Chapter 4

Lunch hour found Mumo a few minutes outside of the meeting grounds. Arriving early was a recipe for a headache. People started arguments about anything and everything. Most of the time, the things they argued about had nothing to do with the meeting. Mumo thought it prudent to arrive a few minutes late to allow for the most boisterous of voices to quiet down. A few others thought so too, as Mumo wasn’t the only one walking into the meeting grounds late.

The meeting grounds had once been a clearing where the family heads would gather with their stools for clan meetings; or any other important clan meeting usually took place. But that had changed over two decades ago. Clan Elder Maithya, two clan elders before the current elder, decided to enclose the grounds in a huge hut. Over twenty meters across. It provided protection from the outside elements, allowing meetings to be held at any time of the day. And as the clan grew, two raised platforms were added along the inside of the wall. They allowed for those who sat behind others to still get a clear view of everyone else. They could also be clearly seen without having to stand up.

The platforms were built to allow those attending meeting to be sat in a circle. The clan elder usually sat directly facing the door. And everyone else on either side of them. Meetings usually were not supposed to last more than an hour. But there were exceptions.

Inside, the most opinionated of the family heads had already fully occupied the front row. Some had even spilled over to the back row. Mumo found a seat on the left side of the clan elder, somewhere in the middle of the row. Clan Elder Kavoi was already sat. He seemed to be waiting for the stragglers to get sat and for everyone else to finally calm down.

When the door finally closed, only forty-seven of the fifty-three family heads were in attendance. I guess we had more casualties than I thought.

Of course the ones everyone wanted to be part of the casualties, or even to decide not to show were present and sitting front and center on either sides. They will be arguing amongst themselves for half the meeting. That much was guaranteed. Kamota, Mativo, Muoki, Mutiso and Wayua on one side. Kawai, Mbithe, Nzau, Nzusyo and Wambua on the other. Of course there were other vocal voices such as Vahati, Kimuyu and Kanzo. But those were reasonable voices. They tended to keep the others under control and keep the meeting focused.

“For those of you who don’t know already, Musango and Nzwili didn’t make it during last night’s attack,” the Clan Elder began with the somber news. “Mueni and Wanza suffered greatly. Mueni will recover but the healers are not sure that will be the case for Wanza.”

There had been more than one female then. Mueni, Nzwili and Wanza lived on the other side of the village; they were neighbours. No young mundumbiti could survive an encountered with those three. Nzwili was among the best fighters in the village, possibly the whole clan; Mueni and Wanza weren’t that bad either. If Mumo were to wager, one was attacked and the other two went to help. Only an experienced female could have left that much damage behind.

“Now, I know feelings are high right now. And I understand that.” Murmurs started up among the heads, but when the Elder stopped talking they quietened down.

Mumo soon lost track of what the Elder was talking about. Mumo understood most of what had happened during the night. It was what the village decided to do that was pertinent to Mumo.

“So, what should be our next step forward?”

“We should hunt them down. Sent a party, and kill them all,” Kawai voiced his opinion immediately. That established what view the main groups were going to have.

“How are you going to kill them? Do you know where they went?” Kamota countered.

“Their tracks are still fresh. We’ll track them down, then kill them,” Nzau said.

“Have you ever killed one before? If you hadn’t noticed, one of them killed Nzwili and left Mueni and Wanza gravely injured. The other killed Musango and his son, and left over twenty people with varying degrees of injuries. Are those the ones you are going to go after? With who?” Wayua raised some great points with a few slight exaggerations, but Mumo didn’t think anyone was going to call her on that.

“They died because they were weak. If they had attacked me, I would have killed them,” Kawai, boisterous as ever.

“Where were you, pray tell, when these attacks were happening?” Mutiso asked in his quiet voice.

“Protecting my household.”

“You’re neighbours with Mumo and Musango, aren’t you?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“The one that killed Musango and his son, passed through Mumo’s, who managed to fend her off before she crossed over and severely injured over twenty people. Where were you when all this was happening?”

