WORLDS COLLIDE

“Whoopee! With these coconuts, I’ll buy a chicken, then with the chicken I’ll sell eggs, then I’ll use that money to buy more chickens and sell more eggs, I’ll buy a cow, sell milk. Soon I’ll be the richest man in the village! I’ll even get to marry that beauty, Hehe,” a young man with blue clothing, and tanned skin as a result of overexposure to sunlight squealed.

Nin was up in a coconut tree, plucking coconuts. As he closed his eyes, and drifted to wonderland, imagining all the things that he could buy as a result of plucking the coconuts, he forgot about his current situation, and loosened his grip on the tree. Quickly realizing his error, he tried to reaffirm his grip, but slipped and fell on his back. His breath knocked out of him, he just laid there for a while. When asked by the person hiring him if he was alright, he just gave a thumbs up, and continued resting. “If I’d landed the wrong way, I might have broken something, which would delay my plans of success. Speaking of success, the coconut he was plucking fell to his side, and the landlord took that and the ones that had already been plucked. Whilst being paid, Nin smiled at the landlord, still in much pain.

30 minutes later, Nin finally rose, brushed off the dirt of his clothes, and started walking home. He heard something screaming from afar. It drew closer. A middle-aged man, wearing a grey sarong and a singlet ran frantically, and behind him, was a dog. Nin watched wide-eyed as the man and dog ran past him, dust flying in the air in a cartoonish manner. “Pan?”

Nin returned home, only to see a man around the same age as Pan, with a goatee and more oval-shaped face waiting for him. “Dok, what brings you here?” Nin asked. Dok dropped to his knees, and grabbed Nin’s legs, shaking them violently, tears in his eyes. “I lost everything! My rooster, my land, I’m homeless!” the man with rolled up pants cried. Nin bent down and urged his friend to stand up. Nin told Dok that he didn’t have much food, but that Dok could stay.

The next morning, the two were hungry, and Nin hadn’t received any orders to pluck coconuts, so they decided to go fishing. Along the way, Dok explained that he had a bet with the local ruler that he could beat him in a cock fight. The ruler agreed on the condition that the two switched roosters. When his rooster eventually won, he realized that his rooster was now the ruler’s so in reality he had lost. Nin consoled his friend, and was surprised to see Pan at the dock. Well, Pan did have a thing for fishing, so this shouldn’t be too surprising.

Once again, Nin was hit with the sound of someone approaching, this time from the sea. At the horizon, a small spot was seen, slowly making its way. “What are you three looking at,” a muscular man with hair that would have reached his chest had he not put them back. “Hello, Bada. It seems that something is making its way here,” Pan explained. “There’s a large boat at the beach, but even with 3000 men, it wouldn’t move,” Bada said, pointing to said boat.

“That looks like a person. Are we not going to help?” Dok asked, reeling in a fish. “I’m a farmer, not a fisherman,” Bada replied. “Don’t you have a boat, Pan?” Nin asked. Pan nodded. Dok was too busy reeling in yet another fish to notice this. Bada was taken aback. Nin facepalmed, asking “Why didn’t you say so?”. Pan shrugged. “You didn’t ask”.

Nin jumped to his feet, stretched with his arms in the air, and lazily making his way to the area where the boats were parked. With a wave of his hand, he ushered the others to follow suit. Dok was quick to follow, bringing along the pail that had captured fish with him. Bada hesitated, but eventually got to his feet as well.

"Come one, it's your boat," Bada said, holding out a hand to Pan.

"Oh, we're going now?"

Bada nodded. Pan replied with a nonchalant 'okay'.

Pan was at the back, Dok was in front, while in the middle were Bada and Nin, rowing the boat. Their feet touched each other's due to how small the boat was. "We're really doing this, eh?" Bada asked. "What if it's a man? We can't just let him be," Nin responded. "Whatever it is, it's coming this way too, albeit really, really slowly," Dok remarked. "Pan thinks that we cannot assume it is a man. It may be a woman".

The two rowers grunted with every row. The mysterious dot wasn't a dot anymore. As they got closer, they noticed that there were in fact three dots, forming a triangle. "Row faster!" urged Dok. "Relax. Whatever we're looking for isn't going anywhere," Nin assured. "We've been rowing for 15 minutes, and I just got back from an hour-long harvesting session," Bada complained.

The three dots became clearer as they got closer. The two bottom dots were dark orange while the top dot was black and brown. It was a head! It was a man after all. As the boat got closer, the group could hear heavy breaths coming from the man. The man spotted the boat and tried to call for help, but only a pathetic yelp came out. The man was clearly tired.

