LEVIATHAN THE SEA MONSTER

THE SECRETS OF THE SCROLL

I just can't stop crying, I just can't. It's not so easy to lose someone so dear to you. I reach out for my phone and call Dennis just to let him know how sorry I am for his loss. I call him and then he can't seem to stop sobbing over the phone. I tried to console him, tried to make him stop and I even tried singing him a song "Ocean eyes by Billie Eilish" but that didn't work so I hung up, wiped my face and remembered the scroll we found at the museum. I pull it out from my bag and open it. "Blank!" I yelled. How can the scroll be blank, it doesn't make any sense there's suppose to be a prophecy in here but there's nothing. This can't be, it can't be. Did we take the wrong scroll? I doubt that; there's nothing like this in the museum so most definitely it's not the wrong scroll. Oh my God I think I need to call Queen. I pick up my phone and dialed Queen's number.

"Hi Queen" I said with a husky voice. "Hi Lora are you feeling alright?" She asked. "yeah I'm fine I just had a little mood swing" I lied. "Mood swing, you never have mood swings. Not even on your period. Lora you better tell me what's up or I'll figure it out on my own and if I do, you won't like it" She threatened."Okay" I said nonchalantly. she was shocked at my response and immediately hung up the phone in anger and disbelief I'm sure. "Oh s**t" I thought. I forgot to tell her about the blank scroll. Then it hit me.

I remember when grandma use to tell us about the history of our tribe and she says our people are very secretive, we prefer to use invisible ink to write down our messages just so the enemies would be confused and wonder what we needed so many blank scrolls for. Grandmother says we mostly use it to deliver messages to one another while keeping the information a secret and, we use it to save and keep the village histories safe and not faded. I remembered all what grandmother said about the use of the scroll but I can't quite remember what she said the villagers did. "my eyes!" I scream. A ray of light flashes in my eye. A very bright light. That's when it hit me. The sun is the answer. My grandmother said the reflection of massive sun light on the scroll can reveal the hidden message. I got up from my bed, and went straight to my window where the light was coming from and I open the curtains; the light hits the scroll and there it was the hidden prophecy. I haven't seen anything like it; a moving message. It looks like a drawing but this drawing moves. The drawings start to move. The scroll described with the drawings moving; Long ago a group of villagers went out on a search for food and suddenly they heard a sound and a shake on the earth. The villagers got frightened and decided to search for where the noise was coming from. They left their donkeys and horses behind to go look for this sound as they searched to and fro in the village they found out that the sound was coming from under water. The 5 villagers were too afraid to go down the river, so they hatched a plan; Two would stay on land to report back to the people Incase something went wrong and three would go into the river to find out what was making all the noise. the 3 villagers, bintu, handasa and Loki took off their robes and big heart shaped hearts and walked slowly into the river till dey got closer to the middle where they got dragged down speedily by unknown force. It was so quick they weren't able to catch their breath before they were dragged into the river. "Bintu!!" Loki gurgled. "Loki" Handasa gurgled. the three villagers were feeling like death was near. While they were trying to escape the unknown force which was discovered to be a tentacle, Handasa happened to remember that he didn't completely unarm himself. He brought out his small dagger and cut the tentacle off his neck, and swam as fast as he could to the surface just to catch his breath. He took a deep breath and went back in the water with fury and fear. As he swam back to the bottom of the sea, he rushed to the save his men but his men seem to be really stock and losing life. The tentacles try to grab him again but he dodges them then slices. every dodge follows with a slice. The tentacles distracted him so much he nearly forgot about his men. After spending a very long time (10 minutes) slicing the tentacles. He started to see blood in the river, that's when it dawned on him that his men were still under the river. "Oh no" he said. He swam right over to check on them and sliced the tentacles off their neck. He tried to get them out of the river but he couldn't save them both. Loki couldn't make it. His eyes were wide open as blood came out of his nostrils and his ears and instead of floating up like other drowned bodies new set of tentacles came out and grabbed his dead body to the bottom of the bottom of the river. Handasa couldn't wait any longer he had to get to the top with Bintu or he'd die too. Handasa sawm back to surface and Forcefully tried to pull Bintu and swim at the same time. It wasn't easy but he did it; he saved Bintu's life but lost Loki. Handasa did it he dragged Bintu to the surface and successfully dragged him out of the river.

Handasa laid Bintu on the muddy bank, his chest heaving, water streaming from his hair and eyes. He collapsed beside his friend, exhaustion and grief washing over him. The two villagers waiting on the bank, a woman named Tala and a young man called Kael, rushed forward. They helped drag Bintu further from the water’s edge, checking for a pulse.

"Loki..." Handasa finally choked out, tears mixing with the river water on his face. "He's gone. They took his body."

Tala knelt beside Bintu, pressing on his chest. "We heard the struggle," she whispered, her voice trembling. "The water boiled. What was that?"

Kael looked from the dark, swirling river to the ragged, bleeding cut on Handasa’s neck where the tentacle had grabbed him. "A river monster? A beast that hunts in the deep?"

Handasa shook his head, gazing into the water with a horrified intensity. "No. It felt... intelligent. Like a guard. And when Loki died, it wasn't just dead—it was claimed. Drawn down into the very heart of the river."

Suddenly, Bintu coughed violently, spitting out a great deal of water, and began to weakly gasp for air. Relief momentarily pushed the horror aside. Tala and Kael quickly turned him onto his side and began to cover him with their robes for warmth.

Handasa stood up, still dripping, his dagger clutched in his hand. He looked back at the river, a fierce, protective resolve hardening his features. "We didn't just find a sound," he said, his voice now low and steady. "We found a secret. A darkness living beneath the surface that our people must know about."

He turned to the two villagers, his gaze piercing. "Bintu will recover, but the danger is real. Go back to the village. Tell them what you saw. Tell them Loki is lost. I have to go downriver. I need to know what they are guarding, and why it has such a terrible hold on the water."

With a final, weary nod, Handasa disappeared into the trees along the bank, determined to uncover the truth hidden in the depths, knowing this was only the start of their terrifying journey.