“Riddle me this, what has two legs and can’t walk, two arms but can’t lift, eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear, a nose but cannot smell, a mouth but cannot taste?”

“What? Huh, let me think.”

“…”

“A corpse?”

“Nope.”

“A human corpse.”

“I think you implied that in your last one.”

“Fine, a monkey corpse.”

“Nope, and before you try the next one, it isn’t any kind of corpse.”

“…”

“A statue of a man.”

“…”

“Well, huh, you’re wrong.”

“What do you mean? It fits the riddle perfectly.”

“Well, you see, no, actually I can’t tell you yet, it’d spoil it. You’ll understand when you solve it.”

“Sigh, fine, give me the next part.”

“Riddle me the same as the last. What makes noise but no one listens, lives in a field but is famous, cannot harm you but people fear it?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Wow, I’m having a hard time with this one. I’m guessing its alive then? So that’s why it couldn’t be a statue. Wait, what was that?”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have laughed.”

“You think I’m stupid, don’t you?”

“Okay, fine. Most people get it when it comes to the second part. It pretty much gives it away.”

“Really? Are you sure? Cuz, I’m really stumped right now. I’m starting to think you’re just rambling off some gunk just to get me going.”

“No, really, I’ve used this riddle a lot of times, you can actually solve it.”

“Uh huh, whatever, give me the last part already.”

“Riddle me the same as the last. What is held as a captive by the dead but cannot die, does not eat, does not drink, yet begs for food and water?”

“…”

“Seriously? You still haven’t thought of it?”

“Sush. You know what, I’m sorry. Is this something I would even know of?”

“Yes! Everyone knows it! That’s how riddles work! Well, sometimes.”

“See! You’re tricking me.”

“But this one you know, you’ve heard the stories!”

“Stories?”

“Yes, the ones about – ”

“Wait!”

“…”

“Raju-Alithama?”

“Pfft, I gave you a fourth hint and you finally get it?”

“I’ve never seen it, give me a break. I’ve only heard about it in stories. Nothing else! I was trying to think of something like, like, I don’t know. Something else.”

“Fine, that does it, we’re going to go see Raju-Alithama. You live this close and you’ve never even taken the road to Shabik?”

“My business has been mostly with the cities in the river delta.”

“Rawala save us, come on! Let’s go.”

“Wait, right now?”

“Yes, before you have to go back to your business tomorrow.”

“It’s already noon!”

“We’ll stay at an Inn, it’ll be on me, okay? Come on, we never do anything crazy anymore anyway.”

***

Hem walked with the crowd on the dry and dusty desert road. The sun was low in the sky, casting long shadows. It was one of the hottest parts of the day, but he could feel it starting to cool down.

He coughed on the dust and spit to the side. He took out his water skin and took a swig. His friend, Shab, motioned to him and he passed the skin to him once he was done.

They began to crest a shallow rise as they were walking.

Shab handed the skin back to Hem. “Okay, just do what I do, okay? And everyone else for that matter.”

Hem was about to ask what that was, but then he felt a shift in the attitudes of the people in front of him. The talking had died down to whispers and no one looked to either side.

Hem looked over to Shab and Shab was looking straight ahead too.

Shab glanced at Hem and slightly jerked his head forward.

Hem looked straight ahead too.

The crested the rise and Hem could hear someone yelling off to the side of the road.

“Maya dushaya re beh bapo racen! Maya dushaya re beh bapo racen!”

In his peripheral, Hem could see there was something like a stone in the sand off to the side of the road by about a hundred feet or so. Raju-Alithama.

“Tuchak! Tuchak nakim palatra coontog! Tuchak! Tuchak nakim palatra coontog!”

There was only the sound of shuffling feet now and the voice of a man’s yelling.

Hem had heard the stories of what Raju-Alithama looked like and how he acted, but he had an almost irresistible urge to take a peek for himself.

Shab nudged him. Hem could see him shake his head out of the corner of his eye.

People like Hem usually didn’t take this road if they could help it. The very making of the road had been cursed. Many paths were tried to avoid Raju-Alithama, but they always ran into the territories of phoenix, or were plagued by wolves and sand dragons.

