Prologue

Prologue.

A long time ago somewhere in Africa, a powerful empire stretched for miles no one knew along the shores of an ancient eastern seas. They called this the Tonyam Empire and it comprised of thirteen native tribes. These tribes began off united only to grow antagonistic due to the greedy for power. This led to wars and therefore a split leading to the rise of the Yakunko tribe on the throne!

The Yakunko tribe’s rise above the twelve other tribes was not a natural phenomenal but one influenced by the possession of some powerful earth element known as the Inka rock. They were able to keep this element secret for generations and ages. Their mighty and rule becoming unchallengeable. 

The remaining twelve tribes tried to resist the Yakunko power, expansion and influence against the I’nka power but every resistance in vain! With time, many of the other tribes learned to acknowledge the mighty of this power even though through fear and intimidation! Nevertheless, the likes of the Tzavoku and the Jakewa tribes never ceased fighting for self-rule for the last thousands of years because they had mixed blood with a decency from the first mortal rulers.

The two have been defeated constantly for the last one thousand years and the Yakunko Kings starting from Oladiya the first; have continued to inherit the throne until of late. A Yakunko King’s rule on the Yakunko throne officially began after the success of the I’nka ritual. Every Yakunko king’s rule was consecrated using the Power of the I’nka stone. But The Inka seed tested a king’s readiness with challenges.

It has been fourteen years ever since King O’mondo, the new Yakunko king assumed the throne after his father. A few seasons after his coronation, he was disturbed and distressed by his father’s enemies seeking to capture Sambura city so as to reach the old royal temples. They settled along the eastern shores from beyond the great sea. These enemies were commonly referred to as ‘-home seekers.’  

 He worried about what he was to do to protect the glory and might of his father’s empire. He needed an alliance to defeat his father’s enemies but the tribe he chose to assist him were the Kobewa, with whom the Yakunko had the worst historical difference. It’s believed he and the Kobewa made an agreement he broke after their assistance and defeat of the Home seekers. In turn, the Kobewa enchanted King O’mondo with something. 

Before he became king, he fell in love with a Tzavoku chief’s daughter whom he later made queen after his father’s death. This did not please the elders but they had to place him on the throne. However, they never forgot that the new king was a stubborn one.

Later some rumor started to spread that King O’mondo was sick. Whatever the sickness was, did not allow him to step in the light of day ever again. This strange condition denied him confidence back into the public. He had defeated the Home seekers with the assistance of the Kobewa but they Home seekers were rising again. This time other tribes were attempting to break away and he no longer could think straight.

With time, he was termed as a King ruling from the shadows or king of the shadows. To brace and sustain hope among the insecure Yakunko societies that had their hope in the wellness and health of the king, it was made known that the king was merely sick with promise of getting well any time soon but soon wasn’t. All the same, the Yakunko bought the lie.

 Gradually, Yakunko chiefs and elders found out that some dark Kurota haunting haunted the king. They did not know why it was haunting him or even how to help him recover. For that case, most of the Yakunko chiefs came to believe King O’mondo would never recover unless the past kings of Inka seed accepted him as new Yakunko king in the linage of Oladiya the first. Otherwise, they learned the king could no longer think straight, his health and hygiene were failing within the shadows. 

Worst of all, he was not the king they expected him to be because he was no longer meeting tribe chiefs at the beginning of every season as the custom was. King O’mondo had made it his habit to send Thalko, grand chief of all Yakunko villages and settlements across the empire as well as Chief Commander of the Yakunko armies to preside over all elder ceremonies, meetings the king was specially supposed to chair himself! This was wrong and angered the chiefs and elders but they had no power to issue a correction! 

It has been fourteen years since he last performed the second of the I’nka ritual. The kings of the past denied his readiness and so did not mark him as new king. It’s simpler to say he stopped the rituals due to the growth of his sickness and haunting.

