DANUSHIKI

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

‘Something is wrong somewhere’, he thought while pacing the sitting room, with the battle-axe still in his grip. At that moment, the sacred grove’s prophecy came rushing back to his mind. Houses in Shaingwa were usually built in a way which disallowed light from entering into them unless there was an opening through the roof or through the window. Presently, the opening was more than sufficient because a greater part of the house had been destroyed. This was due to an excavation at the right side of the house. He came out of his father’s house, walked to some other houses and was shocked by what he saw. Wooden structures were constructed deep into large holes, the height off two average human beings put together. They were also strange wooden containers with wooden wheels scattered everywhere.

“I have to find my parents”, he whispered to himself.

“Maybe the damage was caused by the wind or flood”. Danushiki soon discarded this thought as he came out from the third house and saw other warriors with looks of surprise and dismay on their faces.

“What’s happening here, where are my parents?” one warrior lamented, trying to control himself, as he looked like someone who could take off someone’s head with his glinting sword at any moment.

“Bring your voice down”, Danushiki cautioned him, “you do realize what happened to you happened to everyone here. Our families have disappeared, the diamonds in the chambers of our respective families have also disappeared and the houses are broken down. I suggest we wait till tomorrow morning before finding out what is responsible for all these damages and ‘disappearances’. They were loud murmurs after Danushiki spoke, and in the end, the warriors around him numbering forty two, concurred with him. A warrior in their ‘group’ soon suggested that they stay in a large field till the next morning, which was about two hundred and ninety metres from where they stood.

Danushiki and the other warriors knew the field – it was used by the islands maidens to practice snake dancing in the evenings. Danushiki smiled at the idea, although none of the other warriors noticed this. They started trudging towards the field, when all of a sudden, they heard the gallop of horses ridden by strange looking men, with hair on their faces. They carried flaming torches, which managed to reveal their fair complexion under the moonlight.

The ten horsemen were on night patrol to round up any Shaingwan native outside the camp when they met Danushiki and his fellow warriors. The soldiers were incensed by the fact that despite their warnings and extreme efforts, they were still ‘stray’ savages outside the camp. In their rage, they failed to notice the difference in their attire, which was a sharp contrast from what most of the others inside the camp were wearing. Their anger seemed to ‘increase’ when they saw the defiant looks on the men before them. As far as the Her Majesty’s soldiers were concerned, all inhabitants of the island were supposed to be obedient. Obedience for them meant the inhabitants were to look, scared, shaken and humble.

The night had been ‘well planned’ by these horsemen and the other soldiers back at the fortress., They’d intended picking new maidens in the Shaingwan camp that night to satisfy their s****l desires. Riding around the ‘former’ residences of the savages had been a suggestion made by Colonel Anderson, and sanctioned by General Whyte. This was to ensure all the savages were ‘intact’, and now to their dismay right in front of them stood some young men with crude weapons. Danushiki didn’t care what the other forty-one warriors in their ‘group’ thought as he saw these men. As far as he was concerned, he was going to carry out Karugo’s instruction to fight till he dropped. After all, the only thing he wanted to do was to spill blood as his father had told him three years ago – enemy blood.

“Surround them”, a man who looked superior to the others ordered his subordinates.

Danushiki whispered to his fellow warriors not to panic while some of the men alighted from their horses after surrounding them. The warriors soon discovered, that these men were totally strange in their dressing, their movement and the way they talked, which was through their noses. Surprisingly, Danushiki and the warriors with him found out that they were able to understand their language, thereby making communication somewhat easy.

“Get down on your knees”, one of the fair soldiers ordered.

The warriors were about to obey, when all of a sudden, the ‘superior’ horse rider who felt they were too slow, pulled out a long horsewhip from his saddle. He used it to strike Danushiki’s neck as a warning to others. One thing that gladdened Danushiki’s heart was the state of their weapons. Their ‘long rods’ were slung behind their backs, with ropes, which hung them on their shoulders.   

“I won’t die without seeing my woman”, Danushiki fumed quietly while rubbing his neck.

Surprisingly, as they knelt down the first person to have both hands tied was the warrior that’d suggested going to the dancing field. Danushiki observed the fair men and their clothing. They were tall, slightly huge with broad shoulders and hairs on their faces, below their noses and under their mouths. The men looked wild, as they wore a large kind of hat, over their black and white clothing. They wore strange white long sleeved shirts under black jackets, with some hanging ‘ropes’ on their shoulders. He saw the boots they wore – it was the same colour as their jackets with long clothing on their body, from their waist down. Danushiki observed the dentition of the man who’d ordered them to get down on their knees. It was stained with a red smudge near his lower gum. It seemed to Danushiki that these fair-faced men really enjoyed the fruits of Shaingwa, but as his knee touched the cold soil he remembered his mother.

