Kwai

KWAI

Patrick knew he…

…was making a financial decision that would make his father proud. Meena on the other hand was being quiet and Patrick knew it was due to anxiety. Maybe a little conversation would cheer her up?

“The landscape here is so unique,” said Patrick.

“Uhun,” was all his new wife said. 

“You are being terse,” sighed Patrick. 

“Why didn’t you take the advice of the taxi driver who we asked to bring us?” asked Meena. 

“I made a…” 

“Financial decision,” finished Meena.

Patrick sighed and look at the road with full concentration even though they hadn’t seen a vehicle drive passed them in almost an hour. 

“You should’ve taken his warning seriously,” said Meena.

“He is an old man who is definitely paranoid and believes every legend or myth he hears. He didn’t even tell us exactly why we shouldn’t be visiting the village.”

“A slight chance of danger should be enough to make us change our honeymoon destination. It would be better we are safe and missed on a great adventure,” said Meena.

“You love mountain climbing and the mountain we are heading to, hasn’t been named, or officially climbed. It isn’t even on most maps. Plus, it is a good way to improve our financial situation.”

“There it is. Patrick I feel your job has changed you and made you extremely money conscious. Everything you do must be of financial benefit to you.”

“To us,” corrected Patrick while gripping the steering unnecessarily tight. 

“Doesn’t matter. This trip is making me anxious and a bride shouldn’t be anxious on her honeymoon,” said Meena. 

They drove passed a faded bent sign. 

“I can think of a few reasons why a bride might be anxious on her honeymoon,” said Patrick who winked. 

Meena smiled a little before saying, “You know what I mean.” 

“Moi, we will be safe. I promise. If there was a reason to be anxious about this trip I would’ve found it out in my research. I am sure that old man was just being paranoid is all,” said Patrick. 

Meena leaned back a little more into her seat and relaxed just a little bit. Examining her watch, she discovered that they had turned off the Pankshin main road roughly four hours ago. From their calculation, in fifteen minutes, they would arrive at their destination – the village called Hal. 

Meena was satisfied…

With the inventory check. They were prepared for the climb and the eventual decent. 

“These people must be very superstitious to not climb this mountain at all,” said Patrick as he packed his gear and other items they were climbing with.

Meena became instantly cross with her husband for reminding her of the only issue she had with this hike. When they had arrived at the village, the people had used body, sign and eventually Hausa language to discourage them from going up the mountain. 

Patrick, from the Hausa the chief of the village had spoken, gathered that the locals thought a god came to visit the mountain this time of the year every year from when he was a boy. When Patrick asked if anyone had seen the creature, the chief said no but that they heard its throaty cry same time every year. At the sound of throaty cry, Patrick nearly laughed because he knew that it was thunder claps striking something on the mountain that the people heard. He was almost totally certain that it was thunderclaps. 

Meena looked at the calm of her husband and wished she could be assured by his explanations of thunderclaps. She decided to try and get her head screwed on straight because they were here now and there was no way she was turning back now. She was gradually getting into her climb – focused mentality. 

They finished the packing of their gear and cross checked each other’s load-out. The ascent began and so did their excitement. With each step they took, all the warnings they had received not to be here in this village, and not to climb the mountain, faded into obscurity. 

There was silence…

An hour into the climb. Patrick couldn’t hear anything except the wind and their own footsteps. He had climbed three mountains and much more hills since meeting Meena. In all that time, he had never climbed in such silence. 

“Does it freak you out?” asked Meena. 

“The silence?” asked Patrick.

“Yes,” said Meena. 

He made eye contact with her and nodded before adding, “A little.” 

“We have come this far. No need to dwell on it,” he finished.

Meena nodded in response. 

The climb wasn’t a very steep one and there were even pockets of plateaus. 

Forty-five minutes later, they found such a plateau and set up a temporary camp. 

Patrick brought out his mobile phone and made his periodic video log. He spun the phone around, taking in the view from where they were, then he took a selfie with his wife. 

“Will you use the drone?” asked Meena.

“I think I should. Since we have a comfortable spot.” 

Meena decided to bring out their lunch while Patrick set up the drone. When he saw the the lunch, he said, “You read my mind.” 

Meena just smiled. 

“Let me make a quick sweep and then join you,” said Patrick. 

He wore his virtual reality headset and picked up the controller. The drone went airborne effortlessly. He made it ascend vertically for roughly a kilometre and a half. The drone was almost at the summit of the mountain. This gave him an estimate of the height of the mountain.

