12/04/2019
VILLAGE WARS
THE BEGINNING CONTINUATION: CAPTIVE...
I woke up to the raucous crows made by roosters somewhere near where I was. I opened my eyes but could not see anything. I tried to move my feet which were hurting from having stayed in one position in what must have been a long time. I found that I could not move my legs. In fact, I realised that I could not move any part of my body. It seemed as though my legs and hands were tied and I was in some sought small cage. A nauseating wave of air hit my nose and I then realised that I was in a fowl cage. My struggles to move my body must have awaken the chicken in the cage next to mine because I began to hear hushed clucking sounds coming from that cage. Slowly, the events that had happened began to come back in my mind. I remembered having been chased to the riverbank by three men, and then having struggled with them until one of them hit me to the ground. Had they captured me? Suddenly I became apprehensive. All my “no fear” convictions I had held earlier quickly dissipated and got replaced by all the irrational stories I always detested. Pictures of three huge men frying my lifeless decapitated body on an open fire began to circle in my mind. I could even smell the reeking smell of my burnt blood dripping from my roasting body. I could not stop cursing myself for having ignored all the warnings my parents had constantly repeated to us growing up. I could hear my mother’s firm voice echoing in the void of my fears; “Never walk through the Forbidden Lands Tonde, no matter how late you are, no matter how shorter the distance might be if you use that road!” if only I had been like my siblings, this would never had happened. If it had been Tambu, my younger sister, she would not have dared even walking near the Forbidden lands...My thoughts were brought to an abrupt stop by some conciliatory whispering voices outside. At first I could not hear what the voices were saying but it seemed as though the people talking were walking closer to where I was because gradually their words became more and more audible.
“But don’t you think he will be angry?” one of the voices said.
“Angry? Why would he be angry?”
“We brought a stranger into the land ka. Don’t you know what the laws of this land say about that? We might get prosecuted for this!”
“Or we might get thanked for bringing a person from whom we can get information that might help with our attack plans. Who knows, maybe this can even earn us a promotion to being commanders of the Great Mauto Amambo. We can even lead the army!”
“Hahaha, you think he will make us commanders? You are crazy.”
“Why wouldn’t he? He trusted us enough to make us spies”
“Being made a spy is not an honourable thing Shingai. No soldier would want to stain the reputation by being sent to another land as a spy. We were the only idiots they could find who would be stupid enough to do that.”
“Inga Jindaguru went with us.”
“To make sure we wouldn’t mess it up. You see they couldn’t even trust us with something as trivial as spying.”
“Whatever man, I’m proud that I took part in the starting of this war that will change everything. Children will be told stories of us long after we are dead.”
“Hahaha, shut up with that craziness and help me open this cage. Jindaguru is waiting for us.”
The men finally opened the cage and I squinted as the early rays of dusk’s sun stung on my eyes. In the blinding ordeal, I felt my weak body being dragged out of the small cage and hauled down to the ground. The fall to the ground aggravated the pain in my arm and left ribs such that I groaned loudly in agony. One of the men gently kicked me in the stomach and said in a mocking voice, “Rise and shine boy. He thinks he is at home. You are far away from home boy.” The man laughed joyously as he untied the knots on my legs and picked me up from the ground. I was half pushed half walked towards a small footpath that led the bushes in behind the little log fowl cages. I only managed to catch a glimpse of the place I had been before the men walked me down the path. The linings of the sun haze and the silhouetting of the huge leaves that hung suspended on either sides of the path gave the place a somewhat gothic look. I felt as though I was being walked down the aisle of dead shadows to the abyss awaiting my doom. Finally, after a while, the path got shallower until we reached a clearing where there were no trees but just small bushes and stumps of cut down trees whose leaves were beginning to grow again. The men brought me to an abrupt stop. One of them stepped forward, waited a little and then whistled a peculiar tune. The tune was replicated by someone from a behind a bush just in front of us. The person behind the bush slowly got up, his arrow firmly held in his hand and in the other hand he had a green long shield. His face had white artistic drawings and at first I could recognise him until he smiled towards us. I quickly recognised the man. He was the one who had hit me back at the riverbank. As he saw us, he slowly let down his arrow and gave the men a sign beckoning them to come where he was. So this is Jindaguru, I thought as we walked towards the men.
“So what do you think we should do with the boy”, Jindaguru asked the men, gently caressing his beardless chin.
“I think we should bring him to the king. He may provide information that is vital for the attacks”, one of the men quickly answered, his voice carrying obvious enthusiasm. Jindaguru turned a sharp look at the man who had spoken and in a roared, “Are you crazy Shingai. Don’t you realise that this is a great wrong we have done to bring the boy here. Now you are saying we bring him to the king himself?”
“I told him that that is a bad idea”, the other man interjected.
“Well what do you suggest we do, Ranga? Let him go?”
“Ehh Jindaguru, I suggest that we extract all the information we need from the boy right here and then kill him. The king doesn’t need to know that we brought a stranger into his land.” I swiftly became elated. “Please, please don’t kill me, I will tell you anything but please…” I stammered but failed to finish my sentence as I was suddenly smacked right across the face by Jindaguru and the impact sent me down to the ground. “Shut up boy, if you speak again this arrow will pierce through your heart” Jindaguru said pointing the arrow at me. What happened next occurred so swiftly that he took me some time to make out what was going on. Suddenly I saw Jindaguru on the ground and Shingai sitting on top of him, holding the arrow. Ranga suddenly sprang up and grabbed Shingai from the behind. The two men struggled on the ground, while Jindaguru got up from the ground. Jindaguru tried to pull Shingai who was now on top of Ranga but Shingai without noticing it brought the tip of the arrow straight into Jindaguru’s stomach. When Shingai turned to look at Jindaguru, his face was just as shocked as that of Ranga. Blood was trickling down Jindaguru’s stomach as he held the wound, kneeling, and looking straight at Shingai, shocked. Slowly, he fell to the ground and became lifeless
“What have you done? You killed him!
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK FRIDAY
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