Somali and the Forest Spirit (Episode 5) - The Wandering Birds

After saying goodbye to Kikila, Somali and the Golem began their trek across the desert. The first stop was a city situated inside the caldera of an old volcano. There they met some other travellers that offered them a ride.

What happened?

The Golem and Somali began their journey, riding in the back of a cart. It was hot and unforgiving, but at least they didn’t have to walk. Their first stop was at a city with a caldera of an extinct volcano. It was another odd city with weird and wonderful views. There were a number of traditions that caught the Golem off guard too. One was to offer the children a dessert made from corn. Somali was keen to have one, however, with only one left and another girl wanting one too, they had to make a compromise and split it. After talking over the dessert, the other girl, a harpy offered them a ride to the next town, but her motives seem a little disingenuous.

Somali and the Forest Spirit Episode 5 Somali and Golem getting a ride across the Desert with Uzoi and Haitora

What was your favourite element?

As usual, the world was all around spectacular with giant desert tortoises and sand sharks. Even without taking the story into account it really is worth watching. There have been a few moments where it appeared that Somali might be in danger and each time it passed with little incident, but maybe that’s made us relax a little too much as the end of the episode ended with Uzoi pinning Somali to the ground, ready to kill her in an attempt to save her companion, also a human. I feel like all will be resolved in the next episode, but Haitora is ill and it seems likely that someone might die. Surely not!

Somali and the Forest Spirit Episode 5 Giant Sand Tortoise

What have you learnt?

Have they lulled us into a false sense of security? Probably not. I’m not convinced that anything serious is going to happen just yet, but I do like the idea that we’re questioning that now after five episodes. Often times things happen in three. It usually involves the protagonist succeeding twice and then failing a third time or vice versa depending on the tone of the story or what you’re trying to achieve. So, by having nothing happen three times in a row, I’m counting the cat in episode one, Musurika and the lizard in episode four, we’re relaxing and like any good horror, it’s just as you start to relax that the scare comes. Of course, there won’t be any scares in Somali… will there?