Tales Of Akhona - Chapter 3 Pity

Gasp!

Everyone watching from the shadows couldn’t believe their eyes. Their Elder and brother who are both Tano rank and Ezine rank warriors were killed in the blink of an eye. Moreover they turned to dust.

Everyone quickly disappeared. They didn’t want to be victim of such gruesome death. Soon, the only living person left in the village was Gugulethu.

Gugulethu fell to the ground. He was holding on to life. His spear dropped off his hand as he fell unconscious.

Next Morning..

The surviving villagers snuck back to the village to see who remained. That was after they made sure that there wasn’t any enemy warriors left in the village.

They went separate ways to look for family members. Not long, cries went up in the air as different people identified their family members. Some were killed while some died in the fire.

Although a lot of cries were heard. One stood out.

“Gugulethu!!”

“Father!!”

“Leader!!”

They rushed to where Gugulethu lay unconscious. it was as if he knew they were there. He slowly opened his eyes.

“He’s alive!!” Pa Lifa’s eyes lit up as he signalled the youths to carry him. As they approached him. Gugulethu slowly raised his hand to signal them to stop. He looked at Akhona and Andi who were brawling.

He signalled Akhona to come who came and knelt beside him on the ground. As Gugulethu tried to speak to him, he ended coughing out blood. It was obvious now.

He was between Life and Death.

He then pointed to his spear. Akhona stretched out and picked it up. He held it firmly. Being unable to speak, Gugulethu smiled as he touched Akhona’s shoulder. As his hand dropped, so did his life go with it.

“Father!!” Andisiwe left Pa Lifa’s embrace and ran toward Gugulethu. As she was close to touching, Akhona stopped her. He hugged her tight whilst crying.

“Don’t look. It’s okay.” Akhona pats her on the back as he hugged her tightly.

Andisiwe continued crying. “Brother, it hurts. My heart hurts.”

“It’s okay. Big brother is here with you always.” Although Akhona has stopped crying. He couldn’t stop the tears that flowed ceaselessly.

Under Pa Lifa’s instructions, the youths took Gugulethu’s body away to bury.

“Also look around for Cebisa’s body.”

It didn’t take long before they found Cebisa.

All the deceased were later buried but the mourning continued.

“Luckily most of our foods were not damaged. We can survive on those before we start planting soon.” Pa Lifa thought.

As months passed, the people of amaThixo tirelessly kept on rebuilding and started farming. Even some livestock owners had a plan as most of them had only one or two surviving animals.

So they decided to look for another person that has an opposite sex to mate. They decided to share the offsprings whenever they’re weaned from the mother.

Although the farmers were happy their plans were going well. There wasn’t any of it in Akhona’s house. Andisiwe had fallen ill shortly after their parents were buried. The illness kept getting worse as days went by.

Akhona managed to find a herb in the forest which had great medicinal effect. He knew of it because Pa Lifa had used it once to help cure a severe illness.

He came back to see Andisiwe lying on the bed struggling to breathe. As Akhona rushed to sit at her side. She held Akhona’s hands tightly as she slowly closed her eyes and died.

At that moment, Akhona lost it. He’s entire family was dead, leaving him alone in a world like this. He couldn’t find himself to cry. He slowly crawled to the corner of the room and sat there. He sat like a millipede which was facing danger.

Pa Lifa entered the room. He first saw Akhona who was looking at the wall. His gaze was so fixed on it that someone might think there’s something important written on it.

Pa Lifa shook his head as he went to see how Andisiwe was doing. He didn’t want to disturb Akhona. One could only imagine what he’s going through, being so young and lost both parents in a day plus his only sibling fell ill shortly after. Due to the incident that happened where the most of the villagers were slaughtered. Their village medicine man was also among the casualties.

So they went to a nearby village to tend to the injured and Andisiwe was also brought along. The medicine man said that Andisiwe’s spirit was broken, that her consciousness was no more in this world. With his current ability as a medicine man, he couldn’t help her but he told them of some scarce herbs which might help her spirit return to it’s original state.

Although they searched for the herbs, they couldn’t find any of it. Akhona was discouraged as he continued to look for them. It took a while but he finally managed to find one of the herbs which he ran back with only for his sister to die as he returned.

“Dead!!” Pa Lifa was so shocked as he examined Andisiwe who was now currently looking pale. Her lips and eyelids were slowly turning black. Her caramel coloured skin was slowly losing it’s colour.

After Pa Lifa confirmed it. He looked at Akhona who was still staring at the whole without moving.

“What has this boy done to deserve all these? The world is really cruel.” Pa Lifa shook his head as he approached Akhona.

“Akhona…. Akhona…. Akhona… ” Despite Pa Lifa’s calls, Akhona paid deaf ears to it. He kept looking at the wall as he remained unmoved.

Pa Lifa seeing it was useless to disturb him. He left to get some people to help carry Andisiwe’s body and bury her.

As he left. Akhona finally stood from where he was. He carried Andisiwe’s body in his arms and left the house. He walked to where his parents were buried, it was a stone’s throw from the house.

He laid her on top of their mother’s grave as he took a hoe and started digging a grave for her.

Pa Lifa came back with some people from the village. They were both men and women. Apart from the few people that Pa Lifa told, a few more decided to come and take a look for themselves.

It was indeed a very sad moment for them as they had pity on Akhona.

“This world is cruel. This boy is now left all alone.” One of the women in the crowd exclaimed.

“Yes ooo, I won’t be surprised if the sickness that befell the sister befall him.” Another woman said.

“Ahh, Noxolo! How can you say something like that.” Another woman felt angry with what the other woman said.

“I’m just saying my mind. I didn’t really mean it.”

“Where’s Akhona and the body?” Everyone was shocked. “Didn’t you say they were here?” A middle aged man asked.

“I’m very sure… mayb… ” Before he could finish, they were distracted by a voice from outside.

“Akhona is burying his sister by himself!”