Tokoloshe: When you hear the drums, it's already too late!

by Botha, Johan

  Gugu kicked about hopelessly but then she felt sand underneath her. With new hope and taxing her last reserves she struggled forward until the sand became firmer. Her legs cramped and with tears in her eyes she saw safety within reach.

  She became aware of the pain in her ankle where the shackle had torn into her flesh. She rolled over onto the damp sand, now safe onshore. She assessed her pain. How long could she make it? Her left foot was cut open, her ankle was a mess.

  She felt a warm wave curl up around her, like a caress, and Gugu saw something rolling softly in the sand near her foot. Reaching down she pulled at it, and as she brought it to her face recognized it as Iqiniso’s beaded necklace. He wasn’t wearing it when he died, she thought, yet here it is… how? She knew it was a sign from her Prince.

  She looked back out towards the sea at the mammoth beast that carried her people away. Gugu made a promise to Iqiniso.

  A promise that will change lives. Thousands of them. It would create even more horror than she could ever imagine.

  A promise that she would keep and offer her own life to see that it would be fulfilled!

  Chapter 2

  The year is 1547

  Somewhere on the South – Eastern coast of Africa an old Sangoma, Bhekumbuso, a witchdoctor, thought to be too old to bear children, was giving birth.

  She was not alone in her struggle ….a young virgin stood by her side and tried to comfort the old woman as best she could. She busied herself with a cool cloth for Bhekumbuso’s brow, limping as she walked across the room. The girl still felt the pain in her left ankle from the shackles.

  Her memories always remained fresh in her mind.

  “Thank you Gugu.” the Sangoma smiled, grateful for the refreshing cloth.

  She looked upon this girl whom she took in as her own. She had found her on the beach, nearly dead, and nursed her back to health for months. Gugu told her the tale of her capture, and the promise that she made to Iqiniso’s spirit. The Sangoma trained her and recognized that she would be part of a prophecy, ancient and powerful.

  ****

  Bhekumbuso has outlived five tribal chiefs and trained dozens of Sangomas in her lifetime. She has also seen how hundreds and thousands of her people have been taken away from their homes and villages by the Slave Traders, leaving only the old and the very young ones behind.

  Now, today, the wrinkled old Sangoma her hair white with age, has only one woman with her as she is about to give life to a prophecy made many lifetimes ago. Gugu…

  She kept on murmuring an ancient spell as the birth pains racked through her old and tender body. She barely had enough strength to make sure that she did what she had to, to fulfill the prophecy.

  A scream passed through her dry and cracked lips as another agonizing pain allowed life to pass through her pelvis.

  Gugu’s eyes grew wide as the creature writhed in the goo between the old woman’s legs. It didn’t cry and Gugu thought briefly of going to it, but Bhekumbuso had been clear with her instructions and she was still chanting now. It was mesmerizing to hear her and the creature looked up towards her as if understanding what she was saying. Its eyes glowed red.

  Gugu did move now, as if released from a spell and swept the afterbirth into a woven basket. She hurried outside to the hole she had dug earlier and buried it deep in the ground. Gugu was exhausted. She had stood by her mistresses’ side, and she had much yet to do. This was the hour, soon, she would be with her Prince, and together they would know both paradise and vengeance.

  Gugu rose to her feet and rushed back to Bhekumbuso’s side.

  The old Sangoma was on her feet now, holding the creature, still chanting, swaying, in a trance. Gugu knew she was a powerful Sangoma, but she had never seen anything like this. The Old Woman seemed to be glowing, yet she was losing blood, Gugu could see that, and she knew she would surely die!

  Bhekumbuso seemed to freeze, then look at Gugu. She screamed an unholy scream then, that echoed through the jungle; dropping to her knees, then to the African floor, along with her unholy infant in her arms. Her body convulsed as she blew out her last breath, then it relaxed slowly until it seemed as if she was only sleeping peacefully.

  Gugu picked up the little blood-covered bundle from the ground and walked away from the body lying beneath the bushes- more bones for the continent, Gugu thought.

  ****

  “Nkosi Umthakati”

  King of the Witchdoctors she called him. She chanted his name as she walked away from the ruins of the old Sangoma and toward the place that would become the realm of the new King.

  Gugu walked on, as if in a trance, without stopping to drink a drop of water from a stream or to gather food to eat, ignoring hunger pains gnawing at her insides. She did not think of her tired body or anything else around her, but kept on moving, guided by some unseen power that guarded her from the dangers of the African wilderness.

  Sometimes her mind would wander; she’d remember the sounds of the chains on her ankles, the crying and the smells…the horror. It made her more determined to bring Nkosi Umthakati to his destination. It made her more determined to see this thing through.

  Her promise she made that day!

