6. Kinantan’s First Fight
Early next morning, with Kinantan on his shoulder, Panjilaras went to town. He had promised his mother that he would not put himself in danger by telling the king and the false queen who he really was.
On the way they met their friend Tiger, who gave them a ride to the edge of the forest.
It was already noon when Panjilaras finally reached the town. How strange everything was to his eyes! The rows and rows of houses, the hundreds of people in the streets, the carts pulled by horses, the dogs barking in the yards, everything was new to him. But where was the palace and how could he meet the king? It didn’t seem so easy now as it had seemed to him when he was still at home.
After wandering around for a while, Panjilaras finally arrived at the market-place, a huge square in the middle of the town. Here it was even busier than in the streets he had passed. Everywhere he saw stalls displaying many kinds of goods for sale. A lot of people, dressed in gaily colored clothes, walked around the stalls, looking at or bargaining about the price of things. Panjilaras looked and looked at all these bright colors until he felt dizzy.
The boy himself was noticed. Many people turned their heads when they say the handsome boy, with his magnificent cock in his shoulder, wandering by. Nobody knew him, nobody had ever seen him before, and he was clearly a stranger in the town.
Suddenly there was a loud shout from a large group of people. Panjilaras pushed his way through the crowd until he was near enough to see what was going on.
In the middle of the market place, a space was kept clear. In that space the boy saw two cocks-fighting.
After a while one of the cocks dropped down and didn’t move anymore. It was dead! A great shout went up among the spectators. The owners came forward to take away their cocks. Two other cocks were placed in the open space and a new fight began. The people didn’t watch silently. They shouted and screamed.
After watching the fights for a while, Panjilaras said to his cock, “Well, Kinantan, I think you could easily beat them all.”
His word was heard by some of the spectators and some of them turned towards him and challenged him to fight their cocks. Panjilaras didn’t hesitate one moment. He stroke Kinantan’s beautiful feathers and put him without hesitation in the open space.
One of the men put his cock, a black one, in front of Kinantan and the fight began. The other cock rushed at Kinantan. Kinantan, however, didn’t fight back. He only moved backwards, without attempting to hit him back.
How the people laughed when they saw this!
But soon they did not laugh any longer, for suddenly Kinantan turned towards his attacker. He jumped on the black cock’s back and killed him with one blow. Never had the people seen such a strong cock.
“He must fight the king’s cock,” they said excitedly to each other.
“Let’s take the boy to the king’s palace. The king is always glad to find a strong cock to fight his own.”
Of course Panjilaras agreed to go to the palace. Here at last was his chance to see his father and the woman who had taken his mother’s place. With Kinantan on his shoulder, Panjilaras followed the people to the palace.
