[Pre-Nano Shorts] Rankle

This is a continuation of the Pre-Nano shorts I wrote in 2006. The short series shall now be called Ity, and will consist of Pre-Nano shorts I’ve written before. It’ll be taking place at the same time as the events of Dreamer’s Trilogy, but as a side story.

It was night when Lance and Ran met again. They had elected to have dinner at Ran’s home, so they were assured of privacy. Zhilbar decided against cooking and literally whipped up a few dishes. Over dinner, they spoke about Zhilbar’s many emanations and children; Ran had not seen them in some time. They skipped talking about the murder at the temple until dinner was over and the plates were empty between them.

Ran kept quiet hearing Zhilbar’s encounter with the child at the temple. She sounded like she was perhaps a Priestess, for her bearing and her behaviour towards Zhilbar. He himself had never heard the girl being described by Zhilbar. She had not been present during his initial negotiations with the girls, and he highly doubted that they would have sent an amateur to check out the place.

“The acolyte looked unnerved by her. It seems that once she knew the target was dead, she decided to leave things as it was,” Zhilbar leant against the pillar, watching as Ran trimmed his bonsai.

“That’s unusual. It’s not like them to give up so easily,” Ran was fairly sure that there was something happening that should not have been.

“So, what’s your next move?”

“The boy can look after things in the office. What did the child look like?”

Zhilbar grinned and projected an illusion of the girl in front of Ran. The illusion though, was incomplete. There was a section of her neck that refused to show, so the dark-haired girl looked like her neck was missing a vital piece. That surprised Zhilbar, but before he could do anything, Ran let out a soft whistle.

“So she wasn’t kidding,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“That missing neck means she’s protected by another Divine Being. It’s where the mark of protection was put on her. At least I don’t have to wonder if the rumours were true,” Ran sat down.

“Rumours?” Zhilbar raised an eyebrow.

“Someone said that the women were a front for a religious organisation. With that mark, we can be absolutely certain,” Ran rolled himself a cigarette and offered one to Zhilbar, who declined. “It’d explain their decision to pull back and why he was afraid of her. The acolytes only fear other religious, never a commoner, and rarely a God,” he took a long puff.

“They don’t fear Gods?” Zhilbar raised an eyebrow.

“Gods in this part of the Universe are bound by interesting rules. The ones in the East are allowed to intervene directly without the aid of their followers. However, they pay the price by being limited to one area. This area can be expanded, of course, but the expansion often requires physical expenses,” Ran explained.

He nodded as a look of realisation came over Zhilbar’s face.

“Yes, you see now why this land has so many shrines. It’s not just here, but all over what they call the Far East. Here, the presence of the Gods needs to be backed by shrines, churches, temples, and the like. It’s a boundary of sorts; even those that did not need such trappings in their original countries find that such trappings are necessary here,” Ran took another long breath of his pipe.

“What about the West?”

“Ah now, that, that’s a conundrum. The West, on the other hand, may move freely, but they can only act when their subject prays for it. Even then, they must ensure that the faith of their subjects are sufficient for the miracle they wish to carry out,” Ran explained further.

“That does not seem fair,” Zhilbar pointed out, to which Ran laughed.

“Not on the surface. The Easterners are very distrustful of Gods. They worship these Gods, but they’ve been exposed to demons, so their view of the world is multi-coloured. They don’t see things in black and white. I’ve heard stories of Gods who made the mistake of offering a miracle to a mortal who did not need it; they ended up arguing about the matter for years.”

“They must be patient then.”

“On the contrary, they’re not. They’re just very cautious, and they came from the stock that is very calculating. It’s something that’s hardwired into them.”

“So how does this relate to the girl and the acolyte?”

“Well, all disciples can be imbued with certain power. Bear this in mind, a God needs to play by the rules dictated to him by Karma and Chronos. A religious is bound only by what they think is best for their God,” Ran waited for Zhilbar’s horror.

Which was not long in the coming.

“Now you see why I chose to settle here.”

“I would have joined you earlier if I had known,” Zhilbar raised his glass.

“I would not have allowed it. As you can see around you, the outcome of such systems is that the mortals discount the presence of the Gods, learning to accept the miracles as part and parcel of nature. What they cannot explain, they investigate, as it should be. This world has reached that point where Gods are no longer really needed; they’ll survive on their own even without us,” Ran sighed.

“Yet you won’t leave.”

“I won’t…” Ran’s words were cut off as the two Divine Beings jumped up and onto the walls of the small garden.

A projectile, hurled over the wall, landed in the garden and exploded. It had been aimed at no one in general, but the destruction temporarily blinded Zhilbar and Ran. As the smoke cleared, Zhilbar growled and took a step back.

His assailant came out of the smoke to attack him head on.

“Foolish!” Zhilbar let that slip, and raised his hands to ward off the attack.

His assailant hissed, and turned in mid air, a tail wrapping around Zhilbar’s human neck. Faster than the eye could follow, Zhilbar was lifted bodily and thrown to the ruined garden.

It was a move that was sure to have broken his back, but Zhilbar was not human.

“Urgh!”

