I burst into a fit of laughter, too weak to fight him off anymore, the darn beast. I can feel its saliva on my neck and half my face drenching even the top of my wrapper. Eventually, he ceases his torture giving me time to recover as he lays over me.

"I tell you not to shock me like that, Agu." I breathe, still chuckling as I begin to sit up. Quickly he climbs off of me, letting me sit up, "I could have stabbed you." I rub his large neck in greeting, I can barely believe it has been two years ago I found him as a cub. And of course I hid it from Adinna, would not do telling her I have a strange wolf-like beast for a pet. "I actually came to confess something." He licks my cheek sitting beside me as I raise my knees and hug them.

"You will not be so happy with me when you hear this." I mutter. He lets a moaning sound through his throat resting his big jaw on my shoulder. He could even rest his jaw on my head, that is how big he is...or how small I am. I grin, glancing down into his big red eyes. "I killed a wolf today..." he licks his nose.

"Now before you get upset with me, hear me out. Adinna and I have not eaten in a day and I cannot keep taking pity food from Ike." He licks my ear, drawing another giggle from me.

Somehow, someway, I had always felt very much attached to this wolf. I mean that from the day I found him limping and trying vainly to attack me. He had been weak but afraid and tried to scare me off. I remember having believed it was his fellow wolves that hurt him and left him to die, like it had been done to mother and I. Because he was a little bigger, his eyes were red and not brown, his fur so dark. I felt connected to him in that sense. He was too different for them...just as I was too different for my people to accept.

We were both something to be feared, both hunted for title of power, both outcasts...

Both nameless.

"Do you think Adinna and Ike would be done with the food?" I glance to my side where he is still laying, watching me. "Do not look at me like that, you have no idea how hungry I am." I mutter rather defensively, bearing in mind that this is the sixth time I have asked that question. I turn back to face the high branches of the weeping tree. "Anyway, I think I should leave before they notice. You know how Adinna and Ike are always worrying."

I stand to my feet and move to a nearby tree quickly scaling it to the first branch in attempt to at least see a patch of sky. Shock seeps into me with the realization that it was not the branches blocking the sky but that darkness has already swept the earth. I gasp, dropping to the ground and rolling to a stop on my knee. I raise my head to find the beast already alarmed. I smile, ruffling his neck hair as I straighten.

"I am going. You stay, okay?" I snatch up my knife, moving for the invisible path through the trees and he follows. "No, Agu, stay." I hiss over my shoulder but he keeps following. I sigh, turning to him. "Stay! I promise I will come back at sun rise." He sniffs and sits, tongue out as he pants, drawing a smile from me as I tuck my knife into my bottom cloth, "Till the sun rises." I mutter under my breath, before darting into the trees. Whipping through forest, instead of slapping branches and twigs from my face, I snatch at them, snapping them off and gathering them under my arm.

"Anyanwu!" I have barely neared home as I begin to hear her worried scream. Stopping before the view of darkness, away from the cast of the half hidden moon, I brush back some loose strands of my dark hair and step out.

"Ma, what is the problem now?" I mutter trying to control my breathing as I round the hut.

"Where were you?!" I hear Ikennaya demand right before he grabs my arm spinning me around to frantically check for wounds. I roll my eyes, snatching back my arm.

"I told you I was going to make more arrows, did I not?"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"But you left." Adinna counters.

"But of course, Ma, would I be sharpening my fingers?" I raise the gather of twigs meaningfully, before dropping them to the floor, "Now, is food ready?"

"You are such a man." Ikenna mutters, shaking his head as he points to the mat set out before the door to the hut, under the fruit tree.

"And you are such a woman." I grin, "So we are eating outside, good, the mosquitoes should feast as well." Ikennaya seems both disgusted and worried.

"Right." my grin widens at the thought of food and I brush past him wiping my hands on my skirt, "Mama, please tell your son to go and wash his hands." before he could have all the words out, I double back a step and smack him on the head. He winces.