That’s not exactly what happened. Quite the opposite, actually. But now is not the time to correct anyone.

“Why didn’t Mumo finish her off before she crossed over, then some of this tragedy could have been avoided.” Mumo didn’t even know what to say to that.

Vahati interjected, “We’re getting off track here. What happened, happened. We are here to talk about what to do today and tomorrow.”

As much as Vahati tried, in a few minutes, the two sides were back at it again. And it went on for close to half an hour before they started coming to an understanding.

“No one is saying no to a party. We want to make sure the party knows what they are up against and that they are well prepared. Besides, not everyone will be on the party. Those left behind should concentrate on helping the village recover.”

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“As long as there’s a party, I’m fine.”

“So, we’re all in agreement then?” Elder asked the gathering. There were murmurs of assent. Mumo had made no contribution to the meeting whatsoever, but tired is what Mumo felt. Listening to the bickering of the family heads for over an hour was tiring to the head. I’ll definitely have a headache for the rest of the day. But at least the meeting was coming to a close now.

“Okay then. A party will be formed that will set out as soon as possible in pursuit of the mundumbiti. Whether to catch up to them or to just ensure that they have left the village environs, that will be up to them. The rest of us left here will concentrate on helping the village. Those who are interested in being in the party to meet up here in three hours. You are to let your families know so that volunteers can come. The more there are, the more likely that they will be successful. Meeting adjourned.”

Elder Kavoi stood up and quickly left the meeting grounds. I guess even he was tired at this point. The others trickled out more slowly. Some even continued arguments right outside the meeting grounds.

On the way home, Mumo wasn’t feeling very proud, of all the attendees, Mumo might have been the only one who didn’t contribute anything to the meeting. Contribution wasn’t mandatory and any point Mumo could think of someone else raised it.

Mumo was still waiting for Syomiti’s reply; a reaction at least, it hadn’t been a question after all. When Mumo had arrived from the meeting, Syomiti had been busy with her friends, chatting about what, Mumo wouldn’t know. Deciding to leave her to her vices, Mumo went directly inside their house and waited; coming up with ways to broach the subject to her.

An hour later, Syomiti had joined Mumo inside. Mumo wasted no time getting it out there. And here they were now, Mumo waiting for Syomiti to say anything.

“It’ll be dangerous.”

“Yes.”

“You could end up dead.”

“Most probably.”

“You want to go.”

“Not really, no.”

Syomiti looked at Mumo pleadingly, “You’ll be careful right? I’d rather a coward partner than a dead hero.”

“I know that. We both know I’m a coward, through and through.”

“It didn’t feel so last night.”

“That was a lapse in judgement on my part. And I nearly pissed myself the whole time. Wait, no, I did piss myself.”

“That’ll be between the two of us,” she said as she caressed Mumo’s cheek. “You should hear the other girls talk, you faced a mundumbiti alone and came out barely scathed.”

“They should see my torso, it’s all squishy.” But with Old Woman Yula’s salves, Mumo should fully healed soon enough.

“Anyone else who faced mundumbiti last night is either dead or has very visible wounds. Take it.”

“But I can’t take you now.”

“Huh!?” Syomiti seemed confused at first, then understanding dwelled on. “Ooh,” she leaned close to Mumo’s ear, “but we can do other things.”

And other things they did.

…

Three hours and come and gone without Mumo noticing, and they were back to the meeting grounds; the hopefuls for the party. A lot of people had come, over fifty by Mumo’s estimation. Kanzo was on the Elder’s sit now. She was the unofficial second, the one people turned to when they couldn’t get to the Elder. From the looks of it, she would be leading this expedition.

That was great news for Mumo, the chances of success for this expedition had just increased drastically. They would have been doomed had it been any one of the ten bullheads.

