TLADI

PART 2 - Chapter 17

They were a horde of traveling souls. The distant nowhere lands of time could not hold them. Fate could not claim them and destiny could not blame them. They were on a soul-journey to change the horizons of many tomorrows. They were righteous in their path... or so they thought...

They came from a place where outcasts did not exist. They came from a place where the nature of the blood running in your veins did not determine your kin, where the colour of your skin did not define you within. They came from a place where what language you spoke, your natural build, your form of culture and your spirituality or the lack thereof formed just another colour in the spectrum of the multifaceted rainbow. It was a bow whose striking power, where the arrowhead pierced skin muscle and bone, reached all the way to a creature's soul. 

They were the arrows, from the rainbow that was in the mist, between the desert and the sea where the sound of a thousand flamingos flying over your head was the sound of freedom. It let you know that you had it. You had it in that place; where the greatest Drummers' Circle ever to exist had died. It died into its own black ashes and, like a bird of fire, was reborn in the hearts of the women and men of That Village. That Village was a nameless one; the one between the desert and the sea. It was one village that hovered magically in the mist. 

They carried that dismantled disbanded village in their hearts. With it they carried the freedom it brought, the truth it sought, the power it bought and the havoc it wrought...

A tall silence of a man with a flailing red robe stalks the desert with his eyes narrowed. The coldness of those narrowed eyes seems to penetrate and conquer the prevailing heat. 

Shami was surprised that towers of ice did not immediately form in all the places that Stima laid his sight. He would have said this to his best friend, but as of late, Stima's humour was not as it used to be. Shami was certain that this joke would not produce laughter from the cold heart of his friend.

Stima's now cold heart served as a guiding force leading the horde of travelling souls to his homeland. Some of the older villagers had died on the journey having been too weak to survive the harshness of the treacherous desert. Stima's parents had been among them. 

They had been travelling for two months now over the desert and finally, greenery seemed to be hovering in the distance.    

The calm, sunny soul that was Shami took no sorrow with him in his southward bound journey. His heart was a place of eternal sunshine and blue skies. He had been thoroughly, albeit pleasantly, surprised when he had been chosen to lead the small group of the few members of his race. He suspected this was due to the sad fact that the other men, such as his father who was now dead, were too old to lead and others were much too young. He had provided a good middle ground. 

In any case, each departing group had been given an initiate Sangoma of Umthunz'omnyama's training to guide them in finding water, direction, and unusual weather patterns. This was necessary. Most of them had never seen the lands of their ancestors, much less made the travel from there to the nameless village in the mist between the desert and the sea.

The initiate he had been given was a Zulu girl. There had been none still alive from his own race and she had volunteered to go with them, as there had been another of her race who was available. 

She was a gracefully tall serious girl with features that would have been sharp and hard had they not been rounded at the edges. Her name was Ntombi, which in Zulu meant 'girl'. She had not yet become necessary as Umthunz'omnyama the chief Sangoma also travelled with them. 

They had decided to combine several of the groups of races together as they were going in roughly the same direction for a while. They had done this in order to better survive the desert. The-red-eyed-mob also travelled with them as he led his group towards the southern tip of the continent. However, with the end of the desert on the horizon, this collection of races was soon to split up. 

Though not immediately imminent, some people wondered how Umthunz'omnyama and Oyena, The-red-eyed-mob, would fare when they had to leave each other. Though they slept in separate tents and tried very much to keep their love a secret, the entire party knew of Umthunz'omnyama and Oyena's relationship. 

They found it completely odd, yes and surprising, but they knew about it. Yet due to the mutual respect and fear awarded to the Sangoma and The-red-eyed-mob, everyone tried to pretend that they did not know. Thus, the two were deluded into thinking that they were safe with their secret.

Umthunz'omnyama had withdrawn further into herself after Tladi left. She had known way before the time that it would occur but it did not break her heart any less. Tladi was the daughter she had never had. Yet to compensate, Oyena was the companion she should never have gained and the husband she would never have. 

He was the only one who had the ability to draw her out of herself, even if it was only for the times when they were alone together. She often spoke of Tladi and she had redeemed this strange creature to a human being, albeit misunderstood, in Oyena's eyes. Her grief became a gradual slow ebb where only the scabs, where the scars used to be, would bleed a little when she scratched. Unfortunately, she scratched often, as the itch of the pain was still raw.