Men, women and the children were all over the place working together like an army of ants, carrying, pouring, shifting, shovelling, and mixing by stamping their feet in the muddy mess. The other men were carrying logs of wood and cutting them into shapes of long and short poles and stumps for various purposes.
Some went to fetch straw and twigs to use for thatching the roof when completed, but these needed to dry first before they could be erected, therefore it was paramount they went and gathered the straw immediately.
Others were digging huge holes in the four corners of where the room was going to be built to secure these as pillars, then add smaller ones in between on each of the four sides of the building. They left a wide gap between the middle of the front side to use as the entrance to the building, facing the compound.
As the men worked, the women regularly brought them something to eat or drink as they took turns to sit down and eat or drink for a few minutes before returning to this tough job. When they were not supplying food and drink, the women stole moments to gather in each other’s houses to recite the prayer as it was written down word for word according to Mara’s instruction.
They prayed with all seriousness and sincerity and it seemed the building of the prayer room and the king’s speech had brought it all home, in spite of how grave the matter really was. By the time the men had finished their first day of hard labour, hundreds of bricks had been left out to dry before they were ready for burning in the fire to toughen them. The straw had been hung out on roofs of the houses to dry away from the nibbling goats and gnawing donkeys.
The men were satisfied with their progress but were extremely exhausted by the time dusk came. They all made a bee line to the riverbank to wash off all the day’s sweat and mud before turning in for a hearty supper and a good night’s sleep. Early tomorrow morning they would begin their labour all over again.
The night was cool and silent, in stark contrast to the chaos in the daytime. The moon was shining brightly and a caressing breeze was blowing calmly, making the leaves of the trees shake rhythmically. The stars shone so brightly as if they were competing with the moon.
A couple of night owls were hooting in the nearby trees as they had spied the day’s activities with interest from their lofty hollows in the tallest trees above. They had watched rodents and snakes skipping and running for their lives when the thickets where they lived were cut down by the workmen. This provided an easy meal for the owls and they decided to hang around for another feast tomorrow. They hooted with contentment well into the night.
Mama Kama was half-asleep and half-awake; she had heard the owls hooting and felt sick to the stomach. She believed it was a bad omen to hear owls in the night like that. The feeling was unsettling for her. She wished her husband was still here with her to hold and comfort her and keep her safe. She sobbed herself into a deep sleep.
Meanwhile in the Baminga Mountains, the evil spirits were beginning to stir from their perpetual slumber. It has been exactly six months since one of the evil spirits had been aroused by the commotion in the villages all around and the smell of human blood having filled its nostrils. However, it resisted temptation to barge on the humans and risk getting annihilated. It decided to go back in the cave and bide it’s time for an opportune moment to strike.
However, this time around they all seemed to be awakening at the same time and crackling of dry bones and a mist of dust pluming in the air at every turn of these vile creatures. They all appeared to have the same thing on their minds, human blood! Clearly, they were all hungry from years of deprivation and starvation, which was why they went into hibernation to preserve the energy they got from killing all the humans they had the privilege of drinking blood from. They felt it was time to strike again, but when, was yet to be decided by their leader in their spirit kingdom.
Chapter 24
The following morning the Goza people were up and the crack of dawn to continue where they had left off the night before. The bricks had dried overnight as it had not rained, but a cool breeze had speeded up the process. It was time to light a big fire in which the bricks would be baked. Once baked, the bricks would be ready to start building the prayer room. The project was targeted to complete within seven days.
The women went about fetching firewood, bringing in food and drinks for the workmen and taking regular breaks to go into each other’s houses to pray as they had done from the day before. The young boys took the domestic animals to the fields to feed as school holidays had started straight after they wrote their exams.
Baka and Tyza were among those boys, they loved going into the woods to pick up all sorts of animals to entrap in their cages and carry back home. The queen had always felt sorry for the animals and would always deliberately accidentally open the cage and let them flee. Tyza always blamed the cage door for not being secure enough.
Baka was not allowed any animals inside the house, Tamura told him that they would scare Mara who had a history of having nightmares and bad dreams. Baka understood and preferred to spend more time with Tyza and share the joy of trapping animals
