by M E Williams
She went toward the group still surrounding Roci. They became silent. “Everyone report to your duties.” The crowd began to displace until only Rance, Roci, and Marriah were left.
She addressed Marriah first, “Princess, today, you will accompany me; meet me at the warriors’ field.” Marriah wished Roci a happy birthday again and wished Rance good luck, then ran right past me.
The Queen then pulled out a weapon and gave it to Rance. “This weapon has always kept me safe. Take it with you.” Rance looked grateful and left the immediate area, but not before winking to me.
Finally, she turned addressed her son. “Happy birthday, Rodney. I cannot allow your marriage to Mikisha as planned.” Roci started to interrupt. The Queen did not explain much, but she took the time. “Look, Queen Arjana has a strong hold on much of the Eastern portion of Africa. We need to expand our trade, spread our territory, and form relationships outside of the Midwest.”
Roci did not seem convinced, “I never even met her daughter. Kisha and I have been planning for years.” He would not accept his new fate easily. The Queen stayed patient, “Her daughter, Princess Uzo is the youngest child among four boys; she is set to inherit. You are my only son and will give her many girls; of this I’m sure.”
She stood up to leave when he said, “So I’m a bargaining chip.” The Queen put her hand on his shoulder. “I’m trying to guarantee a future for you.” It seemed they would continue this conversation and I wanted to grant them privacy. I headed toward the warriors’ field.
CHAPTER FOUR
There were people near the warriors’ field who were not normally here, like the survivalist, medical experts, and masonry. A circle was beginning to form around two people in the middle. I recognized the woman, Oya, the highest member of the warriors and head of the Queen’s Guard.
Her head was shaved bald and she had tattooed designs in black all across her body, with markings on her ear that had started as a colorful tattooed butterfly. I found her tattoo interesting because all warriors bore some sort of markings or tattooing on their ear best representing the types of warrior they wanted to become, but I could not guess why she wanted to become a butterfly.
To further show her rankings, she had raised bumps following from her jawline all the way down the side of her arm. The bumps were in a line of only three or four, but her arms were covered with them.
Oya was easily one of the most beautiful humans I had ever seen in my life. Her skin was very black. I would have said like coal, but coal has a hint of grey to it. Her skin was the color of the sky when there is absolutely no light; no sun, no stars, no moon.
The man across from her looked like he was a midlevel survivalist, based on his markings that I could not see until he was slammed to the ground by Oya. Then, his locs moved out the way. On the back of his neck was a small mark of a black arrow with a yellow rising sun.
He had his shirt off but kept on his skirt-like chiton and cingulum on. Many people who were not on duty wore light weight chiton. Even when I had mine on, it was quite comfortable and made it easier for the breeze to pass through on the very hot days.
He was the color of a fawn, light brown; I hoped he’d remembered his sunscreen. His face mask was the same tone as his skin. They were usually black, so I wondered if he had found a way to change the color himself. He managed to get his footing back and he and Oya squared off again. He decided to take the offensive and went rushing at her; she simply stepped to the side and pinned him down with his stomach on the ground and arm twisted behind his back.
“Enough.” We all knew the voice of the Queen, so everyone stopped but nobody knew where it was coming from. Suddenly, there was a parting of people and the Queen was walking toward the middle of the circle. “Mari, come here.”
I was not expecting this and did not enjoy being the center of attention. I went to her and she lifted my hands and removed the wrist shackles. She then directed her attention to Oya, “Choose a warrior to spar with Mari.”
“Ashanti, step forward.” Ashanti came forward with a fighting staff, and everyone took a few steps back to give us all space. A fighting staff was placed in my hand, I could not say by whom because I was focused on the Queen, Oya, and Ashanti.
By my observation, Ashanti and I were about the same height and approximately the same reach. Oya and the Queen began to walk off to the side, but past me. On the way past, the Queen said, “I’ve been watching you, and I have a hunch. Prove me right.”
Ashanti and I stood in the middle and we heard Oya off to the side. “Warriors take your stance.” I had watched the warriors practice often when observing Marriah, so I knew the protocol. I stood with both knees bent and my staff facing my opponent. We demonstrated good sportsmanship by tapping our staffs together before Oya gave us the command to fight. “Hold.” She was building the suspense and testing our discipline. “Hold.” I stayed focused. “Fight!”
I had been a while since I’d taken part in battle; I was rusty starting off. So, when she ran at me with an overhead swing, I was on the defensive. It was a position often used to my advantage when it was my first choice. But here, it was not and she caught me off guard.
I went to my knees, blocking her strike but managing to tuck and roll underneath with a swipe up to create distance. We both began feeling each other out and she kept up her fast pace, keeping me off balance. Once I realized her patterns, it was easy. I waited for her overhead swing, stepped to her weak side to the right, caught the staff with my hand, and sent her flying forward.
She landed on her stomach and I placed my staff in between her shoulder blades; there was applause. I did not realize at the time, but bets were also being placed, and an exchanging of several items was going on.
Ashanti walked up to me and we had a handshake. She smiled and cleared the way for the Queen. Once Queen Lisa approached, everyone settled down and got quiet again. “You no longer will require chains, and you’ll accompany us on our trip.”
