The First

by Michael Santana

  The trip back to the village was an arduous one. A makeshift stretcher was made from limbs and twine found on the ground. I was laid upon it, secured in place, then two of the tribesmen carried me. Four more tied the boar to a sturdy branch and hoisted him into the air as the other two carried the dead pygmy. We arrived back in the village just before nightfall. Auta and Kanoni attended to my wound. While my leg was being dressed, Skull told everyone of my heroic stand against the boar.

  After hearing the story repeatedly told, with everyone throwing in a little about their own ordeal with the boar, which primarily consisted of running and hiding in the trees, it was time for the ceremony. Once my wound was properly dressed, I was brought before the whole tribe with a group of younger children who had also been on the hunt. The teeth filing ritual was about to begin. We were given soft bark to chew on.

  The bark had been bathed in some type of mixture, which caused a numbing effect. It was the same solution that had been used by Kanoni during my circumcision. As I chewed on it, I could feel the numbness starting to take hold. A few seconds later, Auta asked me if I was numb. I told her I was. Then they started. They bridged my mouth open with two small pieces of wood. With my mouth open and my head tilted back I could barely see the file. It was more of a grating feeling, not much pain, just very unnerving. My top two canines were first.

  While Auta was working on my teeth, Kanoni held my hand and asked if all the stories about the boar were true. With grunting sounds, I acknowledged that they were. Each tooth took about fifteen minutes. The way it was done, I didn’t lose any size, they were just razor sharp. The bottom canines followed with the same technique.

  Soon it was over, and I was given a bowl of water to look into so I could see my reflection. What a frightening sight I was. I remember running my tongue across my teeth, pressing against them, but because of the numbing mixture, I couldn’t tell the difference. I could taste the blood though. Later, when the numbness wore off, I would regret doing that. My tongue was swollen, with a dozen tiny holes in it. Once everything was done including the salve that was put on my tongue for healing, I was taken to my hut to rest.

  My hut was no different than the thirty others in the village except for its height. The other huts were about 8 feet tall, which was very big considering the size of the people living in them. Mine was slightly taller but had only a sleeping mat and a few other accessories that I would need.

  The next few days were filled with visits from the people of the tribe, checking to see if I was ok and to congratulate me on my kill.

  After the boar was skinned and cured, the tusks were mounted outside my hut above the entrance, showing the trophy of my first kill. Those tusks elevated me in the eyes of the village.

  The newly sharpened teeth were hard to get used to. I kept biting my lips and my tongue during meals, while talking and pretty much everything else. This amused the adults, I guess they had forgotten their first ritual, but the children understood.

  Most of my time in the next few days was spent convalescing. When I was finally able to get around on my own, I made sure to go to the dinners with the tribe and to sit around the campfire with them. It seemed the hunt was still the topic of discussion. I heard the tale told with much embellishment as to what everyone had been doing at the time.

  Some described how they swung down to help only to be interrupted by another animal or how they had tried to give aid to their fallen comrade. These little lies really didn’t bother me. I have never been much of a glory hog, as you would say. I was just happy to be a part of a tribe again. To be hailed as a hero was a bonus. If I had known what was coming, I probably would have relished in that moment more, but I didn’t realize that was the last night I would see most of them alive.

  Smoke and screams! I was torn from a restful sleep by the sounds of shouting. Struggling to my feet, eyes burning, I hobbled as fast as I could to the entrance of my hut. I could hear Old Mother shouting for the children to run to the woods.

  I was met by a blast of hot air when I opened the flap. The village had become consumed by smoke. It was hard to see anything at all. When my vision finally adjusted, I could see that many of the huts were on fire. People were running everywhere. Some were part of the tribe, but a lot of them weren’t. There were bodies scattered all over the ground. Blood soaked the soil. I could hear Skull screaming in the distance calling for his tribesmen to kill the invaders.

  I felt a tug at my feet, and I jumped and whirled around. Well, as much as I could with my leg in the state it was. It was Kanoni. She was pulling me from the front of the hut. She put her fingers over her lips asking me to be quiet. Kanoni had snuck in while I was peering out the entrance. In her eyes, I saw urgency. She was scared, scared but also determined. She took me by the arm and led me to the hole in the rear of the hut.

  Scrambling towards the hole, as an afterthought, I grabbed my hunting knife in its sheath. I hadn’t realized how lucky I was that my hut had been built last. It was set not too far in from the tree line, which was sometimes a nuisance, due to the many forest animals that entered my hut; tonight, it was a blessing.

  We went out of the hole in the hut and into the woods. As we went deeper in I could see all the little eyes upon me. Kanoni had taken it upon herself to help the children escape, and I guess in her eyes I counted as one of them. I never realized until then that was precisely what I was. Kanoni’s tiny size could make you forget you are looking at a grown woman. I had always looked at her as a peer and assumed that was the way she saw me. At that moment, I was very thankful that hadn’t been the case. As we all crouched in the brush afraid to make a sound, our eyes all focused on the scene in the village.

