Somanca ( The Healer)

Chapter Eighteen

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 🌿

Quickened heart beats

Excessive sweating

Stomach knotted up

It was clear I was a nervous mess. Each step closer to Chief Coyek's hut I was sure my heart would give in and I'd fall fast to my death.

Why I felt so nervous? It was quite easy. The Chief was the same man who'd ordered my people to be hunted down like animals and killed when mother was still alive. He'd tormented my people needlessly. He was the reason I'd lost my mother.

I had always imagined I'd be intrepid and unshaken by the mere sight of him. I'd imagined he'd tremble at my presence, struck by the guilt of slaughtering my people. I wanted to be strong and fearless when I faced him but now I was wrecked with the loss of my home, my people.

I wondered if he was the heartless monster the elders painted him out to be. Was he as rotten to the core as the darklings were? To hunt a heavily pregnant women, who was unarmed, said a lot about him. He was a monster through and through.

Taking me away from the ruins of my village, giving me food and shelter had to come at a price. And I was more than ready to refuse whatever twisted plan he had with regard to me. If he thought he'd buy me into forgiving him then I'd worry about his sanity.

Entering the Hut I was hit by the smell of incense so strong I almost doubled over from the overpowering scent. I wondered what use was the burning of incense over this encounter.

Was I going to be the sacrificial lamb to their gods?

Was my presence revolting that they had to cleanse the place?

Such were my thoughts. Thoughts that set a flare of anger to my heart. I was the one who should find them revolting and impure.

All my life I had lived according the chagira. They were the laws to live by when one was looking to stay pure of mind, body and soul. Set in place for a healer.

The elders had some insane belief that if a healer stayed untouched and pure of mind and body then the gods would strengthen her abilities and lift the curse of all those who were deprived of their gifts.

It was a foolish belief of course but I couldn't exactly blame them. I couldn't imagine a life without my abilities. Deep inside I felt their anguish, their pain. It was why I decided to venture to foreign lands to find the orb they desperately needed. To brighten their lives with the possibility of a better, more fulfilling future. The future were I wouldn't live like a cow milked off every ounce of my abilities till I was left with nothing but deep seeded torment.

My gaze gravitated to the two men sitting around a fire pit. Purple flames danced from the pit, licking at the air seductively. The tongues of the flames like the petals of the thwraki spring flowers, seemingly harmless yet searing to the touch.

It was easy to identify the Chief. Only a man who was truly bold and brave would don  full tribal body markings. His torso was marked with tiger streaks, and swirling lines branching along the tiger markings up to his shoulders and arms, and venturing to his back and below the loincloth he proudly wore. His head was shaved on the sides leaving the long hair on the middle which was pulled in an intricate braid, with crimson feathers and beads woven into it.

His legs also had tiger streaks and swirling lines as well as names written in their Tuvigurian tongue.

The one who sat opposite the Chief only had his left shoulder marked. The intricate lines curling to his neck teasingly. He too wore a loincloth, exposing his muscular legs that had old battle wounds.