Patrick circled the mountain from the top once. He loved the view and this footage was priceless. He decided to circle it one more time before retrieving the drone. Upon circling the second time, Patrick caught sight of movement. He doubled the drone back and saw the mouth of a cave. He hovered over the mouth of the cave wondering what to do. He made a decision. 

He flew the drone towards the mouth of the cave. He scanned around the mouth of the cave and then decided to retrieve the drone. There was no way he was flying his one thousand, two hundred dollar drone into that cave. There was no way, they were even going to explore that cave on their ascent. 

He took the drone for one final sweep of the mountain before retrieval. 

Meena was already done eating when Patrick packed up his drone. 

“How amazing was it?” asked Meena.

“Uhun,” mumbled Patrick. 

“What is wrong?”

“Sorry. I saw something that troubled me a bit.”

“What is this something?” 

“It is better I show you.” 

Patrick brought out his phone and started the drone footage. 

“Wait, what was that!” asked Meena.

“What troubled me,” said Patrick soberly. 

“Was that a tail?” 

“Almost undoubtedly a tail.”

“If that is a tail…”

“How big is the rest if the body?” 

“We need to leave, now!” exclaimed Meena.

“I totally agree.” 

There was a sudden crack of thunder.

“That is the second thing I saw on my flight; heavy rain is approaching.”

Meena didn’t reply. She just began packing with urgency. 

“How far up are we?” asked Meena.

“Roughly two kilometres,” replied Patrick. 

“Will we make it down before the rain?”

“I don’t know. It will be close.”

“You know if the rain meets us up here…” 

“…We cannot safely descend,” finished Patrick.

“Yes. But I don’t want to be on the mountain with whatever that was,” said Meena. 

“So should we risk it? You are the expert,” said Patrick who was holding the slices of bread that was his lunch even though he hadn’t taken a bite of it. 

“We should descend. If the rain begins, we will find a spot to wait it out or avoid the drainage channels of the mountain,” said Meena. 

“That is a plan,” said Patrick. 

The couple picked up their gear and began their descent as fast as they could. Patrick knew that if what they had seem was a tail, then the body could be ten metres in length on its own. 

The first drops…

Of rain began thirty minutes after they had begun their descent. Using Meena’s smartwatch, Patrick calculated that they were moving at a slow pace of about seven hundred meters per hour. This meant that it would take them about three hours to get to the foot of the mountain.

The ground was already slippery and Patrick had fallen twice already. Meena was more experienced in this so she was holding her own. They had barely spoken since beginning the descent. There was little to say anyway. 

They had moved on for another thirty minutes when Patrick slipped again. Meena saw the trajectory of his fall and reached out to grab him, she wasn’t fast enough. Patrick tumbled down the slope and went head first into some shrubs. He came to rest on a stump of a tree. It was his back that broke the tumble. 

“Babe! Are you alright?” asked Meena as she frantically made her way to him.

Patrick groaned in response. 

On reaching him, Meena immediately checked his eyes to see if he was conscious then checked to see if anything was broken. That was when she saw that he had impaled his left upper arm on protruding branch. 

“You are injured,” Meena said matter of factly.

“How bad is it?” asked Patrick. 

“The branch didn’t break your bone so that is good but you are bleeding. I will have to remove it and then clean the wound before we can move on,” said Meena.

Patrick was breathing rapidly.

“Control you your breathing,” said Meena. 

“The pain is so much,” complained Patrick. 

“I know and I am sorry.”

Five minutes later, Meena had disinfected the wound, injected him with some local anaesthetic, and wrapped it with gauze. 

The rain was heavier now but they were under the little shelter the shrub provided. 

“We have to move,” said Meena.

“Give me a minute to prepare my mind,” said Patrick.

Meena leaned towards him and kissed him on the mouth. “I love you,” she said. 

He smiled and said, “I love you more.”

What they heard next shook them to their core. 

“That wasn’t a thunderclap,” said Meena. 

“And it was close. I have rested enough. Let us move, now!” 

They heard the throaty roar again. By then, they were already on the move.

It sounded very close and that made Patrick turn around to look behind them. Thirty meters away, he saw it, clearly but his brain didn’t trust what he was seeing. It looked at him with clear, blue reptilian eyes. It seemed like they were admiring each other when it roared again and continued its descent towards them at a formidable speed. 

Patrick heard Meena scream and he knew that it was because she had seen the giant lizard-like creature that was moving as fast as it could towards them. His initial size estimation, based on the tail had been almost spot on. 

