"What did you just say Mayual?" Queen Yar demanded.
"You heard me Yar." Replied Mayual(the twin)
"Mayual, so you have grown wings to talk back to your mother and call her by her names?" Chief Wong-heer asked angrily.
Mayual didn't say a word, he smiled and turned to go to his hut when his father's words stopped him.
"Juat remember that majook ace dit bi raan com e wuor nhom (pumpkin cannot grow taller than the planter.)" Chief Wong-heer told his son.
Mayaul burst out laughing as if what his father said was funny.
"Until then father, you will know if you are the Majook(pumpkin) or the planter." Mayual said and headed for his hut.
"Are you sure these children are my blood Yar?" Chief Wong-heer asked, turning slightly to face his wife who had been rendered speechless by what her son had said.
"What do you mean Your Highness?" She humbles herself.
"What do I mean? No blood of mine behaves like this."
"So you are saying that their bad behaviors comes from me? Wong-heer you are not serious."
"I am not saying that they inherited this strange behavior from you, but talk to your children. If not that Mayaul(spirit) was on my side, I would have been dead by now. I Chief Wong-heer would have gone to the land beyond imaginations since, so talk to your children." Wong-heer said and entered his hut angrily.
"What have I gotten myself into? My mother has killed me." Queen Yar said to herself slowly.
Early the next morning….
Yar had left for her village secretly, without the knowledge of her husband or even the guards, to tell her mother about her twins' sudden behaviours.
YIROL VILLAGE...
"Yar, what is it? Why this sour look on your face? Did anything bad happen in the palace?" Amou asked. When she saw her daughter, she was surprised to see her in normal attires and not even wearing her crown beads, she was wearing normal clothes from the British old store.
"My beautiful daughter, talk to me. What is the problem? Our elders say a problem shared is a problem solved so what is bothering you?" Amou asked but her daughter didn't say a word, rather she was staring at the sky.
"Mama, there is fire on the mountain." Queen Yar finally answered, staring at her mother.
"Fire on the mountain? How do you mean Yar?" Amou asked. "Mama, this fire I am talking about is not just fire on the mountain but fire that is coming to burn us and this house."
"Tell me what is wrong and stop beating around the bush Yar." Amou said, touching her chest and staring at her daughter with wide eyes.
"Mama, it's about my children" She burst out.
"What happened to them? What happened to my grandchildren?" Amou yelled out.
"They are now acting strange mama, I thought the person we went to see years back said that they are gifted children but with what I am seeing, I am getting scared."
"What do you mean? Have their mighty gifts manifested already, is that why you are scared?" Amou asked.
"Mama, yesterday Nyanachiek came to meet me and my husband and demanded that he build her a shrine."
"A Shrine? For what?"
"For every village including Yirol to come and worship her."
"ca luel di (you say what?)"
"Mama,that is not even the main bone of contention, the real bone that is hanging in my neck is that she said every full moon a new born child must be sacrificed to her."
"You mean Nyanachiek said all these things?" Amou asked.
"Yes mama, she said we shouldn't call her that, that her name is now Nyawiir, as if that was not enough, she and her brother left the palace and returned with some strange maidens." Queen Yar finished explaining. "Mama, I don't know what to do because Mayual we should get ready for his own request. I am afraid of what his own request might be."
"Nhialic ohhhh!" Amou exclaimed with shock.
"Mama, you have finished me."
Palace of Rumbek village:
Chief Wong-heer was seen with his elders seated and discussing amongst themselves.
"That was what happened, my elders. I have wondered all night if those are my children. After waiting for so many years for a child, I was given two instead of one. I was happy, so happy at their naming ceremony, if only had I seen the future>" Chief Wong-heer said shaking his head sadly.
"So what do you suggest we do?" Elder Majok asked. "I have sent for the Great Riaklai this morning. He should be here any moment from now." Chief Wong-heer said.
He didn't get to complete his words when the Great Riaklai appeared in their midst. "Riaklai the Great one, the one who sees what the mere mortals can't, welcome." Wong-heer welocmes Riaklai.
"Benydie (my leader), I greet you" Riaklai said. "You shall live long."
"Yin cuk lec (we thank you)" The elders and Chief Wong-heer said in unison.
"Riaklai, my children…."
Interrupting Chief Wong-heer gently. "You don't have to say anything Your Highness, the gods have told me everything." Riaklai said. "Your children are not mortals. They are also people."
"Old people?" Majak asked. "Mouthpiece of the gods, can you please elaborate more on what you have just said?" He added.