  It was too late to turn back now; she was already in the grip of the ancestors. They were protecting her; she knew it to be true. No animal tried to come near her and nothing crossed her path as she walked towards her destiny.

  Was this my destiny all along? Gugu wondered as the tall grasses tickled her legs.

  In her hands she carried the Nkosi Umthakati, the newborn king of Witchdoctors, to the hiding place where he would grow up and rule as the prophecy had foreseen.

  She looked down at the infant King. It looked like an animal. It was covered with hair, its eyes glowing red in some light, like embers from a fire. Gugu wrapped it in a woven blanket so that no one would see its abnormally sized penis that dangled from thighs to knees.

  The mountain grew larger in her view and at last she reached her destination; a cave on the side of that mountain. Just in time, Gugu thought somewhere deep in her brain, Clouds are gathering, a storm is coming…

  The skies seemed to burst open as she entered the cave and rain and lightning came down together. The rain was so thick that within seconds small streams wiped out all evidence that a human or animal had entered the cave.

  In the darkness she walked on as if guided by an inner light, until she came to a large hall where at last she seemed to wake from her trance and enter a nightmare.

  A bright reflection of light, at the rear of the cave lit the hall. Fearsome shadows of the beings gathered there were thrown and reflected around the cave, appearing like eerie ghosts sweeping through the space between the stalactites. Creatures unlike this earth has ever seen were present to receive her and Gugu choked back her horror, nearly dropping the King at her shocking awakening.

  Bhekumbuso had told her of this, but seeing them, KNOWING of their existence, was something she was not prepared for. Her whole body shook in their presence, these horrid, otherworldly monsters.

  A huge clay bowl was being passed from one to the other, from which they were drinking a thick stinking liquid specially prepared from goats’ milk and oxblood mixed with wild honey.

  As the new born creature was taken from the young maiden a silence fell over the group and one could hear nothing but the rush of water on the side of the cave where it fell over the dark cliff into the darkness forever.

  In front of the cave, near the waterfall stood a flat rectangular shaped slab of stone that stood hip high and through the center of it was carved a groove that led to a small bowl at one end.

  Mist from the waterfall kept the stone permanently wet and small drops of water filled the bowl very slowly…. drip-by-drip.

  Gugu walked straight to the altar, shedding the little clothing she had been wearing, showing her full and beautiful body with pride. She shivered slightly as she felt the cold wetness of the stone underneath her, the last embrace she w
ould feel.

  She looked up at the light display dancing against the ceiling of the cave. The magic display of colors created by the otherworldly light shining through the stalactites seemed to hypnotize the girl and she became as calm as a windless sea. She knew what was awaiting her. Her mind was as far away from her body as it could be.

  All the beings gathered together in the hall and looked at her with eyes full of expectancy and primitive lust. Their eyes roamed from her high cheekbones to her full young breasts and beckoning nipples. As tiny drops from the waterfall slowly fell onto her body the amber light in the cave gave her a goddess-like appearance.

  The hoard licked their lips as they looked at her flat stomach, watching together as a drop of water gathered in her navel, trickled from her stomach curving down her wide hips and falling with a splash onto the stone.

  The Ancient Ones excitement grew as they gazed upon her flowering womanhood.

  A distorted figure with a huge wooden mask on his head moved towards the woman. His left leg seemed to be wrapped around a walking stick, which supported his crippled appendage. Slowly he lifted his long knobby hands into the air…and as they rose up huge warts could be seen hanging from all parts of his naked body. Gugu’s eyes grew wide in horror, even from her trancelike state somewhere her soul registered this sight and drew back.

  Without seeming to move his lips he started chanting a primitive song that only he, as the high priest understood.

  Everyone could hear his croaking voice clearly as he walked around the altar, chanting his magical words. His naked visage a nightmare, the wooden mask his demon Ego.

  One by one the other male creatures joined him, each one in his own state of trance and murmuring his own song that the gods had sent him for this big day.

  Each time that a circuit of the altar was completed another creature joined the procession around the altar until there were thirteen naked, mist- covered bodies circling Gugu.

  Their bodies did not belong to them anymore but had been taken over by unnatural forces that are still a mystery to man.

  Their huge penises were not dangling between their thighs now but had become erect and hard, larger than any human had ever seen and had become monsters with a life of their own in the shadows bouncing from the walls.

  As this continued the cripple-being slipped into the circle and climbed on top of the altar with his huge throbbing member in front of him.

  He looked down at the maiden and she spread her legs to open herself to him, knowing instinctively what she had to do.

  He had to be first, the one to break the maidenhead and make her a woman before she was offered to the gods and the forefathers.

  Gugu knew that her time on earth was short, she closed her eyes and thought of Iqiniso. He suffered so. She felt the anger well up in her again and she offered herself willingly to the monster above her.