The chains were removed before the fight, but I suddenly felt the rawness of my skin. I was rubbing it over and over again until Marriah approached. “How does it feel?” Her smile was contagious. I smiled back at her and opened my mouth to reply but saw Oya approaching from my left.
“You will train as a warrior. You’ve just passed your midlevel test and will receive your first two markings once we return.” She handed me a bag.
“What is the final test?” I asked her, now anxious to prove myself to her, the Queen, and other warriors. And also, to gain my independence away from constant prying eyes.
“The final test is actually fighting with us in an attack of war, but you have a few mock wars to fight before then.” Oya said with a straight face and continued her orders, “You will train under Lagelica. Find her for this trip.”
When she walked away, Marriah and I started opening the bag in a rush. It contained a new black and purple chiton distinguishing me as a midlevel warrior in training, one for relaxing, and two different fighting or training outfits.
The first was skirt-like, and the other a pair of trousers and two long-sleeved shirts made of breathable material like bamboo. They were also black and purple. They also gave me two weapons: a Glauca B1 knife, and a 360 handgun. “No bullets,” I thought to myself.
“Marriah!” It was the Queen. Marriah would be traveling with her. She would be the next queen, so Queen Lisa always made sure to have her shadow along for important meetings and dealing with the people. “Congratulations! I hope we see each other on the trip!” With that, Marriah took off in a run, toward her mother.
I hurried off to get to my room underground, to change into my new clothes. I was just about to open the hatch to go underground when I heard someone calling my name and began looking around. I spotted Rance running up to me. “Hey, I called you like five times,” he said with a laugh. “Anyway, here. I wrote something for you, but don’t read it until you leave.” He took off in the direction he came.
I was still watchi
ng him run off when a young woman approached me. She was five feet eleven, three inches taller than me, but her hair gave her a few extra inches so she appeared to be over six feet tall. Her hair was pulled back in an afro with very loose curls.
She wore the markings of a skilled warrior and trainer but looked very young to have accomplished this. Her slender physique was also a stark contradiction to the daily workouts of the warriors.
“You will no longer reside underground in the cage. You have your own tent with the rest of the trainees. Change and meet by the front gates quickly; you’re already late.” Her orders were clear but did not hold the harshness of the other hardened warriors. Her voice was light.
“Thank you, Master Trainer Lagelica,” I replied with a guess at her identity.
“Please, just call me Lagelica.” She began to walk away and I noticed she was also quite quirky. She did not have the grace of the other warriors and tripped on her way past a group of people.
I strapped my bag to my back and ran to my new living area. As I was trying to find my space, some people were staring at me, while others would look and whisper to someone else. It was not until one of Marriah’s friends noticed me and waved me over, that I found my tent.
Her friend’s name was Wesley. Normally, his skin was already dark brown color, but he had also been spending more time in the sun. He had on a black face mask for his nose and mouth with a design of pointy white teeth on the front.
“Hey, I heard! Congratulations.” He leaned in for a hug. He would often talk about how his family was from South Georgia, so it was up to him to keep the southern hospitality. “Our rooms are right next to each other. Pretty cool, sis.”
He called most of the women in Marriah’s friend group, sis. I found it endearing. “Thank you, Wes. I am going on the trip too.”
“Okay, I’ll get out of your way then. I know you can’t be late!” he said with a hug and went back into his tent.
I stepped into my own. There was not much, just a desk. On the other side was a bed and on the floor a way to get underground. I saw a rucksack under the bed. I quickly changed clothes to the trousers and long-sleeved shirt, tucked my weapons away, and transferred my items from the bag to the rucksack. I then high-tailed to the front gate.
I found Lagelica in the crowded area. It was a medium-sized group prepared for travel, with vehicles, horses, and carriages. There were various medics, survivalists, warriors, and hunters. People seemed to get restless right when the Queen appeared; she stood on top of the highest wall, not down with the rest of us. “There have been issues between our Northern Clan, Queen Kunova. We are going there to assist and show others not to threaten our territories or people. The world will learn again how and why I became the Queen of Queens.”
A cheer began while Queen Lisa stood above. She lowered a face mask looking like it was made of wood. Feathers surrounded the top and it looked scarred itself, as if it had been through many battles. There were still bloodstains on it. Next to her stood Marriah and Oya. They both put on their masks as well; Oya’s was just as menacing, but Marriah’s was looking clean and pristine.
Oya tapped her staff three times on the wall and many people in the crowd put on their masks, all various designs and patterns. A few of us did not have one—something else we would have to earn. Oya tapped her staff twice on the wall, and everyone around me began chanting, “Lisa! Lisa! Lisa!”
We’d been traveling for a couple of days when I started missing the comfort of my cell. Spending so much time in the compound, unprotected from all the natural elements, this was my first time actually dealing with the volatile extremes of the weather. I and some of the other trainees were running along the outsides of the group of cars, carriages, horses, and large groups of people. The sun was out and shining but it began to get dark all around us.
I was busy taking in the sight of a fast greying day, and accidentally ran into the back of the redhead in front of me. She tripped over but managed to avoid the person in front. I held out my hand to help her up, apologizing over and over as she brushed some of the dirt away from her red afro.
