Chapter 57
After their dinner of dry sweet potato and lukewarm water, the hut fell into a silence so thin it felt like it could tear.
The oil lamp in the corner burned low, stubborn but struggling. Its flame threw a honey-colored glow across the bamboo walls, softening their roughness, turning cracks into long veins of shadow.
Every time the wind slipped through the jungle, the flame shivered—and the shadows stretched and twisted like figures pacing just outside the light.
Outside, the jungle had its own nightlife.
Crickets scratched out a relentless beat.
Leaves brushed against each other like hushed gossip.
Somewhere far off, something let out a long, hollow cry that didn’t sound fully animal. The noise slid under the door and settled in Shay’s chest, heavy and cold.
Inside, the air was thick and unmoving. The bamboo floor was merciless, each narrow slat digging into hip bones and shoulders. Shay rolled onto one side, then the other, wincing. The floor smelled green and raw, like something freshly cut and unfinished.
This wasn’t a bed.
It wasn’t even close.
She missed her room back home—the soft mattress that swallowed her when she jumped on it. The glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to her ceiling. The hum of city life outside her window. Car engines. Distant music.
Noise meant people. Noise meant safety.
“Mommy,” she whispered into the dim hut, her voice fragile as tissue paper, “can you tell me a story p>
Pressed close to the wall, Sandro’s eyes opened instantly.
He had been lying on his side, pretending to sleep, but he hadn’t drifted off for a second.
Every crack of a twig outside had tightened his muscles.
Every burst of laughter from the rebels near the fire reminded him exactly where they were.
Trapped.
A story meant something different in a place like this. It meant home. It meant distraction.
Lara shifted carefully, ignoring the ache in her own back. She pulled Shay closer until the little girl’s head rested against her stomach. Her fingers moved slowly through Shay’s curls, untangling them strand by strand. Gentle. Rhythmic.
It was the only tenderness in the room.
“Do you know the name of this mountain?” Lara asked softly, her voice steady—so steady it almost erased the fact that armed men stood only yards away.
Shay shook her head against her.
“No p>
“I know, Aunt Larissa p>
Sandro pushed himself up on one elbow, unable to keep quiet. “It’s Mount Ourea p>
Lara turned toward him. Even in the weak light, she could see the quiet fire in his eyes.
“Very good, Sandro. How did you know p>
“I heard Joshua talking about it once,” he said, trying to sound casual. “And Mount Ourea is part of the Alta-Sierra mountain range p>
He straightened without meaning to. Knowledge was power.
And in a place where everything else had been stripped from him, facts were something he still owned.
“Well,” Lara said warmly, reaching over to squeeze his knee, “our Sandro is intelligent p>
The words hit deeper than she realized.
For a second, the fear loosened its grip on him. A shy smile tugged at his bruised lip. In this hut. In this darkness. That smile felt defiant.
It felt like resistance.
“Then,” Lara continued, her voice softening into something almost musical, “I’ll tell you the legend of Alta-Sierra p>
Shay’s head popped up immediately.
“Yeheyy p>
She clapped her hands, the sound bright and almost shocking in the shadowed space. Even Sandro leaned forward, elbows on his knees, eyes locked on Lara.
The oil lamp flickered again, light bending and swaying.
Outside, the jungle kept whispering. Rebels laughed in the distance. A rifle clanked against metal.
But inside that fragile hut, Lara began to speak.
And as her voice rose and fell, steady and warm, it wrapped around the children like armor—thin, maybe, but unbreakable for tonight.
“In the beginning,” Lara began,
“The land of the five kingdoms was an unbroken expanse of flat earth, as featureless and boundless as the tranquil sea that bordered it.
Galeya, the fairy of the earth, grew restless, her gaze fixed on the horizon where land met water. Her curiosity burned—what secrets lay beyond the ocean’s reach?
She summoned a mighty spike from the earth to satisfy her wonder.
With a resounding tremor, the ground obeyed her will, and the spike began its ascent.
Slowly, majestically, it rose, reshaping the once-level landscape.
Taller and taller it grew, sculpted by Galeya’s divine power, until it stood as a towering sentinel, piercing the sky at an imposing height of one thousand meters. This was no mere landmark but a monument to her strength, a throne carved from the earth itself.
Lara’s voice softened, drawing her two listeners closer.
“But Galeya’s creation did not go unnoticed.
Far off in the azure expanse of the sea, Neptuno, the deity of the ocean, swam effortlessly through his vast, tranquil domain.
He relished the calm, the rhythmic embrace of the waves until something new caught his eye—a disturbance near the boundary where land met sea.
A rectangular platform rose above the flat terrain, stark and bold against the endless horizon.
At its pinnacle stood a striking figure, her silhouette framed by the endless blue sky.
Long, dark hair cascaded down her back in waves, adorned with vibrant flowers that swayed with the sea breeze. She was draped in a flowing white gown, its ethereal fabric catching the wind and dancing like foam on the ocean’s crest.
Neptuno watched, transfixed, as the scene unfolded before him—a perfect harmony of earth, sky, and sea, and at its heart, a woman whose beauty rivaled any of the mermaids he had seen.
Compelled by her presence, he drew closer, the waters whispering their welcome as he approached p>
Neptuno was captivated by the beauty of the earth deity, a radiant embodiment of nature’s grace. From that day forward, their hearts intertwined. They would meet at the shoreline, where the waves kissed the golden sands just as the sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in hues of orange and purple.
One day, as the first rays of the sun broke over the horizon, Galeya ascended the high platform that overlooked the shimmering expanse of the sea.
Her heart sank as she caught sight of Neptuno, playfully flirting with a group of mermaids, their laughter ringing like bells in the crisp morning air.
A surge of anger coursed through her; the sight of Neptuno’s charming flirtation ignited a fierce jealousy within her. In a fit of emotion, she summoned her powers, conjuring towering mountains that rose majestically from the earth, their peaks piercing the sky, effectively blocking her view of the sea.
“That’s how Alta-Sierra came to be.” Lara finished the story.
“Mommy, did you just make it up? How come I never heard of such a legend p>
“Yes, Aunt Larissa, I also did not hear it p>
Lara thought for a while.
The words just came to her, as someone told her in the past.
Then a vague figure of a man appeared — a white-haired, old man.
“The old man in our village told it to us p>