It seemed like the only place the animals didn’t go was where Raju-Alithama was. Even then, the road had to be built close to him because the sand dragons made the ground unstable everywhere else.

Raju-Alithama continued calling out to the crowd as Shab and Hem passed by. It called out in languages that Hem hadn’t ever heard uttered, and he wondered if it was calling a curse upon them all.

It’s voice sounded muffled, like it was trying to shout over a wall.

Hem’s feet were already tired and he wondered how much longer it would be until they reached the Inn for the night.

“Help! Help me get free from here!”

Hem’s head naturally jerked in the direction of the voice. Too late he realized what he’d done.

His eyes looked straight towards the source of cries for help, to Raju-Alithama. In that moment, he saw that many of the descriptions of it were true, but many were not as well.

The sun basked the left side of what at first appeared to be a statue of five mighty and strong men. Their body positions were strange, but he could make out that the men were all outfitted for war. They had light armor on, daggers at their belts, and some had shields. He didn’t see any swords on them though.

The statue stood out against the lighter color of the sand, and what stood out against the grey of the stone was the tanned form of a man trapped within the statue.

One of the stone statues had its hands firmly clasped about the trapped man’s eyes. Another clasped its hands around the man’s nose and mouth. Yet another had its hands firmly planted over the man’s ears. The strongest looking of the statues had its arms and legs binding the trapped man’s legs and the last bound his arms.

Each statue’s muscles showed in sharp relief, as if each man were straining at their utmost to accomplish their own task.

Shab cursed beside him.

Something pulled Hem to walk off the road and towards Raju-Alithama. As he got closer, he could hear heavy breathing.

“You! You would help me?! You can understand?!” The man’s muscles strained against his prison.

“Yes.”

“Hem, that’s your name, right?”

“Yes.”

“Please, get me out of here, please.”

Hem felt numb as he looked around himself. He looked back at Raju-Alithama. “I don’t have a hammer to break the stone.”

“Then bread! Or water! I’ll take either of those! Please.”

Hem walked to one side of the statue, then the other. “How am I supposed to put it in your mouth?”

“Then just stay and talk awhile. Please.”

Hem looked at what he believed to be a man if he didn’t know otherwise. He could see a man’s frantic eyes, a man’s chin and neck, arms and hands, feet, even some belly and ribs and the torn and burned remnants of once-white clothes.

“Tell me, why are you in the statue?”

The man, or whatever it was, had seemed to calm down, but at the mention of this he started breathing hard again. “Why? Not how? I can tell you both! Just tell him. I sinned! I’m a criminal! I fought against your ancestors and lost! I lost! See?! They even gave their lives so they could torture me! They couldn’t kill me so they trapped me! Haahahah! Do you know how long it’s been? I haven’t! I counted, then I missed a day and I’ve lost all measure! He didn’t ask me that though.”

The man suddenly blinked rapidly and his eyes looked around himself as if finding himself there for the first time. He noticed Hem and his body made a jerking movement as if trying to turn towards him.

The eyes rolled in exasperation. “Come around to the front so I can stop straining to look at you.”

Hem blinked and found that he felt like he had just stepped out of a trance. He glanced back to where Shab was waiting, not looking his direction.

“Psst! Hey! Look back over here.”

Hem hesitated, then looked back at the man.

“Okay, I know you’re just some normal guy, so I’m going to make it easy for you. Just find someone who knows where Ros Hyen is, okay? He might go by another name, but if you start dropping that one, he might just show up, okay? Ros Hyen, got it? Ros Hyen. He can help me, okay? That, or a Musai, but they won’t help for other reasons. Some crap about not breaking statues of people in their religion. Ros Hyen, okay? Just remember that. Ros Hyen, Ros Hyen, Ros Hyen, hahahahaaha! You better remember it! Please!”

Hem quickly walked away back to his friend who took ahold of his arm and didn’t let go until they were over the next rise.

Thus, when Hem met The Stranger with a Thousand Stories, he asked him if he knew who Ros Hyen was out of curiosity.