Tole, the prodigy of Mojopahit. Part 1

It was sometime in Mojopahit. A boy who had a handsome face was carrying a basket of grass. His face was rather than handsome, because when he didn’t dress like that everybody would think he was a girl, a beutifull girl. His age was about ten, and everyone in this village had called him Tole, that was mean a boy. No one knew what was his name for sure. He had been found by the villagers after a battle between Mojopahit and Sunda. He had been raised by the chief of the village. Ranggan was the name of that village. Some villages suspected that Tole was the child of one of refugees who fled from the war at that time, they learned from his face, there was a posibility that Tole was the son of the royal family, or at least a noble.Tole had known as a humble boy, a hard worker and smart. He liked working and studying. Grazing for livestock was one of his duty while he lived with the chief, beside he used to do gardening and carpentry sometimes when needed. A handy boy who had worked with his heart, with smile on his face. Everybody loved him, not because he was chief’s adopted boy but his face and his behaviour had won villager’s hearts.

Tole walked through the main road, that connecting that village with others. He saw horsemen passed by in rush, almost hit him. That was a strange view, this road was a long distance line, people used to ride their horses slowly to save the horse’s energy. They might be in such a emergency situation. He followed the horsemen with his eyes, with no attention he recorded the detail of the view in his mind. “They are three person, one who is wearing a black vest has a long hair and there is keris that has a golden wrap, .... “ he was recording the view. Keris is Javanese traditional weapon. He continued his walk after the horsemen had turned to left in the branch. “They must be headed to the mount or at least to Pardisan village.” He thought “ It’s strange?”.

That incident captured all his though, he used to sing and pay attention to the landscape, people, animals and river, but not now. He tried to process every data that had been recorded to find the clue about what had happened. He had been a student, a favorite student, of the chief who had known as a silat master (silat was an Indonesian matial art) , an extraordinary man of this village. That why he had a sharp instinct and concious of any suspicious thing. Living with the chief also had made him care to that village, he concerned to anything that might happened to his village. The chief had been his inspiration.

“Oh, I forgot one thing!” He said to himself and went to the middle of the road carefully, then he squatted and watched to the road’s surface closely. “One of the horses must be belong to royal family member, I think the one with a long hair was their majikan.” He could learn the horses by their footprint that had been left on the road surface. It seemed he couldn’t find any clue even when he had reached his house, the chief house. Once he got to the house, he went to the stable and put the basket of grass near the gate. When he saw the horse, his thought about the accident had been forgotten. The chief had two horses, one wasn’t there that day, because It was in duty took the chief to next village for some bussiness, the horse name was Petir Coklat. Brown Lightning was the favourite horse of the chief. The other one had been named Putri Ayu, It was in the stable now. Tole stroke Putri Ayu’s forehead gently, as he said to her “You are the beutifull horse, the chief just doesn’t realize it.” The horse was making a sound as if she understand what Tole had said. After doing some stable stuff he managed to take a bathe.

“How was your day Tole.” The chief’s wife was greeting him, her name was Selasih, a beautifull woman on her age. “She was a beautifull girl, I have no doubt.” Tole told himself. That feeling was admiring someone with respect rather than a dirty thought, because Tole was a gentle boy and far from that kind of dirty thought.

“Wonderfull as always, the grass was green and the village was peace and beautifull, ma’am.” That kind of answered had been always said by him to everyone who asked that kind of question. This was not that he lied or made up the answered, but he had really enjoyed living, he had been waiting for daybreak everyday with happy.

“Your dinner is ready, go eat, before it is getting cold.” Selasih said.

“Yes ma’am, I go right away.” As he grabbed his blangkon (Javanese headcovering or cap).

He was going to the main house after the chief’s wife. While he was dinning at the main house’s dinningroom, he heard noisy that came from the front yard. “Is the chief home?” someone said. “He is not home, at least until tommorow morning.” It seemed Selasih was handling the guests. Tole finished his dinner quick and ran to the front yard, without bothered to clean up.

“I found this horse in my back yard, I think it is belong to someone, because It has a saddle on its back.” The one of the guest said. Tole recodnized him as Projo who had a farmfiel near the west side border of the village. Tole just listened to the conversation without any comment, due he realized that he was not the autorized person, in this case was the chief, beside he was just a boy, he didn’t want to intervence the adult conversation. He just walked toward the horse in silent. He learned that the horse was the one he had seen that afternoon, but he wasn’t sure yet because it was dark.

“We want to hand this horse to the chief and let him decide what to do to this horse.” The other guest said. Tole recognized him as Projo’s son in law.