Today will be the king’s fourteenth year as a Yakunko king approved by the elders of the thirty-three Yakunko villages. Even with his haunting, unpopularity among the elders and madness, Thalko, his most trusted official and closest friend remained loyal no matter the circumstances. It is obvious Thalko knew everything but he swore to serve and honor the crown’s top secrets to his last breath. In his haunted state, the king always made one major statement, “…the Halfling!”

******

Tsote is a young fourteen-year-old boy living in a small Yakunko military village known as Marakusha, near the banks of river Ulewo. The river dissects the old empire into two portions. One-half up North and the other down south. Its waters flow from the snowcapped Kirimanjo Mount ranges beyond the western jungles. A mountain called the home of the god of the dry lands. 

Tsote is a Yakunko male who has a hard time believing he was born a Yakunko! Tsote is a very sensitive child. He is the only one ashamed of who he is as a Yakunko because the Yakunko were a hated and dreaded tribe resulting from their bitter past!

For that case, he grew up to question the necessity of the bitterness of his tribesmen towards the other tribes! Everything that is has roots and so does the hate his people receive from the rest of the other disgruntled tribes. He has heard the old tales about the rise of the Yakunko even though several have been fabricated over the past generations.

In Marakusha, things hardly changed! 

One of these unchanging things were the old Yakunko tales. On many occasional nights when the skies were clear and starry, the sound of river Ulewo rushing away across the land into the east, the training fields glowing with night flies and the ancient wise Owl hooting from the top of the Olko hill, the storyteller’s voice rose…

‘…for around one thousand six hundred years the Yakunko have been in possession of a very powerful precious stone known as the I’nka seed.’ these stories went on until late in the night when the children went off to slumber and the fire burnt out to ashes.

Tsote listened to these stories from a far unlike all the other children. Nevertheless, he was the keenest and always last to slumber. Staying away from the storyteller was a rule from his father and caretaker.

The storyteller went on to say, ‘-the Inka’ is the origin of our being across the dry lands and the line that defines our good and dark side. Which was called the balance all together. The balance failed many years ago and so the I’nka seed become a myth to all.’

The storyteller said ‘-Yakunko kings have used the I’nka seed’s power to conquer and rule whoever and wherever they wished as far as the light touched the dry lands…’ Even though many agreed the I’nka, seed was a mythical element, Tsote though differently,

Besides the rise of the Yakunko and the Inka seed, Tsote also found interest in the tales about the Origins of the thirteen tribes of men. Storytellers say men came from the depths of the eastern sea. In addition, tales say the ancient gods burnished them to live on the dry lands as punishment for some crimes men do not even remember.

When they started coming on land, they came in phases, which identified them into the thirteen tribes there are this day. These tribes started off as chiefdoms with one king and later united to form what became the Tonyam Empire and each of the tribe had a role to play towards the growth and longer survival of the empire using their talents. Because there was no proof of man’s origins from the sea, Tsote thought so less of the myth compared to that about the root of the eternal differences and hate the twelve tribes had towards his tribesmen the Yakunko.

Nevertheless, he understood the Yakunko were big bodied and sturdy gifted with physical strength twice greater than the other tribesmen did. For that case, they made up the Tonyam warriors classes with the Jakewa and Tzavoku until the fall of the kings of men.

Nevertheless, when the Yakunko seized the throne of men, other tribes came to agree Tsote’s people cheated the balance when they embraced the dark influence of the I’nka seed. This is the reason Tsote regrets he was even born a Yakunko. With the I’nka seed, Tsote’s people came into the possession of something else known as the Kurota!

******

The Kurota is an extra-ordinary ability to transform into some beastly form. It sets them apart from the rest of their sister tribe. The Kurota has enabled the Yakunko chance to life twice longer than the other mortal men have. It resides in every Yakunko male’s eyes, attaching itself to the mind and soul of its host but never to their heart. 

However, most of the tales, myths and legends have grown twisted due to the Yakunko influence to protect Yakunko interests across the dry lands. Most especially tales concerning the origins and source of the Yakunko Kurota abilities. No one sees the twist in most of today’s tales but Tsote does. 

