2 - Bitter origins

Chapter 2 (Bitter origins)

The Kurotandi games would begin in a few days. Preparations would begin next morning. Nevertheless, according to customs, only Yakunko parents with their sons completing their training, already serving in the Yakunko armies and those with children expected to join the Kurotandi training the coming season are allowed to attend. 

The first to arrive were Yakunko warriors selected from the last three years’ Kurotandi teams completed their training and were already serving. These arrived in a battalion to ensure security during the Kurotandi games Marakusha 

This morning Tsote saw fathers and mothers arriving with their male children expected to turn ten years two to three seasons later. Master Renso woke up early and got busy with these parents. The new recruits would replace this seasons Kurotandi teams once the games end.

The number of recruits this day was twice higher than any other ever before. This is because three days ago a rumor that the new comers settled along the coast of the old empire would be charging inland the third time in thirty years seeking expansion. This meant any time there would be a new phase of war. And every one needed to have their child trained for self-defense. Why? 

Every parent understood the Yakunko weren’t in good terms with their sister tribes and anything could happen because they due to the spirit of vengeance they have carried for generations. The rest of the tribes could use this unrest and tension as an opportunity to advance against the Yakunko king as it was in the past.

He lived with Renso and his daughter in some other shelter behind Thalko’s. Renso’s daughter Sakitha N’meru was the village lead hunter and was responsible for all the meats they hunted for the Thalko and Renso’s family homesteads.

 The rains were no longer frequent as they were because the season ends around these times. She spent her day’s away tracking animals, hunting and returning late to help her father train the Kurotandi boys archery. Today morning Makita went with her to hunt.

She and Makita were friends and several times Makita escorted her out to hunts even though their mother restricted her a lot. Nevertheless, because of her mother’s strictness, the lead hunter never allowed her so far away from Marakusha. To ensure she did not trek far, her mother gave her a little creature resembling a squirrel, which restricted her from going too far in case they found no prey close to their homestead.

Their time out together, inspired Makita to love and learn archery better than most of the Kurotandi boys and this impressed her father Thalko. However, Makita was most probably twenty-one years old, intelligent and the beautiful like Makita. However, she was dumb! 

Much of the time she whistled or hissed to capture the attention of people followed by sign language to communicate but Renso, Tsote and Makita, they understood her best. And together, she, Makita and Tsote kind of found moments of fun and laughter mostly, while they assisted her to skin the animals she returns with from the hunt.

However, she was never around. Therefore, the shelter was a bore to him. On such occasions, Makita endeavored to be around for Tsote, which strengthened their bond a lot. When Makita too became absent, there was only one other place left to console him and his loneliness.

*** 

Today they trained half day. However, after the first half of today’s training, he met the two heading out for hunting. When they saw him, they wanted him to Join them to hunt. Makita was fully equipped and excited about today because her mother rarely let her out of Marakusha due to security purposes. Her mother normally refuses her to leave saying it was dangerous out there for young Yakunko girls because the Tzavoku roamed and hunted. And captured slaves or the New comers.

“…today the rainy season ends and there will be lots of animals along the river to hunt…”

“My body hurt and…well, I need to find out something.” Tsote excused himself. But it was obvious he had an issue bothering him today.

“No one is following you around….”

‘I saw them even a day ago. They are always there.”

“What is he talking about…?” Sakitha asks Makita in sign language. Makita covers up like it were a secret between the two only.

“Secret…”

Okay…” Sakitha N’meru was simple. She never pushed for many things when she knew it was not part of her business or affecting her. Makita came closer to Tsote with a very disappointed look.

“But you made me a promise Tsote… it’s fun out there.”

“I know but…” Tsote excused himself again. This is when Tsote saw her leather bag shaking. He looked hard at it. She saw his gaze and quickly placed a hand over it.

“Okay. We shall go alone…”

“Makita…?” Tsote asked.

“Mhu?”

“What’s that…?” Tsote asked getting closer and snatching the bag all of a sudden. When he did, something the likes of a squirrel rushed out and climbed to her shoulder. She looked embarrassed as she tried to catch it but it was uncatchable and moving so mast in addition to being ticklish.

Tsote jumps back as Makita caught it and pushed it back into her bag.

“Its called a Kuti…” She said glancing this and that way to make sure no one had seen.

“What for… I have not seen that thin before…” Tsote replied.

“It’s raised and trained by Kuti trainers. It determines what distance a child travels from its home nest. It sense how far she goes from Marakusha and stops her by doing what it just did…” Sakitha responded in sign language. “So are you coming?”

“Mmm!” Tsote replied. “No. next time. but… that must be nagging.”

“Yes…” Makita replied.

“Who gave it to you…?” He asked her again. All the same this was new but he still wasn’t going with him.

