The Legend of Hombarume (Legends Series, #1)

29.

The seer's household was never the same after his tragic death. Like in any such strange situation, everything started to slowly fall apart right from the moment they found his cruelly dismembered body.

The fact that Ranganai left behind a family of more than twenty children made things far much worse. It was bound to get chaotic very quickly if someone didn't take charge, so Kudzai, the heir and the next seer decided to make sure everything went smoothly from there.

The younger ones who were still much more energetic and could still run fast were sent to trail the ruthless killer in an effort to bring justice for Ranganai. Everyone else who stayed behind at the compound was bickering endlessly about how Hazvinei had let her goblins into the compound to kill the seer, others were just wallowing in misery and confusion, shaken by the sudden event.

‘Settle down, there's no need to throw blame around. She just did what any of you would,’ Kudzai said.

Kudzai wanted to handle the crowd that was his family as amicably as possible for fear that a terrible fight could ensue at any moment. Nyarai, the deceased's second wife was always one to stir havoc and right now, she was at the epicenter of it, patronizing Hazvinei, alluding to the fact that she conspired to kill their husband.

‘I always knew the simple-minded one would lead us all to our demise, now look what she has done, kutora murume wedu, kudzosera kune vakuru nguva isati yakwana,’ Nyarai protested.

‘Don't be ridiculous, this was no one's fault,’ Kudzai replied.

Nyarai's sour expression defied the darkness that had clutches the compound and prevailed. What the boy had said did not sit right with he had chosen  tonight of all nights to provoke her.

She was only the second wife and perhaps the most forgotten of them all, which explained her raw bitterness towards Hazvinei who was way more tolerated, but she'd be damned if she let a boy less than half her age make an example out of her and question her sanity.

‘Watch your mouth, you might be an heir but you're not the father of this household. I won't let someone I watched erupt from the womb say such to me!’ Nyarai replied, letting her bitterness freely turn to pure hate.

Just as the young heir was about to exchange more words with the bitter second wife, noise came from far off along the compound line, it was the boys who had gone after the ‘creature’. Kudzai left the angry mob immediately and followed the other growing commotion. The ones leading the pointless quarrel were the two middle sons of Nyarai, no question who they inherited that from.

‘What happened?’ Kudzai asked.

‘We saw him- it. We saw it,’ Takunda, the eldest of the bitter woman's sons said.

‘What did you see?’

‘A very large animal. It was a man at first then it turned into an animal and fled,’ he added.

‘Are you sure of what you saw?’ Kudzai inquired.

‘I didn't see such, they're lying, mukoma,’ Vengai, Hazvinei's young son said.

‘Anonyepa uyu,’ Nyarai's sons said in unison before they all broke off into a fight.

‘Stop it, we have no time for this. In case it hasn't really settled in your heads, our father is dead. What's done is done, we must focus on a way forward,’ Kudzai said.

He didn't even bother to break off the fight, his mind was elsewhere, the duties that would soon be bestowed on him, to be exact. He had no desire to be anything remotely similar to his father, fathering hoards of children, marrying lots of wives and being a corrupt man. He wanted his life to just flow like river water because he believed that being good was easy.

Despite growing up in a household of more than twenty children where fatherly attention and mentoring was scarce (not that Ranganai would be a good mentor anyway), Kudzai had always believed that it was easy for him to become a better man than his lying, cheating father. He didn't want to be put in a leadership position, for he feared that power would absorb him and take over. He wanted to lead a nice quiet life, father two children, build a strong household and pursue the life of a trader.

All was good until he heard about the role of the seer which was generational. Because of the little time he spent with his father, the man only told him at a later age about what he was to become. Kudzai was devastated for a while, but his mother quelled his anger and frustration and soon enough, it became less and less until it diminished completely.

After a while, he came to terms with his fate and as his father grew older and older it became more apparent that his time was coming, he didn't, however, expect that his father would be snatches so abruptly without even a farewell. It was time for him to step up and prove to himself that indeed it was easy to be good, that his father was too lazy to be good. First he had to put everyone in their place and make sure no one took any terrible irreversible actions. If only it would be as easy as he had anticipated.

***

Batanai was still overwhelmed. The sudden disappearance of a man who he had worked with for six years and came to call friend shattered him. He wasn't sure of the next step, obviously Hamandishe who had been with them for far less time would expect him to tell him what they'd do next.

They looked for him everywhere, searched every crevice and every bush but Anesu was nowhere to be found. Whatever took him did very good in concealing all evidence and leaving no trace at all. Sooner or later, they'd have to head back to Makura and alert his parents who would be nothing less than furious. Anesu came from a very wealthy household, his parents owned land and livestock across Makura village, which was the largest of the four. He needed not work a single day in his life.

Anesu, obviously a rebel, had gone against his parents and insisted on forging his own path instead of staying home and finding a wife for himself like his parents had suggested. Now that he was missing, Batanai would not hear the end of it, infact he dreaded breaking the news so much that he was considering letting Hamandishe do it instead.

The issue was way more complex than them just breaking the news. Last the Tiger family had heard of their son, he was headed to Rujeko village to see the Chief. They knew nothing about the plantations, though.

They'd surely want to visit Chief Banga and ask questions and soon enough, they'd learn about his own missing soon, another missing son of the village and worse still, the beast that was wreaking havoc, that would definitely send them into an uncontrollable panic.

It was the day after the village seer had been found dead, Batanai was sitting outside, pondering and wondering whether or not they had overstayed their welcome at the kind farmer's homestead. He needed a plan, one that didn't involve Anesu's parents becoming incredibly heartbroken. As he sat there wrecking his brain, he saw Hamandishe approaching, looking equally confused and exhausted.

‘What bothers you today, friend?’ he asked.

Glossary.
Kutora murume wedu, kudzosera kune vakuru nguva isati yakwana – Sending our husband back to his maker before his time.
Mukoma – Brother.
Anonyepa uyu – He's lying.