The Gods Among Us

Chapter 13 - A Shadow Passed

A shadow passed, and they looked up to see the stork flying overhead so thickly that they darkened the Sun.

Mutesai, Ujiji called out forcefully as they approached the trees. Mutesai stopped what he was doing and turned to see his brother. The hot Sun reappeared as the storks came to the end of their flock and shone bright in a cloudless sky blinding Mutesai to the approach of his brother until he was in his face. Ujiji was shorter than his brother but far stronger and much more intelligent. When they hunted together as youngsters, always Ujiji who ran faster and longer than Mutesai. And he never walked away from a fight. Mutesai was ever jealous of his brother and would always take unnecessary risks to prove his quality. He bore the six-inch scar he received on his rump when he tried to skewer a warthog by standing in its path. He was thrown into the trees, and his brother and father found many occasions to laugh about that time.

Ujiji came up to Mutesai with such force and determination that his brother backed away a few paces while his friends fell back in fear. He looked up at the towering Mutesai, grabbed a hold of his spearhead amulet, and forced him against the trunk of the tree.

Who do you think you are? His broad powerful hand grabbed Mutesai when he tried to push Ujiji away and held on tightly. Mutesai wanted to speak but his brother stopped him quickly.

Shut up, he said spitting the words out. You may not speak. Mutesai's companions stood in awe of Ujiji's legendary power; rumor had taken him from a mere mortal who killed two bears with fire and spears, to a god who used his bare hands and then ripped off their heads and swallowed them whole. To them, he appeared taller than his brother. Surely, the spirits of the forest possessed him.

But Ujiji, he said looking at his friends for reassurance, you weren't here, and Old Man forced father into the challenge.

So, you took it upon yourself to take my place? Ujiji released his brother's amulet and tried to calm down, lest he do something he might regret forever. But the blood was hot in him and he turned to walk, but stopped five feet away. Several things happened just then. Presently, the wind came gushing through the trees, and with it smoke and the smell of fire, Bamali yelled a warning to Ujiji as Mutesai raised a rock over his head to strike his brother, and screams came from the village - female screams.

Ujiji ran off towards the village with Bamali in tow while Mutesai hesitated, threw down the rock, and ran in the opposite direction with his companions. Mutesai went to his mother's camp to make sure she was all right. She was dead – her crushed head replaced by a rock. Tisane was gone, and he could hear struggling in the distance and ran after it -calling for her.

Where were you, someone called from the gathering. I looked and recognized the voice. It was that of little Cush.

It would be many more years until I would be born, I answered. And I continued the story.

Ujiji's anger boiled when he realized that an outside clan had attacked his village, killing the old folks and taking the girls away. It was a slave raid and he had seen it before. But now with Old Man dead, the clan belonged to Tall One. Ujiji ran to Alibe's shelter to see about her, but she was gone and his baby Tamari was dead – his head had been removed. The shelter was burning.

He knew who these people were. Mutesai was with one - the short fellow. They were cannibals, and the Mirumbura clan had a name for them, Outsiders. They prized the heads of their victims.

Bamali, who was with Ujiji when this all started, had run off to see about his own family and returned with news that he had killed two invaders who tried to take his woman and his mother. His father he couldn't save; his heart had been ripped out of his living body. And they have fire.