"When I say old people, I am talking about the river od and the goddess of river." Riaklai responded. "Ask your wife wh-"
He paused when he saw Nyawiir (Nyanachiek the twin) and Mayual entering the throne room. "Speak any further and you shall be the first person to be sacrificed, Riaklai." Mayual said. "Chief, I will take my leave." Riaklai said to the bewilderment of the elders and Chief. Without waiting for them to say a word, he was gone.
"Wong-heer." Nyawiir called out the name of her father in the presence of the shocked elders. "My shrine, I will not remind you again before I take my next action." "Yu have heard her Baba." Mayual said with a cunning smile. "Te chi nyiiy ran piu, ka chi nhic piu aye lang yuom. (if one does not chew water, he does not know water has bones)"
The elders were shocked and speechless as Mayual and his sister left the throne room. "Cak ting en ken ya lek we(Did you see what I was telling you?) This is what I have been trying to tell you and thanks to the gods it happened right here in front of you all." Chief Wong-heer told his elders. "Chief, we saw it with our own naked eyes. How can little children be asking for the impossible things? A shrine in this palace? Are you sure they are with their right senses?" Elder Majok asked in shock. "Let us not forget what Riaklai told us before he disappeared. He said the children are from the river, a river god and goddess." Majak said. "And also he was trying to say you should ask your wife before he got interrupted by your children. So we don't know if he was going to say that you should ask your wife how she got your children." Majok adds.
"You are right." Chief Wong-heer said in total agreement. "Mathiang! Mathiang! He yelled out his guard's name who came in rushing. He greetd his elders and the Chief before going down on his knees. "Yes your Highness." "Go and call the Queen. Tell her she should come here immediately." Chief Wong-heer said to Mathiang who bowed his head, stood up to his feet and left the throne room heading towards the Queen's hut. He soon returned without the Queen. "Your Highness, she is not around. Her hut is empty." Mathiang said. "Empty you say? Where could she have gone?" Chief Wong-heer sighs. "I don't know Chief, I haven't seen her this morning." Mathiang responded.
"I though you and Malith are guarding the palace all throughout the night. How can y wife pass both of you or did she change into a fly?" Chief Wong-heer questioned.
"Your Highness, I and Malith slept a little bit this morning so I think it must be that time the Queen sneaked out of the palace." Mathiang said. "We are sorry Your Highness." He apologized afterwards. "It is oka, you can go back to your posts but don't let this repeat itself again. If you are feeling sleepy or tired, call any of the guards to take your position while you rest, okay?"
"Thank you Your Highness." Mathiang thanked him and left the throne room.
"So where could the Queen be?" Majak asked.
"I don't know but all I know is that whenever she comes back, she will answer my question." Chief Wong-heer replied.
YIROL VILLAGE.....
"Mama, you have finished me." Queen Yar repeated again.
"Please don't say those words again. I was on my own when you came to meet to a solution to your barrenness and I told you I know someone who could help you out, did I force you to follow me? so don't say I finished you" Amou warned her daughter.
"Mama you could have told me not that you don't have a solution so that I should wait on Mayual to remember, but immediately I told you my problem, you said you had a solution" Queen Yar said standing up to leave.
"We should not quarrel over this Yar, let's go back to meet Ahang and tell him what is going on" Amou suggested.
"Me, should follow you back to that dreaded place again? Over my dead body." Queen Yar said. "Look mama, if your granddaughter requested for an adult sacrifice, I won't hesitate to tell her to use you okay, mark my words." She added, hissed and left her mother.
Amou was surprised by the sudden change of attitude of her daughter.
"But what did I say wrong now? Since it was Ahang that gave her the twins, she shoulg go back to Ahang and tell him the twin's behavior. I see no wrong in what I just said now." Amou spoke to herself as she starred at the retreating back of her daughter. "The gods of Yirol knows that I have tried my best." She added.
RUMBEK VILLAGE.
All the elders were gone before Queen Yar returned. She could see her husband on his throne chair, before she could dodge him, he had already sighted her and called out her names. "Yar, there is no need to dodge me, come here."
Queen Yar went to meet her husband.
"Good morning my husband." She greeted him.
"Where did you go this early morning Yar?" Chief Wong-heer demanded ignoring her greetings.
"I went to my mother's village to seE her." Queen Yar answered truthfully.
"For what?" He demanded.
"Regarding what happened yesterday." Yar responded.
"And how does it concern your mother Yar? So I should go and tell my mother who is with her mother in Cueichok village, that her grandchildren behaved strangely yesterday?"
"No my husband, I, I, i….
Interrupted her abruptly. "Riaklai was here this morning and he said something interesting. He said I should ask you a question that you alone have the answer to."
"What question my husband?"
"The twins, where did you get them from? Are they truly my children?..... or you slept with someone else and pin the pregnancy on me?" Chief Wong-heer asked.