After enjoying some delicious food, which were offered by both our tribe and the village, we decided where to go next as we were tempted between two of the festival's attractions. Not that the, by many so called, "grand festival" of our tribe had any other notable, except a huge fireplace and some food, however that was by no means a problem. In fact it was quite the opposite. One had two simple, yet very much entertaining options to visit and for most of the people it was a rather easy decision. You were either a fan of exciting and action-packed spares, where our tribe's warrior put their pride on the line or you were a fan of beautiful and elegant women dancing together demonstrating stellar coordination, some even saying they fell in love with one specific woman, "love at first sight", it was.
You wanted to feel the excitement of a battle in front of your eyes? Good then! Or were you fancying a beautiful dance, with gorgeous women? Then we had you covered too! Again quite the simple decision isn't it? Well...for most people that is. Our father was someone who has never lost a spare, hence everybody requested a duel with him, and as his unofficial apprentices we were obliged to go watch him. On the other hand our mother was "that specific woman", who made every man and even woman, with just a glance, fall in love with her. So as good children we ought to support our loving mother of course. Besides that, Aisha, who was there to watch mother, would nag us at least 3 weeks for not going with her.
So we left the decision up to fate. We gathered two branches with different lengths each. The longer one represented the spare, whereas the short branch represented the dance. I put both in one hand, turned away from Cassim and moved one branch in my hand so that, when looking from above on my clenched fist, it seemed that both branches had the same length. Right after I turned back to Cassim he, without any hesitation, took out a branch. It was the long one, hence it was decided. The spare it was.
The closer we got, the more we could hear the swords clashing against each other and the clearer we could hear warriors shouting at one another. Upon arriving, our father was fighting against one of his close friends within the tribe, Hamzah. He was a great man, the only of the adults who talked to me and treated me as his own child to some extent. His love for animals was just as big as mine, so had a mutual understanding on that topic. The problem was, his two sons and daughter. Whenever I tried to visit their tent, at the time we weren't travelling yet and stayed in one location only, to talk to him about our love for animals and whatnot, he treated me very well, and I felt very safe around him, until Yasin came, the eldest of the 3 siblings. While he was around my age, he despised having me around, even more however did he despise my appearance, my cinder-red long hair and turquoise-blue-ish eyes. Alongside the other children, he did his everything to make my life miserable, from the little things like spitting into my water or food, to things like putting my clothes on fire. Of course he wasn't left unpunished, which is why I am grateful to Hamzah, as things became better after we started our journey to nowhere.
We could feel that the both of them were truly enjoying their spare fight. Both of them were on par with each other, in pure skills, however due to fighting experience my father usually won, though their fights become closer each time. With every clatter of the swords, we could feel their excitement and with every step they took, we could feel the tension. It was hard to follow the fight with the sheer eye, even harder to comprehend something. One last "clang" before the fight was over, and the winner was triumphantly standing with both feet on the ground. Nabeel, my father had once again won and immediately helped his friend stand up again, as he has fallen on the ground. Both exchanged some words and laughed, before Cassim and I had reached them to greet the both of them.
"Amir, Cassim!" Hamzah said with a surprise "Didn't expect to see you here! How is the swordsmanship training going?" Before I could muster up a reply my father replied: "That's funny, because I did not expect you guys here either. Will it be...fine?" He hesitated for a second "Aisha...Won't she..." "Kill us?" Cassim added quickly, with a bright smile on his face "Well we let fate decided and hope fate will safe us from her wrath too, ain't that right, Amir?" "Well, let's hope mother can stop her from slaughtering us all together", I jokingly said as I looked at Cassim and back to Hamzah. We all begun to laugh, even though, the three of us, father, I and Cassim would face trouble from the girls later on. "Swordsmanship is improving" my brother stated "Amir still hasn't seen light in our duels, but he is improving...still miles away from ever reaching me though hahaha" he finished as I frowned back to him and gave him a little nudge. "Wanna go at it again after mahrajan saghir? I think I have learned a thing or two while watching Hamzah, You won't stand a chan-" as I got interrupted I heard a just too familiar noisy loud voice behind my back. Yasin. "Well well, somebody seems to be confident huh." Yasin mockingly observed "This won't do though, I think you might need a real enemy, not a weakling of a man like Cassim..." "YASIN! How dare you-!" My father quickly interrupted Hamzah "This is something our kids have to figure out themselves" he said as he looked upon Cassim and me.
