Ice Island Palace Chapter 23

The trousers on her right knee were also torn.

"Demon!!"

Maya grew angry, flipping her body, kicking the wolf that was biting her trousers so hard the beast was thrown, then her hand, which had already snatched a stone, moved.

"Crack! Yelp.... yelp....!"

The second wolf shrieked and writhed with its head nearly crushed. Immediately, it was swarmed by its own bloodthirsty companions.

Maya used this opportunity to slip her body into a small cave, then her heels kicked at the protruding stone above until the stone finally broke loose and fell, sealing the small cave! Maya continued to crawl forward, getting darker and narrower, but she refused to stop. Who knew if those wolves could open the cave seal, and they could certainly crawl faster. If she were caught up to in this narrow space, what could she do? She couldn't turn around; how could she fight those beasts with just two heels? Surely her legs would be gnawed away, followed by her pair of hip flesh! The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and she shuddered imagining it all. However, no wolves pursued her.

Maya did not know that wolves were most afraid of entering unfamiliar holes, only barking outside, challenging and provoking the occupant of the hole to come out. Perhaps these animals feared danger, such as a snake attack, that might greet them in the dark hole. Finally, the small tunnel led Maya into a large tunnel that opened into the living quarters of the strange people. However, the place was completely silent. Maya was astonished and quickly stood up, moving through the tunnel into the large room. No one was visible there. Where were they? Suddenly, a thought struck Maya: it was highly likely they had all gone together to their secret tree to see its condition after Maya had discovered it. This was because the danger of the wolf pack awaited outside.

Maya then decided to follow those people. Once they saw that she hadn't disturbed the tree, surely they wouldn't be angry anymore, she thought. She disliked them, especially after seeing them kill and eat human flesh. But at that moment, there was no other way but to turn back with them and later seek an opportunity to leave them. Maya heard their cheers, so she sped up her run and finally arrived at a steep cliff. No one was visible there, but their voices came from below the cliff! She was astonished and quickly approached the cliff and looked down. It turned out all thirty-five people were there, at the tree! And astonishingly, big and small, old and young, all were climbing the tree and taking the fruit together while cheering loudly!

"Craaaack....!"

Instantly, Maya's face turned pale.

"Calamity!"

She cried out as she watched from above how the tree fell, roots and all, then drifted downwards carrying the thirty-five people who were still cheering, seemingly unaware that a terrifying death awaited them far below, at the unseen bottom! Maya watched with a pale face until the drifting tree was no longer visible. She closed her eyes, her breath ragged. The sight was too overwhelming, too horrifying. Then she stood lost in thought at the edge of the cliff, recalling all those events. She now understood that apparently, after she had learned about the tree with extraordinary properties, those people worried that she might "finish off"

The fruit!

How foolish! It was apparently because of this worry that all of them, without exception, rushed to the tree to take all its fruit, both red and still green, large and still budding! Consequently, because it could not bear the weight of thirty people all climbing and bouncing on the branches while cheering, the tree collapsed, its roots giving way because they could not grip the soil strongly enough, hindered by the coral rocks! Thus ended the history of those strange people, and thus ended the history of the tree with such extraordinary properties. Remembering this, Maya felt her pocket. She regretted deeply that of the five fruits she had carried, only one remained; the other four had vanished somewhere. They must have fallen when she was being chased by the wolf pack.

Thinking this, she remembered the wolves still waiting for her outside! But she had to get out! She was unwilling to stay any longer inside the belly of this hill, especially now that all its inhabitants were dead. She had to leave that terrifying area. She had been there for a long time; surely the pair of Indian devils (*Iblis India*) were no longer looking for her, having forgotten her. But how was she to pass the wolf pack waiting outside the cave? Maya was fundamentally a very clever child with extraordinary courage. Especially since she had faced death multiple times, her bravery had only thickened, and it was not easy for her to leave the capital city of Khitan and experience such suffering, despairing in the face of any obstacle.

After thinking it over, she found a solution. During her stay there, she remembered that the wolves were most afraid of being near fire. *Hmm*, this is it, she thought. *I must ask for the help of fire!* She began collecting dry animal hides, attaching them to the end of a tree branch stick, tying them tightly, then she made a fire and burned the end of the stick wrapped in hide until it flared up. With this flaming stick, Maya then ran out, careful not to let the fire extinguish. The animal hide contained dry fat, so naturally, the flame could last a long time. When she arrived at the front cave entrance, the growls of the wolves were already audible.

Yet Maya did not become afraid. She continued to step out, and as soon as the wolves rushed to attack, she spun her stick, the end of which was blazing. It was exactly as she had hoped and predicted. The wolves shrieked in terror upon seeing the fire, and by spinning the stick, which for her had become a sacred magic staff, Maya easily left the place. The wolf pack could only follow her from afar, howling in disappointment. Finally, they stopped chasing, and Maya then fled as quickly as possible toward the south after discarding her stick because the fire had gone out. Her heart was relieved, and now she could dedicate her attention to the progress of her **gin-kang**.

She deliberately exerted all her energy and ran as fast as possible. Her body shot forth like an arrow, and Maya once again criticized her own foolishness. Now that she possessed such speed, why did she need to flee on horseback, and why did she need the help of fire? If she ran like this now, the pack of savage wolves certainly wouldn't be able to catch her! With a light heart, Maya ran, her hair fluttering, her face radiant, her speed like that of a young deer! Because in the north the Yucen people were being pushed back by other nomadic tribes, especially the Mongols, who were aided by the Naiman and Kerait peoples, the increasingly strong Yucen tribe continued to press southward.

The Yucen people were originally a tribe living north of Shan-si and had once been subjugated by the Khitan people. But now the Yucen people had become very strong; after winning the war against Khitan, they established a kingdom they called the **Kerajaan Wangsa Cin**! With the forging of friendship and alliance between the new Cin kingdom and the **Kerajaan Sung**, which was continually pushed further south, the Mongols, aided by the Naiman and Kerait peoples, temporarily focused only on the north, controlling a vast area, from Danau Baikal to the borders of Outer Mongolia, Siberia, and Mancuria! Wars between small tribes continued to occur, no longer wars between kingdoms vying for territory, but between small tribes fighting for fertile land.

Therefore, the journey undertaken by Puteri Maya was extremely dangerous, and several times she had to hide atop large trees, from where she witnessed small skirmishes until the fighting ended and the forest was littered with corpses. Only when the fighting was over and the situation was quiet did Maya dare to descend from the tree, and sometimes she had to hide in damp, cold, dirty caves for days. One evening, Maya, now traveling without a destination, arrived in the **Pegunungan Go-bi** region, which was interspersed with vast deserts. She felt confused when she looked from a hillside slope toward the desert stretching widely at the foot of the hill. She didn't know how vast the desert was because its edge was invisible, and the evening wind stirred the desert surface so that it rippled like the sea! She felt afraid and confused about which path to take.

If she had to cross that desert, she dared not. She had heard many tales before from her parents about the dangers of the desert, which sometimes raged or was ravaged by storms, and how many people had been swallowed and vanished by that desert. She had even heard how people who ran out of water and food supplies, starving and especially thirsty, suddenly saw abundant water, but when approached, the water would vanish! Truly, many spirits (*siluman*) resided in that place, and those spirits constantly disturbed humans! So Maya did not dare go south through the desert, but instead turned west through the mountains, which, although extremely difficult to traverse, were at least familiar to her.