The Angkhora Warriors

Part 14: Lovers

Just a few more minutes, Uma told herself as she kept as still as possible in the wooden maze. She and the other adepts endured the challenge of staying in the Wooded Halls all night without being noticed, or at least being able to slip away if seen. The Wooded Halls was a construct of wooden mazes stacked upon one another, hundreds of hallways leading up and down and side to side. It was the hall where disciples of the Snake Clan were trained for stealth, camouflage, and escape.

Morning would break soon.

"Hello, Uma," an instructor's voice came from behind.

Shit.

Guru Gaazu. The woman had frog eyes and patches of her skin were a shimmery green. She was the last instructor you would want to come across since she could jump twice as far as anyone else in the Halls.

Uma used the last of her smoke bomb she'd been given before the test, then jumped through several doorways to go up to the next level. She continued to ascend the levels until she'd gone up five flights. After a few more corners, she lowered herself into the shadows. She thought she was safe, but she heard Guru Gaazu landing lightly on her feet nearby.

Damn.

She stopped her breathing.

The instructor passed her and didn't see her as she slunk away and vanished down another hallway. The morning finally came, and a loud bell rang throughout the Wooden Halls. All the instructors and the adepts who'd made it through the night emerged from the wooden construct.

Uma stepped out onto solid ground and scanned around for Oja, but she wasn't among the adepts. Had she been caught in the night?

The other three adepts walked out from the maze. But Oja was still missing.

"Come down, Oja," one of the instructors said and everyone looked up to see the young woman standing at the very top of the construct.

She jumped and slid down the vertical surface, kicking off the wooden wall when she neared the ground to allow her to roll. She walked over to Uma and joined her side.

"I saw you in the shadows," Oja said to Uma.

"I almost got caught," Uma sighed.

"I stayed quiet on the top floor the entire night," Oja said with a smile. "Not a single close call."

"You are always the quietest one," Uma said.

"Well Done! All of you have trained well!" the head instructor proclaimed. "You have graduated the Wooded Halls!"

All of them clapped.

A few moments later, they dispersed. Oja and Uma thanked the instructors.

"Hey, let's go celebrate!" Oja suggested to Uma.

"Beef noodle?" Uma asked.

"No, I want to mark this achievement," Oja said. "Let's go get tattoos!" Something both of them had always wanted. "We need to mark our achievement. Not many people make it through the maze on the first time."

"I didn't doubt either of us for a second," Uma said.

Oja nodded and the two sprung into the rocky area, jumping toward the village with new excitement. The tattooist hand-tapped the design on their back with a wooden stick attached with a needle-like snake fang dabbed in black ink and a little bit of red and blue.

When done, both of them admired their tattoos on the mirror.

"Twin Snakes," Oja admired. "Protect. Love. Fight," she proclaimed.