Each week I'm going to post a part of each chapter sequentially. All you have to do is read and let me know if you enjoyed it by leaving a comment. The more comments I receive, the more likely I'll post the next part sooner rather than later.
It is unedited, so pardon any errors.
I'm hoping to receive the cover art soon but in the meantime here's the blurb. This story explores some African myths and legends but is purely fictional and a product of my imagination.
Ugo’ji is an outcast,
an untouchable. She lives on the fringe of society as the lowest of the low, a
living sacrifice to the gods. The only person she interacts with is her aged
grandmother Nne who nurtures her powerful gift of healing. Until the day she meets
Ebube a strange warrior to their lands who ignites a yearning within her she's
unable to ignore.
Ebube is drawn to the
young maiden with the emerald green eyes who possesses the body of a goddess
and the healing touch of an angel. But he is forbidden from mating with a human
and the consequence is the wrath of the gods.
Moreover he is on a
mission. If he fails, the gates of hell will be opened and the earth plunged
into darkness. He cannot stay and she cannot go with him. So why bother?
Chapter One
Help me...Do whatever it takes...Keep the gates
of Alammuo sealed.
Darkness
tugged at him, threatening to pull him into its murky depths. With a jerk Ebube
sat up on his pallet, the wood creaking with the shift of his weight. The
pounding of his heart echoed in his ultra-sensitive ears, sweat streaked down
his body in rivulets.
On reflex,
he extended his arm, grabbing the scabbard with his machete he always kept
within reach. The nightmare he’d just had left him with a sense of danger in
the air. Yet he couldn’t remember his dream.
His beast
came to the fore, clawing to take over, an instinctive response to potential
threats. Clenching his palms, he fought the shift, his eyesight adjusting to
the pitch shadow. As a leopard-shifter, his vision was excellent, night and day.
Quickly,
his gaze swept across large airy chamber. His mud-plastered hut was sparsely
decorated. Hardly unexpected as he'd not taken a mate yet.
Apart from
the raised bamboo sleeping platform covered in padded deer hide and the wooden
trunk that stored his personal belongings, the only other things were his tools
of warfare – his spears, shields, machetes and scabbards. They were all
sharpened and polished, ready for use. They were also still where he’d left
them hanging on the single rung shelf against the burnt umber colored wall.
His spinal
column tingled the way it always did when he sensed something out of place. Something
terribly wrong. He swung his legs around. Cool unglazed clay flooring met his
bare feet. The muscles on his back tensed, primed for action. Slowly, he stood to
his full height and walked through the room.
His hut
consisted of two chambers, one for sleeping and the other for entertaining
guests. Though as a guardian, a special warrior of the gods, he could live as
luxuriously as the gods did, they had agreed communally to live as simply as
humans of the era so as not to draw attention to themselves as supernatural
beings.
In truth,
all the Ure Guardians were part-human part-god, the seeds of the liaisons
between gods and humans when the deities lived on earth, before the separation
of realms. So while they all had some powers of gods, they were limited by the
susceptibilities of humans. And their bodies' mortality.
Nothing was
out of place in his rooms, no stray malevolent being in the vicinity. Yet the tingling
in his bones didn't dissipate. When he found nothing inside, he opened the door
and walked into the clearing in front of his hut. It was still dark outside.
The dark grey of the far eastern horizon indicated dawn was approaching.
Tilting his
head back, he sniffed the air. The scent of morning dew—cut grass, upturned
earth and ripe fruits—drifted in the light breeze.
Four huts
huddled in a semi-circle with the clearing in the middle. Tall palm and coconut
trees lined the back of the houses. He traversed the back of the structures
starting with his father’s at the edge of the half-moon.
At the last
hut, he stopped. Nothing lurked inside it, living or inanimate. Yet the memory
of the previous occupant flooded his mind, hitting him low in the abdomen,
spreading pain through his body. Gritting his teeth, he shook his head and
turned his back to the building and its unwelcome memories.
The
prickling sensation increased. Around him nothing stirred for a moment. Not a
leaf in the trees or grass on the earth. It was such a tomblike stillness, cold
shivers travelled down his spine.
