All of a sudden, his joy was replaced with fear of rejection and apprehension turned his stomach into knots. As if she was reading his mind, Mama Haga looked at his sullen face and said, “Don’t worry, judging from what Mara said about Beko, she seems like a lovely girl and it will all be just fine.” Mabige and Mama Haga were greeted by the children who had just come back from school an hour earlier as it was late afternoon when they finally arrived in Goza.
Zuka, the watchman, spotted them and shouted from a distance, “Who are you and whom do you seek?”
Mabige responded nervously, “We are from the Huru Mountains and we are seeking Tamura Mareto, is this the Goza village of Gama Baruka’s kingdom?”
Zuka was taken aback at the way this stranger knew so much about Goza and its king. He concluded that Tamura had something to do with it and responded, “Yes, indeed this is Goza and our king is Baruka, come near so that I can send for Tamura.” Mabige and Mama Haga approached Zuka who stood aloof intimidating, like a warrior with a short spear in his hand, which he had pulled out of its hide wallet as soon as he had spotted the strangers approaching.
Mama Haga looked sternly at him and said nothing for fear of saying something wrong. Besides, her mind was focusing on her throbbing feet from all that walking. She thought to herself that if she knew Goza was this far from Huru, she would not have tried to come at all. However, she was quietly pleased that she was going to see Mara and Baka again as she missed them so.
She jumped out of her thoughts when she heard Mara running towards her shouting, “Mama Haga, Uncle Mabige, you made it! What a pleasant surprise that you could come!” Before Mama Haga could say a word, Mara jumped on her and gave her a great big hug, which knocked Mama Haga’s luggage back off her hand onto the dusty floor. Mabige picked it up for her as Tamura came towards him and gave him a hearty bear hug.
They all walked towards Tamura’s residence as Zuka looked on with bemusement and stayed pinned to where he was standing, spear still in hand. He gathered that these people knew each other, but how, he did not know as no one acknowledged his presence when greetings were taking place. That frustrated him as he wanted to be the first to tell the entire compound who the strangers were, but now he had to wait like everyone else to find out.
When the visitors got inside Tamura’s house, they were amazed at how cosy it really was. Mama Haga was the first to comment, saying, “Well, my dears, you do have a lovely place to live here, very well done to the king for giving you such a cosy home.” She chuckled.
Mabige retorted, “Very nice indeed, it’s a far cry from Huru I must admit, it’s like I am in another world altogether.”
Tamura added, “It was like a dream when we first moved in here, the king and his family are very generous indeed, and I will forever be grateful to them.”
“Well, they are practically your family now seeing you are planning to marry their daughter soon,” said Mama Haga.
“I know, but still my gratitude to the king for throwing me a lifeline when all hope was lost cannot be refuted,” Tamura said reflectively. “I think it’s time you meet them, then we can settle down to dinner, you must be tired and hungry?” suggested Tamura, looking at Mama Haga with concern on his face.
“Good idea,” said Mara with excitement, “I want to take Uncle Mabige to see Beko as well, so please hurry up before it’s night-time, I have school tomorrow, you know?” Everyone laughed and made their way to the king’s house.
Tamura knocked on the king’s door and Leona came to meet them. “Aah,” said Mama Haga, “this must be the beautiful princess of whom we have heard so much about.” Leona looked perplexed about the stranger’s comment, but seeing they were with Tamura, she put two and two together and quickly figured out how Mama Haga must have heard about her. She smiled and asked them all to come in. Mabige whispered in Tamura’s ear about Leona and Tamura just smiled.
Pleasantries were exchanged between the king’s family and the visitors. Mama Haga warmed up to Queen Eleaza almost immediately and thought the king somewhat resembled her husband in character to a certain extent. She missed her husband dearly, even though she had only been away from him for a few hours so far. However, she felt her stay in Goza was going to be interesting.
The king and queen offered the visitors somewhere to sleep but Tamura declined and said that they were his visitors and that he would host them. Mama Haga knew that Tamura wanted to share his room with Mabige as the young men were gasping for a catch up. She also needed to be with Mara so they could take their all-important mission to another level. So as much as Mama Haga wanted a taste of royal treatment, she felt her visit was a matter of life and death, not luxury.
As soon as the short and brief visit with the king’s family was over, Tamura took his visitors back to his pad and started preparing food for dinner and putting things together for where they would sleep. He agreed with Mabige that as soon as they finished eating, they would go and see Beko. Mama Haga started catching up with Baka while Tamura and Mabige chatted and laughed in the kitchen while preparing dinner. Mara kept to-ing and fro-ing between the kitchen and the living room,