“Mother. She got it from father…”

“I see… you better get one for your brother. One that bites when he breaks rules.”

“Hhaha!” the two laughed.

As they talked, Tsote realized Renso, master of the Kurotandi watching them from the far ends of the shelters while sharpening his arrows. He seemed focused on them but pretending. Tsote turned to leave as the two continued.

Today his body hurt more than any other day and as always, there would be no one to massage the pain he had away as if he saw the others mothers did for the other children. His silence and loneliness drove him towards the only place that made him recharge his strength. He sat on top some rock with his feet hanging down into the running water south of river Ulewo. 

 River Ulewo was a legendary river, which stretched for many miles starting from the mountain ranges west of Marakusha to the great eastern sea. The river constantly flowed through generation of our time here. However, there was something else to this river, which made it the commonest among the peoples of the empire. It carried strange gems from its root at the top of a great mountain called Kirimanjo. This mountain was further west of our village Marakusha beyond the nine miles wide elephant jungle. This is the same as a one and two and half a day’s journey always westwards. 

From the village, we could see a slight grey shade of the mountain’s tip surrounded by thick and rumbling dark clouds, which have been in that state for thousands of years. In addition, no one dared go up the mountain and returned, so they said. The river flowed clear from the peak of this mountain crossing the empire like a great snake.

The strangest thing about this river were the colorful rocks, which absorbed any form of light apart from the sun making the river colorful during the nights of the moon. The rocks appeared grey and red like blood during day.  

Yakunko elders had a strange tale the rocks glowed because they rolled through a pond of Klode’s blood located somewhere on top the ever rumbling grey mountains about them even though the rest of the other tribes claimed it were a lie.

The tale Tsote grew up hearing went like; many years ago a league of seven gods ruled the different elements of nature. Each of them had a dominion and subjects they ruled and watched over. The dry lands were the earth and all that was on belonged to Klode and the seas to Omlen. Omlen had a sister called Untu and she governed the woods across the dry land. The tales say Klode loved her but she did not love him due to his reckless nature and unpopularity among the league of gods.

When men came to the dry lands, creatures of the dry lands denied them settlement. Due to his love for Untu, he requested the Kuoka to let the humans settle. Through the Kobewa tribe, Untu was helped the humans settle but this did not please Kuoka of the dry lands. 

From mount Kirimanjo, he watched Untu help the children of the sea grow into an empire as strong. Men worshiped Untu. They grew in umbers and desired expansion. This is when the Kuoka attacked again after seeing Klode’s ignorance about the matters of men.

To please Untu, Klode borrowed the Black seed of nature from the league of gods and gave the warrior tribe a gift known as the Kurota so that they could defend the realm of men. The tribes of men called Klode’s gift to the Yakunko a curse and never appreciated what he did for them. Then no one spoke about the breaking of the black seed and the collapse of the natural balance, which displeased Tsote.

However, Yakunko tale say, Klode’s love for Untu destroyed him. Recreating nature alone without the consent of the other gods had consequences. The Yakunko believe Klode’s action is what led to what is known as the fall of nature or the imbalance of nature. 

And the Yakunko did not seize the throne of men because of greed but because the other tribes no longer considered them men. Men did not appreciate the role of the Yakunko towards the survival of the Tonyam Empire.

 The Yakunko believe Klode was relieved of his godly state and driven mad by the after effects of misusing the black seed of nature. Darkness consumed him, drove him away into the mountains and silenced him high in the caves of mount Kirimanjo. And that the rumbling upon the top of the mountain were Klode’s eternal cries of regret.

The Yakunko also believe the gems that flowed down the river and glowing in the moon light were eternal solidified drops of his blood. They were beautiful and caused the river in the night to glow like it fire in the night wherever river Ulewo flowed like a great snake crossing the dry lands. 

Nevertheless, no one ever picked the gems because they were filled with bad omen. If Klode was a good and righteous god to the children of the sea, Tsote asked himself why the gems formed from his blood were not of good omen! No one ever answered him why and this is the reason he feared the Kurota the Yakunko and he had hidden within them. He believed the story was a lie. Nevertheless, who knew the real story?

The sun was slowly going down in the west over the grey mountain and the moon would be appearing over the great river as it always did when the rain season would begin. Tsote walked up to the edge of birds around here sang so well. There were no nests but they seemed to emanate certain kind of power to other lives form the reflection of the strange gems. 

The gems clogged over the years to form several solid rocks covered with moth and algae but still glowed under with a dull kind of glow that beautified the waters. The glow hadn’t started and often he never stayed long to see the glow because the rule was to be in within the homestead by the time the sun fell back over the jungle.

