"So, you are going to block our path too? " Ochieng' asked the person who seemed to be the leader cavalierly.
The leader did not even bother answering. He did not take Ochieng' seriously. With an "attack!" from him, the roughly thirty people charged at Ochieng' fiercely. Ochieng' tightly clutched his sword and donned a serious face waiting for these ignorant sheep.
"Hu!"
When they were near him, he forcefully jumped and the next scene was eye-catching. Ochieng' just swung his sword at a high speed around him. The moment he was a few inches from each warrior, the warrior's head separated from his body and where the head left formed a fountain of blood before the stiff fell on the ground. Only a second passed and all the headless bodies were lying neatly on the ground.
The two Lang warriors from before were horrified to their cores. They had been into several fields of honor but had never seen such a freak. They only prayed that he changed his mind. Apeleka who was worried before opened her mouth in shock. She had never seen Ochieng' in battle. The worst she had seen was when Ochieng' used his power to frighten his clansmen when they arrived at his clan the previous day.
"Let us go Apeleka." He waved to her seriously.
They then disappeared from the sight of the two warriors. These two warriors heaved heavy sighs of relief.
"That was close!" One of the warriors said puffing heavily.
Ochieng' and Apeleka after entering the Lang tribe, they blended so well that nobody could know they were just from a different place. Before they left the forbidden land, with the help of Mudho, they obtained ordinary skins to wear. They could draw too much attention if they were clad in the scarlet furred beast's skin.
The clan where Apeleka came from wasn't far from the entrance they used. It didn't take them long to arrive there.
In Lang tribe, a clan did not occupy as large piece of land as the Lu tribe. Even though a clan in both was born by a singular person, the Lu tribe considered having many children and wives as a sign of wealth and therefore their birth rate was slightly higher. The fact that a son in Lu tribe after reaching some age had to move to his own home far from his father's also led to the clan's spreading to far and wide. Therefore, even if a clan in Lu tribe did not necessarily consist of many people, the way they spread made them occupy large areas of land.
In Lang tribe, livestock was what mattered most, especially cattle. The higher the number of cattle one had the richer he was. Clans were agglomerative here. The members of a clan lived together within a circular fenced area. The fence was made up of mud, stones and dung. Inside the fence, the head of the clan stayed in the largest building at the center of the buildings that were build along the fence. All these buildings surrounded a spread where the livestock owned by everyone within the clan spent their nights, the spread was also fenced using pieces wood. Of course at day time young men took them for grazing.
When the clan was full and no building could be build within the fence anymore, middle aged men of the same age groups would get out of the clan to start their own. The clan was headed by the eldest male person and when he was too old to reign, he would pass the stool to the next generation after his. He was more or less a family head when compared to the Lu tribe. These clans were close and a group of five clans made up a larger clan which was headed by chief.
The chiefs were assisted by the five family heads to run the large clan. These large clans were almost the size of one Lu tribe clan though they were still smaller. The Lang tribe had no divisions so the chiefs were directly answerable to the tribe head. The tribe consisted of several large clans. The tribe head and the chiefs in Lang tribe were on the same standing as the Lu tribe head and chiefs respectively.
Even though small clans were heavily fenced, the boundaries between the Lang tribe and other tribes were heavily guarded. This was because it was ill-famed for cattle marauding. Due to this, other tribes attacked it several times to get back their animals.
Ochieng' and Apeleka managed to cross the boundary but were able to get into Apeleka's clan without landing in any cataclysm, because many Lang people walked from one clan to another within their large clan. Others also left the large clan to go walk around. They therefore formed a portmanteau with the people of Apeleka's clan. They were however very careful as Apeleka could be recognized by some people.
In a small 'manyatta'¹ near the family head's building inside the Amonka clan, there was a woman busy singing while cooking. She was too busy to even notice the presence of some guests in front of her 'manyatta'. The Lang's people abodes were 'manyattas' and not huts.
"Morning." A sweet female voice then sounded and the woman was jolted to reality.
She looked outside only to see two graceful figures grinning broadly at her door. She was very familiar with the female figure and was first stunned before she jumped from her stool to welcome them in. Even though she didn't know the other male person, she hugged both of them passionately teardrops of joy trickling down her dark shiny cheeks.
"Sit down my children and have some milk." After giving them a warm embrace, she asked them.
The two, Ochieng' and Apeleka sat respectfully on the stools near fire.
"Apeleka, I didn't know you would come back, I almost became a felo-de-se because I couldn't imagine being in this clan with you dead somewhere." The woman said sadly.
"It was all thanks to him." Apeleka pointed at Ochieng'.
"Thank you very much my son. How do I call you?" The woman or Apeleka's mother asked Ochieng' with a wide smile.
"I am Ochieng', mother."
"So you are Ochieng', you are from the Lu tribe?"
"Yes mother."
"How come you know our language?"
"It is a long story mother."
Upon seeing his disinclination, the woman chose not to fuss about the matter either. Out of large gourd she poured to them milk in smaller gourds. While drinking, they chatted and laughed like they were from the same age groups. The mother was in bliss talking to her daughter and her savior.
After God knows how long, the atmosphere in the 'manyatta' became serious because Ochieng' asked, "Mother, what really happened especially to you after Apeleka was taken away?"
1: It's a type of building made using cow dung and soil. Most African Nilotic speakers like the Maasai in Kenya used it as their dwelling places.