My Unconventional Lover: Seeing A Different World

151 Are You Going To Cook?

(Tom’s PoV)

As far as I could see, I could only see trees, bushes, and mosses. The smell of damps woods and mosses mixed with the fresh air. My lungs ordered my nose to suck on the air as much as possible, filling them with the fresh air to the brim before they exhaled it and repeated the process for around three to four times more.

This was awesome! My body felt invigorated and I thought I could walk for hours without feeling tired.

Of course, that’s only in mind since another important question popped in my mind.

Where am I? If I’m not mistaken, they asked me to stabilize the situation. But, what situation do I need to stabilize in a jungle?

That place was not even a forest, but really a jungle. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lion popped out of nowhere. Probably an elephant, too, or a big snake capable of swallowing human.

My body shivered involuntarily. Instead of waiting my doom here, I chose to pick a direction and walked towards it. I walked carefully while looking for a trail, the one that human would make.

Damn, if it went on, my eight hours would end up with me being stuck in this jungle.

Why did they send me here exactly? Also, I was curious where they sent the other one. Did she end up in the deep jungle like me as well?

.....

I shook my head. Wherever they sent her, it was none of my business. Oh, I found one!

My eyes widened in excitement as I happily walked towards the trail I found. After observing for a while, I chose to go to the right. Hopefully I could find a human settlement.

It didn’t take long for me to finally smell what I assumed to be human’s cooking. The smell was good and I could feel my stomach growling.

Wait. I stopped and stared at my own hands. I thought I was still in my spirit form. Now that I thought about it, I breathed like usual, touched everything like usual, and now my stomach even wanted me to feed it. Did those elders from Satu Village bring my body over?

What would happen if my mother went and didn’t find me in my room?

Just the thought of my brokenhearted mother made me uneasy. It seemed like I need to speed up the process so I could go back earlier.

I hastened my steps and arrived at the... what the f*ck?! What happened here?

I was stunned at the border of the small village. I couldn’t see anyone outside the houses. The road was abandoned as I could see some baskets were scattered as if the people were in hurry that they knocked down anything in their way. Some torches had not even been lighted yet, leaving some spots of the village a bit darker than the other side.

What scared them that made them abandoned everything? Did they see something? Since the sky had started to turn dark, I could only think so.

There was no serious damage, no screaming, which meant there was no wild animal entered the village. So, what made them run away?

As I was still observing the situation, I noticed the window in the nearest house was opened slightly. Somebody must be peeking from inside because as soon as I focused my sight on it, the window was pulled shut again.

Well, I wanted to say it was kind of rude, but I thought it was acceptable since it was okay to guard against someone they didn’t know. But still, I felt hurt a bit...

Maybe I should be more active and approach them. Smile, Tom, smile, but not like a creepy stalker.

I was just about to take my first step to that house when I heard a screaming in the far end of the road. Without thinking much, I ran towards the source of the scream and saw something scarier that Kuntilanak.

My eyes widened and my body froze. It was my first time seeing ‘it’ with my own eyes, how could I not freeze? The sight was really horrifying that I didn’t know what to do.

Was that the infamous Kuyang[1]?

Rumors said that Kuyang would target on babies or pregnant women. My eyes shifted from the floating head and internal organs in front of me to the woman who looked paled from being scared to death. Her big belly proved that the rumors was true, that Kuyang was after pregnant women and babies.

“Save me! Save me, please!” The pregnant woman cried in desperation.

The Kuyang only made a mad laugh as she advanced forward. Then, she hissed with her tongue licking her lips, as if she could imagine the taste of the pregnant woman. Truly disgusting!

My brain worked faster to find anything that could be used against this thing. Relying on physical power alone would lead me to a total lose, I needed to think of something.

What could I use to get rid of this evil thing?

I couldn’t see any broom sticks around, bamboo, nor pineapple. What option did I have? My eyes darted from one object to another, trying to find something that may be able to use against Kuyang. I noticed some dry sand was put in front of a house. Taking two handfull of it, I ran towards the Kuyang and threw it right at her.

“Gaahh!!” The Kuyang let out a shrill scream as it floated away, startled by my attack. Dry sand stuck on her organs and it made her flustered.

Taking the chance, I ran towards the pregnant lady and pulled her to her feet. Fortunately, someone was kind enough to open their door to us.

“Sekar, Sekar, thank God you’re okay!” An older woman inside the house rushed to the pregnant lady and hugged her while crying.

“Sister, I’m scared!” She sobbed pitifully.

“It’s okay, you’re safe now. You’re safe. It’s okay.” The woman rubbed Sekar’s arms and back, to warm her up as a proof that she was really safe.

“Thank you, Mister, for your help.” The man who was being silent the whole time thanked me.

“Ah, it’s nothing. I should do what I can do.” I smiled and shook my head.

“I guess you’re not from around. What did you throw at the devil?” He asked. “Ah, my name is Jaka. This is my wife, Arum, and her younger sister, Sekar. Sekar’s husband had not returned from the woods and she said she was going to wait for a little bit. But that vile creature came to us faster than we expected.” The man named Jaka gritted his teeth.

“If only we knew what her weakness is, it will be easier to deal with her.” He added.

“How long does she terrorize your village?”

“It’s been a month and we had lost several people because of her.”

“Had any of you conducted a thorough search for the vile creature?”

“We don’t even know how to protect ourselves from her, let alone search for her.” Jaka frowned.

His answer made me realized how bad the situation was. These people might not know what Kuyang was, how to identify them, and how to protect themselves from Kuyang. They lived in fear for a month and whoever that Kuyang was, it was highly possible that the origins was in the same village.

How could I tell them that I might know about it?

“Ah, I still haven’t say my name. My name is Tom. Nice to meet you, Jaka.” I held out my hand and shook hands with Jaka. The way he frowned didn’t escape my eyes. “Is there something wrong?”

“Ah no...” He shook his head as he smiled. “It’s just... your name is... unique. I haven’t heard anyone with your name before.”

I let out a dry laugh after hearing what he said. Indeed, my name was a result of cultural crossing in my era. Ancient folks... hehe, what did they know?

“Well, it’s because I came from far away.” I reasoned. “Anyway, we need to do something about the one outside.” I hastily diverted his attention back to Kuyang outside.

Right after I said that, the door was pounded hard from the outside. The two women screamed in fear as Jaka and I helped them to walk away from the door. In a haste, I pulled the nearby chairs and put them before the door. I didn’t know if it would suffice, but at least we had tried.

Well, to be honest, I doubted it could hang on longer time. After all, ancient houses were not as sturdy as our modern houses. Not to mention it was all made of wood. If it used woods like the house in Satu Village, I was not worried since that kind of wood was strong. But, this house, even though it was pretty big, it looked like I could make a hole with my fist alone.

Ah, it only made me even more worried.

“Do you have bamboo, limes, sand, salt, onions, garlic or broom sticks?” I asked anything that crossed my mind. If any of my friends were here, they might ask me whether I wanted to repel Kuyang or to cook.

“What do you need those for?” Jaka asked with a frown on his face. I noticed that he still had something to say so I cut in.

“They’re not for cooking! Just get me some if you have them!” I urged. Seeing his expression relaxed as if he had just misunderstood me, I nearly spat out a series of insults.

He didn’t really think that I was going to cook, did he?