The Legend of Hombarume (Legends Series, #1)

70.

The night was fast approaching and Tamuka's search party was deep within the forest, still trying to catch up with the two fugitives, but by this time, they had gained too much ground on them and Hombarume being a smart hunter had left too many trails behind that they did not know which way exactly they had taken.

His first thought was heading straight to the nearest village of Makura, but he decided against it. It was too obvious and Hombarume knew the forest like the palm of his hand, therefore he knew where to hide and where to go. It seemed only moments ago that he had encountered him and Dererai at his tavern and they had tried to make a fool out of him, now he was the fool, going around murdering villagers and running away.

People of the village had always bought into his character so much that they failed to see the signs that something was horribly wrong with him. They were too impressed by his so called talents to see the true nature of a ruthless killer. He had always despised him and now he finally had a really good reason to kill him when he next set his eyes on him.

Tamuka still did not understand why Revai decided to side with the enemy after everything that the Chief had done for him, had given him since he was young. The gracious man had brought him out of poverty and made him a respected man, only for him to throw it all away for someone who would never do the same for him.

Unlike Revai, Tamuka did not have someone wealthy like the Chief take liking to him and save him from a terrible predicament. He had known Revai since they were only infants, because their fathers drank themselves to destitution together. Unlike Revai, he had to continue to suffer until he was old enough to fend for himself. He lived from hand to mouth for many years, having to grow vegetables on the tiniest patch of land he could scavenge so that he would not die from hunger, while his father used every cowrie he could find to promote his bad habits.

Sometimes it became so unbearable that he had to beg the men and women of Rujeko on the path and at the market for whatever scraps they could gather up so that he could go on. He even tried to hunt so that he could fend for himself, but the forests were swarming with predators, they only welcomed those who had come to master them and he found that he was not one of those people. As he started to grow up, with shoulders broadening and height being on his side, it became less difficult for him to find scrap work at the tavern where his father frequented.

His father drank himself to death before he had even fully come of age and after he died, Tamuka was now attending those who came to the tavern to get their gourds filled daily. He despised beer and what it had done to his father, but it seemed to be the only thing keeping him from dying of hunger. Although he worked at the tavern, he had never taken a single sip of the beer himself because he feared falling into the vicious cycle that his father had. Even when those who came to get their thirst quenched offered him some, he would politely decline.

Tamuka had finally won the favor of the old man who owned the tavern and he gave him more and more responsibility as time passed. Just as the seasons moved and harvests came and went, he could not take care of the tavern as he was aging, thus he gave it all up to Tamuka whom he trusted wholeheartedly. After Revai was taken under the Chief's wing, he rarely left the palace and they did not see each other much.

It was only later that the palace started needing more younger stronger men for searches and other missions in and out of the village that they rekindled their friendship again and it became stronger than ever. They worked together; they fought together until now that Revai had betrayed the village by aiding a killer. Tamuka wanted to know why he had done it, perhaps he would spare him and kill the murderer, but he would punish him for what he had done although he was his friend.

'We found fresh tracks in the direction of the mountains,' one of the men said to him.

'More tracks are not what we need. We have to think about where they would go and what they will do.'

'But we are losing the light,' he said.

'If we lose the light, we spend the night in these forests, we cannot return without exhausting all the available options. These traitors must be apprehended at all cost,' Tamuka said.