Using two huge pumpkins as makeshift floats, he pedalled with his feet. “You! Who are you, and why are you out here?” Bada asked, stretching out his hand. The soaked man gladly accepted and got in the boat. The man, a skinny man with short hair, looked at the four men in front of him. Dok had an expression of sympathy, Bada a curious look, and Nin was busy rowing. Pan on the other hand, jumped into the water, to retrieve the pumpkins. “These are nice. Would be a waste to let them float away,” he said.

An hour later, the five men met up at Nin’s house. The pumpkin man cleaned himself, got changed, and ate the pumpkins. “I had a nice house. I’m sorry I can’t show it anymore,” Dok said with a sullen expression. “Well, truth be told, I’m struggling to pay rent here,” Nin admitted, scratching his head. “I don’t really have a house, since I am but a servant to my master,” Bada said, his feet sticking out compared to the others who had their legs crossed. “Pan has a house, but my wife keeps asking me to get a job, and I keep getting fired,” Pan admitted. “What an interesting thing it is then for us to gather here. I was banished from my country, and through some clever trickery, escaped from the boat that the guards carried me in to be thrown into the sea,” the skinny man said. “My name is Cai.”

“I am basically from scratch, you need a job, you need money to buy off this house, you’re the same as me, losing everything, and you need money to free yourself from servanthood,” Cai concluded, pointing at himself, and to the other men. “It’s not like there is treasure that we can just start looking for,” Dok commented sarcastically. “Maybe there is,” Bada announced. “Supposedly, if you can trap a sea demon, it can give you its pearl, which can grant you supernatural abilities,” Bada continued. “These stories of demons with pearls, rocks that eat people, dragons that turn to islands, demons who can be nailed, and fish with gold, are all just myths,” Nin sighed. “Where do we find it?” Pan asked, ignoring Nin.

The five men stood before Pan's sampan. "Come on!" Bada urged excitedly, practically jumping into the sampan. "These waves will carry us across the sea twice as fast," Cai remarked. "Well, not much lose, eh?" Dok frowned, looking at how violently the waves were crashing onto the rocks. "Except our lives! Myth or no myth, those waves are real!" Nin yelled out, pointing to the raging sea.

Nin was correct.

“Pan doesn’t like this. My wife will be angry when we get back,” Pan yelled out, holding on tight to his sampan that was barely keeping itself intact amidst the tumultuous waves, not to mention carrying a weight that exceeded its capacity. The boat was already far out into sea, so at this point, they were beyond rescuing.

“I like the optimism, Mr Pan,” Cai laughed, unaware that Pan was just too daft to realize that he might not even get back to his wife at all. “This is what I’ve been told. We need to go far out at sea at a time when no one else would, hightide seems to be the logical conclusion. There is always a price for these things, so the chance of death could very well be it,” Bada explained. “If we somehow succeed in this mission, I suggest that our next quest be to find that fish that holds gold in it,” Dok said, coming to terms that perhaps these mythical quests were the answer to his plight. Nin was the only one who was genuinely afraid that they might die then and there, keeping quiet the entire time.

Dok coughed, clearing his throat to start his explanation, when he noticed an eery silence. The four men in front of him were silent, wide-eyed, staring at him with fear. Dok could hear the splashing of water, followed by a loud thud, and violent rocking of the sampan, as something big landed behind him. The moon was full, and Dok started trembling at the sight of a figure whose shadow, as it rose, eclipsed his own. Shaking, he turned around.

The sea demon.

Its skin was rough, its large chest covered with hair, and sported a muscular build. Its sharp claws and long fangs glinted in the moonlight. Its eyes had no pupils, just an endless void of white. It had long hair tied back, and its mouth was protruding, a halfway point between a normal mouth and a snout. Its skin was a deep purple, approaching brown, like a raisin or date. The most frightening detail were the various markings on his skin. They were scars that appeared to be the result of slashing and stabbing. This thing before them wasn’t invincible, but mere human weaponry seems to be incapable of wounding it.

The thing jumped, and landed on the opposite side of the sampan, almost capsizing the small vessel. “Now!” Cai yelled out, snapping the other men out of their trance. They had a plan, and had to execute it, if they were to survive this. Pan cast a net at the thing, which tried to wriggle free, its claws cutting the net apart bit by bit. Nin threw a coconut at the thing’s head, which disoriented it for a while, allowing Cai to throw a rope behind the thing to Dok. The two exchanged nods, and raised the rope, before pulling hard, tripping the thing, causing it to fall with a thud. Cai, Dok, Nin, and Pan then threw themselves onto the limbs of the thing, while Bada kneeled on its chest, holding out a scythe to its throat.

