Zea knelt, picked up her satchel and slid it over her head. As she stood she felt something pulling her satchel back she looked behind her and was surprised to see a strand of green yarn stretching back through the maze. Her heart began to flutter with happiness. " If I need to find my way back I can just follow my yarn." At that moment Zea was grateful for her mother's constant nagging, telling her that young women needed to learn to knit. She checked inside her satchel to see how much yarn she had left and was relieved to see that she had three more large balls left. She tied all of the ends together so that she wouldn't forget to tie them when each new roll ran out. she closed her satchel carefully so as to not block the yarn from flowing. She began to walk again, making sure that the yarn did not stop and that it caught on something every few steps so it wouldn't come unwound or break off and not be able to help her anymore. All at once the trees thickened as if reaching towards her with their long spindly fingers and the air became heavy with tension. Step by step it got worse until the light was snubbed completely and Zea's breath quickened. She could feel something lurking nearby and she didn't feel safe. She thought she heard something running through the trees. She could feel eyes watching her, following her every movement.
"Zea." She told herself, "You musn't be afraid you must be strong, think of the light think of the fun times with Manawa iki and Makua (father)." She remembered the peace she had felt when she had meditated so she sat down cross legged, closed her eyes and softly breathed in and breathed out. She felt her other senses sharpen and she suddenly could tell that no monster was lurking in this seemingly evil place. Just a very fast, agile, and quiet person. Although from the heavy sound of the person's boots, it seemed as if it was a man. And from the slight sound of someone trying to cover the sounds of their labored breathing, they may have been fast and agile but they, he didn't have very good breath control.
She slowly opened her eyes and called "Come out I know you're there and I know you are not a monster and are most likely a man. I am not scared of you. So come out, come out" Her voice petered out as the person stepped slowly out of the shadows. It was, in fact a man, a tall bulky man which explained the heavy footsteps. This man was one of the younger elders from the village. He was, in fact Akamai's brother. Besides being tall and bulky, he had dark skin, but not so dark as to blend into the shadows like Haku. He scrutinised her with bright, laughing blue eyes.
"Come," he said to her then he began walking, she jumped to her feet and followed him as he began turning sharply around corners going deeper into the maze. The turns were becoming closer and closer and Zea decided that that meant they were getting closer to the center. Suddenly he just disappeared leaving her in the middle of four branching passages. She turned in a circle wrapping herself in a length of yarn. She turned in a circle in the other direction, leaving a small pile of yarn in the underbrush. She began to contemplate what to do.
" I could just choose one and walk to the end of it. Yes that is it that is what I will do." First I will gather some of these Air Yams, not to eat though because they are poisonous." She said as she put some in her satchel. her stomach began to growl "I will just eat some of these sea grapes, and this papaya, with milk from this coconut." Zea thought outloud picking up each one as she said it's name. She sat down and bit into one of the sea grapes.
"Oh!" she exclaimed out loud without meaning to. "I forgot how sour sea grapes are." She set the light colored sea grapes into her bag and instead bit into the papaya. It was sweet and delicious she savored each bite for all it was worth. When it was gone, she picked up the coconut that she had set by her side. She began to peel the rough outer shell of the coconut off and when she got to the hard inner shell she picked up a big rock with a slightly sharp edge and began to hit the coconut around the equator of it. She broke it open carefully, making sure not to spill any of its precious milk she took a sip the a bite of her second papaya and went on like that until the milk was gone. Then she took the rick and began hacking away at the meat on one of the halves of the coconut. She slipped the other half inside her satchel to save the meat for later. She picked up another coconut and slipped it into her bag because she didn't know how much longer she was going be in the maze. As she finished eating the rest of the coconut meat she had pried from the half of the shell, she stood, reached into her now bulging satchel and pulled out an air yam. "These air yams won't, hopefully get eaten because they are poisonous." she told herself, bending over and setting it on one of the tall toadstools by the path she had just come through.
"Now I will just walk down this passage on the right and when I come back I will know where I have gone because of the air yam on that toadstool, also because of the yam's delicious fragrance." She straightened and began walking into the first of the four tunnels of trees. As she rounded the third bend she came to a dead end. By this time the trees were darkening not because they were getting thicker, but because it was becoming dark outside. Zea was becoming tired and she was still covered in sand from that stupid sinking trap. She was frustrated by the dead end but she knew she had to finish the test. She told herself " I can't give up. Im almost there and when I return to the crossroads I will only have two more tunnels left." Her personal pep talk seemed to work so she turned and followed her string back to the crossroads.
When she arrived Zea was tired and it was almost too dark to see. She pulled some huge elephant ear leaves out of the earth and wrapped herself in them. Her eyes eventually closed after staring at the stars and wondered how much longer she would be stuck in this maze.
YOU ARE READING
The Hero"Ka Me'e"
FantasíaThere was a loud booming clap of thunder, a bright flash of lightning, and then, out of nowhere it suddenly stopped. Many people volunteered to go and find out what was wrong. But the elders didn't want to risk innocent lives so they created a test...