“Silence!” Her voice was as commanding as always, and silence soon reined. “I appreciate so many of you coming to join the party. But sadly not all of you will be going.” And straight for the jugular. Mumo already knew this, parties rarely had more than twenty members. The riskier the less. Most of the young ones were disappointed. Hot blood for their first true hunt. They made most of the group, so some of them would still get selected.

“Makoani, Mbindyo, Nzisa, Kisilu, Mumo, Muteti, Muhindi, Mwikali, Koki… Mbatha.” Mumo was amazed, that was a strong team right off the bat. Mumo had been on expeditions with some of them. Discounting the three fresh bloods, but who was Mumo to judge. If Kanzo called them up, then they were the real deal. Except Mbatha. She was an exceptional fighter, but it was Mbatha.

Kanzo went through the rest of the group picking others. Three men and a woman, all muscle they looked like they could carry each other on their shoulders. And a pair of scrawny looking girls? Boys? Mumo wasn’t sure.

“The rest of you leave. There will be other parties or you can help with the others.”

Slowly, the room was cleared to leave only the sixteen selected and Kanzo. The scrawny kids, Mumo decided on that until further information became available, looked the most nervous of the bunch. All the fresh bloods did really, except the muscle group. Those didn’t have a shred of nervous energy on them, which was bad, for them.

“Familiarize yourselves with each other, you’ll be relying on each other to stay alive.” After saying that, Kanzo went back to sitting on the elder’s sit. Mbatha already was riling up the scrawnies, who seemed like they wanted to run away from her. At least they are smart.

Being already familiar with the rest of the first ten minus the newer ones, Mumo started there, leaving the scrawnies for last. Muteti and Muhindi were brothers, and tall. Those where the only things they had in common. Muteti was dark skinned the other light. Muteti talkative and dimwitted, Muhindi silent and somewhat smart. Muteti lean, Muhindi muscular; very close to the muscle group. They had been on two parties before this; one with Kanzo, another with Makoani and Mbindyo. Muteti was more of an archer while Muhindi preferred sword; his was visibly larger than normal. They were both good hand-to hand combatants. Or so they said.

Koki was, well, good at everything and not very good at anything. She had been on three? four? parties with Kanzo, that said much about her reliability if Kanzo wanted her for a fifth one? Slightly shorter than Mumo and skinnier too, but still more meat than the scrawnies. Anyone had more meat than the scrawnies.

The muscle group, well remained the muscle group.

The scrawnies, well they had already separated from the rest of the group and the journey hadn’t begun yet.

“If you keep yourselves separate like that, you might not survive it.” Up close, one looked slightly like a girl and the like a boy. But it was a stretch.

“It’s alright, we’re more of scouts,” the girl said cautiously, while the boy moved a half-step behind her.

“Mumo,” Mumo decided to start out the introductions.

The girl replied immediately, “Mutethya.” Mumo was now curious what the boy’s name would be, and he did not disappoint.

“Mutethywa.”

“You’ve been on a hunt before?”

“Yeah, small ones,” Mutethya answered, she’s the spokesperson of the duo.

“So, no people hunts. Why did she pick you then?”

“You don’t think we can do this?” You don’t think you can do this. The girl was easy.

“You can do this. I meant, she usually picks people hunts experience for something like this. Why?”

“She’s our aunt,” the boy replied. Smart. You do have a backbone.

“So this is an initiation,” Mumo looked at Kanzo. Tough love, huh.

“Aren’t they meant to be easy?” Mutethya sounded apprehensive now.

“No. They are hard. You are meant to fail.” Then Mumo turned smilingly at them, “This should be fun.”

“Aren’t you afraid we might fail?” Mutethywa asked.

“We are on a hunt for vicious monsters, every one of us is going to fail one way or another. It’s how we pick ourselves up that’s going to determine who lives and who dies. After all, not all of us are coming back.”

That seemed to scare them some. If it meant they were more scared of what’s out there than their fellow party members, then Mumo would call that a win.

“Alright, listen up. We will depart tomorrow before sunrise, come prepared for a week out. If you are late, we leave without you.”

And she walked out.