Dawn had arrived, its dark bluish hue spilling a streak of yellowish-white light over the horizon around Lataran Ijo.
Koro emerged from the doorway of the Arena. He jerked in shock upon seeing them sprawled out on the floor and the sofa, fast asleep. Moving quickly and bending over, his eyes squinting, he swept his gaze across the room. "Woo... Insolent fools!!" "Why are they sleeping in my shop?!"
Koro hurried over to the drawer across from the sofa. With deft movements, his hands grabbed a stack of cloths, then he strode back toward where the sleeping youths lay. He unfolded a large blanket and covered their bodies. "Hoalah Le, Le... where is your home?"
Soon after, Solor came out, followed by several other people.
Glekk... Glekk... Glekk... Glekk... Glekk... Glekk... The large, concave shelves that covered the entire wall began to rotate once more. The sound woke them up. Everyone in the middle of the room who had been standing, as well as some who were seated, waited.
As soon as the threshold reached the middle of the stairwell, the visitors descended the stairs amidst laughter and smiles upon seeing the three youths looking disheveled from just waking up. "Hi hi... Rest downstairs..." Solor said, following Koro toward the descending stairs.
Arriving on the shop floor, the three youths staggered down the stairs, their faces still swollen from sleep. "Hellloww, good morning..." greeted the braided-hair woman, her aura looking fresh upon waking up and cleaning herself.
They saw that the atmosphere of the shop remained the same as the previous night, except that more light was now filtering through the circular windows lining the room, there was no soft gamelan music playing, and it was empty of customers. "You handsome lads, if you want to use the restroom, go through that door. Downstairs you'll find everything to freshen up..." said the pigtail-wearing woman while washing dishes.
Without a word, they headed straight toward the indicated door.
Arriving on the ground floor after entering the hallway, they beheld a spacious room with a pool at its center. Water flowed gently from above, cascading down a rock formation at the edge of the cliff wall. Surrounding the pool were bathroom and toilet cubicles with doors facing the water. Large potted clay plants and hanging lanterns adorned the space outside each cubicle door. Passing visitors offered only brief greetings.
"Are we going home after this?" Handoko asked, removing his vest and walking toward a bathroom. "Where else would we go?" replied Agniran, loosening his otok belt to take off the jarik wrapped over his knee-length shorts. "Why didn't we go inside last night?" Handoko held the doorknob, looking at Agniran, who was just about to enter the bathroom next to his.
Agniran shook his head slowly. "I couldn't." He looked at Handoko before stepping fully into the bathroom. "There was something in my mind holding me back..." He went inside and locked the door.
"Hey, you're on the wrong side!" Handoko shoved Joko, who was already shirtless and heading for the middle bathroom. "I can't scrub my back." "What, is your back covered in moss?" Handoko pushed Joko's arm harder to make him find another bathroom. "Go on, get away..." Krekk... Handoko closed his door. "I've forgotten how to take a bath..." "Well, I'll bathe you next time," Handoko's voice echoed back and forth from inside the bathroom.
Not long after, morning fully broke. Warm sunlight swallowed the mist that had previously blanketed the cliff region. A loud voice, resembling the chanting of a traditional puppeteer (dalang), could be heard. As they neared the stairs, the chanting became much clearer.
They climbed the shop stairs and saw several customers coming and going. The pigtail-wearing woman looked busy. Another large, plump man sat inside the central counter, stopping his chant the moment his eyes locked onto Agniran. "Nduk Arindi... aren't these the ones Kang Solor and Koro meant?" greeted the heavyset man wearing a black blangkon. His thick black beard and eyebrows covered almost his entire face; his right hand rested on the table, casually twisting his thick mustache. "Enjoy yourselves here for a while while Kang Solor and Kang Koro are sleeping..."
Agniran walked closer to the big man. "Pardon us, Sir, but we seem to be heading out." "Don't!!" The pigtail-wearing woman hurried over to Agniran. She tucked the cleaning cloth she was holding beneath her chest. "Kang Solor and Kang Koro gave me strict instructions! You are not allowed to leave before they wake up!!" "But... we need to..." "...This is an order!!" The pigtail-wearing woman smiled, but her expression carried annoyance. "Why the rush, Young Man?" the large, stout man chimed in.
His smile turned flat. He pulled his jarik up to his knees, hoisted his right foot onto the table, leaned his upper body forward, and stared right at Agniran. "This is the Year of Panandha..." "What do you want to go home for?" "Huh?" "Do you already have wives that makes you so eager to run back?!" His expression shifted into an angry glare, his eyes wide as he stared them down. "Are you afraid of me looking like this?"
Agniran remained silent. The woman's behavior caused Handoko and Joko to bow their heads to hide their smiles. "The fellow behind you is laughing at me?!" His head tilted, his eyes still wide and glaring at Agniran, who had stayed quiet the whole time. He watched as the big man walked over to a shelf behind the central round table. "Ah, I suppose I'm just pathetic," he lowered his foot, let his jarik drop back down to cover his legs, and returned to the food-prep area. "Oh well..." "If you're going to leave, at least eat first..." The pigtail-wearing woman, named Arindi, had her back turned as she busied herself at the counter. "No thank you, we're fine," Agniran replied. Arindi glanced back. "You might reach the border of Lataran Ijo by late afternoon or evening, assuming you don't get lost." "And you're not going to eat first?"
Agniran, who was still standing there watching Arindi, asked, "How much is the total?" He walked up to the pigtail-wearing woman. "Oh come on, Young Man, do you seriously think you're paying?" "Yes, how much is it?" Arindi's eyes narrowed playfully as she sliced some food. "Total for what?" "Yesterday we ordered ginger coffee, ginger milk, and iced orange juice," Agniran replied with a nod.
