During the evening that day the chieftain of the village called a meeting with the elders of the village. The chieftain looked very grave. He spoke about the fact that it was obvious that the village was going through a bad time. First the cancellation of his daughter’s marriage following the death of the groom in the lightning storm, and then the attack on the village by the slave monkeys of the Wahaki. He told the village that they would have to strengthen the defences of the village which was not being taken as seriously as it used to be taken because the last few years had been relatively peaceful. Half way through the meeting, a tribesman arrived saying that he had received news that a number of villages belonging to different tribes had been attacked by the monkey slaves of the Wahaki and that at least ten people had died. This further astonished the chieftain and the elders since they had never known the Wahaki to attack so many villages at once using their slaves.

The chieftain was sitting on a chair and brooding for most of the time after the elders went. And it was then that it finally dawned on me why the monkeys had attacked.

“It’s us,” I said to Dani and Lia, the realisation hitting me hard.

“What do you mean?”

“The monkeys came for us,” I said, “or precisely, to find me. We have been avoiding the Sense Screens for a while. And then I made the mistake of going to Rozy the other day.” Rozy’s pale face flashed in my mind’s eye making my heart pain, “The sorcerer has put Sense Screens all about the forest… except in the villages of the tribes. So he knows that the only place we could be is in one of the villages and so he sent the monkeys to attack the villages and to see if he could find me.”

Ten people had died, all because of me. All because I had asked the well to take me to Rozy. And who knew how much Rozy had to suffer after I had fled from the Wahaki fort?

“Slia was saying something to her father about you saving her,” Lia said and she uttered Slia’s name almost as though she was saying something that was not allowed to say. “Did you kill any monkeys?”

I nodded.

“Six of them,” I said. “With Slia’s assistance.” I preferred not to say that I had accidentally come to Slia’s room when she had been dressing.

Lia’s eyes widened while Dani looked at me as though I was doomed.

“Do not worry,” I said, “none of the monkeys that saw me were able to escape.”

A bit of consolation came over Lia and Dani’s faces with these words.

“Are you absolutely sure that no other monkey saw you?” Dani asked.

I thought about it. Slia’s door had been closed so that monkeys that the other members of the house had had to deal with had not seen me. Any monkey that might have entered the house had also not seen me. I reckoned that I had actually been extremely lucky in coming to Slia’s room instead of some other room in the house as her door had been closed.

“Yes,” I said.

“Still, I think we should not stay here any longer,” Lia said. “We are putting the villagers here in danger by being here.”

Lia was correct. We were not making any real progression by staying in the village. It was the Well to Everywhere near which we really needed to stay. We had remained in the village more or less because of the safety that it provided.

“Then let’s go right away,” I said. “In the dark it’ll be better than going in the night.” I still had the carrot hanging on my chest. It could provide us with plenty of food.

The three of us went to the chieftain to ask his leave. Slia was talking to him and the moment we went towards him she shyly went away, casting me a look. The chieftain had a strange expression on his face. As though he had received a bit of news that was very unexpected to him and he didn’t know how he should react to it.

“We have decided to go,” I said to him.

The chieftain frowned. And he looked at me in a peculiar way that I had never seen him look at me.

“Why?” he asked.

“The monkey attack might have been because of us,” I said. I quickly explained why I thought that was so.

The chieftain nodded. And then for a while he kept looking at a random spot in the distance fixedly. I exchanged looks with Dani and Lia not quite sure whatever was going on in the mind of the chieftain. Then I let out a cough and said,

“I think we should keep going now. We are very thankful for the assistance that you provided us.”

The chieftain still kept looking at the random spot as though he had not heard us although he was just metres away from me.

“Okay then,” I said and I began to move down the steps of the house together with Dani and Lia. It felt rather awkward.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“No wait!” the chieftain suddenly said. We turned at the spot to look at him with some uncertainty. The chieftain was nervously rubbing his hands. “Um, please stay for a short while.”

And then without another word the chieftain went inside the house, in the direction of Slia’s room.

“Whatever happened to him?” Lia asked.

“Maybe he saw too many dead monkeys today,” Dani answered. The dead monkeys that had been piled up on the front yard had been taken away to be buried in the forest.

We waited for a while. I heard the chieftain and Dani talking and there were occasions when there were raised voices. But I couldn’t quite make out what exactly they were speaking.

And then after what felt like an eternity of waiting in which the other members of the household also went to Slia’s room, the chieftain finally came out, behind him pretty much the entire household.

The chieftain came near me and looked me in the eyes as though he was trying to look into my soul. I felt a bit uncomfortable. I couldn’t quite understand the chieftain’s expressions.

“My daughter Slia,” the chieftain said, “I was trying to marry her off to the other village against her wishes.” And then the chieftain pursed his lips as though he was struggling to come up with correct words. “She had come of age but she was not really interested in marriage. I just wanted to strengthen relations with the neighbour village which was why I wanted to marry her off to the son of the chieftain who was only a year older than her. She eventually agreed to the marriage even though she told me that she was only doing it for me. Now the other day after you saved her during the lightning storm, she took a liking for you apparently which she only told to me today.”

