Mumo contemplated anchoring down and waiting till they were gone, however many there was. They were solitary beings, everybody said so, but it wasn't unheard of for them to hunt in groups.

There was a story about a village that was attacked by a group of up to twelve of them. It is said the whole village, save for one man, was massacred. Every man, woman and child. All the livestock too. Killed in a single night.

No one really knows what happened or why it even happened. Mundumbiti only attack for meat. If they were not hungry, they usually avoided confrontations.

But that village.

There are speculations on why it happened. Some say it wasn't mundumbiti at all, but a pack of hyenas. Others claim it was divine retribution. The villagers were accused of dealings with mayini. It was possible, half of them had returned from the coast after the drought had passed.

Some claim it was actually an attack by the Amasai, others the Ekuyu. Though highly doubtful. They usually took wives not kill them.

Then there was the one everybody thought of but no one talked about it. Mundumbiti revenge. There had been stories of a village that had successfully hunted down and killed a whole family of mundumbiti. Those stories were no more.

It isn't that hunting parties did not go after mundumbiti, they did. Nearly once every moon. Though they attacked more often than that. Killing a whole family was unheard of, even frowned upon. Some considered mundumbiti to be another tribe, others saw them as part of the tribe, just different. There were other speculations, children of man and mayini.

The more common believe was that they were people from the other clans other than the atangwa who deigned to eat too much meat.

It wasn’t wrong to like meat, but only the atangwa clan were allowed to be greedy about it. Anyone from the other clans were cursed when they got greedy. Hence, why mundumbiti attacked the villages for livestock so often.

They wanted meat, they ate meat, but they could not get sated.

Despite all these and the enmity with the tribe, everyone agreed they were more than just animals.

***

Then the screaming started. It seemed they had made it to the households.

Who am I kidding, if I don’t do anything we will lose too much.

Mumo climbed out of bed and staggered to the weaponry, not fully coordinated yet. Awake, yes. But mind and body not in sync yet. Mumo tied the sword to the hip, holstered the quiver to the shoulder. Full of arrows, thank you Syomiti. Then grabbed the bow and walked to the door.

A glance inside the children’s room showed Maithya dead to the world. He will probably sleep through the whole ordeal. Kanyele on the other hand was fully awake, might have been the first one to wake. He was cowering under his blanket, peeking out occasionally. Mumo could see he was trembling under there. A lot.

The barking of sulu brought Mumo to the current issue at hand. There were mundumbiti attacking. Mumo untied the lock and pushed the door open a little, peeking to check whether there was any mundumbiti in their compound.

A short while and a few scans of nothing, Mumo sequenced out of the house and locked the door from the outside. It wouldn’t stop mundumbiti, but better a little protection than none.

By now, the whole village was aware and alert of the mundumbiti. Though how many would come out to try and chase them away, was to be seen. Normally, around twenty people came out to wand them off. Most other villagers stayed in their houses.

Mumo understood their choice. No one blamed anyone for staying indoors. If their compound was anywhere else in the village, especially around the Elder's compound at the center, Mumo would have stayed inside.

Their household was at the edge of the village, and if Mumo was correct, the mundumbiti were attacking this side of the village.

Then there was the whole dying thing. The mundumbiti rarely if ever attacked houses, but if you tried to stop them from taking livestock, they would kill you. They didn't take much. One mundumbiti could easily run away with a fully grown bull on their back. They were stronger and faster than humans.

Losing one bull did not seem like much, after all people had on average around ten cattle, tens of goats and the daring ones, tens of sheep. But it took a lot to build such a herd, one usually treasured them so. But there are mundumbiti known for herding out more than one cattle.

Mumo leaned against the wall of the house, careful not to knock the earth down ruining the walls further. Why did they not go after the Amasai, they had hundreds if not thousands of cattle. Mumo, for a moment, wondered if it was them that were cursed and not the mundumbiti.

Mumo heard ruckus in the goat pen, and sulu ran towards it. The dog was braver than Mumo, that was for sure. Then again, it was why they kept him, to chase away thieves. Mundumbiti were the thieves now. Though if sulu came close to mundumbiti, he would die.

That thought pushed Mumo into action, moving along the wall towards the goat pen. Mumo did not understand why the mundumbiti had gone to the goat pen. They were smart enough to know which was which. Taking a bull would be easier: grab one, holster on the back, run and it’s over.

It would be fast too. Meaning Mumo would not have to confront the mundumbiti, increasing the chances of coming out of this alive. I am starting to think like Maithya now. Mumo smiled. He is my son after all.

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Mumo was nearing the corner of the house, about to have unobstructed view of the goat pen. Then sulu's barking intensified, he has encountered the mundumbiti. Shortly after, a whine. There goes sulu, now I have to look for a new dog. If I make it out alive.

Mumo strung the bow, straining against the wood. Why do the bows have to stay unstrung again? Edging closer to the corner, Mumo peeked and cursed.

It was a female.

My lucky day.

That meant there was more than one. Female mundumbiti never hunted alone. They were either accompanied by other females, or their children. There were either other experienced hunters in the village, or immature children running around. Mumo did not know which was worse.

The screams from their neighbours household and the barking further away confirmed that, yes she was not alone. Now, what to do? Shooting at her with arrows, while not enough to inflict major injury, may either force her to hurry up and leave or choose another pen to attack, or worse attract her ire. The former was more desirable cause the latter would lead to Mumo's demise.

A thud caused Mumo to release a surprised yelp. On close inspection, Mumo realized that was Sulu's corpse, tossed too close for comfort, with what looked to be a broken neck. She knows I am here. That thought send a shiver down Mumo's spine.

