Read Online The Triangle and The Mountain: A Bermuda Triangle Adventure by Jake von Alpen - Free Book Online

picture.
    “Now Oqtis is king and he wants to see you,” he said
quietly.
    “Has he told you what it was about?”
    “No, but it is an urgent matter. You have to come with me
now.”
    “Unfortunately we have some business to attend to tomorrow.
We will travel on the day after tomorrow.”
    “The king will not be pleased.”
    “Tell the king we regret that we cannot come with you
immediately but that we will definitely be there.”
    “I will stay until you leave.”
    “No, you cannot do that. Do you have children?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, what we do here could affect you so badly that all
the children your wife has in future will look like baboons.”
    The messenger’s eyes widened. “Fine, I will not stay any
longer. I’ll take your message to the king.” He stood up to leave.
    “Don’t you want to eat some meat with us before you go?”
    “No, I’m not hungry.” With that he picked up his spear and
his throwing stick and hopped onto the rock that was the first one of the path
out.
    The sorcerers had nothing to do the next day of course, but
the master did not want to give people the impression that he was at everybody’s
beck and call. Especially if it was a new young king.  They barbequed more of
the meat and left some overnight. Over the fire the master told more stories of
the good old days and Aitsi-!uma, his predecessor.
    “When I was your age,” he said, “people came to us all the
time. Aitsi-!uma was very strict with them. She demanded many things, like food
for us and access to the pregnant mothers at all times.
    “What did they come for?”
    “Mostly, it was to get our help in warfare. You don’t hear
about it so much now, but in those days the tribes of our people fought all the
time. Every day the men of the tribe would send the young boys out to look
after the cattle and the sheep while they stayed behind making weapons. Some
made arrows, some made spears and others were training the oxen for battle.
They did this because they knew sooner or later they were going to use them.”
    “What did they fight about?”
    “Everything. Sometimes it was a squabble at about a waterhole
that started the war. Sometimes it was a new area of grazing that just sprouted
after being burnt. Sometimes they fought about women.”
    “What did Aitsi-!uma do?”
    “She did what all the custodians before her did. She told
them who was right and who was wrong and they had to abide by it.”
    “And if they did not?”
    “Then they knew what the consequences would be. Once, there
was a war between the Hessequa and the Attaqua . The Hessequa came to her first but the Attaqua never came. She prepared the potions
and called on the powers of the serpent. A cloud came over, full of lightning.
It struck inside the enclosure of the Attaqua and killed all the cattle
of the chief.”
    “Did it settle the war?”
    “Yes, it did. The Attaqua could not have a chief who
owned no cattle, so they had to find another elder to take over as their leader.
This man made peace with the Hessequa .”
    “Have the Hessequa given you many babies after that?”
    “We were invited every time they slaughtered a cow or a goat.
Those were good times.”
    “So in those days all the tribes listened to us?”
    “In those days, yes. There was the time that Cochoqua was fighting with the ChariGuriQua . Eventually the chief of the Cochoqua came here to the mountain himself. Aisi-!uma prepared the potions and danced. A
few days after that a giant whirlwind came up in the night and took away the
houses of the ChariGuriQua , together with the people and the cattle and
sheep. Not one person in the house of the chief survived.”
     “But nowadays,” said Hadah, “they don’t come so often.”
    “It’s because of the Dutch,” said the master. “They have guns
that shoot better than our arrows and they come with horses that are faster
than our oxen. People are more scared of the Dutch than they are of Aitsi-!uma
or you and I.”
    “I