The Legend of Hombarume (Legends Series, #1)

45.

Revai took a swill of the thick liquid in his gourd and recalled the Chief lying about how the village was ruled by honesty and fairness earlier on during his speech while he already stroke a deal with the devil in exchange for the life of his only son. He was slowly losing the few strands of hope that he had in the Chief and what he stood for

The crowd was like gnats in his ears, constantly shouting and bickering when all he desired was a moment to think about what was going to happen since Hombarume refused to heed his warning about fighting in the contest today. There was nothing more he could do but watch as it all unfolded in front of him.

To him it was the same thing every summer, a hoard of amateur fighters would come and waste people's time when the real talent was all people wanted to see. People of the village wanted to see the great fighters like Dererai and Tongai tackle each other, prove who was better than the other, prove who had better strategy than the other.

It was a joy for him to see people who were equally good at something go against each other because it tested them mentally. It tested how they could leverage their expertise further, stretch themselves to their fullest extent to try and come out above. Such fights showed true talent, they invoked something in the fighters that didn't come out very easily. He never paid attention to the initial fights, the first few rounds of doubles because it was all the same every single summer.

Instead, he drank from his gourd and pondered about the major problems in the village that the Chief was evidently ignoring. The balance within the village needed to be restored soon, before the gods decided to unleash hell on it.

At least the villagers were enjoying the competition, it was a clever distraction from the matters at hand that really needed people to come together and provide solutions. For example, the healer was dead and gone, with no known replacement so far, no plans to find a successor. The son was still young and recently on trial for the murder of his father, the healer himself, it was all so complicated but it seemed like the Chief hadn't been troubling himself with such thoughts.

He heard people shouting Hombarume's name and it pulled him from the depths of the ruins that were his mind. The crowd was much more cheerful than it was prior to hiS name being called out from the center of the ring. Of course from where Revai was standing, he could not see anything, but he had to, he had to witness all of Hombarume's fights so that he could watch for signs and symptoms of something gruesome about to happen.

He had to stop whatever had been planned to thwart Hombarume's success. He never thought that he would ever have such thoughts, especially when this was the same man who was caught up in a strange situation with Pomerai, the prince.

As quick as he could, he pared the crowd, pushing through it to find a better spot to watch the fight from. The people were adamant and arrogant, they wouldn't let him go through, for today, it did not matter who he was. He then remembered that he could go back to the Chief, he was the only one who would care who he was. He hurried back through the crowd of enthusiastic villagers and in no time he was beside the Chief's throne.

The man was a great fighter, no doubt. He was patient and thorough with his attacks. He kept the audience entertained and didn't show his full power in this round. The opponent was nowhere near as smart as Hombarume, his attacks were clumsy and weak, he missed more often than he was successful and as a result, in no time he was beaten beyond recovery.

Revai looked for anything out of the ordinary, anything that would point to the greater plot that the Chief and whoever was aiding him had for the man. He found nothing suspicious and he looked at the Chief, who had an anxious look on his face. He was not aware of what was supposed to occur either.

Revai returned to where he had been before and came back to the Chief's side when Hombarume was fighting once more. This time, he was paired up with Tongai, who was an equally great fighter, maybe even better. They obvious won against their opponents, a pairing like that only meant triumph, especially when they were pairing their abilities to fight the opponents, since in this round, they were a real team, they would only be pronounced winners if both of the opponents were down.

Nothing happened still, they fought and won and the competition moved on as planned. The Chief was clearly as restless as he was, curiosity was eating him up and spitting him out.

When he went back to the crowd that was more interested in the beer than they were in who fought who, he had a lot of questions. He wanted to know what would happen to Hombarume now more than ever. He was on his sixth refill of beer and he was starting to feel intoxicated. The crowd was slowly melting into a blur around him, swallowing him like a hideous beast, chewing him up and spitting him out.

'Do you believe in the supernatural nhai jaya?'

Revai's heart almost leapt out through his throat when he heard the creaky voice emerging suddenly from beside him. An old man was standing there, with his knobkerrie in his right hand and a pouch of bute in his left hand. His beady eyes were gleaming as if he was about to shed a few tears.

He reminded him of his father, eyes always watery when he was sober. The question caught him off guard but he immediately thought back to all the events that had occurred, dating back to the disappearance of Pomerai. He thought of an encounter that was still very fresh in his mind, he could still hear the eerie voices in his ears, telling the Chief to set up Hombarume.

'Hongu sekuru,' he replied, after careful consideration.

The beady-eyed man stared deep at him and smiled dearly.

'Thank the gods that you do, mwanangu.'

Revai was trying to grasp what the old man was saying, to concentrate on what he was uttering, but the beer was grasping him instead. He wanted to solve the mystery behind this statement, but between the sound of the crowd intensifying in his ears, to the visual mess in front of him, to the cryptic words from the old man, he could not spare a moment to think.

'Munorevei nhai sekuru-'

The shock he received upon looking to his side weaned him of the beer, back to his senses, back to soberness. The old man was gone, without a trace. How quick would he have maneuvered the crowd when he needed a cane to walk?

He was nowhere in sight and all Revai could think about was how he needed an answer for the burning questions that he had. Why did he ask about the supernatural and what did he mean by 'thank the gods'?

The competitions moved forward and little by little, the number of people fighting dwindled as they lost and got disqualified. The crowd was buzzing even louder now that the odds of winning were slimmer and the talent was richer. Every feeling was heightened and all he could think about was Hombarume, the mysterious hunter who was doomed to fail today.

Glossary.

Jaya - Young man

Munorevei - What do you mean?

Sekuru - Grandfather (in this case a term of endearment towards an unknown old man)

Bute - Snuff

Mwanangu - My child