Janu leaned on a tree. His breath was still heavy after running. He was still staring blankly at the slash he had drawn a couple moments ago. His finger, caressing the scratch, peels off the tree layers a little just to make sure it's a reality.
"So… we are just circling around?"
"Pretty much."
Janu let out a deep sigh. "I really hate this place."
"You just realized it now?"
"Nothing. Just venting my frustration."
He let his body give up and stumbled into the tree roots. His feet are aching. His shoulders stiffened because carrying the backpack felt heavier. His head was spinning. Since trapped in this place, he kept moving without a break.
"... I'm really tired."
"That I know of."
Janu looks up at the sky, still at night. The pale moon and black clouds are still in the same position. Like times indeed are petrified in this place.
"If somehow I'm still trapped here until I'm old, what then?"
"Perhaps not," said Jantaka. "Your age will still be twenty-five years in here."
"Wow," Janu glances away. "I found the fountain of youth huh"
Jantaka giggles, then is silent. That makes Janu anxious.
"What is it?"
"... There's something" answered Jantaka in an alarmed manner. "A living being this time."
Janu stood up again. "Human?"
"No."
Janu sighed. "Then if not human, what then? "
"I am not yet certain."
Janu slowly turned his body. The forest around them is still dark as ever. The branches stood still in place like a solid black wall. Suddenly a cracked branch rattled. Then thin fogs keep moving between the trees.
Janu spontaneously reached for the badik. "Don't say those pocong again."
"No," replied Jantaka. "The fog appears gray, not red this time."
"Then what?"
RUSTLE.
There's another voice. The distances are pretty close. Same time with the fog sliding slowly. Then two yellow dots appear from the trees.
Janu stood still. There are no more two dots. Four. Six. Eight pairs of cat-like eyes appear from the darkness.
"... Jantaka."
"I see it too."
The first figures that emerge from the shadows. Its frame is big and coated in black fur, almost blended with the night.
"... Panther?! "Janu rustle. His feet step back.
Slowly, the other three start showing up. They keep moving, almost silently. No growling, roar, or any sign of aggression.
"No way," Janu shook his head. "They shouldn't be here. This is not their habitat."
The biggest panther stood at the most front. Its eyes bright golden yellow, only its gaze not that of a wild beast hunting its prey. The second panther circled slowly. The third panther just sits under a tree. While the last one stands still on the rear, as if guarding the retreat.
"What—" Janu glanced in disbelief. "This is not the norm."
"Do not move too much. We never know when they will attack."
Janu is shivering. The hand holding badik starts trembling. He feels like a livestock that is being checked before slaughter.
Those four pairs of menacing eyes sharply gazed straight at Janu. The biggest panther blinked one time. Then slowly bowed its head—
ROOAARRR.
The roar shook the entire forest. The ground beneath trembling. The dried leaves falling. The sky feels pulsating so fast, like being impacted by a big wave of air from far away.
The four panthers then launched into action. Lowering their body. Ears parallel with the ground, widening.
Janu sees it clearly. "They are… afraid?"
"Silence." Replied Jantaka seriously.
ROOAARRR.
"Got any plans?"
"Run"
"Finally a comprehensive sugges–"
CRACK.
Something inside the forest is being snapped. The voice was like a tree branch being snapped forcefully.
CRACK.
Red fogs appear again, from the left side of Janu. Then the ground pulsated slowly, like something heavy that jumped and fell. The air feels chilly again.
Janu is shouting, "JANTAKA!"
"RUN!"
And Janu immediately turned away, then sprinted with much of his left strength into the dark forest. While something big keeps moving from the trees.
***
Janu stands and starts running just after his legs feel like giving up. He slammed his back against a large tree trunk. His chest heaved violently. His throat felt like it was being burned. In the distance, he could still hear branches snapping and the sound of giant footsteps—he had no idea whose they were.
Then slowly everything went quiet. The sound of birds chirping, the buzzing of the insects, and even the wind feels like it has stopped breathing.
Janu checking the surroundings once more. "... Are we still alive?"
"For the moment."
"There you go, those unsettling answers again."
"... I am still pondering."
"Oh my ghost, like, what could you be thinking?"
Jantaka not responding.
Janu rubbed his face violently. This is the first time Jantaka sounds like running out of solutions. He then sat on a tree root that poked out from the ground. His feets still shaking from running. Those four panthers still haunt his thoughts.
BAM.
"What now!?"
A wild boar pops out of the trees. Its body is massive. One of his tusks broke off on the tip. Its snout filled with mud. It's breathing in a hurry.