With the assistance of the Kurota, Tsote's tribesmen have survived very trying times successfully cleaving their way through ages, however at the expense of the peace and freedom of their sister tribes.

'Nevertheless, all empires rise and fall like the sun from the east unto the western jungles...' so says Mama Erusa, a popular storyteller from Marakusha.

The manifestation of the Kurota began around the age of ten in all males unlike the girls whose Kurota manifested was suppressed immediately after birth. In girls, it was taken for a curse or bad omen and it required suppressing before they ever turned ten years old.

If it manifested in a baby girl, the baby’s family members and their village elders performed a suppression ritual for her before the child could even make three months! However, the ratio of girl that experienced the Kurota manifest at birth and later in their youth was always two out of ten girls. Also, in case a girl’s Kurota survived suppression within the first ten years, she had to be murdered because at that stage she and her Kurota would have become inseparable.

However, in boys the Kurota’s was taken for a gift, a blessing and a symbol of honor. Besides manifestation at the age of ten, the gift did not without proper training. For that case, all boys starting from the age of eight began training on how to get their Kurota to manifest. By ten and eleven a trained boy’s Kurota would have manifested. 

If the boy made twelve years of age, their Kurota was assumed no longer capable of manifesting. Tsote began training at the age of nine. The end of the third season of the Yakunko year ends today. And on the second day of the forth month, Tsote will be making fifteen years old and his Kurota has never manifested. 

Training went on for six years until most of the boys were fifteen years old. However, two years after a boy’s Kurota manifests, he was assigned to a Kurotandi team. And after the six years of training, the teams contested in what was known as the Kurotandi games.  Those who survived the Kurotandi game were marked warriors of the Yakunko Empire.

The Kurotandi games have been a practice for the last one thousand years, taken place in Sambura the Yakunko Capital, and later moved to Marakusha for the last ten years in consecutive.

The manifestation of the Kurota was very important because it is what defined a boy a true Yakunko male passing the Kurotandi games, a true Yakunko warrior. Failure for the manifest of a Boy’s Kurota by the time of the Kurotandi games had one labeled a K’Unko, which meant Half Yakunko. The most demeaning phrase of the age among the Yakunko. K’Unko had lost of shameful meanings but worst of all; the label was burned in their flesh on the right side of the boy’s chest. 

Thereafter, the boy whose Kurota failed to manifest would be stripped of their family name and exiled from Yakunko communities. Most of the boys in this category ran to other tribe societies by were mistreated there and so continued north into the Sidukwa desert where they never returned. 

Tsote worried he would end up a K’Unko! However, his fear was double faced. He was old enough to know why the K’Unko were mistreated when they entered other tribe societies. First, the lack of the Kurota drove them into such a desperate corner, which wouldn’t have been if they continued to survive like the rest of the Yakunko females. 

Such a harsh custom wasn’t meant to be… and Tsote wished he had the power to change it or remove it totally. All the same, the custom was alive and a major pillar in the might of the Yakunko system.

The K’unko were denied of their family names, left hopeless and lost in a world of twelve hateful and biased tribes in search for any possible chance to avenge for all the Yakunko past cruelty. He wished his Kurota never manifested numbering him amongst hated. In addition, the manifest of his Kurota would allow him the only chance to change the custom. What then was his purpose without a family name…?

 He hated the idea of the Kurota becoming part of his life without his will! On the other hand he has heard horrifying tales about the K’Unko whose departure from Yakunko communities clashing with hateful tribesmen seeking revenge against the Yakunko. It was horrific to hear. And for fifteen years he has battled within to ensure his Kurota never manifested even though its failure was a dishonor. 

The moment he turned twelve without his Kurota, most of the boys started under looking and despising him, referring to him as a K’Unko. Over the past years, K’Unko boys were taken for loss to their families and more to that isolated by their peers and age mates. Being the only one in Marakusha, attracted bullies on him.