The thing struggled for quite some time, but eventually exhausted itself. “Release me! I’ll give you anything! What do you want? I can give you anything!” the thing bellowed. Bada looked towards his comrades, who all hadn’t thought this far deep. Cai suggested that Bada ask for riches, but the thing told them that he can give one of them a special ability, but nothing physical. The group frowned almost simultaneously. “Well, this was his idea, let Bada take this,” Cai said. The others looked at each other, and nodded in agreement.

Now Bada had a choice to make. What should he ask for? His thoughts went to his crops, to Nin’s house, to the dock…the dock! The boat at the dock! Bada grinned. “I ask for strength…I would like to be the strongest…no, stronger than 3000 men!” he declared. The demon nodded. “Very well. I will vomit out a pearl, and you must eat it. Then, your wish shall become a reality”.

After eating the pearl, which Bada almost failed in doing as it tasted so bad, which was made harder by the fact that his oesophagus wanted to eject the pearl so hard that he almost just vomited the pearl back out, Bada kneeled in exhaustion. After several seconds, he felt a sudden surge of energy. He clenched his fists, and raised his fist in the air. He picked up the coconut Nin threw earlier, and crushed it with one hand. The others gasped in astonishment, but their astonishment was cut short by a loud bellowing. “Release me. I fulfilled my part of the deal. With a nod, the five men released their weight, and the demon jumped back into the water, never to be seen again.

A few days later, and Bada, now a free man, walked with a skip in his step, to Nin’s house. “You’re a free man, and Nin has this house to himself,” Cai declared with a smile. “Well, it’s my turn now. Cai and I are still homeless,” Dok complained. “Haha, don’t worry. For now, my home, is your home as well. Also, Bada can live here if he so wishes,” Nin happily said. “Alright then. That boat Bada earned by being able to single-handedly bring it to the water sure brought us a lot of money. Let’s see how much money we can get with a fish filled with gold,” Dok said.

The next day. The five men found themselves in Pan’s sampan once more. They really owed him. “How are we supposed to find this fish? Can any fisherman just find it?” Cai asked. “Pan is a fisherman. Pan thinks that we should do something no one else would, like with the demon. Then, fish will emerge,” Pan declared. The others were shocked. As silly as this man usually was, when it came to fishing, he suddenly became sharp.

“This makes no sense!” Dok complained, rowing as hard as he can. The sampan carrying five grown adults were rowing against the stream, while a fishing line was cast. “Trust me, gentlemen,” Pan said in a macho tone, surprising the others once more. Maybe they should take him out fishing more often. Then, an orange figure caught Dok’s attention. “Cai, take the row! I see something!” Dok exclaimed. After giving the row to Cai, Dok pointed to a cat on the riverbank. “Supposedly a cat would guide you to the fish. The sampan inched closer bit by bit to the bank, until it got close enough that Bada could jump out, and tie the boat to a tree by the riverbank. As he was making his way back, something took the bait.

It was a huge, brown fish. Dok reeled it in. Something told him that this was it, but at this point, he didn’t know what to do. When he turned to look back at the cat, it had seemingly vanished. The sound of a bird chirping was heard, right above where the cat previously was. “Cutbly, Cutbly,” it chirped. Dok contemplated those words. “Cut Belly!” he thought. Using a knife he brought, he cut the belly of the fish. Lo and behold, it was full of gold ingots. It was at these moments that the group saw why Dok always brought his belongings with him wherever he went. The rope used to tie the demon was his, and so was this knife.

However, after collecting the gold, Dok felt bad. “Steech, Steech,” the bird chirped. Dok looked at the fish struggling for breath and knew that he had to act quickly. He was going to stitch the fish’s belly back together. He reached into his sack that held his belongings and produced a stitching kit. Carefully, but swiftly, he completed the task and released the fish back into the river.

A few days later, all five of the men were having tea at Nin’s house, eating crackers as well. Pan now had a larger boat and worked as a fisherman, and instead of buying new houses, Bada, Cai, and Dok moved into Nin’s house. The gold was used to buy furniture, and get Nin some chickens. Now his dream had become a reality. With four people to work on the chickens, business should flourish. However, a new adventure awaits…

BADOOSH!

Bada leapt in the air, marvelling at how he could cover hundreds of meters in a single leap. He didn’t have a particular destination. He just kept on leaping. Eventually, he found himself in a forest. He gave it a thought, but kept on leaping. Without him realising, the sun was beginning to set. Seeing the sky turn an orange hue, Bada turned around, but not before his eye caught something interesting. A huge tree was before him. Even if he spread out his arms to hug it, he wouldn’t cover half its circumference. Even more interesting, was its hollow trunk. Surely, such a structure could not exist. The tree should fall down. Bada stepped inside…