Blue Moon

C H A P T E R 14

MAYARI

ARRAH

Water–I could feel it around me when I came to. Trepidation gripped me when I realized I was drowning. Using the last strength I had, I propelled myself up to the surface and into shallow depths.

My bare feet touched the soft ground underwater. Breaking into the surface, I hastened to move inland. The bone-chilling waters had me trembling and my skin prickled at the whispers of the night air.

Where am I?

Only the light reflected from the moon over the clear sky illuminated where I stood, trees lining one side. This was not the Redwoods' territory.

'That's as far as you can go.'

Clothed in a colorful robe, a young woman with flowing black hair and fairer skin motioned for the women to stay on the bank. Her language was foreign but I understood.

From there, a long bamboo bridge lighted by torches led to a rectangular bamboo enclosure near the middle of the lake. The four corners of the enclosure were made up of four large bamboo poles braced together to form columns with torches attached at the top while large bamboo poles dotted the spaces between them, connected by bamboo screens–much like a mini-pool within the lake.

'Leave me.'

The women took a few steps away and turned their backs but never went far from the bank.

Though annoyed at her denied request, she closed her eyes and schooled her face into a passive one. Her robe hit the bamboo bridge floor as she stepped down into the waters naked as the day she was born.

She looked upon the sky and its lone moon.

'How long do I have to wait?'

I was about to call her when the waters shifted and I was pulled under again. Though struggling, I noted that four bamboo columns reached the lakebed and were reinforced by bamboo scaffoldings that also supported the bottom of the rectangular chamber that the woman entered. Unlike me, she wasn't touching the silty ground.

I closed my eyes as the waters claimed me. I thought it was the end but I was wrong.

* * *

The next scene that greeted me was a parade of sorts. Standing among the crowd of a tribe, I watched as four grown men each supported a pole where a hammock was tied and carried a person fully covered in cloth. Walking alongside the hidden passenger were four women. Two of them were carrying parasols made of coconut leaves, protecting the veiled passenger from the blazing sunlight. Long hair covering their breasts bound by brown cloths and wearing long wraparound skirts reaching their ankles, they were the servants tasked to attend to the revered passenger.

Top bare and wearing loincloths, the men appeared to be slaves. The men, like all the people around me, were tanned but unlike the rest of them, muscular. They made carrying a litter look as easy as breathing. The other people's clothes were by far different from what the maiden I saw before wore and from what enveloped the unknown passenger and her entourage. Theirs were colorful but duller and shorter, made of woven materials. It lacked luster.

The men had thick headbands and wore vests covered with spiral Okir. A short-curved sword tied with a thick sash over the pant-like clothing that reached just above their knees. The women wore a cropped top with bracelet sleeves and a long dress reaching their ankles, all covered with angular Okir. They had a sash tied around their hips and across their body and were covered with accessories made of beads and shells. All of them, barefoot.