Why? It general knowledge that the latest the Kurota has ever been in a Yakunko boy was up to Twelve years. At fourteen, it was beyond late! Unfortunately, Tsote was already fourteen years of age and in three days, when the rain season began, he would turn fifteen still without his Kurota!

Thalko, the Village Chief raised this boy as his own and worried about Tsote’s Kurota failure. Thalko was a forty four year woman with great honor. 

  He was chief of Marakusha village, the King's Commander in chief of the Yakunko warriors, and the bravest of all the king's men! Due to his unwavering loyalty to the crown, the Yakunko King O’mondo to him for a best friend. And having grown up under his care, Tsote called him ‘- father.’ 

Thalko has three wives. The first and most beloved of them is barren. The second wife mothers Thalko’s oldest son  M’boguku Iteti and  daughter Makita. The third wife is a none Yakunko with a baby boy of seven years old and a toddler baby girl two seasons old.

Tsote and Thalko’s oldest son M'boguku dislike each other. M’boguku is taken for the best of the training young warriors in Marakusha but also Tsote’s number one Bully! M’boguku’s sister Makita is on the other hand, the friendliest person. In addition to that, the most beautiful of all girls In Marakusha! He would be turning fifteen and so was in a stage easily of distracted by her fairness. Unfortunately, she was -betrothed to Prince Mozia O’mondo, King O’mondo’s son.

 M’boguku Iteti was fifteen years old and Makita thirteen but  M’boguku Iteti was very mindful and protective of her. He became very aggressive when he realized their unchecked friendship and opted to bump into every moment he saw them together to distract them. Many times this nagged the two and angered Tsote but he was limited for what to do most especially without his Kurota!

Thalko, the Chief was never around for weeks. He returned for a day or two followed by many days away on militaristic ventures. Twenty years ago, one of the three tribes that left the shores of the Yakunko Empire after the fall of its rightful rulers returned. They wanted back their land to resettle but King O’mondo’s father denied them any chance to. Due to their improved weapons that included guns, they were able to kill the king. There after reclaiming their land lost to the Yakunko a thousand years ago.

King O’mondo took on the throne from his father but would never settle until he avenged his father’s death and driven the Home seekers from the Yakunko sea shores for good. He has achieved so little in his struggle against the Home seekers and their improved war mechanisms but showed no signs of giving up any time –yet as long as Thalko was his most trusted ally and war master planner. 

Thalko kept many things about his past, his relationship with the King as well as the King’s progress against the Home seekers secret making him the most loyal of the king’s officials. While away, he trusted his fathering role to Renso. Renso was Marakusha’s caretaker and captain of the watch. However, he was best known by the title - Kurotandi master or Master of the Kurotandi. The Kurotandi were the different teams Yakunko Boys joined when their parents brought them to Marakusha from different Yakunko villages and communities across the Yakunko Empire to learn how to manifest their Kurota as well as to train to Yakunko warriors. Similarly, Tsote was part of this Kurotandi training no matter what!

Thalko was not Tsote's real father, but he took it unto himself to raise him, as he did his own children. Makita was Tsote’s best friend since they were age mates and this is what envied M'boguku. Without a mother like Thalko’s other children, Tsote had so many questions to ask. However, in Thalko's absence, there was no one to give him a sincere ear the way Chief Thalko would.  Had he not been so absent and constantly away!

Tsote grew up here in Marakusha, a village located south of river Ulewo but five sunflower fields away. The main Yakunko city was a day's journey up North of River Ulewo. Those who have been there for example travelers, traders and storytellers going through Marakusha called it a magnificent royal city. 

Tsote had a dream that one day Thalko would take him there as he did for his older son M'boguku. And the boy has never spent a day without boasting about that journey calling for all the attention and admiration possible from the village girls. Nonetheless, on the other side of River Ulewo, there stood Mysterious foggy hill known as the Olko hill. 

