Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical figures, are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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" Sifiso, Sipho, Mandla, masihambe (let's go)!" I shouted as I began to stretch. The three boys soon arrived and stood in front of me before executing a well-practised army salute. " Are we ready to go?" I asked and received a couple of nods.

I left with the group of boys following in order behind me. We greeted everyone we came across as we were heading for the village exit. Things had gotten exciting over the past seven years, to say the least. For one, mama gave birth to five more children. Three boys and two girls. It was amazing how many babies she could pump out, especially in our era.

The cool morning air brushed against my skin and the sun began to peek its head out in the distance bringing light to the village. I could see many children awake and getting ready for morning training. I found the way kids were raised here loose. Children were expected to help with taking care of chores and animals along with following the village customs but other than that, they were free to do what they wanted. Something I took advantage of.

When we neared the exit, I saw the group of boys I had seen for the past couple of years." Jubulile, Jubulani, Khwezi, Bheka, Themba, Thulani, it is good to see you all this morning." I said with a happy look on my face. They all gave a salute before greeting similarly to me. " As l have told you all before, I sense we shall have a busy future ahead of us, so we need to ensure everyone trains hard. "

All the boys nodded their heads and went to inform the children we'd been training to begin with the usual with my brothers following behind them with a prompt from me. These boys were my most trusted and loyal followers. A leader can't rule alone so I had chosen the best leaders among the children I could find.

I looked for the best fighter to lead the troops, a hunter to be my head of scouting and tracking, a social beast to be my eyes and ears amongst my troops and villagers and some other positions I'm too lazy to think about.

" Siboniso, can I talk to you? " I was taken out of my daze and when I looked to see who it was. " I see you are looking as beautiful as ever Ayanda. " one of my social beasts or Intel chiefs was standing in front of me.

" And I see you still like to speak words of uju( honey) to women. " She sassily remarked with a smile on her face matching mine." Did you get the info already?" I asked. "Yebo(yes), Amadoda(men) usually loosen their lips around women and children, not thinking it is a problem for them to hear." she said with a wide confident smirk before getting serious. " I came to tell you that your umcabango(thoughts) were right. Your baba is gathering his men for war. " she said in a serious tone.

'Sh#t, is it time already? I'm still too young to change much. ' I nervously thought, though not allowing my worries to show. " Good work. Unfortunately, I need to give you another mission. I need as many details as possible as soon as possible. " I said matching the girl's tone. She nodded in understanding before saying her goodbyes and leaving.

I sadly couldn't find out when in time I was. It would have stayed like that for a while if it wasn't for one person. A person I had mixed feelings for. Shaka kaSenzangakhona, famously known as Shaka Zulu. A man who joined the tribe after being exiled from his own. A person Baba had taken as his protégé and recently made a commander in the village army.

Knowing this, I knew I was sometime near the early 1800s. I wasn't so knowledgeable as to remember the exact dates, but I knew the broader events and age range of Shaka around those events. I was at first unbelieving. This could have been a coincidence but the events taking place were aligning with what I remembered.

If I remember correctly, in a couple of months or years, Shaka would take over the Zulu throne with the help of the Mthethwa army. A couple of months after, King Dingiswiyo or Baba would die in a skirmish.

Knowing all of this, I needed to be ready, stronger, faster, and better than everyone around me. I took a deep breath in before leaving the village and going to our training ground.

Once I arrived, Sifiso who had been waiting for me, gave me a piece of wood I made into something reminiscent of a register. We didn't have paper and I didn't know how to make it so this was the next best thing. It was a smoothed square-cut piece of wood that I had written on with the blood of animals. We had an abundant amount of blood that went to waste so I decided to use it as ink.

I wrote a lot on a couple of pieces of similar wood. I noted down any talented people to keep watch for, any possible enemies, my growth during the years, the number of soldiers I had under my control, weapons made and a bunch more. I basically wrote down everything I found interesting in my life.

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To make sure no one could read it, I wrote in a mix of English, Afrikaans, Khoi which Mama taught all her kids and a bit of the native language we were speaking. I couldn't have anyone know what I was writing.

The specific one Sifiso gave me was about my soldiers. All in all, there were 200 kids from ages six to sixteen. So most of the children in the village. It didn't start with so many though. It was with the help of Baba that my army grew.

At first, I started with 30 boys. They were my closest friends mixed with some boys who followed me because I was the son of the Inkosi. Using this, I decided to get straight to training. I first taught them how to march. We practised for a week straight before the boys began getting bored.

To get them excited about training, I began setting traps near rivers and suspected hot spots for little animals. I caught a lot of animals over the years, possibly because they were still in abundance. I could only set basic traps I learnt from a combination of the village hunters, some obscure 3 am searches and some games.

I offered some dried meat to whoever I thought was the best by the end of seven days. This reinvigorated them and soon enough, they were all marching like pros. I showed this to Baba and he was amazed. He said it reminded him of those white men he saw.

I told him that this was only the beginning and he fully supported me. Baba was a progressive man, especially in anything that had to do with the army and tactics. Seeing me not only being able to think up such a military training method along with implementing it really put me as one of if not his favourite sons.

He asked if I could train more kids in such a fashion and I agreed. He got as many kids involved as he could. With our village being one of the biggest in the region, at least that's what I heard, so we had many kids.

