Naeku and Endolu

A seasoned warrior, the Old Endolu, agrees to tell the story about his meeting with his Hyena companion Jibi. Among the audience, his grandson Endolu and Granddaughter Naeku equally enthusiastic.

The night had fallen. The fire was growing in strength and height. The whole clan was now gathering, since most of the daily tasks had come to an end. Women were feeding the food leftovers to the watch hyenas and checking the cattle one last time while men were seating around, smoking their herbs and drinking soothing alcoholic beverages. In Plain Tribes, men, or Morwak, were in charge of hunting, raiding, fighting, killing, and leading and most importantly, controlling more cattle. Women, or Moroyok, were expected to cook, clean, heal, obey and raise children, indifferently from their species: plain tribe infants, calves, heifers or hyenas’ cubs. A Moroyok was always and forever following the instructions from a Morwak because Morwak knew better the nitty-gritty of decision-making. Such has been the order of the Plain Tribes for eons. At night, everyone could gather to listen to a story from the old age, narrated by a seasoned warrior.

Tonight, it was Naeku’s kuyaa, the wise and renown Endolu, to tell a story. Naeku was very proud to be his Granddaughter. He had been a strong warrior, cunning and fierce; He was an Olamayio, a lion-warrior, the elite of their tribe. In her eyes, he was the best of the Plain Tribe. She was shivering with anticipation about the story her Grandfather would choose. Her big sisters had to pull her hair several times before she has eventually calmed down.

- My dear sons and brothers, daughters and sisters, started the old man, tonight I will tell you a tale from my youth, when my muscles were so flexible and strong that I could wrestle barehanded with one of those slithery giant forest snakes none should ever meet…

The audience gasped, frightened by the memories of those long and powerful beasts hiding in the jungles. The old man smiled and continued.

-But this story is not about snakes nor those tiny jungle-dwellers. No, this time it is about a raid against one of those Great Lake Tribe Farmers… Those people who cage the great herds, inside feeble walls… Utter nonsense! Bulls, Calves Cows, and Heifers must roam around and graze the earth, under our tribe guidance. Such is the will of Ngai.

His favourite grandson, also named Endolu, raised his small voice:

-What? Oh no, Babu, I don’t want this one! Farmers are so boring! Can you tell the one where you met your Hyena?

The crowd laughed, only his precious grandson would dare to speak in such a tone. And using common language at that! Endolu tried to look stern when replying to his wajina, his namebearer, but everyone could see he was deeply amused to be challenged in such a way. He could not refuse anything to his grandson.

-That one? How I met Jibi? My Jibi? The hyena who rules over other hyenas?

-Yes yes, that one! And tell them everything like you have told me. They don’t believe me when I say that Jibi could turn into human before!

-Oh is that so? Very well, I will tell you how I found Jibi, the most loyal friend I could ever have. See, Jibi is sleeping over there, bored already by a story we both know word by word. I wish I could sleep too, so sometimes you will all have to help me stay awake and active. If I feel you are not interested anymore, I’ll go sleep next to Jibi, and never finish this story. Is that understood?

All of the kids jumped around in excitement: that story was a rumor about Endolu and his old hyena friend Jibi. But they were many others rumors on these two: Jibi was the ex-wife of Endolu that he transformed hyena over a fight; Jibi was a spirit, haunting a village, and Endolu freed both the village and the spirit; Jibi was the spirit of the hunt, and Endolu made a pact. Jibi was many things, and Endolu much more. They were part of the tribe legends, and tonight the legend would reveal the truth! Naeku was the last one to finally sit down, next to her little brother. He was the only one who had heard this story so far, and his retellings were… slightly inconsistent at best. He had sworn to make the ancestor reveals the whole story for everyone. It was, in his own terms “A crazy super story”. The Old Man started, while some people where awakening the fires to keep everyone warm.

- It was all a long time ago, when I had to succeed my manhood feat. I was asked to hunt and kill one of the most dangerous beasts of the plain: the mad bachelor elephant. Do you kids nowadays know about them?

