The Nalusa Falaya
The elder looked up from a deep gaze into the hot fire. His face was sober and looked directly at the kids. “I will tell you about the Nalusa Falaya and you must tell this story to your children when I am gone!” the elder stated.
There once were two young boys that were rebellious and wanted to have no part of the Chahta people. There were not many rules to the Chahta people, but the rules that were given, everyone was expected to follow them. Every child helped around the settlement until they were old enough to help their fathers with their jobs.
Now for the two rebellious boys, they did the exact opposite. Their father wanted them to do good and wanted them to enjoy childhood. The only rule he gave the boys was to never enter or go near the forbidden forest... for the Nalusa Falaya would get them if they did.
One night, as their family was getting ready for bed, the boys snuck out of their family’s wattle and wanted to explore the area down by the forest. They walked down an old, grassy path that was moonlit. They held their hands out over the chaha blades of grass and could feel the cool air around them. When they got to the edge of the osapa, they could only make out the chaha trees at the edge of the forest. They walked into the forest and continued down the path that led to a pond. The boys were silent as they made their walk down the path. They could hear the wind through the chaha trees and could hear the toads croaking in the meadow.
They came across a pile of brush that covered the pathway. Beyond the pile of brush they could see a chaha shadowy figure, with long arms and fingers. The figure was dense and pitch black. The figure stood about 8 foot tall and all of the sudden the forest was quiet. The figure was still as the air around them.
The boys looked at each other and when they looked back at the figure it was gone. They one boy looked back at his friend and asked "Did you see that?" The other boys said "Yes... but lets keep going." They continued down the path and came up to a small pond that was lit by the moon. There were chaha weeds that went around the edge and there were lillypads floating on top. The water was still and the air was thick. There was a log that covered the pathway. The log started to move towards the boys and then started to stand upright.
Again the chaha dark figure was in front of them. The figure stuck out his hand and slowly rubbed his pointed finger along one of the younger boy’s face. The boy could feel a sharp pain in his cheek and could feel it move down his jawline. The boys were shot with fear and couldn’t move. The figure moved closer and the boys took off running back to their home. Running as fast as they could, they could never get ahead of the figure. Behind every tree the figure stood grabbing at the boys. Breaking away from the dark figure the boys pushed tree branches out of the way running down the path. Right when they got to the edge of the forest the figure grabbed the younger boy by his foot dragging him back into the forest. The boy screamed has he tried grabbing on to anything as he was being drug through the dirt. By the time that the other boy made it back into the field, he noticed his brother was missing. Running into the wattle, he woke up his father to tell him what happened. The whole tribe went out to the osapa to look for the boy, but they could not find him.
The boy had to live his life without his brother because they didn’t follow directions. This is why you never go near the forbidden forest. Follow directions and always tell the story of the Nalusa Falaya.
