Legend of Antalasia

Chapter 7

"Antalasia come quickly. Popo and Jojo are hitting each other," shouted Bella, one of the village girls.

Popo and Jojo were rolling on the ground, from one end to the other. Punching, kicking and wrestling, they made the dust fly everywhere.

They rolled a little further this time and Popo almost hit his head against a rock. "Stop. Stop that right now," shouted Antalasia with her hands on her hips.

Michaelo pulled the boys apart and stood between them, stopping them from launching at each other.

"Now, what is going on here and one at a time," said Antalasia, a bit calmer now that the boys had stopped fighting.

"He broke my cart." "He broke my Rhazaqat." The boys shouted, pointing fingers at each other.

"Enough. What's happened has happened. Let's fix them together," mediated Antalasia.

"Really? Can we fix it? I was going to throw it away," asked the boys surprised.

Rolling her eyes, Lizzy responded, "We built a swing and a see-saw from scratch. Why can't we fix toys?"

While the children mended their toys, Lizzy sat on a rock, singing to her heart's content. Enamored, a few other village children joined her singing. 

Soon, the toys were fixed and Popo squealed as he dragged his wooden cart. Jojo ran around making grunting noises and swinging the wooden Rhazaqat, pretending to be one himself.

"Now that it's over, let's go play the battle game. I'll defend the castle over here. You can defend that one," shouted Michaelo excitedly.

Everyone agreed and split into teams. They were about to take their positions when one of the village children shouted, "Look, the Karas are here again! The Karas are here!"

Dwarf-sized donkeys were pulling little carts filled with goods. The adults followed herding a tribe of goats. A few young children sat in the carts while others ran along with the caravan. They soon made their way to the village and began setting up camp in a practiced, orderly fashion. 

Six Karas tribesmen began setting up a makeshift pen for the goats. Two tribesmen quickly unbridled the donkeys and began rubbing them down. A few others made quick work of pitching small flat-roofed tents. They fixed the wooden poles and tied them tightly with rope and then draped a yellow-pumpkin material that seemed to be animal's skin. The material fell to the ground on all sides with a flap on one that could be lifted to enter. The edges were further strengthened by tying them to heavy rocks.

However, the most attractive sight were the dome-shaped colorful tents - in stripes of yellow and red, blue and orange, and green and pink. These were open on all sides and the Karas began setting up their wares which they had collected from all over the kingdom.

One of the tents had fish skin hanging from the roof and the tables were covered with bottles filled with blue liquids, orange pastes, and grey powders. The young tribeswoman selling them looked equally bright, wearing a red patterned skirt and top. Her curly brown hair was covered in a similar red bandana that made her pale-grey eyes pop. She showed no signs of discomfort as she gracefully stacked colorful bottles, despite her neck being completely covered with white chokers and arms filled with white bangles made of bones.

Seeing Antalasia and the other children, the tribeswoman shouted in excitement, "Haiyiti, over here. Would you like to try this ointment? It will heal the wound on your hand by tomorrow. No? Would you like to try this powder? It will make you fairer. All these are made by the fishermen, the Gemmas. They are the best quality. Come and try!"