Gamba

The boy came from a land where the sun was not always so bright and the nights were mostly dark. He liked to gaze at the huge, glowing moon that sometimes filled the sky with light at night. He was fearless and tough, unlike the other children in his village who were scared of the bogyman. He wrestled a wolf with his bare hands and stabbed it with his sharp knife. He was ten years old when the bogyman snatched him away and threw him on a ship that sailed north and then on a camel train to a town called Isfanada. *** *** "Lateefa, what happened to the golden book? It was by the chief's head. You were there all the time," he yelled as he knocked on Lateefa's hut. She jolted up and headed for the door, opened it, and shouted in Rashid's face. "The crow, Rashid, the crow must have taken it. Maybe the canary bird; it blinded me with its rainbow light," she said. He locked gaze with her. "She is still confused! One day I will find who stole the golden book and when I get a hold of it, I will read it," he thought to himself. Lateefa strolled to the chief's basket and opened it. She recalled her best friend Zabeeda when she saw the skin bag. She remembered the missing golden box. "What else is in the skin bag, Rashid? Was there any gold?" she asked. "Scrolls, Lateefa, only scrolls, and the note you gave me. There is also a ring," he said. "Did you unroll the scrolls and found what's written in them?" she asked. "Yes, I did. They are written in a foreign language; I didn't understand the writing," he said. She paused and thought to herself, "Maybe the omen woman understands the writing in the scrolls, but she is dead now." She remembered the south. "Omen religion fills the land of the south, I know. Surely someone will understand the language of the scrolls in the land of the south," she muttered. "I should have listened to the great chief instead of always mocking his birds. I wish he had taught me the language of the birds. Indeed, the great chief was poisoned. It was evil Hassan," she said. "Chief, I want you to go after Hassan. I want to have a word with him," she said. "Lateefa, Hassan moved to the land of the north where he can freely trade slaves," he said. "I wish I did as you asked, great chief of all times, when you asked me to reject his poisoned lamb. I wish I believed in the crow and the hoopoe. I wish I believed in you, chief," she murmured. *** *** He was surprised when she said, "You said it, chief. I am from the land of the south and I am heading south tomorrow morning. I miss the queen. I will take the scrolls with me, if you don't mind, chief. You are from the land of the south as well, come with me then!" "You are after the gold, I see," he said to himself. "I am from the land of the south alright, Lateefa, but I have nothing left there for me. Tomorrow you will leave with the scrolls, and I will provide you with fifty warriors and their horses to protect you on your journey, but do not ask me to join you and do not lose the scrolls please. I have a duty to my people here in Isfanada, Lateefa." He paused, recalling the horrors he had witnessed when he visited his homeland in the south as a scout and the horrors he saw all along here in Isfanada. He had lost his family in the land of the south, his manhood in the midland, and along with it, his hope of having children, but he understood well the noble duty as the chief of the people of Isfanada he has to carry on his shoulder now. He scanned the vast farming land that stretched to the edge of his sight. He thought about how he didn't have the thing and grinned. "Testicles or no, I am your replacement, greatest chief of all times. I earned it by the word, not by the sword. Now it's my time to lead," he muttered as he headed to the field.