The Angkhora Warriors

Part 5: Naga Festival

The SkyOcean was calm and beautiful. Sriga held the lantern steady and waited for the candle to burn straight and strong. Then he slowly let his hands go. The lantern was pink, Dinda's favorite color. Her face glowed with joy as the paper lantern floated upward slowly. It meandered like a butterfly, eventually joining thousands of others in the night sky.

"Did you make a wish?" he asked.

"I thanked the gods that my father has returned, and asked that Mother would heal. One day," she added.

He looked at her and she turned her face to him, her heart full of hope.

"What about you?" she asked. "Did you make a wish?"

Sriga looked to be giving it thought for a moment. "I thanked the gods for a new friendship... and meeting a really cute girl."

Dinda clicked her tongue and said, "Shut up."

"A really cute girl with a cute smile and cute eyes." Sriga put on all his charm.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She stuck her tongue out at him and ran away, laughing.

Sriga followed, his own laughter chasing her through the crowd. They reached a group of villagers and kids who had gathered to watch a shadow play, and sat down on the grass along with the other villagers. The kids were excited to see musicians on stage getting ready with their flutes, cymbals, small drums, moon shaped string-instruments, and gamelans. The parents asked the kids to sit and calm down as the gamelan gave out an echoing, mesmerizing gong. The crowd settled in and quietened down. The kids gasped when the puppeteer lifted the first two puppets, creating two giant shadows on the big white cloth-screen.

The story of Creation began.

The gods created humans in their own image. They were the chosen ones to rule the world. Humans were given strength and intellect superior to all other living beings, ensuring their dominance. But as the gods proceeded to create the rest of the world, they saw that it would be good if the humans had some helpers to enrich their lives and thrive.

So, the gods created asuras. The purpose of asuras would be to serve humans, to support them, to help them. The gods forbid humans and asuras from having relationships beyond the master and servant bond. Any violation of this decree would be punished harshly by the gods.

Once humans and asuras were created, the gods conceived the first of a special breed of human known as Guardians. The Guardians were tasked with protecting the world beneath the SkyOcean. The first two Guardians were Addim and Erra, born from the womb of Gaia, mother of all. Being the first two Guardians, they were granted the power to transform into Nagas, the serpentine dragons.

It was because of this creation that a jealous, deceitful asura, the Worm, sought to have that power so that he could free himself from the laws of asura and mankind. He would serve no one but himself. So, the Worm used his devious charms to convince Erra that she was not beautiful enough and that the only way to be more beautiful would be to take a bite of that which was forbidden, the Dragon Fruit. The Worm repeated his deceit by convincing Addim that he too should eat from the Dragon Fruit. He promised Addim that biting from the forbidden fruit would make him more powerful and all-knowing.

After eating the fruit, both Addim and Erra knew that they were guilty of sin and had corrupted the sanctity of the gods' creation. Addim went insane with lust and saw the illusion of a beautiful woman. As he lay with the woman, his lust would not allow him to see that it was in fact the Worm that he was making love to. Erra, who was heartbroken and consumed with guilt and shame, turned herself into dust and became the Spice Mountain. The Worm, having made love to Addim, gained the ability to transform into human form and became one of the most powerful beings to walk the earth, the Dark Lord. Addim, weakened, realized that he had lost his dominion and vowed that he must continue his lineage, with the hope that children of the Naga will regain dominion one day. Many battles were fought between the Dark Lord and generations of human kings. Lives were lost. It was only in the last war, when the Light King was able to defeat the Dark Lord, that Humans took their rightful place as rulers and protectors of Angkhora.