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.