Many claimed the fog surrounding the Olko hill was enchanted and impassable for all those in possession of a Kurota but as always Tsote thought this was just a myth. The Kurota went violent when exposed to the fog. Other claimed an evil stray ghost Kurota haunted the fog. Nevertheless, the second was only one of the many random tales and Tsote did not believe most of the Tales.

All the same Yakunko warriors were afraid of the fog due to their Kurota and females remained cautious of an ancient ghost Kurota they have been told lives in the fog to keep them off. What surprised many was the kings’ frequent seasonal visits to the Olko hill unaffected by the enchanted fog. 

No one questioned why he was not affected because he alone was king. This however bothered Tsote who has heard the tales about the roaming ghost Kurota making him questioned the threats of the old tales and rules prohibiting every child from playing in the fog.

 And what exactly took him to the peak of the hill at the end of every season? The storytellers say the Olko hill belonged to the Kuoka species. Before the thirteen tribes of spread out to settle across the dry lands of this empire, there were the Kuoka species. The Kuoka were kingdoms of the animals of the wild. In the tales, these Kuoka are believed to have been as intelligent as men are. They had territories and the Olko hill was the center of the kingdom of the birds. The rest is chronological and unnecessary to dig yet.

When King Oladiya, the first Yakunko king seized the throne, the rest of the empire’s tribes most especially the Kobewa and the Tzavoku could not approval of his reign as king on the throne of men. The first to decline his rule on the throne were the Kobewa tribesmen. The Kobewa served as magicians and priest in the system of the first empire of men on the dry lands. In the tales, they were popular for their gift of natural magic given them by the goddess of the wood known as Untu. 

Instead of serving the first Yakunko king, the Kobewa fled south to find refuge at the foot of the Olko hill. On top of the Olko hill there was a legendary tree known as the Untu tree and mother of all tree and other plant life. A legendary owl was known to hoot from the peak of this hill and the Kobewa hoped it would allow them take refuge along the slopes of the hill.

They found no problem in living under the fog. The great owl did not deny them refuge. The tales say Olkai, last of the twenty-one guardians of the Kuoka, welcomed the Kobewa to the great tree. While there, the Kobewa tribesmen learned Olko magic from Olkai, a legendary guardian of the kingdom of the Birds. This magic upgraded their gift twice stronger than they were before resulting into a generation of greater Kobewa sorcerers and magicians. 

The tales go on to say, Oladiya, the Yakunko king followed them to the Olko hill and attacked. Much of what happened before and after is unclear but King Oladiya destroyed most of them in the battle of the Moshuno. The survivors were terrified and so dispersed into hiding but he hunted them down close the very last one. 

Others say the Kobewa found a way to take down King Oladiya because they his body with empty eye sockets (which is to mean robbed of his Kurota gift) and seemingly dead shortly after the Moshuno battle. The tales do not say he was killed but disappeared! We shall get to his tale in details later.

Tsote's home was the center of Marakusha and the most distinct and furnished of all the other shelters. There were six shelters set in an arc on both the east and western side of the main shelter. The eastern shelters belonged to the Chief’s servants, and those on the western wing belonged to Thalko's wives and their children. The main shelter belonged to Thalko, the chief. His shelter was centrally located and elongated with militaristic forms and wooden carvings, large horns, hides and so many other stuff I cannot explain here.

At the back of the chief’s shelter, there were two extra shelters arranged side by side like his. They too were elongated but slightly shorter and smaller. The two shelters stood apart within walkway leading through to the other end. Behind them, there was an animal husbandry with cattle, mountain goats, field working oxen and wildebeests, which Chief Thalko and his men used on long distance travels.

 Three fenced passages led through these stables to a militaristic training ground on the further end. The rest further out were the crop fields. Behind the servant’s shelters and the chief’s wives shelters the rest of the village settlements spread out in wing-like arrangement. Five yards in front of Thalko’s shelter and slightly to the left wing, there were three legendary trees known as the jungle elders. They stood in a three yards wide rectangular field. They were used yearly during the Kurotandi training