“We saved her,” I muttered, glancing at my wives, understanding where this was getting to, but quite doubtful if this should be going this way.

The chieftain nodded, also glancing at my wives.

“Then today you again saved her from the monkeys,” the chieftain continued, “and she also thinks that your coming to the barbaric realm to save your wife even though you are a person from the civilised realm is very noble.”

“Are you trying to say your daughter wants to marry Rabbi?” Dani said, almost curiously.

The chieftain nodded with much hesitation.

“Yes,” he said.

I looked at Slia who was standing behind with the members of the household. She was biting her lips and looking down nervously, standing near a torch on the wall. One of the woman servants caressed her head to comfort her.

“Of course,” the chieftain said, “my daughter realises that you might not have the same affections for her as she does for you. In that scenario you can go. But if you do have any affections for her like she does for you, then she told me that she was ready to go with you to the Wahaki mountain to save your wife. She is ready to face any obstacles that you face. She might not look very powerful but she does have strengths hidden deep inside her which surface in situations of extreme peril. Of course, as a father I think that she is crazy to fall for a man who already has three wives. If I could have my way then I would never allow her to marry you. But I tried having my way earlier and the Creator laughed at my face. Now I am humbled and I think it is for her best interests that she takes her own decisions.”

Following these words there was a lot of silence. Nobody spoke anything. The insects singing got loud in the background. The humans made not the tiniest noise. The entire household of the chieftain had gone still.

And then Lia turned to me and so did Dani. They both frowned hard at me. I felt blood rushing to my face.

“So?” Lia said, almost in a whisper.

“Do you want to marry Slia?” Dani asked in a motherly manner.

I found myself incapable of saying anything. I just didn’t want to be selfish. I wanted to marry Slia, yes. I felt myself drawn to her. But… how could I go about acquiring new wives when Rozy was in such peril?

“I…” I said and then shut my mouth again.

Lia turned at Dani.

“He does want to marry her,” she said.

I looked at Lia sharply and she met me with her own sharp gaze.

“It’s okay,” Dani said to me, caressing the side of my arm.

I had a very dejavu experience. Then I remembered why. It was so awfully similar to the time when I had asked Lia and Dani if I could marry Rozy, who didn’t belong to royalty and wasn’t even rich. Of course it was before the two of them had bonded very well with Rozy.

Lia turned towards Slia.

“You,” she said. Slia looked up with much uncertainty.

“Yes, you,” Lia said to Slia. “Dani and I want to talk to you alone.”

So it happened that Lia, Dani and Slia went to Slia’s room and closed the door. I stood outside the house, feeling the eyes of the entire household as well as the chieftain on me. Quite a few minutes passed by thus. Back at home I was the king. I always expected orders by me to be carried out without any question. But here far away from home, I was vulnerable. Even the household staring at me was making me feel nervous.

And then after a few minutes Lia, Dani and Slia came out.

“She will go with us,” Lia declared. “Tonight.”

Some people in the household gasped at this.

“So she is going away forever?” someone asked.

“We’ll keep visiting,” Lia said, “but the next visit might be a long time from now.”

“Are you sure of this?” the chieftain asked Slia.

“Yes, father,” Slia answered in a small voice. “I am.”

Lia and Dani led Slia to me.

“At least we must perform a small ritual,” the chieftain said and he didn’t at all look like he was ready to let his daughter go away in a dark night with people that he had met only days ago. “For the sake of good omens.”

“Rituals are good,” Lia said, “but the last time your daughter went to carry out a ritual she nearly died. I do not want to be rude, but it’s just that we do not have a lot of time in our hands.” Lia added in a softer voice.

“Wait,” Dani said, casting a look at Slia’s father who looked on the verge of tears. Dani took off the marriage thread that I had tied around her wrist when I had married her, snapped it into two and gave one to me, while the other she again tied around her wrist. “From where we come from, one of the many marriage rituals is for the groom to tie a thread around his wife’s wrist. The wife is supposed to keep the thread till her death. Now go on, Rabbi. Tie it around her wrist!”

Dani pushed Slia towards me. The entire household now came and surrounded us.

“So… you accept me as your husband?” I asked Slia and I noted that there was a slight shiver in my voice.

“I do,” Slia said and she extended her hand towards me. I tied the threat around Slia’s wrist. Dani clapped, and then Lia joined her with some reluctance. Then the chieftain joined and finally the rest of the household as well, and they continued clapping for a while. It did for a basic ritual of sorts.

The chieftain placed a hand on my shoulder and looked me into my eyes, almost in a pleading manner.

“You will take care of my daughter, right?”

I stretched my lips into a smile of reassurance.

“I will.”

***