Arindi laid down her knife and walked over to the other side of the central round table. She looked at Agniran with a smile. "Did you think you have to pay here?" Her gaze shifted to Handoko and Joko, who stood behind Agniran looking bewildered. "Ah, I understand, you're new here..." "Out there, perhaps. But as long as you arrive as wanderers... there is nothing to pay, you already hold the plaque." The woman in the dark-red kemben flashed a smile. "Because this place was built for you."
She leaned forward, looking at the three of them one by one, her gaze sharp. "This is your home." Arindi turned her back to resume her work. "So there are no prices here..." Her sentence trailed off. "When you are able one day, help other wanderers."
That statement prompted Joko to elbow Handoko repeatedly in the side, causing the two of them to exchange knowing smiles. Joko leaned close to Agniran's ear. "This is our chance, Ag..." Agniran turned around. "What chance?" He spun to face Joko, whose wide grin exposed his teeth. "To eat..." Handoko grumbled in agreement. "Sit down!" shouted the pigtail-wearing woman from across the prep table. "I'll make you pecel."
The plump man approached them as they looked for a place to sit. "Mulane gak usah kuatir... lak neng kene." "Kabeh wes ono seng nanggung." (That's why you needn't worry... when you're here, everything is taken care of by someone.) His face exuded complete ease. "Hmm, who takes care of it?" "All wanderers." The man placed a wooden chest on the table and opened it. "Do you like wayang?" Both hands picked up a small shadow puppet, lifting it up until his face tilted back to look.
Then the man began to chant like a traditional puppeteer, causing some of the other customers to turn their heads toward him. "My name is Gunadir." "I take the morning shift replacing Kang Koro." He manipulated the puppet in his hands, "Sometimes until night." He glanced at Agniran, "Though I have no right to enter his shop; that's his territory." "Tell me about your village," his eyes focused on the carved details of the puppet.
Agniran only smiled slightly, bowing his head. "Wijonayem, as it always is..." Agniran looked straight into the eyes of the large, heavyset man wearing a white shirt under a brown vest. "Sir, is it true that the Kecot family of old founded the Alliance?" "Indeed, one of them..." "Could you tell us why the Alliance laws exist?" The man turned his head to look at Agniran. "Has your Padepokan not already taught you and studied its history?" "Yes... well..." Agniran's foot gently nudged Handoko's big toe, and they exchanged glances. "Yes, we don't know the whole story yet. Back in our village, those events are called myths, so we don't know for sure what actually happened?" Agniran nodded. "Very well. If you consider this a myth, listen closely. If what I explain doesn't match, then I am merely a storyteller. But if what I explain aligns with the stories in your village..." "Then it is the absolute truth."
They settled into more relaxed postures, their gazes fixed on the large, stout man. He placed an old, weathered banana trunk (debog) onto the table and pulled a small puppet from the chest. "Consider this a knight." Gunadir lifted the knight puppet high. Its shadow danced against the wall, illuminated by the cluster of fruit-like lamps hanging in the middle of the room, accompanied by his pleasing chant. "This knight wore white. He was deeply saddened and frustrated because the use of mystical heirlooms was running rampant." "Yet, when he pleaded with the Maker of Heirlooms to end and halt the endless cycle of heirloom wars driven by power and bloodshed, he begged that there would no longer be any such cycle."
Gunadir picked up a puppet shaped like the sun from the chest beside him. He brought the puppet close to the hanging lamp above, instantly plunging the room into shadow. "His wish was granted." "With a condition: he had to create one final heirloom." "Because it was to be the last, he wanted to create an heirloom that could confiscate and devour all remaining heirlooms..."
Slowly, the sun-shaped puppet and its shadow were lowered. He put it back into the chest. "That was the moment darkness stained the Heirloom Maker's Circle." He lifted two weapon-shaped puppets. "Heirlooms are hard to create, nearly impossible. Because every heirloom sought to be created..." The puppet nearly touched his cheek as Gunadir peered through a small cut-out hole in the leather carving. Through that gap, his eyes locked onto the three youths, "...demands a toll." "You already know the toll exacted by the Circle of Darkness... it is horrifying."
The plump man sat down on a small stool (dingklik) and adjusted himself comfortably. "That was when the knight was filled with deep regret (getun)." He laid down the puppet he was holding and picked up one depicting dark, ominous clouds. "He made heirlooms, mass-produced them, by force." Pulling the puppet away from his face, he stared at them. "Imagine every toll that the Circle of Darkness demanded: four hundred human hearts!" "Can you even fathom how that knight had to resort to force just to gather four hundred hearts?" He lowered his head toward the three youths, his eyes staring wide and sharp. "And that's not even the half of it..."
His voice dropped to a whisper. "What if the demand was the hearts of your own parents?" He picked up another puppet from the chest. "What if the toll required collecting the heads of small children?" He handed that puppet to Agniran right in front of him. He grabbed another. "To drain the ocean?" That one was also handed to Agniran. Another one. "To bathe in molten lava?" Passed to Agniran. Another. "To urinate without using your genitals?" Handed to Agniran. He kept pulling puppet after puppet from the chest and piling them onto Agniran. "To carve mountains?" "To chop off people's legs?" "To gouge out eyes?" and so on.
His eyes stared intensely at Agniran, Gunadir's body shifting forward. "What if the price demanded was to kill someone you truly love and cherish?" By the time the chest was completely empty, all the puppets were piled up in front of Agniran. The hearts of the three youths pounded hard, their gazes transfixed on Gunadir, causing even Arindi to turn her head and pause her food preparation.