Forgotten
The excitement and jubilation of before, was as if it never happened. The Victory Swing was forgotten and no one was focused on any more of the festivities and joyous celebration.
The Tree Dwellers were all silent.
Only the voice-of-the-night.
An owl kept hooting. It reminded the Tree Dwellers of the time of the hee-bab.
He brought thé owl.
The owl was generally not considered to be anything but an owl by the Tree Dweller people, but at the time of the hee-bab, it had this quickened, repetitive hoot, that no Tree Dweller could easily forget.
That sound only instilled fear into the Tree Dweller's village.
Everyone was eagerly waiting for Manchild to return from the big chief's house. None of them were told what was happening. They only saw as the chief fell to his knees.
Suddenly.
Then he went on his side.
The herbalists were thé only ones allowed near him.
His two wives and two daughters were all hunched around the fire at the big gathering place.
They did nothing but stare at the fire.
Ee!xu was sitting with them.
She had a few of the Victory Swing flower petals on her lap. She wondered what Manchild must be going through. Manchild never knew his man father. The big chief was all he had. She knew the big chief loved Manchild very much, because he didn’t treat Manchild any different than his own daughters and no different than any Tree Dweller. It was like Manchild was not a man to him, but a Tree Dweller.
Giant Tree Dweller as Ee!xu also called him.
She looked over to the chief's daughters. One was her age, the other was just a bit older than Manchild. Their eyes were filled with fear. The Tree Dwellers have all always been told to accept death. They buried and didn't mourn for long. But as Ee!xu watched the chief's daughters, she could see that this time it would not be as easy as simply digging a hole.
Again her thoughts went back to Manchild.
To finally win the Victory Swing. To be so close to a chance at a mate and now for this gloom to befall him. She wish she could see him, so that she may know whether he was coping with the heavy burden.
She looked over to !Xe-!Xo. He wasn't fiddling with things as he always did. He sat with his chin rested on his knee.
He looked sad.
Then he suddenly looked up. Ee!xu looked too.
It was Manchild.
He was slowly swinging his way down from the canopy above. Ee!xu noticed that he no longer had his confident sway and he looked exhausted. She squeezed a handful of petals hard in her hand.
Manchild then finally joined the big gathering place and addressed the Tree Dweller people. They all listened with bated breath. Hoping that Manchild would share news that would make this bad omen to be nothing but a myth.
But they were not comforted by Manchild's words.
The Tree Dwellers all thought...
Tragedy.
Everyone slowly started going to their houses as Manchild said eê-!xa and went into his house.
Eê-!xa was the Tree Dweller word for good-rest.
Manchild didn't sleep at all that night. He kept asking himself what happened? How did things suddenly go so wrong? Was the chief going to make it? How would he manage to find the White Lady, let alone cross the vast-red-space?
He has never been further than the point he stood at. He looked at the Tree Dweller hunters that came to see him off. They were not their usual, excited selves. Today they were not hunters at all.
Today they were simply sad Tree Dwellers.
!Xe-!Xo was the last to speak to Manchild.
They touched their palms to each other's hearts and uttered,
Ba-!xi-ee-!xos
Blessed journey.
Manchild looked at all the Tree Dwellers one last time, then started walking as the sun was starting to rise in the east.
The long journey to the north had begun.
Ee!xu wondered if she would ever see the giant hunter alive again.
11 – Companions
Manchild had travelled until the sun was at its peak and decided to rest. He kept close to the dense trees and bushes, but he could see that he would have to find another way to hide from the foe.
Man.
He encountered some dark-skinned-man that were chasing a wounded kudu. They were very fast, Manchild noticed. Chased the animal till it fell to the ground.
That was the closest Manchild had ever been to any man.
He noticed that they were just as big as him, though they had more muscles. They were definitely much darker and his hair was not the same as theirs either.
Manchild wondered to which group of man he belonged to.
Or was he indeed sent from the deity they worshipped.
He ate a red root and swallowed it down with some herbal mix the herbalist prepared for him. She said it contained things that suppressed the appetite, in case Manchild was not able to find food. This was more of the knowledge the man-with-no-thirst shared with the Tree Dwellers during the time of the great war of the heart.
She said that he should use it sparingly.
He could even add water to the herbs once he finished that which was in his squirrel-pouch. For a Tree Dweller a squirrel-pouch held sufficient water to last them at least two weeks.
Of course Manchild had a few.
Manchild saw the thing hunched behind the huge rock. He was not sure what it was. He just saw something quickly duck behind it. Perhaps he had imagined it.
More of the hee-bab effect.
For a moment Manchild felt slightly happy. If he was a hee-bab, then he was glad that he was not amongst the Tree Dweller people.
They had reason not to tolerate a hee-bab.
That last one brought a nightwalker that managed to slip into the chief's private quarters. The big chief nearly had a heart attack. As the story goes, the chief was woken by the strange hooting of thé owl.
Quick and repetitive.
When he opened his eyes, the nightwalker was just standing there next to his bed. Just staring at the chief. Wearing no coverings and all painted with some white powder.
The chief thought he had died.
Never had he seen such a man before. It was only once the man-with-no-thirst explained that the chief was able to relax. According to the man-with-no-thirst, the nightwalker was sent by a foe to kill the chief, this was because the Tree Dwellers were harboring the man-with-no-thirst. He was however also taken-by-the-night which is why he could not kill the chief.
To be taken-by-the-night is something only the man-with-no-thirst knew about. According to them, it was what the Tree Dwellers hence called,
!Xé-!Xab,
Evil spirit.
Some of them were, according to the man-with-no-thirst, able to take the form of an animal.
Yes.
Manchild was glad not to be amongst his people.
He accepted that he must be a hee-bab and that it would have to be his secret, until he could find out more about it. Perhaps if he is successful to find the man-with-no-thirst, then he might be able to find the answers from him.
Manchild looked up and this time he was sure. He saw the bow slightly sticking out from the back of the rock. That was a Tree Dweller bow. Manchild was sure of this. He decided to go closer. As he reached the rock, the figure came from behind it slowly.
It was !Xe-!Xo.
He had been following Manchild this whole time. He looked exhausted. Manchild was surprised that he hadn't collapsed. He was happy to see !Xe-!Xo. But he wasn't sure if it was such a good idea for !Xe-!Xo to be here.
!Xe-!Xo argued that Manchild would need him to help him hunt, in case he cannot find roots to eat. The herbalist mix was not going to last forever and certainly he was not simply going to find water every few man-feet he went.
!Xe-!Xo won the argument.
Manchild was still a bit worried though. No Tree Dweller except the
great chief ever travelled this way. He was a giant amongst the Tree Dwellers, but still much smaller than Manchild.
Manchild decided to forget about that and rather be glad that he had some company.
Then they both saw her.
It was Ee!xu. She was smiling ear to ear as she came running closer to them.
Manchild and !Xe-!Xo looked at each and thought trouble.
The adventure continues. InshaAllah
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