VIXEN - The Legend of the Five Totems

Chapter 2 - The Grootslang

            "Again," Kai says to his apprentice, the impatient young woman seated before him on the floor of his small red brick home. At seventeen years of age, Anita Diya has the stress lines of a much older woman, earned from the tragic passing of her parents and sister. Since then, the girl has become even more aggressive and stubborn than the simple willfulness of her childhood. The most irritating of her stubborn refusals came when Kai first decided to take his granddaughter on as his apprentice, his ilsangoma. Tradition required that the ilsangoma shear off all hair on the body, but Anita refused to allow her long black braids be cut.

Only because her bourgeoning power was threatening the safety of the villagers of Tantunu, did he agree to eschew the tradition and let her apprentice with him. Whether or not she ever became a full-fledged sangoma, as he was, would only be known in time. But at the very least, he could teach her how to interpret dreams and commune with the plants and animals of their home in the Serengeti Plains.

"Each totem contains the spirit and energy of the element that it represents. The five elements are fire, water, air, earth, and life," Anita has lost the huffiness in her voice, and even though she is not pleased to be reciting this for an audience, her manners show her in a neutral capacity.

Kai says nothing. He rewards with praise only when the exceptional happens. Silence, he learned when he was a boy, is peace. Praise is for the weak. Voice is for communication and correction.

"Shall I go on?" the girl asks him. She is not his granddaughter in this situation, but his pupil. Nothing more.

Kai nods, annoyed that she has stopped. He glances up at the other two people in the clay brick hut: Richard Jiwe and his daughter, Ella. The daughter, Ella, is back for three days, as is her custom. Like many youths in the small village, she has succumbed to the call of the country's capital city of Zambawana, and there, she is learning the practice of the laws of man. What sets Ella apart from the other youths who leave is the fact that she is rooted deeply into the traditions and land of Tantunu, so rooted that she always spends half her week here, with her people.

Her connection is strengthened by the fact that her father is both reverend of the village church, and the recently-appointed leader, the nkosi. Father and daughter are very similar to one another, with their lean bodies and straight hair. They also have very similar noses, not too thick, but excellent for venting the savannah's often oppressive heat from their bodies.

Anita continues: "Fire is passion, which burns away the cold of night. Water is soothing and cleansing and protects us from thirst. Air is our breath and it is the words we speak. Earth is our mother, all around us, and supporting us in our travels. Life is the spirit, that lets compassion stretch from one to another."

"And what element protects this village?" Reverend Jiwe asks.

"That is the element of fire. And like a ring around us, it circles forever, casting its warmth to us when we need it."

"And what are some ways that we need it?" the pastor asks the sangoma-in-training.

"For cooking our food, that we may stay healthy. For burning our dead, that their souls may rise up to heaven. For..." Anita falters. "For..."

"For igniting the passion of love between mother and child," Ella finishes for the young adult, not unkindly.

Kai's hand flashes out to her pupil's shoulder. It locks it in a tight grip that prevents Anita from lashing out at the daughter of the nkosi. Feeling the tension building in the muscles under her light linen shirt, he squeezes until Anita relaxes. It is a step in the right direction. Two years ago, following the deaths of Kai's daughter and her family, she would have shouted at him for touching her.