Raden Arya Permana, has he been the one who committed the murder to the residents of Pendem Village? if it was him, what was the cause?, I should ask him this".

That day the villagers of Pendem Village again grieved, Ki Lurah led the burial of the body of Warso, after the burial was completed Rangkayu requested permission to Ki Lurah to conduct a private investigation.