As the day leaned late into the afternoon, they continued walking without pause. The few remaining gulps of water in Handoko's dwindling flask were now down to the very last drops. They were still traversing a sea of grass that showed no sign of anything on the edge of the horizon.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Handoko's eyes narrowed. Sweat dripped from his long, sharp eyebrows—which almost met in the center—wetting his long, slender eyelashes.
"Ag... are you sure you brought us to the right place?" Handoko asked. "What is our actual destination in Lataran Ijo?"
Agniran looked back over his shoulder. His face, hooded under a dark-colored jarik cloth, was flushed red and bathed in sweat. "Back then..." He swallowed hard. "I thought there was some kind of place here, or maybe a village..."
Handoko hung his head in resignation. "Oh, goodness..."
Handoko was beginning to feel confused and desperate, as they had seen no sign of anything on the horizon since that morning.
"Maybe we're walking at an angle, even though we've been following the direction of the sun all this time. And yet... it's still the same."
Handoko recalled the moment before they set off, when Agniran had hidden something inside his otok belt at the fishpond. A surge of curiosity welled up within him, as if pressing him to find out what his friend was truly seeking.
"Ag... is there something you want to tell me?" Handoko's eyes locked onto Agniran, who was still hooded in his jarik. "Come on, just tell me."
Agniran gripped the pocket of his otok belt tightly at his waist. He wanted to tell him. He really did. However, the image of Wandarimo's face flashed across his mind once more.
"Do not tell anyone."
Agniran took a deep breath. "I'm sorry..."
He lowered his hooded head. Every now and then, the fluttering cloth whipped against his long, thin sideburns. His eyes stared at a card-sized bronze-gold metal plaque. He observed the snail-shaped bulge, then flipped it over to stroke the edges of its thick side, which was carved with a pattern of braided rope knots.
Agniran flipped the object back and forth again, trying to understand why his grandmaster had given him this plaque and told him to go to Lataran Ijo. His master had even forbidden him from telling anyone about it.
He raised his head to look up at the blue sky, adorned with only a few scattered clouds. Yet, because the view before him remained unchanged for hours, Agniran began to feel dizzy.
"Give me some water..." Agniran turned to Handoko behind him, extending his hand.
"I can't, there's only a little bit left for our supplies..." Handoko paused mid-sentence.
"Are we even heading home?" Agniran asked.
Agniran stared back at the endless horizon. There was no sign of anything, just an open expanse of grassy plain. "Could we have just been walking in circles all this time?"
Handoko's pace slowed from exhaustion. "Not possible. We've been following the sun all along."
"We should have reached the edge of the border by now..." Agniran's voice sounded heavy.
They kept walking. The tall grass swaying in the wind made it feel as though they were crossing an ocean of green. They kept trying to walk straight ahead, following the movement of the sun. But the result was the same: stretched out before them was still the vast, rolling waves of the Lataran Ijo grasslands—an expanse nearly as vast as a country.
Swoosh! Clasp!
Suddenly, two sturdy arms firmly wrapped around Handoko's chest from behind. Joko, whose body was also hooded in a jarik, laughed aloud as he held him in a tight bear hug, squeezing the breath right out of Handoko.
"Hey... woah! Jok!" Handoko struggled, trying to turn his body around, but failed to push off Joko, whose grip was remarkably strong.
Handoko spun his spear, preparing to strike with a backward thrust toward Joko. But Joko had already released his grip and nimbly dodged out of the way.
"You bastard!" Handoko cursed. He resumed walking after briefly making as if to chase Joko, who was running away.
Joko laughed as he ran alongside them, playing around as if to relieve the stress.
"We need to conserve our energy!" Handoko called out, pointing his spear toward Joko, who was running with a goofy grin. Handoko turned his eyes back forward, walking behind Agniran. "Seriously crazy! Running around like that!"
A few times, tufts of flying grass struck Handoko's jarik as he focused on walking. Eventually, a whole clump of grass was thrown right into the side of Handoko's face. That immediately sparked his anger.
"I told you we need to save energy, and now you want to start a fight?!" Handoko fumed. "Fine! Take this!!"
Handoko pulled up grass around him guardedly while parrying the clumps of grass Joko hurled at him. Once he held a large clump of grass in his hand, Handoko threw it back at Joko, who was crouching while hooded in his jarik, trying to pull up as much grass as possible. And then...
Fuuush... Thwack!
An even larger hit of thrown grass struck Handoko. Handoko grew even more annoyed. He threw his spear onto the ground. Using both hands, he grabbed and pulled up as much grass as he could. Ultimately, a full-blown grass war broke out between them.
Agniran stopped in his tracks for a moment. He just stood there watching them with a blank expression. "Enough, come on... we have to keep moving before night falls."
Handoko stopped attacking. He remembered something, then turned around to look at Agniran, who stood a short distance away. Handoko's hands were still full of grass clumps.
"Should we wait for nightfall, Ag? What about the stars? We could use them as a guide for direction!"
Agniran walked closer to them. "Sure, provided it's not foggy here at night. We also need provisions."
"What's this?!" Joko's dizzy spell was suddenly forgotten. He shouted while stretching out something long between his hands, which were still clutching clumps of grass.
"What is that?" Handoko looked over at Joko, who was lifting and pulling on the object.
Agniran frowned. He felt something strange—something he seemed to have just been thinking about, but what was it? He walked closer.
"It's a rope." Joko walked along the length of the rope while trying to untangle it.
"Why is there a rope here? What's it for?" Handoko asked.
Handoko retrieved his spear, then looked at Agniran. "Or could this be a trail marker? What if we follow this rope?"
"Yeah, it could be. But if it really is a trail marker leading somewhere... what if it leads us astray?" Agniran said. "We'll be lost even deeper in the middle of nowhere."
Handoko stepped closer. "Just think, even being near the border feels endless like this. What if we walk in a direction that takes us even farther from the edge? This is dangerous, Ag... The problem is, we don't have any supplies!"
Agniran remained silent, watching Joko, who was still hooded under his jarik as he pulled and followed the rope, which had already taken him quite a distance away from them.
"So, what do we do?" Handoko asked.
A rope? Agniran remembered the carving on the plaque his master had given him. On the thick side edge of the card-like plaque, there was a carved border forming a braided rope knot.
"I'm certain!" Agniran's voice sounded resolute. His eyes stared intently into Handoko's eyes from beneath his hooded jarik. "We follow that rope!!"
Agniran immediately sprinted toward Joko, who was following the rope line.
"Well, hopefully..." Handoko muttered as he ran to catch up.
As the afternoon grew late, they ran along the path of the stretched rope. Handoko ran while parting the foot-high grass with his spear to ensure the rope remained visible amidst the grassy soil.
"Yes! The rope keeps going!" Handoko called out. "This is a real chance if this rope is a guide leading somewhere. There's no way a rope this long would just keep going unless we're supposed to follow it!"
Agniran was panting heavily as he ran. "I'm sure of it, Han... it's a clue!"