Mumo leaned forcefully, without care, on the house and waited. And waited. If I don’t do anything, she will take a few goats and leave. No harm done. All I have to do is wait for her to choose the ones she wants, tie them nice and tight, and then leave. Oh, my precious goats. Though they were more Syomiti's than Mumo's.

After a few minutes, Mumo chanced a peek again. She had moved over to the cattle pen and was trying to move the gate-bush out of the way. The gate would not bunch.

Curse Maithya for his locking technique.

Now Mumo understood why she had gone to the goat pen. The goats were easier to access, thanks to Kanyele's shoddy locking, but would be hectic to carry out. She tried again to no avail, then Mumo heard her mutter something that sounded too much like cursing.

Mumo decided not to think much about that. Now is not the time to try to understand mundumbiti tongue. Though, I wonder if I could convince her not to kill me. Mumo thought she might be able to jump over the gate, but doubted if she would be able to jump back out with a cow on her back.

She looked tall. Taller than the average Kamba but shorter than a Masai. It meant she had not transformed to a hyena, otherwise she would be walking on all fours. She was naked, that meant she had come here as a hyena, then changed to be able to open the pen and get a bull out with her.

It also meant she could easily change back and forth, under a full moon. She is strong willed and in control. It just kept getting worse and worse for Mumo.

She seemed to have given up on the cattle pen, though not sure whether the goats would be worth it. Mumo decided to give her a nudge in leaving their compound.

Arrow nocked, Mumo drew the bow with shaky fingers and aimed at the general vicinity of the mundumbiti. Loose. Mumo did not wait to see where the arrow had hit. Hiding by the house, right arm strained by the effort of firing the single arrow, Mumo cursed for neglecting to keep up with practice.

What with Syomiti nearing birth, Mumo had had to do more chores in the house, leaving little to no time for practice.

When there was only silence for a while, Mumo peeked again and cursed again. The attack seemed to have accomplish the opposite of what was intended. She was slowly walking towards where Mumo was.

Why is she coming for me? She was supposed to go away. Go away. If one arrow was not enough, Mumo decided to go for more and hope she was a cautious one. In quick succession, Mumo fired three arrows: eye, neck and heart, were the targets.

This time Mumo watched with a fourth arrow knocked. She evaded the eye arrow, caught the one meant for her heart with her left hand but got nicked by the one for the throat. It was meant to impale but beggars can't be choosers.

When she stopped and dropped the arrow she was holding, Mumo decided to take the win. A cautious one.

Then she dashed.

Mumo managed to lose the knocked arrow before she landed a left punch to the ribs. Followed by a right to the torso, forcing Mumo back a few steps, bow dropped.

Mumo quickly unsheathed the sword, pushing through the pain blossoming in the abdomen to offer a few slashes. Forcing her back. At the current state of things, Mumo was doomed. One more of those punches, and I keel over.

Whose idea was it to fire an arrow at her? She would run away? Mumo scoffed. You just outsmarted her then threatened to kill her. Of course she is going to try and kill you.

Mumo's hold on the sword was shaky. The right side punch had dealt some damage and it was smarting already. I am not offering much of a threat.

When she seemed ready to attack again, her attention was drawn by what sounded like a whine and a growl mixed together. Someone was having better luck than Mumo. They had managed to heavily injure one of the other mundumbiti.

She ran towards what Mumo assumed was where the mundumbiti had been injured, jumping over the fence to the neighbours compound. Īī, she can jump over a fence.

With imminent death no longer a concern, Mumo slumped over the house allowing the pain to finally fully register. Mumo could now hear panicked shouting over at the neighbours. She is already attacking over there. Mumo was just glad she had moved from their compound. Added bonus, she had taken nothing except Mumo's pride as a fighter.

Mumo did not claim to be an accomplished fighter, but being one of the heads of a house meant being able to protect that household.

***

As Mumo took a break, trying to gather enough courage to face the mundumbiti again, sounds of fights could be heard all over the village. There are definitely kids running. Soon, the sounds started dying down, even the fight from the neighbour’s compound seemed to be coming to a conclusion.

They would be leaving soon.

Mumo rushed over to the neighbour’s compound strong fighting the urge to just keel over and let others take care of the problem. There will be more people, we stand a better chance. Mumo rounded on the neighbour’s gate, and came face to face with tragedy. The female was going towards the cattle pen, escorting what looked to be a young male towards the cattle pen. She is not leaving without a prize.

She left with a big fat bull on her back, the male carrying a smaller one. She had a look, as if daring anyone to try and stop her. No one seemed interested on doing that. Certainly, not Mumo.

Lying dead on the ground with what appeared to be a mushed in skull was Musila, the neighbour's son. He had turned twenty the previous moon. Next to him was Musango, the neighbour, holding his son's limb hand. He seemed to have crawled over leaving behind a trail of blood. He had been thoroughly beaten to a pulp.

Musango will not survive the night, no matter what the healers do.

The other villagers who had come to help seemed to be nursing varying degrees of injury.

***

It took more than an hour for Mumo to be free of helping the injured villagers and had back home. There, Syomiti visibly sighed in relief when Mumo walked in to the house. Checking in on the boys found Maithya still asleep, while Kanyele was still visibly shaking. This is the first time our household has been attacked in four years. He was too young to remember the last time. Syomiti went out then. Mumo lay down next to him and hugged him. Nothing was said. Mumo couldn’t think of anything to say anyway. Half an hour later, the shaking had stopped and he was snoring again. Mumo carefully left the bed and went to Syomiti.

“When I heard a fight and you didn’t come back after it was over, I thought…” They were back in bed and Syomiti was holding tightly to Mumo. Too tightly.

“I have wounds, you know.”

“Oh! Sorry.” But she never really let go. Just relaxed her hold on Mumo slightly. At least it’s no longer uncomfortable.