Homeland: Fight of our own

Heritage & Legacy

After your little revelation with the shaman, you gratefully thanked them for everything before resuming your chronic journey. Both Gusti Agung, the shaman, and Guntur had been very nice to you that after you informed them to where you're heading, they gladly gave you a few supplies that can help you in your journey.

Guntur even gave you some of his personal stock of Sumatra mandheling coffee beans. When you asked him why didn't he just gave you some of the coffee beans that he personally grew then taking some from his collection of coffee beans.

He said that it's because you didn't like bitter coffee very much, so it will be inconsiderate of him to just gave you something that he knew you wouldn't like. At least that was the kinder connotation of what he's trying to say to you...

Before you left, Gusti Agung did nothing more than stare at your eyes while mumbling incoherent words, when you asked him what was he doing, he only smiled before claiming that he was only praying his last prayers for your safety.

Knowing well that the unusual old shaman has equally unusual behaviour, you only shrugged your shoulders. Not thinking much about the meaning behind his words.

You bid the two people goodbye, and run off to your meeting place with Soekarno and Hatta where you then inform them as well to where you're planning to head on to. They agreed to help by using their connections to give you a ride to your destination.

And that's how you arrive to the Keraton Royal Palace.

It has definitely been a while since the last time you visit the palace, and after a few days of travel, and passing by 4 pairs of familiar banyan trees, you finally arrived to your destination. In the entrance, you can see trees that are neatly lined up as if to path your way through the palace. They may seem like an ordinary tree in the eyes of others, but for you who can see the unseen, you noticed beautiful fairies and other powerful spirits as well.

Unlike the type of fairies in UK, which Arthur told you about, the fairies here have a different form. They're not tiny, instead, they took a child-like form to signify purity. As they seat themselves among the trees, watching over the people, while occasionally listens into their confide.

As you arrived, it was just like what your mother had said, everything was prepared for you. The moment you mentioned your name to the guards standing by the gates, one of them made his way inside instantly to inform the sultan, before coming back with a few people to escort you.

When you make your way you observed your surrounding to find that almost nothing has changed since the last time you visit the palace.

In each entrance stood a pair of statues stationed against the wall. They serve as mediums or physical embodiment for the powerful guardian who watches over the palace. Their job is to watch the people who have evil intentions closely and punish those who have done immoral or selfish deeds within the palace walls.

The outer palace walls, pillars, up to the wooden roof beam supporting the ceiling was painted in simple white, accompanied with jade-like green, and accessorized with hints of gold. But the further you venture in the palace, the more you can see that they started to use the colour black instead of white, to further add contrast and emphasis on the increasing number of gold decorations as you went further. The temptation of power and greed is unpredictable, especially after seeing the splendour within the palace. But no matter how grand it is, it will never compare to what it once was.

It will never compare to the first palace that the people built here, that was taken away from the people by the british.

The first palace was built in 1755, for the first sultan of Yogyakarta, Hamengkubuwono the first. It was one of the monarch's first acts after the signing of the Treaty of Giyanti, which recognized the creation of the Sultanate of Yogyakarta under the Dutch East Indies Company, the same company which saves the Netherlands from bankruptcy to solvency.