Short Stories

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The Truth about Kazab

Yu Yuan had always taken the pohon drink, just like all the others. But today she made a firm decision. She would not drink it again.
"Hot pohon here!" called a man with a loud boisterous voice and fiery eyes. He flailed his arms obtrusively behind a drink stand outside a large and open grassy area filled with hundreds of people, and hundreds more streaming in from many different angles. Yu Yuan had noticed that the pohon drink gave people the red eyes. But it was worse than that. She had seen rashes forming on her own skin and others. Ugly dark blotches that made areas of her skin resemble burnt cauliflower.
"I want some more pohon," proclaimed Reproba. She was bold, with a pugnacious nose on her otherwise dainty face that she pushed into a lot of places where it didn't belong, often making Yu Yuan uncomfortable. The other two girls followed her as they always did up to the small pohon stand constructed of crude, twisted wood. Vals was usually too timid to argue and Uekte was always too happy to care. It was times like this that made Yu Yuan wish she didn't run with Reproba and the other two, but she was too shy to disagree. Reproba watched approvingly as Vals and Uekte filled their cups, but Yu Yuan tiptoed past, quietly hoping they wouldn't notice.
She hardly spoke, even among her friends. At school, she was not often reprimanded, except for one thing; she would often keep her head down so that her long dark hair would cover her petite, delicate face. But she had always felt so comfortable around Reproba, who was never quiet about anything. Reproba, Vals, and Uekte had been her friends as far back as she could remember. They looked out for her, and the four did everything together.
"Wait! Why aren't you drinking?" Reproba's big nose was now pointed directly at Yu Yuan.
"I- I was perusing t- the ancient text of King Kataastasaan, the Tilata," she replied nervously, her vocabulary always beyond the others when she finally did speak. "It stipulates against intoxication."
"Nonsense," spat Reproba. "The Ke Thu TELL us to drink. Why would they tell us to drink if it was against the Tilata?" The Ke Thu were a cunning people from a neighboring city that had taken control of their village called Kazab long ago.
"The pohon makes you feel so much better; that the world is not so bad," added Vals. Her short coffee-colored hair normally drooped over her pear shaped figure, but predictably lifted after every time she drank. "Life is so much fun drinking pohon!"
"I like the taste," smiled Uekte. She always smiled anyway, but even more after drinking. "If you quit, then I think you must be the only one in the world who doesn't drink," she laughed. But Yu Yuan must have stared at her a little too long when she noticed a dark blotch of cauliflower on her forehead covering a small portion of her normally smooth, fair skin. Uekte quickly turned her head and pointed to a rough stage being assembled at the other end of the park, "What's happening over there? Look at all these people!" she sang. "The whole city must be out here."
"It's some kind of speaker; let's go find out," commanded Reproba loudly. The three were gone so hastily that they left Yu Yuan behind, still contemplating the ramifications of her decision.
"Wait! Wait for me!" She rushed after them, but ran into a large woman and was thrown to one side.
"I'm so sorry, dear," said the woman in an overly soothing voice. She tried to hand Yu Yuan a cup, "Here, have some pohon. That will cheer you up!"
"No!" said Yu Yuan emphatically.
The woman's eyebrows both raised in unison. "What, dear? Why won't you drink pohon?"
"The Tilata instructs to the contrary."
"Oh, no no no no NO," she answered in a sweet voice turned authoritative. "This has been our tradition for many, many, MANY years." She resumed her overly sugary voice, "And the Ke Thu follow King Kataastasaan and the Tilata most carefully; they TELL us to drink the pohon." Then she added with a glow of admiration, "I'm so proud of them, it just warms my heart."
When she was distracted by her husband arriving with arms fully loaded with food and pohon, Yu Yuan took to occasion to excuse herself. "I need to find my friends."
While she was searching through the mob, one of the Ke Thu governors addressed the people. "Citizens of Kazab," he announced in a booming voice that carried throughout the area. "We gather together to celebrate our great king, King Kataastasaan." There was loud cheering throughout the large audience. She finally spotted her friends, and rushed over to join them. They were with three boys who all looked quite surly to her.
Uekte was giggling with a smile larger than Yu Yuan had ever seen, "Oh I love games, tell me again what it's called?"
"It's called 'Who's the beast'-"
"We read and obey the Tilata," the speaker continued, and again was interrupted by a barrage of cheering throughout the crowd. "And we celebrate the great king by drinking the pohon together." Yu Yuan watched as everyone she could see lifted their cups to their lips. She knew that just a short time ago she would have also taken part with them.
"Hey, she's not drinking!" Yu Yuan whirled around so that her long dark hair flew in her face, but she still saw one of the guys staring directly at her. She instinctively looked to Reproba and the others for support, but something had changed between them.
