Molly and Anaru's Great Massey Adventure: Chapter 2
Yesterday’s poll results:
What should Molly do next?
Try harder to convince Anaru not to go into the portal? 14%
Throw caution to the wind and follow him in? 86%
Chapter 2
As Anaru kept marching determinedly towards the portal Molly’s mind kept racing. Questions and doubts swirled around in her head as she tried to decide what to do.
Then she stopped. She took a breath and found herself thinking ‘you know what? Anaru is right, you don’t see this kind of thing every day.’
Her feet sprang into action and ran towards the portal, catching up with Anaru over the other side of the fence. The two of them set foot into the swirling mass at the same time and were instantly propelled forward at a breakneck speed. Both kids shrieked as the darkness enveloping them started to turn to a lighter shade of green...
“Hey, get up, I don’t know where the heck we are!”
Anaru slowly opened his eyes and reluctantly lifted his dark head of hair to peer up at Molly whose face was slightly blurred. His head hurt.
“What-what happened?” Anaru sputtered, still frazzled.
“I don’t know, the last thing I remember was running into that portal thing and then I woke up over there.” Molly pointed over at an impressively huge Kauri tree which was surrounded by a large patch of beautiful green pasture.
Anaru shook his head and abruptly stood up, his memories flooding back with what had just happened. He thought he could hear singing - was that Te Reo he could hear?
He looked around and saw they were near flax plants, much like the ones at Whaea Rangi’s place in the Waikato that she used for weaving.
“Who are they?” he asked, his eyes finally catching up with his ears.
Molly followed where his finger was pointed and looked further to see a gathering of people who were dressed…in Maori attire? They almost looked as if they were part of a Kapa Haka group.
Anaru motioned toward the crowd that was now listening intently to what was happening at the front of the gathering. There was a large man with something wrapped around him-it was a korowai. It looked a lot like the korowai he had seen his aunty Tiria gift to his cousin at his graduation last year. Although the one this man was wearing was very long and the patterns were different.
This place was not Massey, nor was it modern…
Suddenly, the korowai man turned and looked directly at Anaru. He pointed and started shouting angrily, the entire crowd was now rapidly turning around and some of the young men were making a direct beeline for them!
What were they going to do now in a place they didn’t even know? In a time they weren’t even sure of? They both looked around them, frantically searching for an escape route.
“Ko wai to ingoa?”
Anaru froze. Who just said that? He twirled immediately hoping it was just his uncle Tane pulling another fast one on him.
No it definitely wasn’t uncle Tane. This man was a head taller, and he had a full moko tattoo on his face, looking very intimidating. Anaru and Molly both gulped in unison.
