GENERATION X

FIFTH SHRINE

All the other communities had a number of warriors but the coastal community had just one and it was a woman and her name was Mekatilili wa menza, they used to have warriors back then but most of them past away due to old age. This particular community had countable nemesis's and they all came from the ocean, shark attack was the number one cause of mortality in this community because they were mainly fishermen. Stings from jelly fish and consuming poisonous fish also added to it, a large number of this community's member had light skin compared to the other communities but that information was withheld in the archives of the central community. Laziness was a trait to be commemorated by all in this community,the only heavy lifting they did was during the evening where they men took nets to the ocean and the hardest task was to wake up early in the morning. If there was a medal for it then no one would be able to grab it from them for generations.
Mekatilili was dealing with the pain of loosing her husband to a shark and she could barely keep it together to protect her community if anything was to happen. Her husband died of drowning due to boat capsizing and she wasn't around to save him,and even if she was around at that time she couldn't save him because she didn't know how to swim. Her husband was in the ocean fishing in the early hours of the morning which was the usual routine but tides in the morning were unusually rare and if there was it couldn't overturn a boat, although he wasn't the only one that passed away the community behaved as if the other four young men with no wives didn't die. Every day she wakes up goes to the nearest coconut tree punch it and all the coconut ripe and unripe would fall and she would take the unripe coconut cut the top and drink a number of them, that helped distract her of things but in time reality would hit her like a meteor from the sky.
She had not completely completed her training before her husband passed away,and now it's been four weeks since the incidence and she had not attended any other training since that fateful day. She has been doing things that she's not supposed to and many are the times she did nothing at all just drinking and staying under the coconut trees. life was getting miserable for her untill the day when it rained heavily for a whole day and she couldn't go out to drink her favourite painkillers. Her mind was sober and the pain had faded and she realized it, and that's when she knew that in time she will be fine but she has to take her responsibilities serious in order to prevent more life loss. After the rains seized she ran to the shrine to speak to the ancestors only to find the intercessor not present. She didn't wait long until he came back,but it was a bit late and the night had began with the sun painting a beautiful picture over the oceans horizon as it was saying goodbye with its rays. She had to retreat to the comforts of her hut but before she left her husband appeared to her, she wept not because she was sad or happy but because the memories of her husband were still fresh in her mind and seeing him brought them all back.
"Let go!" her husband said to her " what?" she replied." you are holding on to the past therefore not living your present which in turn affects your future" he explained, it's like she had her ears in her pocket when he was talking to her because she began lamenting to him why he died and left her alone. He disappeared before she could say much. She stormed out of the shrine indignant and didn't look back she headed straight to her hut, for the first time in four months she lit up the fire to cook. She cooked fish and ground maize flour and after she was done eating she went to her bed to sleep in the last four months she hadn't slept like she did on this night, even a baby would be jealous on how she slept. On the next day she woke up early as the fishermen who were going to get what was caught in the net during the night, the men were surprised because they had already coped up with her not being around but today she woke up ready like she never left, at least security was assured now that she was with them.
She spend the whole morning trying to make up for lost time, later in the afternoon she resumed her training back at the shrine. The community was happy that she is back to her senses, the day went smoothly untill late in the evening when there was smoke coming from the shrine, the smoke almost got in all their houses and choked all of them so they left their huts in search of fresh air to breathe. Mekatilili was one of the affected house's. She went straight to the shrine and again the keepers weren't there but a hologram of Syokimau appeared to her and told her what will happen in the future if they don't leave and join the other in the Eastern community. She showed him Lang'os there to come to their home and kill them all with no remorse for children or the old. " You should lead your community to the Eastern community where we all will be helping one another avert the impending danger, leave at night it's safer " Syokimau said to Mekatilili before she disappeared.
Mekatilili felt like this is her chance to go out of the community and be part of a real war that she has been craving for even before she became a warrior. She has always had a spirit of adventure but the laws of the community did not allow her to leave even if she hadn't become a warrior, she was so excited to go and tell the whole community and they both shared her excitement as a matter of fact they were twice as excited as she was. Growing up to the breath taking site of the ocean will at one point be a cliché but it Will never be boring to a person born and raised in the land. The community shared her sentiments in exploring the land oblivious of the dangers that could befall them. The young men of this community were looking forward to meeting other girls aside from the ones they were used to as did their girls. To them it was a celebration because they all get a chance to go outside the community so they turned of the fire and began celebrating, their women were good dancers , well not all of them but some of them would make a man sit down when they begin to move their waist and that is why the central community traders made their trips twice a week because they had a VIP pass to any ceremony and there was a dance even if it's a funeral.
The party went on for a while then the elders had a meeting behind closed doors, where they discussed a few matters but didn't tell the community. After they finished the meeting they called the rest of the community and told them to pack their food that would last for a whole season, they took all the honey and put them in barrels where they dipped all the roasted fish in the honey. They also cut all the coconut from the tree but they couldn't carry them all and stashed the ones they couldn't carry, after they were done packing they all went to sleep waiting for the next day so they can leave.