Tamura said, “Fanu, you have no idea that I was just this minute talking to the king about you and Uncle and the rest of the family, and here you are! Wonderful, it’s just wonderful!” Tamura exclaimed. “I am just finishing here for the day, I will take you to my place and fill you in on all the details,” he added.
“You mean whatever else Kende has not managed to fill me in on?” The men laughed and Kende coyly retreated and bade the men goodnight. The king told Tamura to depart for the day and look after his guest as he knew the urgency of the matter to be discussed.
In Tamura’s house, he introduced his guest to his siblings and they all exchanged pleasantries before settling down to dinner. After this, Mara and Baka retired to bed as they had school the following morning. Tamura and Fanu sat down to a pot of tea and discussed life in general and talked about Leona whom Fanu would get to meet in the morning. After some time, Tamura broke the news of the evil spirits lurking in the Baminga Mountains and urged Fanu to return home in the morning to alert the entire family to pray.
Tamura was going to give him a copy of the prayer which Mara had distributed to each family and neighbouring village to use as a template. Fanu responded, “This is very serious indeed, I will go back tomorrow and tell my father and the rest of the family to get praying. We will probably have to build a makeshift house of prayer as we cannot come here to join you every time to pray. It’s not practical you are just too far from us.”
The two men retired to bed, but Fanu did not sleep much. He had a nightmarish dream where he was trying to return to Nengara and was delayed and by the time he got there, his entire family had been wiped out by the evil spirits. There were ashen bodies everywhere of women, children and men and his brothers and sisters were all dead and the air stunk of death, with vultures ceremoniously dancing in the air above. He had blamed himself for being too late and that he could not save his family.
Towards the early hours of the morning, Fanu finally managed to fall into a sound sleep. By the time he woke up, Tamura had already had his bath and made breakfast with the kids sat at the table eating their breakfast to go to school. Fanu rose up with start and shouted at Tamura saying, “Why didn’t you wake me up, I should have gone back home by now!”
“Wooo woo, calm down, mate,” Tamura said. “There is plenty of time for you to get showered and eat something before you went back. Don’t you think you needed enough sleep and rest for the long journey back?” Fanu just stood there bewildered and Tamura added, “We are all freaked out, Fanu, but we have to be strong and focused, otherwise we are going to mess up and fall victim to these vile creatures. I want you to promise me that you will return home calmly and confident that all will be well. I don’t want you to go there and scare people and send them into a panic. Are we understood?” He asked sternly. Fanu just nodded and didn’t say a word.
“Right!” said Tamura, “Now get showered, eat and I will see you off as soon as you are ready.” The usually talkative Mara just watched in silence and did not say a word, but she could see fear in Fanu’s eyes. Baka was nonplussed by it all and just kept on tucking into his breakfast, hardly chewing his food, as usual.
When Fanu was ready, Tamura escorted him out as the kids also went off to school after giving their cousin a big hug. As the two men reached the king’s compound, Leona was waiting at the threshold as it was her custom to steal a moment or two with Tamura before he started his daily duties with the king. She saw him coming with an unfamiliar face and became curious. As they reached her, she composed herself to look serious and not her usual playful self.
Tamura said, “Morning, love,” and reached out to Leona and gave her a loving kiss on the cheek. He continued, “This is my cousin, Fanu, from Nengara, he came looking for me and thought I was in Huru, thank goodness Kende saw him in time before he went past. Fanu, this is the love of my life, Leona, the king’s daughter.”
Fanu extended his hand with a smile to greet Leona and said, “Hello, princess, I have heard a lot of good things about you. It’s a pleasure to meet you at last.” Leona smiled and looked at Tamura inquisitively about what he might have said to Fanu about her.
They proceeded into the king’s palace and saw the king coming out of his bedroom to get ready for the day and they greeted each other. Fanu bade the king goodbye and Tamura escorted him down the road outside of the compound while he gave the king a chance to get ready for the day. This he knew would take near enough an hour as the king took his time in all that he did. The king hated grooming himself, but taking his time to do so, made it all the more painstaking for him.
Tamura walked with his cousin well into the deep thicket of the woods just to reassure him and to keep him company as he was clearly shaken by last night’s news and the bad dream he had had. He did not share the dream with anyone and wanted to get home as