Janu froze.
The creature looked back, then left and right. Almost like something chasing it, but there's nothing from the way it appears. It stopped in the middle of the way. Its body is also tense. Its eyes widened. Then its head moving slowly following something in the air.
Janu is shivering. "... What is it looking for?"
"Something that hunts it."
The wild boar suddenly let out a loud shriek. Then turned around and started running into the forest cluelessly.
Janu glanced at the direction of the vanishing animal. He rubbed his face. His head is filled with panthers, pocong, and now… wild boars.
"Or is it…" he muttered, "every being present here is being trapped?"
"Most likely."
"So, it's not only me that is stranded," continued Janu. "If every being here is trapped—and maybe they're hunting each other—that means this is not your average forest."
"... So, what do you say in this matter?"
Janu bowed. "This is an arena.."
His hands reached for the badik in his backpack. And unbeknownst to him also, the presence keeps getting clearer, like a living object in a slumber.
Janu unsheathes its black sheath carefully.
"Do not be careless."
"I just wanted to see it," said Janu while touching the handler.
BADUMP.
Janu immediately froze. A throbbing sensation spreads to his arm. At first—it's just a millisecond—then he sees something: tall grasses. Flame blazing. People whispering. Then four pairs of yellow eyes were scouting from the smoke. Then all of that snapped instantly.
Janu threw the badik to the ground. "Fuck!"
"What?"
"I got vision again," said Janu in panic. "But I'm not familiar with it. Do you know what that is?"
"... Unfortunately, no."
Janu blinking. "What?"
"I do not know."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes."
Janu fell silent. Jantaka's answers from before felt too short. Usually that old spirit always has rhetoric, sarcasm, or generally annoying answers, but now, none of that. And that is more unsettling for Janu.
"Hey," called Janu. "You really don't know any of that?"
"None at all."
Janu frowned. "You serious? Don't lie."
"I am not."
Janu is scratching his head. If Jantaka doesn't know, then it means nobody could ever come up with an explanation.
"The further we go …" said Jantaka, "more bizarre things that should not be possible happen."
Janu crouches and takes that badik with utmost care. This time, no pulse, no vision, just a piece of cold metal and a wooden sheath.
"... I'm starting to hate this thing."
BAMP.
The sound of bushes shaking can be heard again.
Janu turned. He lifted up the badik, but nothing happened. The forest is still the same. The fog still looks greyish. The trunks were still covered in the darkness of the night. Then quiet again.
Janu slowly lowered his hands. "Pocong?"
"No."
"Tiger?"
"No."
"Then what?"
Not yet an answer from Jantaka was uttered; suddenly badik in Janu hand pulsing—THUMP. THUMP-THUMP. THUMP—like a heartbeat but in chaotic manner.
Janu slowly turned his body. He's not receiving any vision, but he feels like something is softly pulling him, barely perceptible. Like an unseen nerve, connected deep into the forest. Each time he turned to another direction, the pull disappeared, then appeared again, and became more present.
"That pulse …" Jantaka speaks softly, "it appears wanted to tell us something."
"Is it a way out?"
"That also, I do not know."
"You're serious, still clueless until now?"
"I at most certainly do not know."
Janu wipes sweat from his forehead; he keeps getting nervous. If Jantaka ran out of answers, then whatever awaits them is far more ancient than both of them combined.
"Shit." Janu tightly gripped the badik. "If I stay still here, I don't even know if I'm safe."
He took out a flashlight from his backpack and turned it on. Then along with faint pulses from the badik in his hand, he took a step forward, into the beating heart of the darkness inside the forest.
***
Badik on Janu hand keeps pulsing. The vibration spreads into the bones of his arm. The hand handling the flashlight soon followed trembling.
THUMP—THUMP.
Janu gulping. That pulse keeps getting stronger when he directs the flashlight into root networks that pop up from the ground. Those roots look like a giant snake frozen mid-movement.
"I think this is the source," said Janu while keeps getting closer.
"Slowly," said Jantaka. "There's something present—"
WHAMP!
Janu instantly spins. Suddenly a panther sprung out. Its jet-black body blended with the night. Its muscles are stretching when lunging towards Janu.
"BASTARD!"
Janu's instinct took over—lifting his badik.
"LOOK OUT!"
The panther pounced. Janu reflectively pulled his arm towards the back. But its huge claw clashed with the badik sheath and made it bounce from his grasp. The weapon spun in the air and fell a few meters from him.
