The Angkhora Warriors

Part 4: The Lake

The water was deep and cold. She could tell from the way Sriga's mouth shivered. He dove, resurfaced, and spouted water from his mouth. She smiled at his silly splashing and frolicking in the lake. It was incredibly inviting but, no, she wasn't going to join him.

"Hey, jump in!" shouted Sriga. "The water will make you happy! Come. Come! Just take off your clothes and jump in!"

"Shut up," Dinda shook her head.

"I won't look. I promise." He turned around.

You are the Wolf that my mother warned me about.

"Nope," Dinda said firmly.

"Awwwww..." Sriga moaned his disappointment.

He swam toward the shore and stood up from the water. Dinda couldn't help but look at the scars all over his body. A claw mark on his chest. Another long claw mark on his lower abdomen that snaked all the way down. She looked away.

"Scars from the Fighter Tournament." He noticed her studying his body. "This was from Stinging Dragon." He pointed to the claw mark on his chest. "And this was from Tiger Girl." He touched the long claw mark that trailed all the way to his private region. Dinda looked from the side of her eyes then turned away again. "A girl did that to you there?"

"Err, yeah. She was fierce. Very fierce."

There was an awkward silence and Dinda didn't want to probe further.

"Oh, the water is so refreshing. You should really try it."

"Nope," she reiterated firmly.

Sriga dried himself, put on his clothes, and sat down. "What's that?" He pointed to the green beans at Dinda's side.

"Lotus seeds," she answered.

"Where did you get them?"

She pointed to the lotus flowers that were growing in abundance at the side of the lake. Sriga looked back at the seeds and a lotus bud that Dinda had plucked out. "You've never tried them?" she asked. She plucked up a seed and offered it to him. "Here, try it."

He gingerly pinched the seed from her palm and put it into his mouth, slowly tasting it, then munched it. "Mmmmmm, sweet." His eyebrows raised, surprised. "Nice." He moved closer to her, grabbed more lotus seeds, and put them in his mouth. "Mmmmmm, yummy, yummy." He grinned as he chewed, leaning back on his elbows beside her on the bank.

"Hey, tell me about your Mother. Your Clan," Dinda asked in a soft tone.

Sriga's munching slowed. His eyes glazed at he stared at the surface of the water as though his mother was standing there. "She was the most beautiful woman you would ever meet."

"Human?" Dinda asked.

"No, werewolf," Sriga answered. "Dad is Human. He got hurt during a hunting trip. Mom saved him. Healed him. And one thing led to another. There were three of us. White, Black, and Gray. I'm the youngest. I remember running, chasing, and wrestling with my brothers, fighting with Black, the second eldest. He was a fierce fighter. White, the eldest, would always intervene and pull him out from the fight.

"So... what happened?" Dinda asked.

"The Wolf Clan and the Snake Clan have been at war for eons. Don't ask me why. It's the stupid war I was telling you about. The stupidness of adults. Unlike children, they don't play together. One day, the Snake Clan decided to attack. They wiped out the entire village, the whole Wolf Clan." His eyes were deep and shadowed. The Snakes are deadly assassins. Blowpipes. Flying stars."

"And this dagger?" Dinda held out the red jaded dagger.

"Dad gave it to Mom before he died. He said it would protect all of us. The magic would show itself. He was killed in the battle with the leader of the Snake Clan, but Mom managed to escape with the three of us. White had learned some magic. He managed to trick some of the assassins."

He paused as memories flashed through his mind. She could tell he was struggling with them and wondered if he would share more. Finally, he spoke again, his voice low, almost a whisper. "I was young, but i remember the screaming. The fire. Mother carrying me, running and hiding from corner to corner. My brothers fighting off the Snake assassins to protect her, protect us. White conjured up a thick white smoke for us to escape into. Black bit and clawed at our pursuer ferociously. My father screaming Run, run, run. He stopped, shrugging as though trying to shed the day, the attack, the loss. Then he turned to her with solemn eyes. "And now the dagger is yours."

Dinda looked down at the blade she now held in her lap, realizing how precious it was to Sriga, thinking whether to return it to him. "You keep it, Dinda." Sriga read her mind.

"What happened to your mom after that?" she asked.

"We hid in a village for a while. We were so poor, and Mom could hardly feed all three of us. She had to sell my brothers. Black was sold to the Mongoose Clan. White was sold to a travelling circus." The corner of his mouth curved down. "I was the only one she kept. When mother fell sick, I took care of her. Just like you. I took care of her till she breathed her last. She died from the sickness, and I've roamed the streets ever since."

Sriga teared up and Dinda leaned in and hugged him. His shoulders shook as he allowed himself to cry deeply. She kept her arms tight around him, aching for him, her heart breaking at his loss. And though she would hold him for as long as he needed and felt a strong pull to never let go, she reminded herself, I must not kiss him.

"How would you know?" Sriga asked.

"Huh?" Dinda was surprised by his question and realized he had stopped weeping and had dried his eyes, looking at her now with a mirroring yearning she felt in her heart.

"That your kiss is deadly?" he whispered, his face so close to hers she could feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek.

For a moment, she doubted herself. She wanted to. Maybe she'd been wrong all this while. Maybe what her mother had forbidden her from doing was a fallacy. Maybe there was no curse after all.