The Chronicle Of Jawata (Compilation Trial Edition)
6.15
A winged horse emerged from the Queen's magic spell. He drew Elkas' hand so that they floated up to the winged horse's back. Then the creature flapped its wingspan wide. Once devised, then leapt high into space, and the Queen and Elkas flew, to a place far from Euryn.
Trailing down there, an arid expanse is visible as far as the eye looks down. The horse flew miraculously across the dry thickets among the porous trees. Dark clouds rising above the sky.
One sight was seen by them together, when the horse almost landed on the Calpera land. The tragic sight that made Queen Shachini so shocked that her eyeballs were glazed over.
”Changgala!” strangled Queen Shachini as she stepped ashore.
Elkas follows Queen Shachini. The carcasses of Changgala blocking their sight were no longer something Elkas knew nothing about. For a moment his memory returned a few nights ago when he followed Dakka across the area.
”Toxic heirloom!” Queen Shachini found traces of rotting incisions in Changgala's clotted body filled with stiff roots. He was silent for a moment. Elkas in his regrets.
”Where is Taja?” queen Shachini asked, reminding Elkas of their destination to that place.
Elkas pointed to the middle of Calpera. From a distance of dozens of steps to it, saw the powder flying upwards, coming from dead trees and in the middle there is a dry lake. The ground is mixed with bluish liquid. Between the stench of a dead plant or animal, it deeply pierces the nose. Whatever happens, Queen Shachini does not hesitate to step there. The legs were originally smooth and white so covered in rotten mud.
”Taja...,” he said softly as he approached one tree among a hoard of half-collapsed trees that had long died, filled with creeping and drying plants. The place briefly refreshed his memories of a dozen years ago of an incident that left the area desolate and dead.
Queen Shachini plucked her fingers while casting a small but quite heavy spell. A moment of sparks formed a circle and enlarged, soaring high that illuminated around the place. He gasped, as his vision caught the small movements between the dried up vines.
”Taja?” call the Queen while getting closer to a place that greatly confiscates her eyes.
This time there was a soft sobbing, barely audible if without paying attention to the voice really. There was a figure curled up there.
”Taja...,” call Queen Shachini on the figure attached to the dead tree. Queen Shachini recognized her embossed hair even though her entire body was set on dry leaves.
As Queen Shachini approached, the figure increasingly penetrated into the hoard.
”Taja, come home with us..,” pinta Ratu Shachini soft. But there was no response from whom he spoke. The Queen's tears rolled down her cheeks. Gently his fingers touched Taja who was still reluctant to budge, ”We need you. We needyou. If it's like this, then you'll make me even sadder.”
Taja plugged his face, ”Iubuku is buried here, just let me die here too.”
Queen shakes her head, ”Not going to ‘kubeli. If you still insist on staying here, then I will also be here to accompany you. Just let Gunggali vanish with the time that swallows us,” said Queen Shachini who was gathered near the dry leafy grass.
”No... cannot,” Taja moved into the arms of Queen Shachini.
”Guardi must not perish..,” his body vibrates.
A cold wind blew, flying flakes of withered flowers and slapping to the bottom of the palace, mingling with dried leaves as well as broken branches. A full night of Euryn was covered in mourning chants, finally dimming at dawn beneath the eastern horizon.
The Surya dingsinged in the early morning which began to brighten. Its rays were penetrated into the cracks of Euryn which brushed its leaves.
Some fairies are on the verge of death. Their bodies slowly stiffened, no longer making a sound, then incarnated the mute trees forever, leaving traces of pain and grim countenance on the hard bark.
Some of them had been cowering paralyzed since dusk yesterday swallowing their fears and sick souls. Not many more perfect legs stepped in the courtyard, their bodies were already stuck in the palace walls. The bodies of dragonfly fairies, grasshoppers, and butterflies that always dance with a choir of thousands of insects, scattered on the ground or crashed into the roots.
The Red Snake Elhundi elf stepped limped, palpating the cavity wall that was no longer bright due to the light of the flowers. Half of his body began to tip the legs until the waist shriveled. His red-faced skin had turned into dry scales. And his once-glowing face had wrinkles full of stiff muscles, as well as his pair of blackened eyeballs covered in dust.
”Elhundi..,” there is a voice calling him from an indeterminate direction. The hearing of the Red Snake Elhundi was no longer sharp, it was confused looking in all directions. Before knowing who called, he collapsed first.
One figure emerged from the crack of the tree. He moved towards the Elhundi.
”Elhundi Red Snake!” calling him once to Elhundi was barely making a sound, unless both his hands flailed at the young figure that was holding him.
”Elhundi..,” Taja lamented the death of Elhundi the Red Snake. More than once he witnessed one by one the inhabitants of Euryn die.
”Only overnight, it turns out they are not strong against sadness. Sadness becomes our weakness,” a soft-spoken woman comes suddenly as the shadow of a dark figure breaks through the cavity.
”Who is it?” Taja.
One familiar face, emerging from behind one of the gaps that led to that cavity, ”This is me...”.
Taja watched over the figure that approached her, ”Neirra?”
The monkey girl threw a bitter smile at a glance, ”Are you also going to leave me like them?” ask him while touching Taja's cheek.
Taja who does not flinch, ”How about you finally leave me?” her tears were tense at the thought of the worst that would happen, ”Until finally all the residents of Euryn died?”
”More than that, the whole of Gunggali will perish..,” Neirra looked at Taja's eyes that were spinning around. The strained streak between his two eyebrows very clearly implied anxiety.
”Gunggali will perish?” Taja getting slacker, ”That's impossible!”
Neirra turned away from him and stepped to the edge of the open cavity into the outside scene. Taja followed Neirra walking there.
”Look at me, the trees have dried up!” Neirra stretched his arms out to the outside panorama. That day, it was not something as beautiful as they usually looked.
”How is it possible?!” Taja increasingly widened immediately see the drastic changes in nature around. Thousands of trees that yesterday spread green as wide as the eye can see, now only dry wood between the leaves scattered, ”No way!!”
”Queen ordered us to get out of here immediately, before the effects of the poison spread even more,” said Neirra had not yet released his eyes from the tragic panorama out there.
”What do you mean?” Taja did not understand the sentence that just said a Queen servant.
”We have to get out of here, as soon as possible!” neirra said firmly.
”And bring sadness wherever we go?” Taja pulled over when Neirra's hand touched her.
”No! Go back where I live, live and die I will be together like the others too!” He refused hard, turning his face.
”You will be the last to die here!”
”I don't care!!” taja's reply sounded much more resounding amidst Euryn's silence. For a moment they were silent, before he was about to leave from the side of Neirra.
”Part of the soul in you will die like another, but your soul is part human..will suffer in solitude, is that what you want?” neirra's sentence immediately tightened Taja's hasty steps.
”You?!” Turn around again.
”Remember, I am a whole human being!” Neirra reminded Taja.
”All my soul and body are human.”
Neirra approached Taja at his place, ”I don't want to see a human child die in Gunggali,” he said while holding Taja's hand.
”Close with me, we go as far away from here as possible, we can live and keep the secret of Gunggali forever.”
...* * *...
