The Legend of Hombarume (Legends Series, #1)

17.

The pool was peaceful and serene, a cool breeze was blowing around, making it much more enjoyable. The soft drums are what made the night as magical as it was. The reflections of the dancers in the air blended well into the unmoving water which occasionally rippled when an insect gled across the still, refreshing mysterious wetness. The drums continued seamlessly and the dancers were motivated to go on. Laughter and murmurs came from an unknown place, from figures that couldn’t be seen, or maybe they could be seen only by trained eyes. Fireflies were the finishing touch, they seemed to be in cohorts with the dancers, they seemed to be more than alive, they were aware. They danced across the night sky along with the dancers, moving to the rhythm of the drums and circling around the dancers. It was an amazing scene.

Even after Cheneso walked in and stood in awe at the magical setting, nothing stopped, nothing changed, not for a while at least. The dancers continued to float on air and grace the night, the invisible onlookers laughed and clapped in approval, the masked drum players were on the far side of the pool, tucked away within the night, not easy to notice at first but at a second glance, the cow horns on their masks became very distinct. What was being celebrated here and where were the people laughing and clapping, Cheneso asked herself.

She walked further on, approaching the large pool, she stepped into the light of the fireflies but the dancers above seemed to not notice her, their hips swung on in perfect unison and their bodies moved from one side to the other as if their lives depended on it. Were they alive? How could they fly if they were alive? Cheneso had so many questions about what she was witnessing but before she could think about it even more, the music stopped. The dancers came to an abrupt halt and it seemed like something had changed all of a sudden, someone who had not been there before had arrived perhaps, was it an honoured guest at this strange gathering? They all looked to the side and the invisible crowd that had been clapping and chatting amongst themselves stopped completely. What was happening?

They still couldn’t see her apparently, but she could see some of them. Maybe those who were hidden from her eyes were the revered ones, the upper echelon of spirits, either way, she was not sure of what was taking place before her eyes. Everything stopped and the silence was haunting, it reminded Cheneso that she was in an unfamiliar environment, it reminded her that she had no clue how she got there, how she had been at home, then suddenly she was here, in a strange place with odd floating people with painted faces and drummers with masks adorned with cow horns, not to talk of the invisible crowd and the invisible hallowed guest.

She dared not move any closer, she dared not draw attention to herself for she was not in control here, for all she knew, it could be the realm of the gods. It could be the place where they convened and held their sacred meetings. She turned back, she had to leave at once, she had to get away from the pool at once and head back to her reality, to a place that was not foreign to her. Just as she did, she heard one distinct voice, a voice that was too familiar for her to miss. The voice that had whispered good things in her ear, assured her that everything would be alright even when it didn’t seem so, it was the voice of Simba, the love of her life.

‘Simba, is that you?’ she said, trying to turn back to face the pool.

She couldn’t turn back, it was as if she was stuck in place, she tried as hard as she could to wrench her neck to face the one person she wanted to see most but she failed miserably, it couldn’t be done, it was an impossible task.

‘SIMBA! SIMBA!’ she shouted before she was woken up by her mother, drenched in sweat on the summer afternoon.

‘Wake up, my daughter,’ she said, shaking the girl with intense vigour.

Cheneso woke up from her bad dream shaken and confused. What in the name of the gods had just happened? The sound of Simba’s sweet voice was still so vivid, so clear like it wasn’t from a dream at all. What sort of cruelty did the gods possess? How much did they loathe her for them to play with such imagery? Was it not enough for them to take the love of her life away? They had to plague her with incessant nightmares too?

Cheneso had never heard about any cases of spirits visiting people in broad daylight. She had never heard of nightmares during the day either. What was happening to her was surreal, intense and very scary. She wanted to know now more than ever what the dream meant, she also then remembered how a few days back she had seen Simba shift into a beast right before her, was that a dream too or did it really happen. Ever since she had set her eyes on that pool in the forest, strange things had been happening on top of her husband-to -be disappearing, the prince had also disappeared and her friend’s husband had been arrested for unknown reasons, could things get much worse than this, she thought.

‘What were you dreaming about, mwanangu? It seemed very intense, you were shaking and you screamed his name.’

‘Amai, the gods keep showing him to me,’ Cheneso replied.

Her mother sighed and moved to the other end of the room to get a wet piece of cloth. She dabbed her forehead slowly but carefully then she went on to her arms.

‘I know you miss him, Cheneso but it’s time to move on. He will be remembered of course, he was a great suitor but soon you shall be married and thinking about him is not going to help you at all, you know what tradition suggests.’

‘But amai-’

‘It is time, mwanangu. You have to let go.’

Cheneso knew better than to protest with her mother, she was the most hard headed woman she knew and trying to argue with her would just end up in tears. She agreed that she would try to let go and soon enough, her mother left the room, left her alone to ponder about what was happening in her dream, the mysterious gathering with invisible people and the horned drummers. What did a dream like that mean? As she was busy wrecking her brain trying to think of a plausible explanation to the dream, she felt something tickling her, possibly an ant crawling up her leg but when she reached over and took it in her hand, she was shocked to see what it was, the creature of the night, the firefly.