"Your not one of us if you don't drink," Reproba charged, her nose looking large and threatening, her eyes flaming in the approaching darkness of the dusk. Yu Yuan couldn't even speak she was so appalled. She looked to Vals and Uekte for support, but they turned their red eyes away from her.
"Everybody drink more pohon!" one of the boys yelled. The others joined him so that Yu Yuan felt something like Reproba's nose by just standing there quietly among her screaming friends. He brought out a large container of the burnt colored drink and poured more into Reproba, Vals, and Uekte's cups. "Who's the beast, who's the beast, who's the beast…" they cried in unison. Then he picked up a fresh cup, poured it full of the drink, and tried to hand it to Yu Yuan. When she wouldn't take it, he pointed a finger in between her almond eyes and hissed, "Drink it up or GO." Yu Yuan looked at her friends she had known for so long, but they faces were hardened with pohon intoxication. "DRINK UP OR GO!" Yu Yuan took a long look at her friends and walked away.
"Hey! Watch-" an elderly man started to shout after she had run into him and spilled his drink, but stopped short when he saw the tears that filled her eyes. She looked up to see he had pohon all over his face.
"What are you do-"
But Yu Yuan simply walked away from him, weaving in and out of one face after another. She kept walking out into the open park while behind her thousands of people now had begun playing the game and chanting, “Who's the beast, who's the beast, who's the beast…” She walked past sturdy wooden buildings with slanted roofs composed of crude shingles, empty now since everyone was at the park. Soon she was out of the village clearing and among the twisted pohon trees of the thick forest. Only then did she sit down on a rock and bury her face in her hands, with her long dark hair hanging limp over her hands. The chanting in the distance seemed to be growing louder, “Who's the beast, who's the beast, who's the beast…”
At length she looked up and spotted a large stone structure a short distance away. Curiosity briefly overtaking her grief, she stood and walked over to the structure, finding it to be a stairwell leading down great distance into the darkness. Slowly and carefully she started down the steps, curiosity growing, until they leveled off at a passageway leading back towards the city. She crept along the passage, carefully keeping to one of the hewn walls. It was dark, but there was a small amount of light peeping through holes leading up to the surface, allowing her to see her footing on the dirt floor. She followed the tunnel while the chanting grew louder and louder, seeming to her like it was approaching a frenzy. “Who's the beast, who's the beast, who's the beast…”
Suddenly she stopped. She had come to a cavern filled with a group of dark, amorphous shapes. They were moaning, or crying, or perhaps a combination of both. At first she was frozen with fright. But when she saw the dark shapes were only rocking and moaning, she regained her curiosity and approached them closer. Above her the frenzy reached a new height, “Who's the beast, who's the beast, who's the beast…” She crept close to one of them to get a closer look in the dim light. Suddenly the creature stood and faced her. Yu Yuan screamed a cry that was only drowned by the shouting of the crowd in the park above them, “Who's the beast, who's the beast, who's the beast, YOU'RE THE BEAST!”
Yu Yuan was looking at the ugliest sight she had ever seen. The creature certainly did not appear human. It was black and grotesque, lumpy and gooey, with hideous skin covered with cauliflower that boiled like molasses. Its head appeared like burnt bull's heads with bright red eyes piercing through mud, and its body seemed like an amorphous baked pig standing on stumpy hind legs.
She reeled backwards falling to the dirt floor, but the creature did not pursue her, it just stood there looking down on her with its hideous face. Gradually she stood again and faced it.
“My name was- is Vadallat,” it mumbled.
Yu Yuan stammered, "H- how d- did you become like t- this?"
"The pohon," it mumbled bitterly. "The pohon did this to me."
“What?”
“We all become like this- it's from the pohon.”
“What about everyone up there?” Yu Yuan was suddenly aware that the chanting had stopped and it had become quiet above them. “What will happen to them?”
“They will eventually become like all of us,” mumbled the creature with barely discernable words while he flailed a short, stubby arm around at the other beasts in the cavern. “Beasts.” He turned his boiling pigs head to look down at the dirt floor. It appeared to Yu Yuan he might be holding back tears. "It’s the Ke Thu. They use the pohon to keep us captive."
“What can I do? How can I save them?”
“Run,” came a roar from deep within the creature. “Leave this place and join the Styrande, the government of King Kataastasaan. They are the true followers of the king, not the Ke Thu.”

Above them, they heard the faint sound of the leader again addressing the people. “Let us now read from the ancient Tilata text, the text of King Kataastasaan while we drink again of the pohon together.” There was again the loud chanting, but this time they were reciting something very different.

"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

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