They moved faster and even tumbled a bit. The adrenaline pumping through Patrick didn’t allow him remember his injury. Unfortunately, even with their increased speed, the creature was gaining on them. 

The chase continued for fifty more meters before the creature was close enough to be heard breathing. Patrick knew that they weren’t going to outrun it so he searched for any barrier that could separate them from the giant lizard. He found a crawl space to their left and grabbed Meena’s hand. 

“There!” was all he said.

They ran towards it but before they could get there, Meenaslipped and fell. Patrick saw that the creature was almost on them. He knew what he had to do to make sure his wife wasn’t attacked, killed and certainly eaten. 

He brought out his phone and turned on the torchlight. The creature stopped ten meters away, clearly fascinated by light. Patrick got a good look at it. It did look like a lizard but it was bigger than a crocodile and more upright too. Its body was roughly the length of a Toyota Camry. It had what seemed like a crown on its head and what could only be stumps of wings on its back. This thing would eventually be able to fly! This brought up another scary fact, this was a juvenile creature. It wasn’t done growing. As he moved the light from side to side to distract the creature, Meena climbed back slowly holding her left wrist gingerly.

The moment she reached the little cave that had only a crawlspace, Patrick brought out his lunch and threw it as far as he could towards the creatures right. The smell of the food made the reptile burst in speed towards the food. 

Patrick immediately scrambled towards the hole. As his head went into the hole, he felt a force clamp on his left leg. Before he could process that, he was dragged back.

Meena watched helplessly in horror as her husband, was lifted and slammed by the creature over and over again. The creature used its forelimbs to drag Patrick closer then it bit into his shoulder. Patrick who had been unresponsive after the slams suddenly screamed with all his might. That was a wakeup call for Meena.

Her mind scanned her inventory in less than a moment and then she remembered her cooking knife. She quickly drew it out of her back and picked a handy stone as she exited the hole. She made loud noises to get the creature’s attention. It worked. It didn’t bite into Patrick again but kept it forelimb on him. 

The moment she exited the cave she threw the rock towards the snout of the animal. It left Patrick completely and came towards her. She made up her mind to hold on with all her might to this knife no matter what happened. 

The creature used its closed snout to ram into her first. Knocking all the wind out of her, then it drove its front left claws into her right leg. She screamed herself. It seemed it was taking its time. It slowly brought its snout towards her face. Meena didn’t look at the face but at the pulsing neck. As she thrust the knife towards the creature, it moved its head and she missed the neck. She tried again and got the flesh beneath its snout. 

The creature howled and writhed. It gargled and was distracted by its would. 

Meena took the opportunity she had been given and got away from it. She went straight for her husband who wasn’t moving. She tapped, shoved and even slapped him but he didn’t respond. The creature was still making gargling sounds. 

She dragged Patrick to the cave even as the creature rubbed its whole underside on the ground trying to get the knife out. 

Meena successfully dragged her husband into the cave and began undressing him. His clavicle was exposed from the back and blood was pouring out of that wound. His eyes were closed as well. His breathing was shallow as well. She stuffed every piece of cloth she could find into the wound and then tied it as tight as she could. She checked his breathing again. She couldn’t hear anything. She checked his pulse as well; there was none. She attempted cardio-pulmonary resuscitationover and over again but there was no response. She didn’t stop even when the creature with the knife in its mouth, laid down by the cave waiting for its prey. For each time she pumped and blew air, her hope of not being a widow died…

Clarke knew this…

Clarke knew that this lecture he was delivering on the Originem draco would determine the rest of his career. He took a dep breath and continued.

“It is clear that dragons aren’t a myth anymore. This particular dragon eluded science for millennia. Its migration pattern of moving from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere during the summer solstice of the northern hemisphere made it hard to discover. They lay their eggs in mountains in the equator at the end of what is spring in the northern hemisphere. There have been findings of juvenile dragons on the Kilimanjaro. We are all here of course because of the juvenile that was found on the mountain now called Kwai meaning ‘egg’ in the Hausa language. We wouldn’t be here but for a couple’s bravery. We now call on Mrs. MeenaEde to recount her experience.”

Meena got up from her front seat and went to the podium.

“There is a published book, titled ‘kwai’, that reminisces on what happened many summers ago. I on the other hand, would rather forget, if I can of the day that took so much away from me. Thank you."

There was disappointed clapping as Meena carefully took her seat. She didn’t care for their approval. The only person that mattered, placed his hand on her thigh, clumsily leaned over from his wheelchair and whispered, “You did good Moi.”

THE END