"You elusive creature." He said
"Today I've found you.
You'll curse your own mother.
You'll wish death comes to you quick.
Yours will be a narrative only told in children's stories.
With a mystery filled disappearance.
I'll pull that mask off your face even if I'll need a hot iron rod.
Heck, I'll curve your face out of the mask."
He had covered my face with a pitch dark damp cloth, it felt like we were in a bunker dug at least 12 feet below the surface.
In a cold room, me at the center of the room bound on a cold steal chair. I have never felt this much pain, I could not feel myself breath, so tired, I have never felt this helpless. That time when a warrior prays for help, a miracle but none comes. The chair was kicked from behind, sent me falling forward head first. He pulled off the blindfold, a massive man stood over me, a tall dark massive man. His size confirmed my fear.
"Fumo, why are you doing this?"
He did not say a word, he picked an axe lying on the floor, aimed and took a swing towards my head. Before the axe got to my face I made out a cry...
I sat right up, in a sunlight filled room, three men in the room who looked straight at me.
I touched my face. It was not there. It had happened. I jumped off the infirmary bed and went straight to the men in the room.
"Where is it?"
"Come down sir, you are really hurt, you need to rest." Said the youngest man in the room.
I turned towards him," where is it?"
"Sir please at least, sit down."
"Don't make me ask again."
"Where is what?"
"I am going to hurt you so bad."
"No, c'mon, you want to beat up the person who resuscitated you?
Hi. I'm am Mukhongo. Welcome to Irenji.
We met formerly." Said a middle-aged man fine in physic, a white finely hit leather sawn into a short, with a colombus monkey skin for a vest.
"Hello."
He turned towards the oldest guy in the room and said something.
"Kuja tembea na mimi."(Come take a walk with me.)
He said beckoning me towards the door.
I followed him out. The sight was breath taking. Slopes and hills densely covered with canopies. The compound hosting at least 14 houses well tamed, no single leaf on the stead.
"How much do you remember?"
"Yesterday or my entire life?"
"Yesterday."
"My entire life."
"What?"
We both smiled.
"You mean when he cut into my face with his axe?"
"What?
You had a small metal object that had pierced your chest.
Not an axe wound."
"Then, if Fumo does not have my mask, who has it?"
"Do you remember we met?"
"WHO HAS MY MASK!?"
"I do."
The moment he said that I attacked, claw fist towards his neck, he blocked. I sent my infamous right punch, the punch that shook the order of the Fox. It did not find him at the other end. He connected hard on my lower jaw. I jumped back, stood, then made my Simba hacker. He smiled, took a step back, and the cat introduced himself, the leopard chosen third to the mask, the mask of the luhya people, protector of the people and commissioner of oaths for of his people. He took off his mask and welcomed me to the tropical forest.
"Ingwe.
I found you.
The mask accepts, the other, rule 450.
I found you. I now remember.
Can I have it back?"
"You know the rule, when a mask holds on to the other." He said.
"Can I see it?"
"You'll get it."
A small dog started barking, hard and violent, barking continuous. He ran towards us, barking, he faced the Ingwe and continued barking.
"Who?" The Ingwe asked, the dog.
"Let's go." As soon as he said that, the dog took off towards one of the houses, we followed.
"One of my dogs is missing.
That's not good, I need to find him." He said
We entered into the house that had been partitioned into five big parts. Each partition, stood a huge dog, different species, but same size and all black. Quiet dogs.One of the partitions was empty.
The Ingwe blew a whistle then called "Rex."
Moments later a grey, much smaller but heavy dog came ranning into the house. He led it to the empty partition, it smelt around the area and took off.
We walked out of the house towards the central house, it was bigger and more spacious. It was his house. At the sitting room sat the three men I met earlier. The younger man from earlier came straight to me, he raised the skin covering my upper body and looked into my chest.
"You healed!?
Who are you?"
I looked him in the eyes and smiled. The Ingwe offered a chair. The men in the room laughed heartily to something said by the quiet guy.
"You said you had a massage?"
This guy's questions were annoying, he seemed to always put me on the spot, when I'm trying to maintain a cool quiet nature, he asks how I felt after losing a fight for the first time, and before his team. But he would rather know.
"They are here."
"Second time I'm hearing that."
"They are, the pale people.
They finally came with force.
Being for them does not matter, if you are different you are done away with."
"I have seen the pale people, my people have interacted with them, they tell stories of a man with his family who leave in a place called heaven. A humble and polite people."
"Those you speak of are called Missionaries. This is a new race that look like the missionaries.
This one's are more cruel take whatever they want, destroy what they don't need and kill who ever is in there way, a brutal race."
"How many are they in ranks."
"Half the size of the Zulu, under Shaka.
They don't carry the axe and spear like your people do.
They have flying machines, and devices that can kill 20 at a go. We refused there entry and construction of the metal road. Now they call us the man eaters of the Tsavo.
The Elian considers himself more man than we of the land...
Did you hear that?"
"What?"The younger man asked.
I looked at the Ingwe, he had heard him, he was waiting for it.
"He found him, emergency call." Said the Ingwe. Still sitted, he called "poxy, poxy"
The small dog from earlier on came running into the house,
"Call the boys," Ingwe told him. The dog ran out. The Ingwe walked out, I followed him. At the front porch stood the four dogs facing the same direction the Ingwe was facing. I went and stood beside him.
"Let me echo locate." He said.
Yeah, I have to see this, the distance the dog is, he would need to be really loud. So how loud can he get?
He made a quiet groan, the dogs behind us barked a continuous pitch barks, taking turns to to break. Moments later the recovery dog responded, I heard him. Ingenious, the Ingwe followed the wave of the dogs pitch barks, feeling everything the sound touched, when the other dog responded, he felt the exact moment both barks met, then followed the recovery dog's to it's precise spot. I followed the next wave of barks, I could feel the wave touch an insect on the ground to an eagle circling in the sky, feeling it glide up and over the canopies of the dense tropical rain forest, when the two barks met I had a bumpy feeling, like stepping in a hole while running only that this leaves you suspended in the air. I followed the recovery dog's bark.
"You've found them?"
"Yes."
"You ready."
"I am."
"Lets go.
Basatsa khutsi."
We took off, at top speed, through the forest.
The dogs kept pace exceptionally well. We got to the spot, the scene of the crime. The Ingwe ran and held the injured dog's head on his lap and started speaking luhya language to the dog. Stroking his neck far...He knew he was too late.Around the scene were slim small dogs with fluffy tails dead in numbers the four dogs went to the still surviving maimed dogs breaking there necks one after the other except for one, the Ingwe continued lamenting, 'pole' (sorry), being the only word I could make head of. The dog had had several bites from the pack, with its rear legs completely cut off from the waist. That was a clear machete wound, with the wild emaciated dogs was a man, a human intervention that sealed the fate of the dog, though it was still breathing distantly. It was still in shock, but not dead.