To this day I don't know what it was, some may call it telepathy, or the link of brothers, but the moment I looked into Cassim's eyes, I knew. I clenched my fist and declared "Fine, Yasin. Cassim will-" "Amir will take you on. Since I'm weak can't help but to be protected by my older brother" he declared back as he interrupted me. "Not the same intention after all" I thought to myself. "Good you should know your place, Cassim" he turned my brother with a malicious smile "And you Amir...I'll show you your place too.".
I clenched my fist and teeth my as I could feel my blood burning out of anger, but couldn't bring myself to do anything, no answer, no reaction, nothing. I was very much insecure and traumatized, so that is understandable. Even more so was I glad that Cassim was besides me that very moment as he fully understood the situation, put his own anger aside, grabbed my shoulder and tried to calm me down. "It's not about whether you'll win or not, that doesn't matter, it's about you. How you overcome stand up for yourself and overcome your Trauma." he calmly whispered into my ear "And well put him in his place!"
I took a deep breath, smiled and looked up to him. "You know, you could show me this side of yours more often, Cassim" I mockingly told him with a smile with my face "Thank you, big brother."
"So..." Yasin vocalized in fake deep manly voice "Who of you two twerps, will be facing me, in this spare?" I still remember how I looked into Cassim's, father's and then Hamzah's eyes. They understood my determination and wouldn't hold me back from this spare. With a fierce look, I glared at Yasin, declared that I would be his opponent and immediately asked for 2 wooden swords, which were appropriate for two kids of around 1,60 meter height.
While I was feeling nervous and had no idea whether I'd be uninjured after the the spare, but that did not matter to me. All I was focused on was my wooden sword, Yasin and how I'll make my first move. People started gathering all around us, as we too were now part of the attraction. I recognized familiar faces from our tribe and unfamiliar ones from nearby villagers, both wondering why two children are preparing themselves to spare. For us "children" however, it was more than just a spare. Both prepared to put everything on the line, if mimicking two warriors. "It's our fate!" Yasin murmured, as if he was trying to convince him, that he was doing the right thing .
"Fate?" I went inside me for a moment to reflect. "Is that truly my fate?...To prove to somebody who absolutely hates me, that I'm not a nobody?"
The people around me begun to become louder and more agitated with every second, however my thoughts became clearer and everything around me seemed to slow down. "The people I care about, they believe in me...I don't need any more conformation than that. Cassim knows that. Father knows that. The only one who isn't aware of that is...me". I looked back to Cassim and dropped my sword, he nicking back to me, as if he knew it'd come to this. The moment I turned towards father, he knew that I reached my own answer, and decided to call of the spare. Everyone was in awe, except Yasing. With the street lights illuminating his back he uttered some, for our age, truly horrible words I have never forgotten up to this day. "Aisha, is mine to take then I suppose...I'll make real good use of her, you coward! HAHAHA-"
Before he could even finish his maniac laughter, I was already launching at him with a full-fledged swing of my sword aiming at his vital spot, his eyes. The reason for this? I never wanted him to see my sister ever again.
While launching my sword at him, I felt strangely calm....For one my blood was burning inside of me, even more than it was before. However my consciousness remained serene. Everything seemed to move slower. Or...was it me, who was seemed to move faster? Out of the corner of my eye I saw how father was running towards Yasin to protect him, how Cassim was... launching at Yasin all the same to hit him and on the other hand how Hamzah stopped Cassim right afterwards. Not only did everything feel so tremendously slow, but my senses were strangely sharp, especially my eyes. I felt like I could see everything from above, even myself.
That moment, however did not last forever, as it was soon gone. My sword pointing straight at Yasin's eyes, nearly reaching them, if it wasn't for my father holding me back, with more strength than he expected to. With tears in his eyes the coward, Yasin, quickly ran to his father to seek protection. As I was freed from my father's, hand I immediately apologized to him and Hamzah, and stormed out of the whole situation, passing by Cassim.
As I looked him in the eyes, he made the same puzzled gesture and had the exact same perplexed look on his face as our father.
But I did not care. I ran away with all my might, crying and sniffing. "Nothing about mahrajan saghir is and will ever be fun !" I cried out loud, with my right arm aching. I ran an and kept running until I could no more.
Truth be told, I just wanted a place to be alone at that point, away from all the problems...
*Looking back I find it amusing that such a little and unsignificant problem was something I'd consider my fate. Oh what I wouldn't have done for that to stay my only problem. Life had much worse problems in store for me and sooner than later I'd discover what my fate truly was all about.*