The panther changed its course. The creature pounced once more but not toward Janu, rather to the badik itself.
"The badik! They are targeting that!" Yelled Jantaka.
"What does that mean!?"
A second panther pops out from the trees. Strangely, it also doesn't charge Janu but the badik. They move fast, in panic, trying to overtake each other.
But Janu takes the leap seconds ahead of them. His hand reached the handle. At the same time, the first panther lunged, but Janu badik moved faster.
TUB—CRASSS!
The tip of the badik struck the front shoulder of the panther, accompanied with its long claw tore Janu leather jacket.
A deafening roar struck the night.
A massive body slammed Janu until both of them tumbled on the ground.
Janu let out the badik. Pain suddenly engraved itself in his left arm. "ARGHH!"
The panther jumped back, limping. Dark reddish blood dripping from its wound.
The second panther stood in front, obstructing the wounded panther. It doesn't chase Janu, just lets out a short growl. Gaze straight into the badik.
Janu, still gasping for breath, and blood soaked his arm. The drip fell slowly to the ground, similar to the blood from the panther wound.
THUMP.
The badik is pulsing once again, but more strongly. Then the tree roots start moving slowly, like the snake has just woken up from its slumber.
"... Ja-Jantaka?"
"Out from those roots now!"
Black roots popping out from the dried leaves, crawling towards the pool of blood, and then sucking, as if drinking it. The badik is pulsating more violently.
THUMP-THUMP.
The wounded panther retreated immediately. Its eyes widened. Followed by a second panther retreating. Their bodies bent down. Ears stick to the ground, as if scared. Not towards Janu, but something else.
"TAKE THE BADIK NOW!"
"What—"
RRRRROAAAAARRRRRRR
The roar exploded. Far more loud and close than before. Suddenly the ground shook. Leaves fall. Roots beneath Janu are pulsing like a living vein.
The two panthers turned to the source of the voice. Run away like prey chased by something more feral than them.
Janu with all his might dragged his body, reaching for the badik. He only dared to take a breath after that roar vanished.
Now, he just sat beside a giant root. His right hand was shaking when opening the first aid kit from his backpack. His jacket has been torn long. Blood is still leaking from the scratch.
"Shit …" he grumbled.
He poured alcohol. The pain spread instantly on his shoulder. "ARGH!"
"You are not yet dead."
"Thanks for appreciation," replied Janu flatly.
Janu struggled to clean the blood and then wrapped the wound with gauze and bandages. His fingers were moving slowly. Adrenaline has faded out. The pain, previously bearable, now exploded in pain.
After a moment of silence, he look at the direction that two panthers disappearing."
"... Looks like they're not hunting me," said Janu. "Most likely they could have just mauled me right now, but they chose not to."
Janu stares at the badik that is laid upon his lap. There's a blood stain on its tip. He remembered how two panthers kept staring at the badik even when one of them was wounded. Like this dagger is more important than they are.
"Do you think they know more about this badik?"
"From the way they acted and attacked you twice, it seems that is the possibility."
Janu felt a chill run down his spine. His gaze then directed toward the ground, the black roots now on slumber once again, not moving. The blood stain on the ground is now gone. If not after witnessing it with his own eyes, he would think this is all just a fantasy.
Janu lift his head. There's another pulse coming from afar deep in the forest.
"... Well, that's it."
He placed the badik on his backpack's side pocket. Then he reached for the flashlight and slowly stood up while grimacing to endure pain in his right arm.
"Where are you going?" Jantaka asked.
"Finding out why all creatures here are so curious about this badik is harder than me."
"Oh, someone is growing a spine now."
"Shut up, you guardian wannabe."
THUMP.
That badik pulsing again.
And Janu decided to answer its call.
***
Somewhere, faraway from the forest, a stone basin carved with ancient rune filled with black water. Its surface gurgles softly. Inside it, a young man walking limped while carrying a flashlight.
Janu.
He observed the reflection from the water, then smiled faintly.
"Interesting."
The pluck of keso-keso stopped.
The water surface gurgled again, showing four pairs of yellow eyes moving between the trees.
"It is indeed a long time since I spectating something like this."
Behind him, another figure stands without a sound.
"... What do you think?"
No response, and only the man chuckles.
"Yes, I also thought the same."
His gaze centered back to the surface of the stone basin. Janu keeps heading far towards the dark deep forest. The smile on the old man's face is widening.
"Well then …"
Pluck of the keso-keso rang again.
"... Show it to me. How far do you intend to run, o stag."