The River Knights

I woke up early in the morning, thinking about all the chores and work I would need to do around the house and village today and how boring it would be. I knew there was no point in trying to get back to sleep now cause the sun was level with my bedroom, glaring into my room. I got up, got into my work clothes and went down to eat breakfast with my parents who I knew were already up cause of the noise coming from below my room. Halfway through eating my breakfast my dad started talking to me about what work needed to be done today before he mentioned something that caught my mind. "What did you say dad?" I asked. "I said that your mother and I have decided that you can have today off and go exploring the jungle alone." When I received this news, I jumped out of my seat, ran upstairs and got changed into clothes suitable for exploring. "When can I leave?" I shouted out to my parents. "You can leave in 20 minutes once we've started work." When the time came to leave, I grabbed the last few things I knew I would need for my day trip and wondered off into the thick of the jungle. I had been told early in my life stories of men and women who have gone into the jungle and never returned. They say they had been taken into a clan of warriors hidden deep within the jungle known as The River Knights. As I walked along the path I questioned where I would go during the day and what time I should start to leave the jungle so I arrive home in time for dinner. I decided I would just go where I want and leave at around 5:00 in the afternoon. When I started to get thirsty, I reached into my bag for my drink bottle and realised that it was empty so I did a bit of bush bashing to try and find the nearest river. After about 10 minutes of bush bashing I found the main river of the jungle, knelt down at the bank to fill it up being careful not to slip into the river. I got halfway through filling up my drink bottle when I heard a rattle of leaves and the snap of a twig further down stream which struck fear into me. "It's the River Knights" I thought to myself. I quickly put the cap on my bottle and carefully walked along the bank of the river towards where the noise was coming from to see if I could find out what it is. About 20 metres down the bank, I could see animal footprints and human footprints filled with blood. "These must have been the footsteps of the River Knights enemies. I continued on down the river bank, ignoring the pools of blood at my feet before I heard the same rattle and snap as I had heard earlier, except this time it came from behind me. I turned around to see if there was anything there. I tried to scream but I couldn't cause I was in a state of shock... I was lookimg straight into the eyes of a River Knight. As I stood there in shock, he closely examined my body build (I think it was to see if I'm worthy to join their clan or not). "Your body shows worthiness of a warrior, will you join us or not?" He asked. I stood there for a minute or two thinking the decision over. "I have decided that I will join your clan and serve as a loyal warrior of the River Knights". Once I told him this, he performed a 'welcome to clan' dance/ceremony which included my face getting the traditional face painting completed and a lot of words which I did not understand. Once this had been completed, we walked to the where the clan was located, deep within the jungle hidden from everyone so that nobody can find out about them. As I walked in behind the knight who I had met at the river bank, all the clan members came out to see who they're 'elder' had brought into the clan. I followed him into a giant hut which had a sign out the front that said: Leader Nara's Hut which was engraved into a piece of wood. When we entered, I caught a sudden whiff of spices and paint, lots of it. At the back wall of the room sat a big chair with a tall and skinny man who I think was the leader of the clan. I was told to wait in the middle of the room while the elder continued to walk up to the leader, exchanged a few words and then signalled to me to approach. I walked slowly towards the two mean with the constant fear that their leader would not approve of me and then kill me instantly. Eventually when I was within 20 meters of the two, I stopped and the leader stood up out of his chair and did the exact same body examination that the elder and done to me in the jungle (must be a clan ritual of sorts). When he had finished, in their language he called for some assistants to being him 'special' ointments and jewellery as the final part of my change from a normal human being to a River Knight. Two ladies came a few minutes later, one holding a platter with different coloured ointments on it. The other had jewellery on a platter. I had seen some of the jewellery in the platter before in pictures I had been shown by my parents. First, their leader finished off the final painting of my body and then he placed the jewellery on my body where necessary. Once this had been completed, the rest of the clan came into the hut and stood in rows, shortest at the front and tallest at the back. I did not know what to think at the time but then realised what was going on, this was my official 'welcome to clan' ceremony! The whole clan, including leader started singing the same words the elder had sang earlier in the day but the ending was different this time. The elder who had found me came up to me and told me what had been said in the end in English. "Those last few words in the chant mean, Welcome to the River Knights!" He told me. When this had been said, there was celebration and it continued long into the night.

My name is Nathan Ballal, I used to live in a small village on the edge of the forest with my mum and dad but as of today, I am a River Knight.