I trained them in marching and formations I learned from once again, 3 am searches. I was most productive and unproductive at 3 am which I was thankful for. Marching in the dark, in the rain, and in the scorching sun. I also had to teach them the difference between left and right along with counting up to ten. Unfortunately, this made me realize how something basic to me was ingenious to these people and that I had to teach them a lot.

Once they were decent enough in the basic formations and marching, I began exercises. Couldn't have weak men now, could I? Running a couple of kilometres, squats, pushups, and full-out sprints for minutes at a time. I even got them to chop trees in an area near the village to be our training grounds.

I asked the crafters of the village to make oval shields, bows and spears with all that wood while I continued to train the kids. I had to make a rough sketch in some sand and had to test a few for errors but we finally made something acceptable. I had been scouting out some children for special squads during this time and that's how I had gotten some of my commanders.

I of course had to go the extra mile with the special squads like the scout and tracking squad. I had taught everyone in that squad how to count up to a hundred and anything above that, they would say two groups of a hundred to say two hundred and three groups of a hundred to say three hundred. They would need to know this to report as accurately as possible. I also had to teach them special signals for specific events like enemies ahead but that was a given. This training was especially worked on with my chosen commanders.

While training and teaching my army and commanders, I also realized that I needed to create two things. An alphabet and common language. I wanted to modernize our land as soon as possible and one of the best places to start was communication. I used the Latin alphabet as a template. I wasn't that creative so I just added a squiggly line here and there and wala. My own alphabet. I decided to create a common language when I became king. This all would begin with my army.

I planned to make my army as famous for its near invincibility on the battlefield as the Romans. I was a bit of a history buff and especially liked the Romans. I wasn't a romaboo but I was a Roman enjoyer so I knew a thing or two about them. I wasn't so invested as to know everything though so some things may have slipped my mind.

We then began training in the phalanx and single combat drills. Special units would have extra training on top of that like the archers who were taught by the hunters of the village.

Baba had visited now and then to see the progress and was incredibly impressed. We even had duels against the adult warriors of the village. Our formations and phalanx were tested to the limits. Our first fights ended in our loss but that was because they managed to get past our shield wall. With practice, we became better and the recent years came into our favour.

With my warriors growing because of the training and puberty along with the experience of facing the adults, we began winning our duels. Best of all, with our wins, confidence was brought not only in themselves but in me as their leader. This confidence in me brought loyalty which I found most important.

" Siboniso! " a shout came from the direction of the village. When I looked in its direction, I saw two men walking toward me. " Sifiso, take charge. " I instructed while giving him the paper knockoff. He nodded before I ran in the men's direction. I looked back at Sifiso with a small smile before continuing to run.

Sifiso, my second in command. He had grown nicely. He still mimicked me and took my words as gospel. Seeing me becoming so strong, he trained twice as hard and if it wasn't working, thrice. I even had to stop him multiple times so he didn't hurt himself. He took in everything I said like a sponge. As someone I considered special, I needed to teach him more than the others. Funnily enough, he seemed to be enjoying it all. Even when I taught him math, which he was bad at and often found frustrating but he still learned.

The two men who called for me told me that Baba wanted to see me. He was standing at the village entrance with five guards around him. "Ah, my ingane (child). It is good to see you. " he greeted warmly. " I heard that you called me. " I said simply not forgetting to show respect.

He began walking and motioned for me to follow. The guards followed us at a distance, allowing us a bit of privacy. " It is a beautiful morning, isn't it? " Baba said with a small smile. I only nodded in response. I was getting a bit impatient as I needed to get back to training.

" You know the recent commander, Shaka kaZensangakhona. He is the illegitimate child of the leader of the Zulu tribe. We have heard that the leader has died and a child of his has taken over. Shaka is the eldest so it is his right to take the throne. We plan to build an army to take back his throne. " Even though I knew this would happen, hearing it solidified the idea of where I was.

" Can you tell me why we are doing this? " he suddenly asked. " By putting someone you are close to within the leading position of another tribe, we get an immediate ally who is also conveniently near our tribe. " I was pretty sure I was right but I instinctively looked at Baba for confirmation.

Even though I was sure I was smarter than most people on this continent if not the world, I was still lacking in many aspects. One aspect was that I'd never actually ruled before. So I still sought wisdom from Baba when I could.

Baba shot me the iconic aged smile he always gave me when I was right. " I want you to come with us. See how things like this work. " Baba told me. " Can I bring some people with me? " I asked. " Not too many. " I nodded at his words before a comfortable silence took over.

My mind wasn't so silent though as many thoughts flooded it. 'If we fought, it would be my first. Was I ready? Could I take a life? Would my attendance change anything? ' I took an unintentional gulp and felt my heart racing just at the thought of me fighting. My eyes were beginning to water but I was not sad. I started to clench and unclench my hand, trying to feel the power that could take down grown men at least ten years older than me.

'Is this, excitement? Nervousness? Fear? I-I-I'm not sure but I can definitely feel something. ' I decided to cease such thoughts and excuse myself so I could get back to training. I needed to improve as much as I could in the time I had before the possible fight.

Once I excused myself and began walking back to my soldiers, I couldn't help but grin. A large feral grin that most likely suited better on a predator's face. I wasn't sure why I was grinning but I was. Time was quickly flying by and I wasn't sure whether or not I was ready but time waited for no one, so I needed to be. I began stretching while on my walk and started chanting in my head.

One step at a time. One step.