Naeku was the first to raise and yelled:

- Yes !! It is one of those who has been rejected by all female, and they become bitter and angry and lonely, and in the end they just want to kill everyone but it is only because they are very sad and longing for acceptance, not because they are mean or evil spirits. Although some elders say they are dead elephants possessed by the spirit of separated lovers, but that would be almost the same because…

- Can someone tell her to shut up? Interrupted the two Endolu at the exact same time. They looked at each other before bursting into laughter, followed by the whole tribe. Naeku sat back, upset that again, no one really seemed to find her interesting. Once the laugh settled down, Endolu the Old, without looking at his knowledgeable granddaughter, continued his story:

- Indeed, lonely male elephants… Loneliness forever makes anyone mad, but elephant, being so resilient and strong, become the most dangerous… Spirit stories are only what ignorant tells each other, especially young and stupid moroyok… Can we really blame them? I had to bring the tusk back as a proof of my feat. I searched signs of a mad elephant for days… I finally had located one, a bit remote, but not so far if I would push myself… Young, foolish and impetuous as I was, I strode across the land, pushing my body, and quite convinced that I would rest at night before hunting my prey early the next day. I had arrived in the territory of the mad elephant: randomly broken trees and water soiled by droppings showed that this elephant was in a tense state of mind. I would exploit it, but first, I needed to examine the trees more.

While I was tasting some juicy and sweet tree sap on the broken trees, I heard the elephant behind me! I turned around and saw him charging already, furious.

The audience yelp, scared. Naeku was fascinated in the story.

- I dodge, and throw my spear in his eye! He was furious before. Now he is enraged, crazy full of anger. Nonetheless, he takes up the time to remove then break the spear, using only his trunk. He knows it could make more damage otherwise… I am left with my great club, my bow and my hunga munga… I take up my bow, and shot several arrows at him, before he charges again. I throw bow, arrows and quiver away, hoping they might be useful later again. I run faster than him, turn around to see him coming. He has several arrows in, but nothing deadly. The worst wound is the eye. I take up my great club, and I know that I need to kill him in one mighty blow or die. He pushes his tusks in front, hoping to impale me. I am ready. I leap aside, and use the momentum to swing my club right at his wounded eyes. The club and the elephant skull meet with such strength that it took my club away from my hand, yet successfully damaged the elephant’s head. He charged one last time. I could see him struggling to not lose consciousness. I unsheathe my hunga-munga, hoping to slash him right where it is deadly. It will be difficult.

The elephant arrives upon me, I step aside and slash upwards and vertically, aiming at one of the legs. He is faster than expected and kick me out. I only partially touched him. He turns around. He can charge one last time. And I cannot attack at all anymore. I think I have failed my manhood test. He charges. I throw my hunga munga one last time, and I cannot completely dodge his tusk, I am badly hurt.

- Whaaaat??? Show us the scar, we want to see!!” yelled several young boys, among which Endolu the young was the loudest.

-Very well, here it is…

And the old man revealed a large wavy scar on his stomach, looking very ancient and nasty. Children laughed at this grotesque view, and encouraged this old man to continue. Naeku was very impressed by such scar. According to her healer lessons this scar came from a wound that would quite leave the guts outside of its owner. It was very disgusting and very scary.

- Haha! You believe me now younglings? Yes, this elephant got me good. I killed him on the last charge, but he had opened up my belly in a very ugly way. Scavengers were approaching already to get some nice meat. I had to fend them off and somehow save my skin. I got ready for one last fight. One hyena approached me, in a curious manner, then turned towards her pack. They all went away in a few seconds, and then a young man appeared in front of me. He would not give me his name, but he had the eyes of a hyena, and was laughing in a way similar to those beasts. Or so it seems to me, since I was barely conscious. I woke up later again, and he was there, looking thoughtfully at me. He introduced himself as…

-JIBI!!!!!! Yelled Naeku, unable to hold it any longer. And every child started to dance full of happiness and excitation knowing that Jibi has been human.

- No, sternly replied Endolu the Old. He introduced himself as Makari. All of your excitement and posturing and dancing! It has made me so tired. That is all for today. Let me go sleep and maybe you’ll know the end another night.”

The children were much disappointed. They had learnt about a great hunting tale for sure, but not so much about Jibi yet… Some were regretting to have followed Naeku’s overenthusiasm and some kids even had mean words to her. She felt like crying, because after all, she was Endolu’s family too, she thought Grandpa would have laughed with her. And her little brother even stopped siding with her, mocking her with the others:

Naeku big mouth! Naeku the frog! Naeku crocodile mouth and rhino brain!

