The Grand Mistress

Later that night, heavy rains and thunder poured down on Comis village. The weather was so bad Hawk had barely a good night of sleep. Because of it, he chose to join his father in his prayers and even help him prepare something for a ritual he was about to do that night. Butler Gah predicted the weather right that night and he even predicted it would become worse the next day. His prediction did not fail him, because the next morning, the rain continued and the two were unable to leave the temple.

Nearly lunch, Mario came running into the temple looking for Hawk. When he came, he was all wet and worried that Hawk understood his errand might be something important.

"Mario, what made you run in here like that?" Hawk welcomed him. He was near the entrance when the old folk came, as he was then trying to fix some broken roof in the pathway.

"Hawk! Cat have not come back yet! We are all worried!" He told him immediately.

"What? Did she leave?" Hawk was confused and surprised at his announcement. The rain started last night so how did Cat manage to leave? Besides where did she go?

"She left last night" Mario narrated what he had learned from the orphanage. "She went to Mount Sun to pick some herb for a tonic,"

"What?" Hawk got more confused. Why would Cat go on picking herbs at night? Is she mad? "Why would she do that?"

"Bunbun got an insect bite. It was a cow killer," Mario announced. "The effect on him was so bad that he needed to be brought to the hospital. However, probably because of the rain, the rivers were flooded and no one could cross, so staff at the orphanage had to bring the boy back here,"

"But they had doctor Sora right?"

"Doctor Sora said she is not the kind of doctor that can treat insect bites. Also they needed some medicine to treat him so they were all helpless in the orphanage," Mario explained further. "Also Doctor Sora isn\'t familiar with a cow killer insect so she could not really treat Bunbun,"

"And how did all this lead to Cat going to Mt. Sun in the middle of the night?" Hawk asked further. He certainly did not understand what was happening and why of all people, Cat had to go to Mt. Sun alone at night.

"There\'s an old folk here that makes tonic. He is very familiar with cow killers and his tonic was very effective. We all come to him whenever someone is sick, especially that doctors only come here rarely," Mario said to him. "However he cannot make the tonic for the cow killer because he lacked some herbs for the ingredients. The herbs can only be found in Mt. Sun. You see, none of us old folks can go to Mt. Sun because it\'s a very stiff mountain. Most of us here cannot climb such a mountain anymore. Our legs can\'t endure the journey"

"So Cat went alone?"

"She wasn\'t alone. She was accompanied by some old folks but when the road went stiff and slippery, the old folks gave up because it was too dangerous. However Cat insisted on going and since they didn\'t want to burden her with their presence, they allowed her to go alone and waited for her all night. This morning one of her companions came and told us Cat had not climbed down the mountain yet. Everyone was worried,"

"Also apart from all the staff at the orphanage, only Cat volunteered to go to Mt. Sun, probably because she was the only one among the staff members who had been there. All the others were unwilling specially the foreign volunteers because they understood it was very dangerous, not to mention the weather was so bad last night,"

"You should have called on me," Hawk said and proceeded to grab some raincoats and anything that he thought would be useful for the journey to the Mt. Sun. "You should have not allowed her to leave alone!"

"Everyone was in panic last night. They were all worried about Bunbun, the directress wasn\'t even aware Cat left. Good thing some of the old folks saw her leaving and so they volunteered to go with her. You know Cat, she\'s unstoppable when she\'s determined to do something,"

"Can you draw me a map of the way to Mt. Sun and the possible place where Cat went to gather herbs," he instructed Mario as he continued preparing for his errand.

"Sure," Mario grabbed some pen and paper he saw nearby. They were inside the temple then as Hawk did grab some things there. After a while, Mario handed Hawk the map he drew and saw Hawk sealing off his raincoat. Hawk accepted the map then and took some plastic to cover it so it wouldn\'t be ruined by the rain. Just after a minute he left the temple together with Mario.

"I\'ll go and try to find her. Don\'t tell my father yet where I went," Hawk instructed him again. "If don\'t come back in your estimated time frame, only then should you tell him,"

"Alright. Let me accompany you to the old folk who came to report Cat\'s situation. He plans to go back to the foot of Mt. Sun to wait on Cat again. He was then reloading of some supplies for his companions who was still there right now waiting for the girl,"

"Okay," Hawk replied. His heart was then racing fast and he was cursing on why in the world he did not know about this. If they had come to inform him last night, he should have accompanied her to the mountain and made sure she was safe. Right now, he could only pray she was alive and well. God how could she be so careless? How dare she go alone without calling for his help.

Soon, Hawk met the person Mario was talking about and the two went together to the foot of Mt. Sun. When Hawk saw the way, he greatly understood why the old folks were having a hard time climbing it. It was very stiff and judging from the map Mario drew for him, he knew it would take hours to reach the top and the old folks surely could not survive it. People in the Comis village were old people and although they were very helpful, no sane person would waste their life climbing on such a dangerous cliff.

"We tried to climb with her, we only made it for an hour," His companion told her. "Cat was very strong and she knew Mt. Sun very well so we know she can make it. However it was taking her too long to come back. She must have some challenges on the way,"

"We are really worried, Hawk. We were expecting her to return after six hours, afterall, she only needed to pick a few herbs and Mt. Sun is full of it. If nothing happened to her, she should have climbed down before morning came. It\'s past noon time now," He added looking at the Mountain whose view was covered by black clouds.

"Let\'s stay positive. The weather might have delayed her," Hawk said calmly although his inside was all messed up. God, he hoped she was all doing fine!

"Are you sure you can climb up?" The old man looked at him. Since he was just new in their village he really wasn\'t sure if Hawk could make it through. The volunteers in the orphanage all refused because they knew the dangers such a venture entails and so Hawk was their only option then. Besides, didn\'t they say he was Cat\'s lover? He should go and save her then.

"I\'m certain I can climb but the wind is howling bad," Hawk looked up and saw that aside from the rocks being surely slippery, the raging wind might be his big challenge. 

"Last night only the rain was our challenge yet we had a hard time. Cat had to go alone as we couldn\'t make it," The man narrated to him. "The situation has gone pretty bad since then. I\'m suspecting too this was the reason why Cat wasn\'t able to come down. However, we had to be certain so someone had to climb. Besides, I don\'t think Cat had enough food to last until tomorrow. She had to go light last night and we had not time to give her our share of the food we brought,"

"I\'ll try it," Hawk was determined already. Besides, he can\'t just wait for her to climb down on her own because every second that passed without him knowing she was safe was killing him.

Hawk tied his backpack on his body securely and tightened his raincoat. He then went on his way and bravely fought his way up. Indeed the wind was making things difficult for him. He already considered himself strong and had gone several challenging mountain climbs before but what he had experienced then was surely the worst of all his climbs. The wind was so strong it nearly knocked him down but he thought of Cat and continued on his way.