“If you want to hand this horse to the cheif, I think you can hand it to me and let Tole keep it at the stabble, there is still enough room for one more horse. I will tell the chief your story.” Selasih said. “And if you don’t mind you can come here tommorow just before sunset, I believe the chief will be home about that time.”

“I think we are agree with you, You are the chief’s wife, we respect you just like the chief himself.” Projo said, “Now, would you like to let us leave?”.

“Oh..., But Let me offer you some tea and meal before you leave, The chief will blame me when he found out that I didn’t serve his guest well.” Selasih persuaded them to stay for a tea.

“We are really like to stay, but my wife and my daughter are waiting, and they are not feeling safe now, since the strange horse has found in our backyard.” Projo gave Selasih a reason “I feel that you have served us well by offering us a tea and meal. I promise not to tell the chief about this, ha..ha.” he added a joke.

Tole was told by Selasih to keep the horse to the stabble. He knew how to handle the horse, he learned that this horse was huff, It might had been through a hard time or a bad experience. He tamed the horse carefully, and tried to communicate with it. He wanted to investigate the horse that time, but the night was so dark, then he managed to do that next morning.

Mojopahit : The empire based on the island of Java from 1293 to around 1500

Keris : The tradistional weapon of Javanese, asymmetrical dagger or sword.

Majikan : The boss, or someone who work for.

Blangkon : a traditional Javanese headdress worn by men and made of batik fabric.

Tole woke up early, he could not wait to invertigate the horse. He ran to the stabble after took a quick bathe. “Yes, It is the same horse I have seen yesterday, brass houseshoes?” he said to himself after checking the horseshoes. He remembered when the chief had told him about the brass horseshoes. It had been specifically made for the royal family’s horse, but not all the royal family’s horse wore this kind of horseshoes. “I have to ride this horse, maybe if I can take this horse to where it has lost its rider, I will find a clue.” He tried to use his imagination, “But how do I have tell the chief’s wife?, I can not wait for the chief, I am afraid it will be too late for the clue.”. He tried to find the way to get a permission from the chief’s wife, but he would not be lie to her. He was an honest boy.

“Can I talk to you, Ma’am?” he talked to Selasih, the chief’s wife.

“What is it Tole, don’t you have anything to do today?” as she smiled at him. She knew that Tole would not leave his work if there wasn’t any important matter.

“The grass still enough for two days ma’ma, but It is not the reason why I am not grazing today, but...”, he stopped to see the reaction of Selasih.

“But...?” Selasih smiled to give him a sign to continue his words.

“I have met three horsemen yesterday, one of them has ride the horse that had been found by Mr. Projo.” He stopped again. After he was sure then he continued. “I think they are a majikan and the follower. I have question in my mind, they had gone together, then why only one horse had been found?, and if anything has happened to the rider, the other two rider might keep the horse home.” He explained. “So, I need your permission to investigate this matter. I believe chief will agree with me. It must be done before is too late. I promise I’ll be back before chief is coming.” His heart was beating like the drum, waiting for the answer.

Selasih hold her breath deeply. She had no doubt about this boy, she knew that this boy was able to defend himself. But She loved him, as her own son. Then finally she said “Ok. I let you go, but you have to be carefull, you don’t know what has really happened. One thing you have to go with one or two companions. You may ask Sentanu or Dirjo, better if you go with two of him. They have a high rank of silat.” Before she finished, Tole stood quickly and said “Thank you ma’am, I will ask them to go with me, I think they will like it. I will not disappoint you.”. Tole left Selasih alone, after he was sure she had nothing more to say.

He rode to the west with his companions, Sentanu and Dirjo. He could see that some of the footprints had not been erased by the new one. After the left turned that he had seen the horsemen had disappeared yesterday, he slowed down. After about 5 kilometres, there was a small forest, he could not see any footprint match with the horse he rode. “They have posibly been stop here.” He said to his friends. Then he jumped down the horse, took a closely look to the surface. “I am sure they tied the horses here.” He pointed to a broken limb. “The question is why were they stop and tying the horse here? If they had to take a lick, they didn’t have to tie their horse, anyway after that they could untie without breaking this limb.” He explained to his friend. His friends seemed to be surprised by his explaination. The ten years old boy had that kind of imagination, so wierd for them. That why Tole had been treated specially by their master, the chief. Dirjo and Sentanu was abselutely silent, because they didn’t have any idea what it was all about. They just nodded or said yes to every explaination tole had gave. “You see, only one broken limb, that was caused by this horse that have run from this place after the two other people have left. We have to search this place to ensure my theory.”

But after a long searching, they found nothing. Tole had promised to be back before the chief was coming, So he decided to go back to the house. He went back to the house with sad, not for failure to proved his theory, but he had a feeling that the rider of this horse had been killed somewhere. It seemed like an obligation for him to find the body.