She ran to the familial manyatta, crying, and went to sleep. She was still crying when she fell asleep, and the next morning was a heavy mix of shame and sadness in her chest. The whole day, she could feel her friends looking at her and mocking her for crying yesterday. Naeku’s heart is softer than a rotten avocado! laughed the children. In the evening, the tribe gathered again. Endolu started to refuse continuing his story, arguing that it was someone else's turn. After some insisting and convincing took place, he went to seat in front of everyone.

- Very well, he said, but are you sure you would not prefer to hear the story of how we got all of the Cattle?

-No no no, we know it already! protested the kids.

-Do you really? teased the Old Man. What is it then?

-It is the story about how Ngai wanted to give the first of us all of the cattle in the world! Started a sharp girl called Namelok All of the cows, goats, bulls and donkeys should have belonged to us! Ngai made the animals come down from the sky on a rope and...

-No no!! It was not a rope, it was a vine! corrected one of the other kid, a boy named Iloyietia who was very fond of all those tribal stories.

- Oh yes, a vine! agreed a third kid. And then they went down but there was a mouse which...

- A mouse?? said the young Endolu, what are you saying? It was not a mouse; it was someone from the Jungle tribe! Someone from the jungle tribe got scared and Ngai heard them but thought it was our ancestor who got scared, so Ngai stopped the cattle from coming. Since then, it is the Plain Tribe destiny to collect all of the cattle on earth! And maybe one day we'll be the herder of every animal in the world!

Naeku remembered that she and young Endolu talked about it one day. She praised him with the other kids, because he had been talking like a true Plain Tribe! The Old Endolu was smiling wildly.

-Very good. Well, now I will continue my story. Remember me, where was I?

-You had just met with this Makari!

- Ah yes, indeed. So, this Makari had healed me in a strange manner. I asked about it, but he nonchalantly showed a green earring, and replied he did not use it for free. Now, I was owing him my life. And he was in need of a strong warrior to help him retrieving his three sons from some slavers. I was not mistaken: he had a very peculiar face. A strong jawline, almost to big for the rest of his face: two tiny dark eyes, a wide and flat nose. Sturdy yellow teeth, that he was showing in a sort of grin . Large shoulders and strong back, but a small height, making him somewhat compact. His light brown skin was dotted with darker circles. Yes he had something of a hyena, I was sure of it. While quite intrigued by my savior strange appearance, I agreed to help him. We were to walk until the camp, which was not far away, wait for the night, slaughter the slavers and rescue the prisoners. A fairly simple and straightforward plan. I agreed.

At night, we were indeed already at the camp. Many slavers. A few prisoners. It was already looking more difficult, but Makari seemed to be rather relaxed.

- We will wait for them to fall asleep. Guards are weaklings, they'll be asleep after one hour of duty. I saw them last night.

And again, everything went as Makari told me. He asked me to ready my weapons. I asked about his, to which he replied:

- My tribe does not really need weapons. Wait and see.

Once every guard fall asleep, we approached. I killed them silently with my hunga-munga, slashing their throats or inner thighs and letting them die bleeding out while asleep. Makari was knocking them down in one swift and silent blow. I realised after a while that they were all dead. This Makari was more powerful than I thought. We were rid of the guards, and close from the prisonners.  We freed them all, but that was our mistakes. Once escaping, some were clumsy enough to wake up the slavers. They got recaptured, and we had to fight for ourselves to get out. The slavers were pissed. A real battle started, and I am not sure how I could have gotten out of this without Makari and his kids. They were phenomenal, fighting without any other weapons than their own body. We narrowly escaped nonetheless, and Makari was badly hurt. He could not use his magic earring again; he had lost it during the fight. His boys wanted to go back pick it up. I told them it was useless, as they could be recaptured there, and their Dad would be dead before they would come back. I let them say goodbye, and watch him die. They burried him, and we walked back to my camp. The kids thanked me, and decided to go on their own, looking for their tribe. I gave them a few knives, just in case, and told them I would always welcome them if they needed. They went off.

Endolu stopped talking. His mouth was dry. He was tired.