The birds sang and it’s the most beautiful sound there was in the world which took his minds and eased the tension he had from the day’s hard training. His pains seamed to wash away down his body. Through his fee and down into the river leaving him completely a peace. The birds sang all day. He would sit for many hours or play with the birds, which seemed to feel the peace he had within him compared to the rest of his kind. He was different and the sensed it. His Kurota was buried too deep within him for them to realize he were one of them.

Beside the birds, he always came to this spot to watch a rich man many said was king of the empire pass and start up the mysterious foggy hill. He did this at the end of every season. He was always escorted to the banks of the river from Sambura, the main city. He had thirty servants in sections leading three huge elephants, which carried food stuff and twenty Yakunko warriors in full traditional Yakunko war wear. Half the number of servants were females and the other half-young boys of the clearly same age with Tsote. The king always had half his warriors ahead of him and he next ridding upon a litter carried by three white rhinos, well balanced.

He had three other moments on top a litter carried by the first elephant behind him. They looked like they were his queens or concubines. They looked a lot more human with the gold dust black ink-like make up many claimed was for the king’s wives alone. There is much extra-ordinary details about this procession but I won’t go so much into details. 

Except, I will let you know that everything fascinated Tsote even though there was a slight shade of grey caused by the fog around the base of the hill. The greyness concealed most of the details. Some time it was clearer than it was today. All the same there was drumming and the sound of a flutes. A mix of this with the sounds made by the birds was a form of magic in sound to behold.

River Ulewo was shallow and crossable during day. In fact the rocks seemed to peek out of the water and the river looked like a combination set of many streams. However, at night, the base seemed to lower and not a single person could walk across. The eyes saw differently and yet the depth changed.

Tsote grew up here seeing all these things. He grew up seeing the king and his servants hike up this hill. Of course, his guards remained at the banks of the river where they set up camp with two big fires while the female and young male servants escorted the king half way up The Olko hill. It was hard to tell but it was obvious that the servants had a point where they did not exceed too. Only the king went to the peak that was engulfed by a strange mist. 

Why he went up there no one knew but everything in these lands had a tale about it. The hill was highly prohibited and surrounded by twelve towering tree outposts and guards under the command one of the King’s most trusted Yakunko commanders few knew by name.

When he went up hill early morning of the last day of every season and returned on the evening of the following day, which was always beginning of the new season. If he went up the hill in the evenings, he returned at midday the following day. This beat Tsote understands but the rules were to be respected. 

It would be suicide heading up the hill and a record remains that no one ever made up the hill ever since the outposts were positioned with invisible as well as enchanted traps around the hill. Nonetheless, he wasn’t arriving yet. The rain season ended today for the very first time the king wasn’t there yet. Not even his warriors that waited on him at the banks of the river when Tsote did not catch him arriving. 

Makita normally ran into him hugging him from behind, startling her from silence, and causing the little birds to flap away with fright. She was betrothed to the king’s son Mozia O’mondo and he wondered whether his closeness and friendship wouldn’t bring her problems in the near future. She was mindful of him though and he appreciated. She brought a smile upon his face whenever she talked to him. 

She was an embarrassing joker of some sort and he loved it. He missed her sometimes but dared not make it very much noticeable. Her brother wasn’t a joker though! The Kurota he had within him was the bitterest he knew among all the trainees of his lot and dared not provoke it out of him. After all, he feared the manifestation of his very own Kurota. 

*** 

During the hunt, Sakitha N’meru and Makita came to a spot Sakitha normally goes to practice her archery skill. She was the best female in Marakusha with the bow and arrow. Makita admired her and during their recent hunts, Makita was able to learn a lot. Today Sakitha wanted to taste her steadiness after having been home grounded for so long. It was still midday but the air was dump and everything foggy and air cold. As they made the third shot, they talked about the Yakunko prince and Makita’s betroth to him. How it happened and why her father accepted it. Sakitha too tried to explain to her why she was not with her mother and where they lived before they came to Marakusha to live with her father. Makita tell Sakitha about her trust in Tsote.

“He is strange, unique and… I just find myself believing he is capable of so much more than we actually can see.”

Sakitha knew something about Tsote but she was not willing to open up to Makita. 

“Okay what if he ends up loving you …?” Sakitha asked Makita as Makita took her third target at some sport Sakitha needed to test her steadiness on.

“Father would kill him… I think.”

They laugh and this is when Makita makes a great shot. She comes to take the arrow off the tree. As she does, she hears the rushing of a water fall. And some voices.

The make a target and as they go to take the arrow back, hear a waterfall and go to sneak on animals from the river but there was nothing. Instead, they saw what Makita has never seen before. They had never come this way before with Sakitha.