  The invaders could now be seen very clearly. They were average size men, not pygmies. There were at least fifty of them, all carrying either sword or spear; their faces painted for battle. The dead and dying were everywhere. I could hear Old Mother screaming for the men to keep fighting, telling the women to also pick up weapons and join the fight. War cries from invader and pygmy alike rang through the night. The pygmies were putting up one hell of a fight, but they were no match for the size and ferocity of the invaders.

  As we looked on, we could see the living pygmies rounded up and brought to the center of the village. They brought forth Auta and made her kneel in front of one of the invader’s. Kanoni told the children to look away, to watch for people sneaking up behind. The real reason of course was she didn’t want the children to see what was about to happen. With the Old mother in front of him on her knees, he raised his sword and said something I couldn’t hear.

  The sword came down in a blur taking off the top of Old mother’s head right below her eyes. I could hear Skull scream in horror. I looked to my left in time to see his screams cut short by a sword that split him from shoulder to navel. He fell to the ground in a small heap. I looked to Kanoni. Her eyes were filled with tears, but she made no sound. We watched in silent horror as the rest of our tribe was slaughtered, as their bodies were unceremoniously thrown onto the fire. Invaders went from hut to hut taking whatever they wanted. Food, weapons and other things they may have found useful were taken, everything else was left scattered.

  The women’s screams drowned out the men’s as all manner of atrocities were done to them. Kanoni did her best to calm the children as they heard their mothers and sisters scream for mercy then eventually beg for death. I sat with my eyes closed tightly with my hands covering my ears, trying so hard to block out the cries for help. Knowing there wasn’t anything I could do to save them was little comfort. The invaders left as the sun rose.

  After about an hour of silence, Kanoni quietly crept around the outskirts of the village looking for any sign of the invaders. When she was confident they were gone, she came back to the children and me. She told the children to stay out of sight while she and I inspected what was left of our village. I hobbled along behind her trying my best to keep
up. The strength she showed while seeing her family and friends dismembered, I will never forget.

  Thankfully, most of the bodies weren’t anything but ash and bones by then. The few that hadn’t been cast into the fire were so badly disfigured they were hardly recognizable as human at all. That place had now become a village of death, a place of nightmare. Gathering the little food we could find, we made our way back.

  We spent hours consoling the children. Everyone they had ever known had been massacred in front of them. Even though they were turned from the sight, the screams would ring in their ears for the rest of their lives. There would be no delusions of what happened, even the youngest of them knew without a doubt that the world, on this day, was a horrible place.

  The once great and lively village was now nothing but ashes. The next day, sitting by the riverbed, Kanoni came to me.

  “How is your leg feeling today?” she asked.

  “It still hurts, but its healing. How are the children?” I asked.

  Considering what they have been through, as well as could be expected.”

  From the look in her eyes, I could tell something was wrong.

  “We need to talk,” she said as she sat down next to me and took my hand.

  “The children really need me now. They don’t have anyone else they can depend on. Without their parents or Auta around, life is going to be very hard for all of us.”

  I nodded my understanding.

  “There are nine of them,” she continued. “I have thought about this all night. I can’t take care of them, and you,” Kanoni said with tears in her eyes. “I want to, I really do, but with your leg the way it is, I do not see how it is possible. I am so sorry,” she said. “I will leave you enough food to get you through for a few days, but we have to leave soon. I can’t risk those savages coming back,”

  She was crying almost uncontrollably now.

  “It’s alright,” I said. “I’ll be fine.”

  I hoped that my words sounded confident and my trembling voice didn’t let on how scared I was.

  “I really will be fine. You just need to worry about yourself and the children.”

  I think she could tell I had no faith whatsoever in what I was saying.

  “I will leave you fresh bandages, so you can keep your wound clean. Make sure you change them every day,” she sobbed.

  “Every day,” I said.

  “I am so sorry, I really am,” Kanoni continued.

  “Don’t worry about me.” I insisted.

  “We will be leaving when the sun comes up.” She said rising.

  I nodded and brushed the tears that had been brimming up from my eyes. I would love to say that we had one last beautiful day, where everything changed, and we were able to stay together. I cannot say that though. They left the next morning at sunrise, and I started out again on my own.

  Chapter 3

  I had enough food and water to last me two, maybe three days if I stretched it. That wasn’t my primary concern. I had to find shelter. It wasn’t safe to stay in the village. I had no idea where the invaders had come from or if they intended to return. My leg only made my situation worse. Even though it was healing, I had to worry about animals smelling me. The scent of blood would surely attract predators if I didn’t find shelter. I also needed a clean place to be able to change my bandages, or my leg would become infected, and rot would set in.

  I found a sturdy branch that made a suitable walking stick to take some of the weight off my bad leg and made my way downstream. The rest of my food and bandages were slung over my shoulder in a makeshift bag I had made from old clothing that we had found in the remains of the village.

  When the sun had risen to the center of the sky, I stopped to rest. I noticed the wound in my leg was seeping blood and yellow-greenish pus. I took this time to re-bandage my leg with clean ones. The leg itself was healing well. Within a few months, it would be as if nothing had ever happened, except for a jagged scar about ten inches long. Once the new bandage was on and I had something to eat, I set off again.