- And that will be all for tonight. I will go to sleep now. You'll have the end of this story another time.

He stood up and went straight to lie down. The evening was over. Most kids were half asleep already. Naeku wanted to know the rest of the story. Who was Jibi? She falls asleep, eager to finally have the end of such mystery.

It took several cycles before The Old Endolu finally accepted to continue his story. And he only accepted because that same day, Jibi had died. In order to reach a grassy land, the Plain tribe had to stride through a rocky landscape, full of treacherous holes hidden behind bushes. The whole tribe was focused on the wellbeing of their cattle, for them to get across safely. Jibi had lost her balance, and had fallen down into one of those narrow and deep caves. She got stuck, deep into the earth. Endolu tried to help her out, but his friend was maimed during her fall. The women healers could not help her unless breaking apart the rocks. Endolu took out his bow and arrow, and silently crying and praying to Ngai, shoot several arrows to spare his dear hyena a slow and painful death. He covered her with soil and grass, blessing her natural tomb. He stood up, and did not say a word until the evening, his eyes watering down while slowly drinking some alcohol.

At night, he was rather drunk, but not enough for not telling a story. He sat down, sternly looking at everyone. Total silence slowly descended the assembly.

“I will finish this story, but never again will I answer any question. Never again will I talk about my dear Jibi. And if anyone interrupts me, I will cease talking forever about it.”

He was looking at the kids in front of him while speaking, but his eyes wandered slightly longer upon Naeku and Young Endolu.

“One day, the youngest of Makari’s comes back, rather upset. Still very young, barely mastering speech. I learn that the brothers had been killed during a hunting raid. The target they choose was an old wildebeest. Unfortunately, the beast was not as tired as they thought, and it manages to quickly kick through the head of the two over-eager brothers. They had died there, on the spot. The youngest could not decide what to do. Alone, this wildebeest would trample the youth. No other choice but to go away, and knowing no one else, he chose to look for me.

At the time, I just had my first son myself, so I could use an extra hand around, specially since he had grown up to be a strong young man. I learned many things about Makari’s fighting style, but I could never master it like his kids. And this last one was particularly adept at it. I was explained the theories behind it, but it was not making any sense to me. Same when I was asking about Makari’s tribe. The kid was awfully elusive. One night, I saw the kid. Strangely enough however, it was also a hyena. I cannot explain it better, it had the eyes of a hyena, the face of the hyena, but it was standing straight up like the kid, talking and moving just like the kid.

I learnt that night about the tribe of the Forgotten, an old tribe forgotten by their God, who abandoned them because they were boring him. A weird tribe indeed, but who was striving to get back the attention of their trickster of a God. They had the ability to turn into animal. Or maybe it was animal who could turn into us? I always wondered. Makari’s family could transform into hyenas. And that is exactly what was happening there. After being raised as a warrior of the plain tribe by myself, Makari’s kid could not completely fit into our tribe. Big weapons were unnatural to their tribe. I learnt that night about the constant sadness of feeling slightly outside. But as a hyena, maybe things would be easier. The Plain Tribe has always a pack of hyena to help them with cattle. Makari’s kid turned into a hyena, forever. That hyena was Jibi, who I had to kill today. Today I feel like I have lost one of my sons, my eldest one. A fine warrior, under any physical shape.”

Naeku was trembling with curiosity. So many questions were running around her mind. She chose to ask the most obvious one, the one that could enlighten her life forever:

“Kuyaa, Kuyaa!! Jibi was a girl and a warrior! Can I be one too??”

The Old Endolu froze.

“You are talking nonsense. Jibi was not a girl, but a grown-man. I would never have let a girl become a warrior; our tradition forbids it. Do you understand?”

Naeku cannot reply anything back. Other kids are mocking her again, saying she cannot differentiate between boys and girls. She is teased once again, some even dancing in front of her in a provocative manner. But this time, she is sure of. Jibi was a female hyena. She had seen how Jibi was leading the other hyenas. And in matriarchal structures such as hyenas, that meant something. If Jibi had a feminine part and could be raised as a plain tribe warrior, so could she.

Author's Note

Let me know about english, about the quality of interaction between the characters, and the overall intrigue: is it compelling? Is the narrative flowing in a logical manner?