This is when they come to some rock fit with foods and the rock is has two faces and table like. Makita rushes to try to eat the food but is stopped by Sakitha who says that the food belongs to the gods. Sakitha leads Makita way from the rock towards some valley and a few yards down, Sakitha spots some hoof-prints and touches the ground. they were several and not only one animal’s. she puts an arrow into her bow and kneeling to listen. Makita came up behind her only to see her feeling the ground. 

“What…?”

“These prints are new. We have a herd of deer nearby. But be silent!” Sakitha warns as she starts forwards quickly but crouched as well. There was a valley some yard away but it was concealed by fog. When Makita saw her running, she followed on her heel!

 The animals were headed towards the valley where the streams branched off from distributary of river Ulewo but dried away as early as the start of the dry season! All of a sudden, Makita’s animal rushes out from its bag and starts going around her as a warning. She did not listen. She kept hurrying towards Sakitha. Then saw Sakitha go down into a crawl and stopping at the edge of something the likes of a cliff!

Makita was about to open her mouth to speak when Sakitha glanced back and saw the Kuti squirrel. And then Makita’s mouth about to open. She quickly raised her finger and touched her lips as a signal for total silence. 

Makita only stops when it bites her on the back of her heel. Nevertheless, she could not catch it and it could not get down on the ground from her body. Meaning this was as far as she could go from home.

The animals were in the valley below but eating some amshroom-like flowery plants growing out from some newly formed trail of elephant prints. Its like a herd of elephants just came by this way but she did not see them. however she knew when she saw the plants that grow in the foot prints! And this is when her lips uttered.

“The Shorango…” 

“What did you just say?” Makita whispered when she heard something escaping Sakitha’s lips but Sakitha did not mention again. However, where Makita stood, she could not see anything down in the base of the valley. And the Kuti could not let her close either. It coulw bite her legs the more if she moved another step closer.

Since this sight wasn’t new, Sakitha recollected herself and took aim at the animals with two three arrows at once! As she prepared to release the arrows, she though she saw another movement down in the valley. The figure was dark and Kurota shaped even though a lot larger than Kurota shaped even though the usual Kurota warriors. Its figure was unclear as usual because she was not seeing this the very first time too. The figure was sniffing the elephant footprints and seemingly following them. When the animals saw it, they leaped away in terror.

 She slowly lowered her bow and arrows and slunk back from the cliff. She crawled back wards very quietly with her heart pounding. When she reached Makita, she still touched her lips signaling her not to speak, took her arm and led her backwards from the valley fog. Sakitha did not explain any more but they would find other animals to hunt elsewhere.

*** 

Tsote still thought he saw someone on the lower ends of the river standing o some rocks. The figure was familiar but he wasn’t sure because when he looked straight down the river, the figure wasn’t there but when he turned away, he saw the figure still there in a form he though he knew. 

He looked confused and took a rock. He threw it at the form, which finally moved. He got up quickly and ran towards the figure with a danger in his hand but reaching there, no one was there. He thought he was seeing things. 

 As the sun fell away, he stood up to return to the village. From this side he spot homestead fires already burning. The young warriors of the eastern shelters were feeding the fires with wood. He found Makita helping Sakitha. They were skinning three antelopes and a wild pig. The two were already over the fire and sizzling with fat. This is when his hunger started to clench at his intestines. He joined her. 

He came up close to Sakitha N’meru and sneakily took up the pig’s heart. He hid it behind him and walked up to Makita complaining of his back pain and making faces. Then unexpectedly rubbed the pig’s heart all over Makita’s face and ran off only to bump into Renso whose frown darkened on him.

Sakitha saw her father and Tsote who had just frozen at the sight of him! Makita accepted no defeat. She took up the heart. Walked towards Tsote who stood frozen before Renso, teeth clenched! She hit him with the heart very hard in the back… he remained frozen before Renso never glancing back at Makita even once! The heart tumbled to the ground. Renso saw it and gave Makita a very solid look as though he meant to say ‘Behave!’

Tsote turned around stiffly head down and walked back to join Makita. Renso motioned his daughter over. She handed Makita her blade and went to him. They talked for what seemed like two minute embracing each other before she could return. Tsote and Makita helped her skin the animals for roasting that night. Makita stayed longer helping turn the animals over the fire.

“How’s your back…?” Makita teased Tsote pocking his elbow into his ribs a while later…

“Your brother has got such a hopeless brain and a ragged small heart.” Tsote responded.

“He fails to keep his emotions apart from his Kurota…”

“Your father deserves a better heir than he… “ Sakitha told her.

“He is a capable cause of a divide in an empire as strong as the Yakunko’s.”

“Ha-ha!” Makita laughed.

“Pride will destroy him.” Sakitha judged right adding. “-your future husband needs to take caution about such an ambitious brother…”

“I can’t leave him behind… he is my brother and I love him.”

They both looked at Makita.