*****†****†****†***†*******
"oh ye children of Npunga, so long have you been in the dark, so long have you drink your brethren blood, so long have you eaten each other's flesh, and now your darkness seems like light to you, your left hand has become right…. However, your nobility can't be stale forever. Before you today is a man who have plot against his own people, before you today is a deluded man who thought he could rule Cygon through the oppression of the five kingdoms. Greedy are the ways of the lost one who made a prince kill his king, his blood father; greedy are the ways of the envious one who want to corrupt the lands…."
the four sages have spoken, Ghandaa kneeling in before them in the middle. Dreeda and the priestess with the help of Npunga warriors have carried the lifeless body of Jhanka to the groove of the priestess where she set off to work on the patient. She grinds mixed fresh herbs in a calabash, and poured from a gourd vine a blackish concoction into the blend and mix it together thoroughly till it foams.
With the help of Dreeda she forced some of it down Jhankas throat. Next she drunk from the vine gourd, and use the concoction to rinse her mouth till it foams. The spit it out onto around the wound, after which she applied the mashed herbs carefully around the injury where the spear was still buried firmly.
She can't remove it now; the man will die instantly from loss of blood. It will take days or weeks for the spear to lose its grip and start sagging, quite easy to remove.
Dreeda focused her mind on the mantras and chanting of the priestess as she worked on Jhanka, and she felt her nerves begin to relax; perhaps, it's the sweet scented dried burning herbs doing the magic on her senses, she couldn't tell which.
After stabilizing Jhanka, the priestess walks back to the square leaving Dreeda behind to take charge of the patient. "where is louga?" she asked glaring at Ghandaa with red puffy eyes…. "many a web did you weave, so match corruption have you spread, tell me now where louga is? Is he dead; have you killed him? tell me now before I slit your throat." She said drawing out a sharp dagger from the side pocket of her long black gown. "I don't know.
The priestess read the man for a while; she could tell he is telling the truth…. She signals some off Ghandaa own men to shackled their wayward leader and bring him to one of her many caves…. And the sages follow suite. When they reached the cave, the soldiers retreated while the four sages and the priestess proceeded with the prison down a dark tunnel with many convoluted turns, ten or more. Ghandaa couldn't tell, terror ravage his heart, and his breath loses its normal rhythm.
what are they doing to him? Its seem like his feet was commanded to keep walking although his mind scream to stopped and run back out of this place…. Finally, they arrived at an opening, where they have to stoop low to enter.
They stepped back and push Ghandaa inside, after which they slide the big boulder by the side of the entrance to seal the entrance completely. Technically they have buried the man alive; a fair price to pay for all his diabolic ways.
....
"they are coming! The lost tribes of Cygon are coming, to take over the rule of Cygon…. They despise the white one, they are chiseling through the great wall, they are hacking it away piece by piece…" Jhanka was mammering in his sleep on the fourth day.
The spear has been removed, and the man is now fighting his worse fears in his feverish delirium.
Fighting the lingering death at every turn, sweating profusely. He coughed out blood every now and then.
There are nights Dreeda didn't sleep at all; for the fear of losing the man to one of his feverish escapades.
nights she did lay on top of him, battling and struggling with him to keep him still, all the while chanting the soothing mantras she did learn from the priestess to lure him into a slumber.
Dreeda dipped the wet soft cotton cloth in the herbs soaked in lukewarm water, removed and squeeze it gently enough to soak the sensitive skin of the unconscious man when used to wipe him. naturally she felt optimistic about the recovery of Jhanka, and being there for him meant so much to her, the man seems like an extension of her now, she needs him alive.
Experientially, Dreedas life in the vine grove felt rich and intense, she felt like a simply thriving organism, a part of an ecosystem… she had learnt so much in a short span of time in this place than she had learnt in a life span.
Learning the art of using herbs to restore life, how to communicate and interact with the life force; potent in the herb, submitting the lower energies to the higher ones to take charge, to ignite the life force purposefully. And kaya, the chief priestess infuses into her this knowledge without any verbal instruction.
The herbs have their own subtle language, and the very shape of an herb, its pigment, whether it's a male or female, its smell and taste, its family, class and breed, its root, brunch, leaves and flowers up to the seed, all have a special role and level of potency. A harmless herb used in a wrong way can turned deadly, if wrongly mixed, it could turn poisonous. And some of the herbs are so shy the want you to cajole and croon them when plugging and they despise hastiness; at least a majority. some have special people they resonate with, like a woman; is she pregnant or a virgin? Is she menstruating. A child or man, and the list goes on.
Quite fascinating even was the obvious recovery of Jhanka by the use of herbs that were already grown in the vine grove, Dreeda watch as the priestess extract the gel from aloe vera, which she mixed with another grinded leave (akorkor te), before applying it to the wound on Jhankas chest. The woman was not only healing Jhanka, but Dreeda as well, physically and mentally. Dreeda found her emaciated body start to blossom and glow, bringing out a peculiar beauty within her; and the handmade cotton gown the priestess gave her fit her figure perfectly.
All these changes filled her with awe; the warriors that submitted to her on the first day they arrived at Npunga treats her as royalty. They hunt for her and the take her on tour to see the vastness of the Npunga lands and tribes. The land spreads wide and vast, rich and fertile but There were no farms. Not that they ever venture very far; on mountain peaks, the use other far away mountains to show Dreeda. Meat is the main diet, and they don't care about the kind of meat…
One time Dreeda asked the old priestess about some drawings in some of the caves she had visited with the Npunga guards. "old mother what is the meaning of those images on the cave walls" she had asked "you mean the accursed painting of the Npunga eating the flesh of the vanquished any and taking no prisoners?" she retort and Dreeda nodded.
"it happened more than ten thousand years ago or more, no one could really tell, but it gave rise to the curse that had befallen Npunga to this day, and all nobility left them. They had eaten the flesh of fellow brothers from among the other tribes of Cygon in the great battle between four kingdoms excluding kumta. Actually kumta had intervene to bring peace among the tribes. But Npunga had never been the same afterwards. It started with draught and famine; then Cannibalism followed, now the ravage each other, then the neighbor cook his neighbor's carcass for supper. It's really awful white one, and I need not relate to thee this tales". That's why your advent is a symbol of hope for them.
.....