The cry from Ran distracted Zhilbar’s attention, but the lizard attacker was jumping at him. Swiping the lizard away as he would a fly, Zhilbar went to find his friend.

The attackers were to realise that they had attacked the wrong pair.

Original entry as appearing at Reach Into Your Soul.

[Dreams] Do electric pugs dream?

We took part in a robbery because the three of us had no money for Christmas. What we robbed, I can’t remember, but I knew it was a small place, so we didn’t make off with that much money. I was in America, I think, driving a minivan.

The next day we heard on the radio that the police was looking for us, and we were horrified to discover that the woman who was supposed to have disposed of the money didn’t. After a few moments of panicking, we made our way to a fast food joint to spend money there. I reasoned that it’s almost Christmas, and having that much money in our wallets to buy things was not unusual.

While we were putting the money in our wallets, the minivan’s doors opened and in jumped in these three guys. We were terrified, as we thought they were about to rob us or something (yes the irony). Turns out they wanted us to take them somewhere.

One of the guys (the Turkish guy, I think) had a pug. He stroked the pug till the pug’s ear came off, and then he became worried as apparently it’s the last stage of an illness for pugs. I called this vet named Dr Tania, drove the boys there, and then promised I’d be back later if they needed transport. I didn’t charge them surcharge as was my right as a cab driver. Yes, I was suddenly back in Malaysia and my minivan was now a cab.

I blame Joicy for this.

Original entry as appearing at Reach Into Your Soul.

[Copywriter's Chronicles] Real Life Typo

SixthSeal: I can’t stop humming to this (Wind Goddess is playing John Smith’s version of Canon in D).

Me: No, it’s a good song. By all means, hump to it.

Me: *a second later* Wait, I meant, hum, not hump.

*headdesks*

Original entry as appearing at Reach Into Your Soul.

Quick Check

Just wanted to do a quick check, especially among Malaysians under 25:

Does the name Che Siti Wan Kembang or Puteri Saadong mean anything to you?

Without referring to Wikipedia, if the names DO ring a bell, do you still remember where you first heard them and in what context? Thanks!

Original entry as appearing at Reach Into Your Soul.

Remembrance of a myth

I remember that day clearly. It was a Malay language class, and the teacher was teaching about the legend of Che Siti Wan Kembang, the fierce female ruler of Kelantan. I was in Standard 3, which meant I was nine years old. The first time I heard about Siti Wan Kembang though, I was in Standard 1. Sometime in the middle of August, we were finally taught about Che Siti Wan Kembang.

Che Siti Wan Kembang and her daughter, Puteri Saadong (or Princess Saadong in English) were the only female rulers in antiquity mentioned in history books. In Malaysian history, before Malacca was founded, most of the action was found in the Northern States. Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, then later Perlis and Penang were under the dominion or threat of Siam.

Among all the rulers who bended, bribed, cajoled and rebelled against the old empire of Siam, only one family stood up to Siam. Only two women, as far as I could remember, did not let Siam bully them. These women taught their sisters and daughters of Kelantan how to be fierce. How to fight for what they wanted, and screw anyone who didn’t let them.

The tigers of Kelantan, so feared by the other Malay women, were said to be the fiercest in the land. Mothers told their sons not to marry Kelanatanese women, for they were fierce, demanding, and headstrong. Did I mention that some said these women were the fairest in the land?

Looking back, I think they were the original feminists in Malaya.

Che Siti Wan Kembang was a fearsome ruler whom no one dared to bully. She never married, and because of her independence, some say she was a practitioner of the arcane arts. Her adopted daughter, Puteri Saadong, enamoured the then ruling King of Siam. This is where my memory and Wikipedia diverge. Wiki says that she became a concubine of King Narai. My memory tells me that the King of Siam spent seven years persuading her to do so, but her steadfast loyalty to her cousin impressed him. In the end, he sent her back to her husband with gifts of gold and handmaidens.

One thing Che Siti and Puteri Saadong had in common was their love of the hunt. I cannot remember what happened to Che Siti, but an old movie I watched as a child told the story of Puteri Saadong’s return. She found that her husband had betrayed her. Instead of waiting for her return as he promised, he had slept with her handmaiden. In a fury, she chased him out of the castle, and then shot him in the ear. He was not killed, but died as a coward.

These myths are disappearing. The story of the strong women is being replaced by the pure victim. The legend of Mahsuri supposedly mirrors Siam’s invasion of Langkawi. It portrays its main heroine as a woman who’s forced to die to prove her innocence. Her fate is in the hands of men, whereas the Kelantanese women brooked no such thing.

The easiest way to subjugate a nation is to remove anything that gives them strength. Impress the women that they are victims and they need to bend to men, and you’ll get Malaysian History.

Where is my Che Siti Wan Kembang? Where is my Puteri Saadong? Give me women who stand up for themselves, not bend to the wills of others!

Do you remember any other Malaysian (need not actually be Malay, yes I’d love to have examples from Sabah and Sarawak too!) women of yore who had these qualities? Tell me! Let their stories be heard, let their voices ring out. We cannot forget them.

Original entry as appearing at Reach Into Your Soul.