GODS, TYRANTS AND MONSTERS

HAMU,

CAVES OF KALAMAN...

" Come on! Be quick!" the man with curly brown hair and a beard said as he walked down the red soil within the caves.

 
" I do not think we should be here! This place is sacred!" the thin and balding man spoke from behind. " What if we run into Hamu?"

 
" Jericho! How many times should I remind you that we are here because of your stupidity? You were supposed to watch me while I stole the gold."

 
" Forgive me!" Jericho, the balding man said.

 
" Good! Now be a man and keep quiet, unless you want the villagers to catch us!"

 
" They are savages!" Jericho said, recalling the red skinned villagers who chased them and shot an arrow at two of the men they had arrived with.

 
" Exactly, such savages do not deserve the gold they have! We should steal as much as we can!"

 
" Isaac, I was reading about the Caves of Kalaman. According to the book, kalamanians sacrifice the living to their God Hamu every blood moon, in order for her to recognize them. Every blood moon, Hamu devours the living and not the corps thrown to her." Jericho spoke, running his torch on the ancient writings.

 
" Blood moon? When is that?" asked Isaac.

 
" Let me see..."

 
The sound of rocks hitting the ground suddenly interrupted them as they stopped.

 
" What was that?" whispered Jericho.

 
The sound of someone sobbing followed.

 
" Someone is crying." Whispered Isaac, running his torch around the dark cave. Movement behind them followed as they turned around and found nothing.

 
" Somebody is here!" whispered Jericho.

 
Suddenly, Isaac saw a red hand behind one of the rocks.

 
" Hey!" he yelled, his torch bringing light to the kalamanian who slowly rose to her feet, her brown eyes blood shot.

 
" Savage!" he hissed, pulling out his pistol but Jericho stopped him.

 
" It is just a woman! She is alone!"

 
" Two of our friends are dead because of her people! Why should we spare her?!"

 
The woman raised her hands in the air, beads dangling over her wrists.

 
" What is she doing here on her own? Maybe she was banished by the villagers." Jericho said, moving closer to the woman who moved backwards.

 
" Hey, I won't hurt you!"

 
" Jericho, didn't you say that believers wore bracelets around their wrists?" Isaac asked in concern.

 
" Yes, why do you..." before he could finish, something pulled him up into the dark.

 
" Jericho!!!!" yelled Isaac, moving his torch up. Bones fell before him and Isaac screamed crazily before moving backwards.

 
" Nai na ta gwako guin,"  the woman before him spoke in a deep voice. She was like a witch, her long hair braided with beads and white paint tattooed on her red skin.

 
Isaac froze in fear.

 
" Why did you come here sailor?" she asked again, her voice foreign as she walked towards him.
" You steal our gold for your selfish needs."

 
" I am not a sailor, I am a ..."

 
" Treasure hunter?" she finished the words for him.

 
Isaac turned around and began to run for his life, hearing the foreign hums of the kalamanians bursting inside his head. His body began to wear down and he decomposed into nothing but bones that hit the ground and sunk below the soil.

 
Jericho's bones sunk below the soil as well while the woman sang a foreign song, her body twitching like a demon.

 
The soil began to move before her as a beast with men bones on its back appeared, crab like claws pulling it way out of the soil. Seeing the beast, the woman fell on her knees and whispered, " Hamu, great Lord of the souls...I bring before you, living souls for you to devour on this blood moon."