Strange. It
was as if death had paid someone a visit. Yet that was not possible. Not without
preparation. Whilst Guardians were mortal, it was not easy to kill
one. Only a god could claim the life of a
guardian or grant a demi-god the power to take one through a special ritual.
Deciding to
investigate, Ebube strolled through the village. It was a settlement of
guardians, gatekeepers of the earth and spirit realm. No crime ever happened
here. Yet recently there had been a spate of strange events. Nothing major at
first; unruly children fighting, things going missing, someone getting stabbed
accidentally.
Ikenga,
their leader, had seen all the events as an omen of something bad on the way. He’d
instructed everyone to become extra vigilant, to be on the alert for more
strange happenings. He’d also ordered extra patrols at night.
Other
warriors patrolled the night. Ebube didn’t have to. Still, he wouldn’t be able
to sleep again if he went back inside. He had to check out his suspicion in
case something had gone wrong.
A single
widened pathway ran through the centre of the village, joining the smaller
footpaths leading to mud thatch residences. His ability to perceive auras indicated
their occupants slept peacefully.
The
branches and leaves of the trees swayed in the pre-dawn breeze. He smelt rain
in the air. It was getting closer and would pour down by dawn.
At the village
square he met Onorue, a fellow warrior and chief sentinel, walking towards him
from the opposite end.
"Ututu
oma," they greeted each other.
"I
didn’t realize you were also on patrol this morning," Onorue said as they
grasped each other’s arm in greeting. He was only slightly shorter than Ebube.
They had grown up and trained together. While Ebube was known for his speed and
agility in battle, Onorue was known for his strength and ferocity.
They were
the best of friends. The closest person to a brother Ebube had at the moment
given that his own blood brother had turned rogue. Ebube clenched and
unclenched his hands as hot fury sliced through him. No. Onorue was his only brother. He no longer had a blood brother. Taking
a deep breath, Ebube swallowed the growl bubbling in his belly and calmed his
body before he spoke.
"My
friend, I had an uneasy night and woke up sensing danger. I decided to check.
Have you seen anything strange tonight?"
Ebube was
glad his voice was even, hiding the troubling thoughts in his mind. Though he
knew if his friend probed him, he wouldn’t be able to hide the truth from him.
"I
haven’t seen anything. It seems we are all on the alert tonight. I’ve sensed
the same thing. Even Ikenga came out for a stroll before settling back in his
hut."
"Hmmm.
In which case we must be on guard. I’ll join you in the patrol and hopefully it’s
nothing to worry about."
Ebube
turned and walked the perimeter with Onorue, his eyes searching the darkness
for anything out of place, his senses honed to pick up the slightest
displacement in the atmosphere.
"In
the morning, we shall go and see Ikenga. I sense something big is about to
happen. We will need to take precautions to protect the children and elderly."
"Yes,
I definitely agree. We need to prepare for whatever lies ahead." Onorue
nodded.
They both
continued the patrol but spotted nothing extraordinary. Yet the feeling of
something dark in their midst persisted till dawn. The rain started and Ebube
returned to his hut. He washed and dressed. When he came out, he was greeted by
his sister Oma. As the guardian of light, she was delicate, graceful and
radiated positivity. Yet this morning her usual glow was dimmed, a frown
creasing her ethereal face.
His body
tensed with concern. Their family still hadn’t fully recovered from losing a
sibling, though they’d accepted it as fate. It made him more overprotective
about his sister.
"What
worries you this early morning, Oma?" he asked after she’d greeted him.
Oma shook
her head. "I didn’t sleep well last night. I had a strange dream that I
can’t seem to interpret and I seem to have woken up feeling depressed this
morning. I just don’t understand it. I sense a blanket of pervasive dark clouds
coming over Amauwa."
Her words
set alarm bells off within his mind. It was one thing for him to sense that
something was wrong. He was a warrior, his specialty intelligence gathering. So
he was naturally sensitive and suspicious. But when his Oma sensed similar
things, then it was no longer just a hunch. It was reality. Something bad had
already happened. It would soon become obvious.
To be continued...
Copyright Kiru Taye 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment
I love to read your comments. Please share your thoughts.
If you're having problems using blogger to comment, please use the Facebook comment box at the bottom. Thank you.