She said her family was originally from Sudan, but when her parents wanted to send her siblings away, she had left with them. There were plenty redhaired black people in the compound, but her family always stood out, even amongst them—because their hair was not only red, it was the color of the coolest part of burning logs, red with a slight hint of orange.
The redhead grabbed my hand and blinked her brown eyes a few times, saying with rushed words and a thick accent, “it’s okay, I wonder what’s going on?” We were in open land so I knew we were not being attacked by anyone; we would see them coming, part of the reason the Queen took the longer route.
Instead, we started hearing orders to take cover or use stakes and tack them firmly into the ground to attach ourselves. I wanted to go under one of the carriages nearest to me, but it was full of children in suits with masks inside them. Once the inside was full, they started to get underneath the carriage.
I realized I’d been left unprepared. The wind was picking up speed and it was getting loud. The redheaded woman yelled over the growing winds, “Here! Pin yourself down with this!” I took the belay & rappel device, and the carabiners, and pinned myself—with the metal she had struck—
to the ground.
I heard the horn somewhere in the distance in a series of short blasts and solid loud sounds. “Brace yourself!” I barely heard over all the noise. I tried to make myself as small and as heavy as possible.
I thought I was going to die. The air pressure dropped dramatically and I felt I was suffocating. The more I tried to breathe, the more I could not control myself. It grew dark, but I could see flashes of lightning. And all the while, it was getting darker and darker. Now, I could not see at all and felt like I was losing strength. My hands began to loosen, and I slipped away and felt my body being lifted. Then I felt large hands pulling me back. It was becoming easier to take large breaths.
“Hey, in and out. Copy me.” I listened to the voice and started breathing in and out in a controlled manner. Once I could focus, I understood the voice coming back to me.
“I’m Zander. Are you okay? We need to help out.” I was finally able to look around to see people recovering and the redhead talking to me. “Thank you, Zander. I am eternally grateful to you.” I looked over toward the carriage. It was no longer there, and about half of the kids I’d seen lying underneath it were also gone.
What drew my attention to them was one young boy screaming in pain. His mask had come off. He’d survived the winds, just to die of exposure. I heard Lagelica yelling and giving orders to form up.
Zander and I did a quick inventory of ourselves and ran to the formation. It was smaller than before, but still a rather large travel group. Lagelica continued her orders, “Count-off!” We finished our count-off and I started talking with Zander.
“Why are we forming a search party or going anywhere?” I asked her.
Zander turned around to completely face me. “Natural disasters or storms are usually followed up by predators and scavengers. We could risk losing more people. Those who are separated from us know what protocol to follow.” I had a lot to learn, it seemed. Orders were being yelled again, and this time, I listened closely for Lagelica’s voice.
“Spears and shields, left side!” The moment Lagelica yelled, I felt myself being pushed back behind a line of people with either large shields or spears. “Ready.” The people with spears lifted them high. “Hold!” I finally heard what sounded like a stampede. “Fire! Fire! Fire!”
Spears were thrown but I could not see over the shields; they closed tightly and we heard pounding and clawing. “Everyone ready your weapons!” I readied my knife. Most of us did. We did not want to risk injuring our own people. “Shields!”
Once the shields were lowered, a massive grey wolf stood right astride me with my left arm in its mouth. I took the knife in the right hand and simply reacted
, stabbing it over and over in the head and neck. It was easily over 250 pounds.
Once it fell to its death next to me, I stabbed it a few more times in the neck. The shock finally subsided and I saw a wolf attacking someone next to me; I jumped on its back. The shoulder was well over thirty-six inches. I aimed for the back of the neck and found my aim was true, and the wolf dropped instantly. I looked up ready for another, but they began to retreat. It was all over rather quickly. I felt my pulse beating in my ears and did not stop until I felt someone touch my arm. It was Zander.
I heard someone yell a war cry. I looked for them and saw it was Lagelica who’d somehow got farther away from everyone else, probably trying to assist a fallen member of our group. She was wrestling with a lone wolf. On my way over to help her, I realized why she was our leader.
She might have lacked grace in normal situations, but she more than made up for it with her prowess and somehow managed to get the animal in a headlock, flipped it over and stabbed it from its lower neck up to the top of its eyes. It dropped to the ground with a thud, and she put away her knife and jogged right up to Zander and me looking as flimsy as ever.
I smiled as she approached. “That was amazing, yeah!” Zander said in excitement.
“Let’s form up, guys,” Lagelica said with a smile. She went a couple more paces and we heard the horn again. Lagelica immediately went into action with orders. “On me! Fall in.”
Zander and I ran back to our positions; it seemed we were prepared because although there were a few people wounded by the attacks, the large wolves did not cause more deaths than the tornado. We stood there forever. Just waiting. Then we saw riders on horses too, from all sides, riding out into the distance. We waited even longer before I spotted them returning, making what sounded like bird noises.
We heard the horn, “At ease!” Zander gave the order and we stayed in formation, but most people began immediately speaking with excitement. You would not be able to tell this was the same disciplined group, from the enthusiasm and conversation going on around us.