  I came to a small cave just before nightfall. The cave itself was damp and musty, but it was going to have to do. There was evidence that some animal had used the cave recently. There was dung in some of the corners, and small bones were scattered all over the ground. It was most likely the bones of some animals that had wandered in here, only to find out too late, that it was already inhabited. Luckily for me whatever was living here before, seemed to have vacated. Still, I kept a close watch for any sign of whatever had been here before, returning.

  The night turned cold as the air rolled off the water and into the cave. I had done my best to start a fire, but there were no dry brush or branches around. I spent hours desperately rubbing damp sticks together only to see them wear down and eventually splinter and break.

  I wondered about Kanoni and the children. A part of me hoped that they were ok, while a small part of me wished they weren’t. Even though I told her I had understood, I still felt betrayed at being left to fend for myself. It seemed I wasn’t the savior Auta had thought me to be. When the time came, I ran. I do not see anything heroic in that action.

  Sleep didn’t come easy that first night; every little sound caused me to sit up and stare out into the pitch dark, my imagination running wild.

  Thoughts of the massacre of the tribe filled my waking nightmares. The sight of Old Mother’s head being taken off, with her dead eyes staring at me. I imagined her lips moving, her voice calling out to me. Poor Skull cut almost in two, reaching for me as I lay cowering in the brush, unmoving. Their voices filled my head, asking why, why I had not tried to help them as they had helped me.

  Finally, my mind had enough and let sleep take me. This was no blessing. Throughout the night I dreamt of Kanoni. I imagined of her hair falling onto my cheek that first night. The way her eyes blazed like a flame. Then I dreamt of her touch, soft and smooth on my manhood. I missed her.

  Morning came, and I was anything but rested. I laid there thinking about my dreams from the night before. They had felt so real. They weren’t though. My reality was something entirely different. I started to wonder if the people in my village were right about me.

  Is it possible that I was cursed? Was I really the harbinger of death? Why was this happening to me? Most importantly, what would I do?

  That was when I heard a scraping sound behind me. Then I felt the breath on my neck, and my whole body stiffened. Something was in there with me. Something had snuck in while I was feeling sorry for myself. “I’ll be joining you soon Old Mother,” I thought to myself. The breathing became more rapid. I slowly reached for my hunting knife. The sunlight creeping into the cave glinted off the blade.

  I told myself if I was going to die this day, I would not die alone.

  I jumped to my feet as fast as I could, screaming at the top of my lungs. I threw my back against the wall of the cave and turned to face the beast. My eyes scoured the cave. I looked up, down then side-to-side. Nothing, had I still been dreaming? Was I that much of a coward, that I now made up imaginary beasts to fear?

  Between my legs, I felt movement. Something crawled across my feet. I ran for the entrance of the cave, with my knife bared. I could hear the footfalls of the beast. It was right on my heels. “Yip Yip”!

  A meerkat, I wasn’t only scared by but also chased out of my cave by a tiny meerkat. The meerkat walked cautiously up to me. I could see that out of the two of us, I had been more afraid of the meerkat than he had of me.

  I started laughing uncontrollably. I guess the tiny animal found this amusing too. It soon stood up on its hind legs and yipped in unison with my laughter. It seemed I had made a friend. Once my laughter had subsided, and my little friend had calmed himself too, I went back into the cave to find my small pack of food. My little guest had graciously eaten very little. Most of the food had been untouched, he seemed
to take particular interest to some of the berries and sweet bread though. The non-edible items I found scattered all around the cave.

  My morning meal consisted of berries, bread and some cooked boar meat that Kanoni had put aside for me before she left. My little friend made sure I knew the customary rules of hospitality. After I took a bite, he would stand up arms outstretched waiting. He was then content to lie at my feet as I considered my situation. I had spent a little over three months in the village with the pygmies. That time was over though. The people and the village were no more. I couldn’t return to my father’s village, of that I was sure. I was trying so hard to figure out what I was going to do. This is probably the reason why I was caught unaware.

  I remember staring off into the distance, thinking to myself. “Why? What had I ever done to deserve this? Had I not always tried to be a good son? What had I done to offend the gods in such a way, that this was the life they had mapped out for me?” I was soon to find out that the gods weren’t yet done.

  I guess it was because I was so lost in my thoughts, that I never heard them approach. They fell upon me in an instant. Four maybe five of them, to this day I am still not sure. A net was thrown over me entangling me. In a panic, I tried to free myself. Rolling left to right, back and forth. Every movement seemed to ensnare me even more. I had thought at the time that the invaders had returned. I was wrong. I was very wrong. For years, I wished it had been the invaders. It would have saved me from the years of anguish and pain I was set to endure.

  I finally stopped struggling. A very tall, very dark and muscular man pushed his face into mine. I could see death in his eyes. I remember the shock of the first blow. It came hard and fast and left me dizzy. The second took the wind from me as it crushed into my rib cage. He then brought his knee down and pressed it on my throat cutting off my air. Leaning in closer, he said something. A deep raspy voice floated through my head. I strained to understand as I felt my body going numb under his weight.