“Do you mind if I ask you something?” Gerinching hurriedly kept up with him.
He gave her a backside glance. “I’ve told you my secret already. What else do you want to know?” These females! Why did they need to know every single detail?
“Your…ahem, Indai Perunu mentioned something about Si Ganti recognizing his own brother. Does that mean Apai Ribai was his brother?”
He nodded.
“Which means Apai Ribai is your Indai’s brother, too?”
“Uh-uh. Apai Sabit was the eldest of them all. After him, there were Indai, the late Apai Laja, Apai Ribai, and the late Apai Biak – Si Ganti. All five of them.”
“Why did Apai Ribai killed his brother-in-law and his own brother?”
“Hah! Jealousy. What else?”
“Of what?”
“My Apai was the Head of Panggau Libau longhouse, elected by the majority of the residents after the demise of the longhouse Head before him. Apai Ribai and Apai Sabit resented it because Apai was not born as a Panggau male, you see. He was married into it. They listed down a lot of objections against him, but in the end the majority still wanted my Apai to be the longhouse Head, so he did.”
“It’s very rare for something like that to happen.” Gerinching commented. Longhouse residents much preferred their own home-born Chief.
“Where he came from shouldn’t be an issue. He was a male shifter with the highest integrity. I’m glad that the majority of Panggau residents felt the same way I do.”
Gerinching noted the pride radiating from his voice when he talked about his adopted father. “It was clearly an issue for Apai Ribai.”
“And Apai Sabit. They both felt that one of them was a better candidate although I got the impression that Apai Ribai was the ambitious one. Apai Sabit just went along with the ride. There were others who shared their view. Apai Ribai was very good at influencing others. Whatever opinion they had about this matter, the majority ruled. It always has. They should’ve accepted it. But they couldn’t.”
“What happened? How did it end up in a tragedy?” For it was truly a tragedy when siblings killed each other over a title in a longhouse.
“They tried so many tricks to undermine him after he had become the Chief, you know, trying to prove that he’s not worthy of the position, hoping that we would ask him to step down and let one of them take over. Hah! In their dreams! They failed every time. Everything Apai did was justified and he’s got the solid support from the majority of the residents. I suppose that’s when they got desperate.” Sampurai shook his head in contempt. “I never understand why some male shifters would do despicable things just to get the title of Chief.”
“I take it that you yourself are not interested in the title?” Gerinching was curious. She personally knew quite a number of male shifters who understood Apai Ribai’s aspiration.
“What? Being a Chief? Ugh!!! Having had to listen to all the long and winding speeches during the meetings? I don’t understand what they’re trying to say most of the time. Why can’t they just say what they want to say without having to backtrack stories in the beginning, in the middle and in the end? Spending endless time discussing our norms only to decide what is proper and what is not? Most of the time they don’t end up making a decision. I don’t see what’s the point talking about it back and forth, inspecting it from various angles. What a complete waste of time! If I have to expose myself to all those things on daily basis, I’ll send myself to Sebayan out of boredom!!!” he commented whole-heartedly. “I doubt Watt likes those kinds of talks, but at least he can endure them. Now Igat, hah! He’ll enjoy it to the fullest! That’s how he likes to spend his spare time.”
She really could imagine how much agony he had to endure if he were to attend a formal meeting. “So what actually happened to the siblings on that unfortunate day?”
“We don’t really know exactly what happened that day. We were away, I mean, Watt, Igat, and I. We went on a hunting expedition. You know sometimes it takes a few days or even weeks to go hunting. And they waited until we were not at home. Those cowards!!! They wouldn’t have been able to do what they had done, had the tree of us been home.” His face was contorted with fury.
“Your Apai was not as powerful as his sons?” she asked carefully. Male shifters could be very sensitive when it came to their power levels, especially if it was of a lower level.
“Nope. He’s a third grader – like you.” He smiled briefly at her. “He had superb fighting skills for a third grader, but there’s no way a third grader can win a battle against fifth graders.”
“Apai Laja?”
“Oh, he? He’s a fifth grader. We believe they used tricks to send both our Apai to Sebayan. How come not a single Panggau resident knew what happened that day? If they had fought in the open, some Panggau shifters would have intervened, trying to calm both sides down. That’s how we always deal with internal fights.”
“If nobody saw what happened, how did you know it was the two of them who were responsible?”
“When we came back, Apai Ribai and Apai Sabit, along with all their die-hard followers, had left Panggau Libau. Soon after, we found out about my Apai and Apai Laja. If they didn’t do it, why did they leave? Tell me, what other possible reasons could there be for them to leave their home in a hurry like that?”
“Err…I don’t know.”
(Excerpt from “Crocodile Tears”)
The anchor of the story line for “Crocodile Tears” is the old family feud in Panggau Libau as illustrated in the excerpt above. Although, I rewrote the way it is told with the addition of extra information here and there, the essence of the story, which can be found in Iban ensera (folklore), is still pretty much the same.
If you are familiar with Iban ensera, Panggau Libau warriors’ family tree in itself is subject to a debate. In truth, I do not know the real name of Apai Sabit and Apai Ribai so the names above are ‘invented names’. Not only that, different ensera give different accounts of how the our warriors are related to one another. In one ensera, Keling is Laja’s brother (as you can see in the family tree above, Keling is Laja’s cousin). Another ensera illustrates that Keling was sort of found (he just appeared out of nowhere) at tree roots as a baby, thus, he has no parents to speak of. And throughout his life, there is no mention of Si Gundi being his father. A different ensera claims that Si Gundi, acknowledged as Keling’s father, died of old age.
Why did I choose the family tree above, you might ask? That’s because I felt that this version is the most dramatic of them all. After all, I write fantasy stories whereby battles are expected to happen now and then. It does start as a typical revenge story as in ‘you killed my father, so I’m going to kill you.’ — very predictable. The challenge was to proceed and finish it as unpredictable as possible.
I had the advantage that I could not find an ensera that tells what actually happened on the unfortunate day when family ties had to be severed in such tragic manner. It gave me the opportunity to create own version of what happened that day. (Now, I’m not going to give you any spoilers for that story. You have to read the book *hint..hint…please buy the book*). And thus, it allows for the plot to be twisted here and there.
I hope that in my efforts to come up with unpredictable story (it is getting harder and harder to come up with different types of story line as the series continues) do not end up in an awkward ending. I don’t think the story does end awkwardly. But I am naturally bias towards my own work. Whether or not my wish comes true, only you — my dearest readers — can answer.
And do tell me what you think of “Crocodile Tears”.
The Return of Panggau Warriors 