TLADI

Chapter 10

You are just like your mother! Umthunz'omnyama thought to herself as Tladi silently, proudly walked into her hut and waited beside her as she treated a patient. Then Umthunz'omnyama looked into Tladi's eye and thought again. Her mother had never had that look in her eyes. The-mother-of-Tladi's eyes had always been a cold depth of indigo. There was beauty in Tladi's single eye, or at least the beginnings of it. This beauty was emotion. Not the usual surface feelings that Tladi often displayed like anger, annoyance, or irritation, no there was something real, and depthless. It left Umthunz'omnyama terrified and that was really saying something! To terrify a Sangoma was a great feat!

Therefore, when Tladi said she understood Umthunz'omnyama's fear and had decided to go into the wilderness for a while, Umthunz'omnyama did not attempt to stand in her way. Tladi went to her hut. She sent Sibi to go and stay with Umthunz'omnyama for a while, then she packed her things and left.

"Greetings Shami," Stima said, entering Shami's hut without ceremony, almost like a thief in the night.

"Greetings my friend," Shami replied, smiling as he looked up from his meal.

"I need a hunting partner, to help me get my supper tonight..." He implied his request rather than saying it straightforwardly. Shami laughed quietly.

"You had best go hunting for something small in that case..." He replied in kind, implying his answer. Stima gave an almost pouting look and laughed.

"I am already seated for my evening meal," Shami added, looking at him with a sideways mischievous look. Stima smiled resignedly. He bid his greatest friend goodnight and went out to hunt alone...

Tladi walked aimlessly through the forest, wondering whether she should keep walking if she reached the end of the forest. She wondered if she should perhaps disappear forever and spare the village the misfortune of her existence. She had never thought such thoughts before, but now that they had formed in her mind, they took root and she could not shake them. She became single-minded in her objective. She walked like a wildcat in the hunt through the moonless night, almost disappearing into the darkness as she had pictured herself disappearing to the village; even the sounds of her footfalls were inaudible.

Stima was looking to hunt something small, thus his hunt led him to the edges of the forest. Something moved softly in the moonless shadows. Only a small creature could move with such softness. Stima gravitated towards the sound... he stalked it carefully, quietly...

Tladi's sharp senses picked up on something in the darkness, stalking her. She was used to being the hunter, so she did not take kindly to being hunted. All previous thoughts were forgotten as she slipped into hunt mode...

Stima slowly became aware of the fact that something was hunting him. This completely bewildered him. He did not understand how this had come to be. He did not even remember losing site of his prey and now something was hunting him! He became angry with himself. Clearly, he had been careless. He pretended not to notice that he was being stalked, but now his senses were pricked and aware, he vowed to hunt down whatever creature was after him. His anger, unfortunately, made him rash...

Tladi was wearing her hunting cloak and head-cloth, all of which were black. She seemed to be another shadow in the darkness, playing shadow games with an unseen assailant. She waited in the shadows, her assailant, seemingly having lost her trail, was going to walk straight into the danger of her range...

Stima carefully picked his way through the shadows towards his hunter. He was certain that his hunter was deluded into believing that Stima was unaware of its position. That was a mistake on the part of Stima's hunter. He had caught sight of one glittering eye in the darkness. He knew where to strike; all he was waiting for was the 'when' now. Thus, he moved with care and extreme slowness. A strategy was in the works...

Tladi sat and waited in the darkness. She waited for the right moment to leap out and strike. The form was moving ever slowly close enough for her to strike. Clearly lost, the form moved with care and extreme slowness. Just slow enough for Tladi to strike easily when the form came into range. She waited patiently...

Stima continued to move slowly, ears pricked for sounds of attack, he paused just before he came into range for his stalker's attack...

The form paused just before it was close enough for Tladi to attack. She waited, her heart beating wildly, adrenalin pumping... Suddenly the form moved almost too swiftly for her eyes to follow. It went straight for Tladi. She had a brief moment to catch sight of the form of a man before she ducked and lunged for him with her short spear.

Stima faked left and lunged right, his attacker missed, lunging left. The human form he lunged for twisted in mid-lunge, just barely avoiding his spear. They rolled together on the forest floor until Stima was braced above Tladi, lunging with his spear. The thunder rumbled in the clouds as Tladi threw him off and rolled away just before his spear reached her. Before she had even stopped rolling, he was on her again and lightning flashed just as he raised his spear to strike at her again.

A lot was captured in that one flash of light. Recognition dawned in their eyes. The spear stopped in mid-air. Someone watching from the outside would have remarked on how strange it is that the pose of the killer and the victim almost always look like lovers...

Tladi was breathless. Her head-cloth had slipped off, revealing her straight light hair. Stima's breath caught in his throat, he had never seen anything like it. It was like water, he dropped his spear. He dropped his head; he kissed her for only the second time in his life. He could not believe it; it was sweeter than he remembered... It was fierce like the harsh beauty of the African plains. It could not be resisted. Just as his hand reached out, hers was already reaching back. It was an inevitability that had been fought long and hard, without success. Now, the bitter-sweetness of defeat was too great for the senses to bear.

Tladi, who knew she risked more than Stima, was shivering violently. However, she was shivering into and towards Stima; shivers down his spine echoed back. The absence of pride (for the first time ever) enhanced the moment. Or rather, the seemingly eternal chain of moments magically linked together. The struggle against the forces of emotion, its battle against immovable mind was done, over, complete... for now. This elevated this future memory to epic proportions. The ebony and ivory of their skins moved together like a flooded river: violently, dangerously but harmoniously, in unity... one. They cried out like the jackals in the night, the reverberating storm struck its thunderbolt at that precise moment.

By morning, the village was burnt to a cinder... thus Stima's suicidal intentions. Now he too knew the reason for Tladi's change over the years. No, indeed it was not that he did not love her anymore, no. The love had grown and intensified in a weird way. It had grown boundless. This meant that it crossed the bounds of reason... Her life was based on reason. Her love for him threatened her existence. It was a dangerous love. He knew it and she knew it. Though they gloried in the magnificence of its splendor, they knew it could not last, would not last. They knew it had to die and the only way it could and would die, was if one of them died.

For they knew that theirs was the kind of love that stretched across all boundaries of time and space. Until she saw the life drain out of his eyes, she would find no peace. Without peace, she would return to the dark days of her beginning... He wished that on no one, least of all Tladi. Rather than sit and watch this occurrence; he would give the ultimate sacrifice... the ultimate sacrifice... he'd pledged it in his heart that night at that climactic moment as he'd pledged the words "My love is yours," to Tladi.