  She moaned in relief and pain as the high priest penetrated her with a rough shove, knowing that she was going to be the spirit guardian of the little creature that she had carried so far.

  Her vaginal blood dripped into the bowl underneath the altar mixing with the water. The high priest eyed the elephant tusk knife that lay next to her on the altar as he thrust into her. The polished knife, obviously made by a master of his trade, glistened against the light from the back of the cave.

  The High Priest raised himself off the girl and picked up the knife. He slowly started carving at the woman’s skin, just deep enough to make her bleed.

  The excitement grew in him and the high priest gave a cry as he stood upright on the altar while his semen dripped onto the girl from his still erect - jerking member.

  “Nkosi Umthakati!” king of the Sangoma, he screamed in a high-pitched voice and the rest screamed after him as he jumped off the altar like a young warrior.

  A change came over his body as it straightened up and strengthened, his skin changing back to what it had been a hundred years ago.

  No more wrinkles and saggy eyes. Muscle appeared where for a hundred years there was none!

  The warts disappeared and he began to look like a handsome young warrior being reborn at an age of twenty.

  “Uyasebenza! Isi prophetho!”

  “It is working! The prophecy is true!” he shouted and danced around the altar as the second being, now looking ancient compared to the leader, climbed on top of the bleeding girl and entered her with his huge and hard penis as deep as he was able.

  The high priest bent down, putting his hand between the thighs of the couple on the altar. He slowly removed the bowl containing the virgin blood of the maiden.

  Cupping it tightly in his hands he walked over to the small creature. His walk was straight and proud without the need of a crutch.

  The other priests followed him and as they circled around the infant King, the bowl was raised high above the little one’s head as he was christened in blood.

  The high priest walked back to the altar and watched while the copulation on the altar carried on, with each Old One taking a turn on the girl and going through the same ritual as the high priest.

  Transforming to what they were a hundred years back.

  When the last was reborn as the prophecy had told, the High Priest picked up the ivory dagger once more.

  The now handsome Ancient One looked into Gugu’s eyes, touching her forehead, worshipping her sacrifice.

  He looked into her eyes as cleanly cut off her breast in one quick stroke.

  Gugu screamed in an echoing wail that bounced against the wall of the cave while the audience shrieked in excitement. It echoed and echoed as the high priest moved over her once more.

  Again he stared deeply into Gugu’s. With a swish of air he removed her other breast.

  Blood spurted all over as the high priest picked up the severed breasts and held them high above his head for everyone to see.

  He put them down and once again picked up the knife, this time he held it in both hands.

  Gugu did not move or even close her eyes as he struck down and punctured her chest cutting down through the bone with the sharp knife. He pulled upwards and made a cut big enough for his hand to enter.

  Blood flowed all over his bare hand as he dug into her chest and pulled her still pulsing heart out of her body tearing the arteries loose.

  Nomagugu was gone. Her last though was of Iqiniso. She was on her way to meet him again.

  While the blood of the offering again gathered inside the bowl on the altar the heart and the breasts were cut into pieces and divided between the priests. They stuffed the raw meat into their mouths, hungry for youth and power.

  The bowl of gathered blood was then passed amongst them as well. It sealed the pact. It sealed the fate.

  The last drop of blood was swallowed as the infant-creature seemed to animate.

  He uttered a sound.

  It did not sound like an infant but sounded like the grating of rocks moving in an earthquake.

  They all turned around towards the baby and fell to the ground as one, letting their noses touch the earth. Not one dared to look up, for fear of what might happen.

  Then in one voice they bellowed, “Nkosi njalo!”

  King forever!

  “Nkosi njalo!” the cry echoed over and over again through the rooms of the huge cave.

  The sound got louder, and louder till it rocked the very ground on which the ancients stood!

  The power of this moment startled even these Ancient, magical beings, and they felt the fear and panic of the Humans. The cave that sheltered them from Man’s curious eyes was now threatening to encase them again. They ran towards the opening of the cave, the mountain itself seemed to close in around them, sealing them all inside the natural tomb.

  This was the birth of the Immortal Guardian of the People. This was the making of Guardian Mountain

  .

  Chapter 3

  Present Day

  “Thanks for messing up my mangoes you asshole. Take that!”

>   The bullet struck the creature in the eye just before the shot echoed through the valley.

  An almost human scream sounded as the bullet made a mess of everything inside its skull.

  Blood, brain and pieces of mango flew from the gaping hole at the back of the head as the bullet exited. The green leaves of the tree covered with blood and bone as the creature toppled to the ground with a thud.

  With a sigh, 27 year old, Peter Jordan lowered the new Winchester that he had imported from America. This was not really the purpose for which the rifle was bought, but now it seemed appropriate. Make a mess of it….Peter thought drunkenly.