Chosen: The Legend of Saqui

BOOK II CHAPTER I

BOOK II: THE HUNT FOR THE PFARRNO

CHAPTER I - ATTACK OF THE PFARRNO

Six months had passed since Saqui moved into the Grand Central Palace. In that time, she had learned to become a great queen.

She learned from Rimac, who was her chief aide, and representatives from each of the six tribes chosen by their peoples. The Council of Six, as they were called, not only taught her, they lived in the palace and were her governors.

One of her first decrees was that those who were purebloods could learn the ways of their tribal spirit. It had been strictly forbidden prior to her reign.

The tribes had lived in peace these past six months. Travel between the tribes became commonplace where before they stayed within their own. They shared their crops with the others. All were equals.

But the talk of all the villages was the Wedding of the Millennium, the union of Saqui and Jumoke. The size of this more than tripled than of Unity Day. Tens of thousands gathered to witness this once-in-a-lifetime event.

She was always a bit of a tomboy and often dressed like a boy. Her hair was shorter than most girls in the village.

She grew up wearing tatters for clothes. She had never worn a dress before, let alone one as elegant as the one she wore this day.

Today, she was transformed from a little girl into a beautiful woman. Women from all the villages came to pamper her and make her look perfect on her wedding day.

A royal dressmaker designed her dress exactly to her specifications. Since she would rule over the six tribes, Saqui asked that parts of all the tribes be represented in this dress. The dressmaker knew little about the other tribes, so she brought in women from the other villages to get their opinions.

When Saqui saw the finished product, she was overjoyed. The dressmaker exceeded her expectations.

The dress was pure white like the skyline of the Wuyi village, with specks of color throughout like the village of the Hinun. It was made of the finest fabrics of the Lefitray and different textures to represent the Patamon. It had a powerful look like a Tobbi princess would wear, yet a simple design like a Chican princess's.

It was an elaborate ceremony that began at sunrise and ended with the lighting of the unity fire as Cuminao was rising. Her grandfather Rucalaf walked her down the aisle. To her left, the spirit of her father Liwanu walked beside her. The ceremony included customs from the Chican (her home tribe), the Hinun (her father's tribe), and the Patamon (his native tribe).

The wedding cake was the biggest cake Saqui had ever seen. It had to be to serve so many people. It was checkered with her favorite cake and his favorite, checkered to show the union of the two.

The reception featured the finest foods from all the villages. Each tribe showed the newlyweds their traditional wedding dances.

Meanwhile in outer space, a comet was passing by Larunda. As it passed, a huge chunk from the comet's tail broke loose and was falling into the atmosphere. As it fell, it burned up, decreasing in size. By the time it landed, it had shrunk to about three feet in diameter.

The remnant crashed into Lake Isekemu outside of Aa Tlorec. The water caused the piece to slow.

Still, it was traveling fast enough to wake up a creature sleeping at the bottom of the lake. It hit the creature in the head.

When it woke, it was very angry. The creature wanted to destroy that which woke it from its slumber.

It walked out of the lake. As it did, the water level fell several inches. The creature stood two hundred fifty feet tall with bluish-green scales and weighed in excess of fifteen thousand tons. Inside its mouth were two rows of razor-sharp teeth. It made a horrific yell as it stepped onto land for the first time.

The Lefitray were terrified of the creature. Mass panic filled the streets as it destroyed trees, buildings, and anything in its path.

A few from the tribe tried to fight the creature, but its sheer size was too much for them. Instead, they used fire to drive it away from the village.

It retreated back to the lake. The Lefitray had saved their village for now. But they knew it would be back, and they were ill-equipped to handle it. They knew of only one way to stop the creature.

Some of them traveled to the Grand Central Palace to plead their case to Saqui. Rimac searched through his journals until he found what he believed it was.

"It must be the pfarrno," he concluded.

"The pfarrno?" Saqui inquired. "Is that not just a myth?"

"Apparently not."

The pfarrno was a mythological creature that was amphibious and had immense strength.

Legend had it that a thousand years ago, it terrorized the neighboring tribes. They were helpless to stop them. Their only course of action was to call upon a wizard to cast a spell putting it to sleep. It had remained at the bottom of Lake Isekemu since then.

"If this is the pfarrno, then I must check it out. The only wizard we know, Cunac, will not help us out. It is up to me to defeat it."