"Ma, tell your daughter to stop being annoying."

"Anyanwu." Adinna cautions, "He is right, go and wash your hands, or you will poison your food." I growl under my breath, roughly brushing past a smirking Ikenna.

"What is he doing here anyway?" I mutter, scooping out some water from the mud pot with a cup, "Would the chief not be angry?" I ask, glancing back as I wash my hands.

"Please forget that man, I'm trying to enjoy myself here." He mutters sitting down beside Adinna. I shrug, dropping back the cup, I have always vaguely known about the strained relationship between Ikenna and his father, I think I remember him saying his father would have sold him to slave traders by now if he were not the only son of his five wives yet and heir to the chieftaincy. And for that same reason I believe the other wives plan on killing the mother.

"Ma, offering?" I mutter sitting down. We all bow our heads as Adinna begins the prayer. Almost like I had been pushed to, I open my eyes one at a time to view the meal before me and instead glance around at the people by me, both their skins so brown you could tell them apart from the darkness around us. So beautiful, the reflection of the fire against them. So even. So unlike mine. Once again reminding me what I am, why I am different. By the time we are done with the prayer and offering, my eyes are stinging.

"Anyanwu, we need some more ingredients." Adinna says as we begin to eat. I look to frown at her, looking down quickly when she begins to turn to me.

"Eh? B-but I made sure I bought enough for at least until the next Eke market day. How did it finish so fast?" I feel her frown at me for a while, probably wondering why I am not meeting her gaze.

"Some people are coming for a ritual the day before Orie, so you will go tomorrow."

"That is alright," Ikennaya says around a full mouth, glancing at Adinna while he smiles at me. "Anya is lazy, so I will go." now I exchange a look with Adinna, I suppose it is as good a time to tell him.

"You cannot go." I say.

"Why?"

"Because, we have already put you in enough trouble, you know, you being here with us." Adinna explains as kindly as she can. "We cannot extend that by sending you out for us."

"To add to that you are the chief's son." I mutter, throwing a piece of meat into my mouth, "The king may have said not to kill us but we do not know what punishment lies for people who associate with us. Let alone a future chief."

"Wait, are you saying what I think you are saying?" I bow my head, refusing to meet his eyes as I stuff a large piece into my mouth, wincing as I avert my gaze.

"My son, you know I love you, so does Anyanwu-" I scoff, "-no matter how much she denies it. But we think you should stop coming into this forest."

"What?" I glance to see him staring at her like she had gone mad, "You cannot be serious, Mama." He turns to me, so sudden I barely have the time to look away, "Anyanwu, tell me you're both joking." I glance down at my plate and force down the peppery meat that had suddenly gone tasteless.

"Look, Ikennaya, this is no time to be emotional." I mutter, looking up at him, "You know very well our situation, so you must know, as well, that we are doing this for you." I frown slightly as tears begin to glisten in his eyes, I shove at his shoulder, "Would you eat, we are not chasing you for now. Besides If you cry you will choke on all this pepper."

I turn back to my plate and take up a piece, raising the bowl plate to drink of the brown-red water. I wince under a sigh as I lower it smiling, only to see Adinna hugging a now crying Ikenna. My smile faltering, I wipe the back of my hand over my mouth.

Ikenna is exactly the opposite of me, he lets all his emotions out in the open, he would rather farm and cook than hunt and fight. Which I suppose is why his father considered selling him off. But I still...strangely... find him perfect that way. Broken, yes, but perfect. Unique.

Sadly, not a lot of people feel that way here.

"Look, in case you did not realize it yet, you are a young man, being twenty." I mumble around a full mouth, "Very soon you would be off to fight in wars, even then would you take Ma along with you to hug?" I finish with a light chuckle only to receive a look from Adinna. My laughter sobers into a cough. I turn back to my food, "I was not wrong." I mumble.