“What about these metals and pieces of iron they’re carrying?” one of them asked the ‘superior’ who didn’t seem concerned about the objects. The other soldiers paused to hear what he’d say, while looking at Danushiki and his fellow warriors with revolt. While the soldiers awaited his response, Danushiki and the other warriors had already made up their mind on the next action they’d take.

“Are you afraid of metallic and iron objects?” he asked angrily through his nose, while some of them snickered.

“They might be blacksmiths for crying out loud, and don’t forget we’re running out of tools for these savage workers…”

He stoppedtalking abruptly when he saw blood trickling from the mouth of the man who’d asked him the question, now gasping for breath. With lightning speed, Danushiki pulled out the dagger which had been thrown by an unsuspecting warrior into the back of the man’s neck. The next second, he plunged it into the ‘superior’s’ chest, while he frantically tried to reach for his rifle slung behind his back. Afterwards, Danushiki joined his fellow warriors in killing the other fair soldiers with such speed the soldiers could only imagine in their afterlife. When the ‘m******e’ was completed, Danushiki pulled out the dagger from the ‘superior’s’ chest and suddenly thought of Karugo. Seconds later, he placed it in his right palm with a sadistic smile, and watched it get ‘absorbed’ into his skin.

“Hide all the bodies, except that of their leader in the thick bushes around and take their weapons with you. Wherever these fair men came from, they’d definitely be more”.

Saying this, he leapt onto the back of a particular horse that’d been making loud neigh sounds, as if it knew what’d just befallen its former rider. One s***h from his razor sharp battle-axe, and the head of the leader fell from his lifeless body to the ground. The warriors watched the headless body with amusement as they stripped the other corpses of their swords, daggers, and rifles. The white shirt under the black jacket was soon red with blood that spurted out of the severed neck. The last thing he did before riding away was to direct another warrior on how the corpses of the deadsoldiers should be disposed.

Danushiki examined his right palm for a moment, while adjusting his mass atop the horse. It was so strange and magical. How could the dagger which had disappeared into his palm in Cobra Land suddenly appear mysteriously, when he needed it most? He smiled as he remembered giving it to another warrior with ‘instructions’ on what to do with it.

“Gather the remaining animals and take them with you. Find the other warriors and wait for me near the sacred grove”. He added in a whisper. “Prepare to fight till you drop”.

Saying this, he adjusted himself on the saddle with the headless body in front of him, strapped the battle-axe to his waist and rode with the headless body in the same direction they’d come. He’d never seen nor ridden such an animal in his life, but as he held the reins, the horse grunted and trotted into the night.

PART II

“The strangers shall fade away and be afraid out of their close places”.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         -Psalm 18:45

We never back down, never give in and never accept anything less than complete victory

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             -George W. Bush

Danushiki rode until he reached a fortress he could only describe as magnificent, if only he knew what the word meant. Earlier as he rode, he tore off a part of the headless man’s shirt and used it to tie the horse’s mouth. He soon alighted and went closer to find out more about this ‘magnificent’ place. Nobody in the whole of Shaingwa had ever thought of coming up with anything so creative as far as the structurewas concerned.

The entire perimeter was made of tall and huge wooden posts, with pointed ends facing the sky. If viewed from the sky, the fortress could be seen as a heptagon-shaped edifice. Each ‘angle’ was heavily guarded with a dark object on wheels. In the darkness he could hear wild laughter, probably by the other fair strangers inside the fortress, alongside faint footsteps. On closer inspection, he found out that the first part comprised a large stable which housed the horses of the fair soldiers. They were also several long dark objects.

They were similar to the type that hung on the shoulder of the headless fair soldier when he rode with hiss comrades moments ago. The lifeless and headless corpse now balanced atop a horse, some feet away. The place which harboured the horses smelled horribly, as he watched the unconcerned animals in different positions, while some had saddles on them. With ten fair soldiers dead in one night, Danushiki knew the prophecy inside the sacred grove that fateful night had started materializing. Although the the ‘fun’ had just began, he knew their absence would soon be noticed.

There seemed to be more flaming torches in most parts of the section where he’d heard laughter, but in other parts the reverse was the case. The next moment, he went back to the stubborn horse and pulled it gently, before tying it to a large wooden post. He didn’t leave the horse without a pat on its nose. The second part of the fortress, as Danushiki further observed, was divided into many rooms. These rooms served as ‘working places’, and as storage for more weapons, food, uniforms, many strange and unidentifiable things and to his horror, several sacks of diamonds. From their shapes, he remembered them to be the type which could only be found in the personal chambers of Shaingwan family heads. The third part which was the largest in size was quiet like a graveyard. It was camplike and consisted of large wooden sheds and cubicles that housed the captured inhabitants of Shaingwa.

Danushiki observed that the part for the Shaingwans, were mostly occupied by the aged, women, girls and children. He tried not to think of what could have befallen most of the young men and warriors of Shaingwa. Danushiki compared this part with the previous part which was clearly the main abode of these fair strangers. He remembered seeing a long pole with a cloth tied to it at the top, while beautiful flowers were growing everywhere.