Chapter 6: Nyelu

The birds woke first. The vibrant night songs eroded into the noisy cacophony of birds competing to see which would best welcome the new day. Then the sun burst through the dawn with a steamy violence. The night rains still dripped from the green leaves, burying their campsite in a wet canopy. The Dora Milaje stirred with the sun. Soon chai and porridge boiled over wood fires. The warriors took turns cooking, bathing, tearing down camp, and keeping watch.

The past three weeks of mission left them all weary of heart and body. They agreed it was time to return to their home to share what they had seen on the borderlands. The reports would not make T'Chaka's heart any lighter and they would need to see what could be done to keep peace between their neighbors.

Bella was not sure she would ever fully understand the conflicts, both local and global, in which she now found herself. Their small company had explored the borders of Wakanda. They had traveled over 3500 kilometres (2100 miles) to investigate reports of disturbances. Already, they had come into contact with at least fifteen distinct ethnic groups, each with their own language, history, customs, and view of the world. And that was simply the borderlands. She could not comprehend what complexity she would discover as she traveled further abroad.

She asked as many questions as she could, but still she found herself immersed in a world so entirely new to her that she did not even know which questions would be the right ones to ask.

"I don't understand," Bella said to Okoye as they sat with the Dora Milaje by the morning fire. Okoye slowly drank her porridge, still dressed in her loose night dress and sandals.

"You have asked questions for weeks now, Zimwi. You are more curious than my small brother's last born. What do you still need to know?" she replied.

"When T'Challa first introduced the Dora Milaje to me, he said you were the 'mothers of the nation and the ceremonial wives of the throne.' What exactly does that mean?"

"Ah. You wish to know of us. That is ok," Okoye said, loosening the dignified tension in her shoulders and sinking deeper into the damp grass where she sat. "The Dora Milaje were formed not long after our first King and Black Panther took on the role of guardian of our people. The first Black Panther, even with his extra strength, knew guarding the nation was the job of many and not of one. He spoke with the elders of each of the four tribes and asked them for advice.

"A woman named Busara, rich in years and wisdom, listened as the elders debated the strongest warriors, the bravest men, the most skilled priests. Then, she spoke and said, 'The fiercest of warriors are not the strongest or the bravest or the most skilled. The most loyal warriors are those fighting to protect those they love from harm. The fiercest warrior of all is a mother protecting her children, who does not fear her own death so long as her children are safe.'

"So, the Dora Milaje was formed of women who could be taught to be strong, brave, and skilled. First and foremost, they are the mothers of our kingdom who are willing to sacrifice themselves in order to keep our people safe. They are wives of the throne, dedicated mind, heart, and soul to protecting our kingdom from harm, inside and out. We have continued this tradition till today."

"So, they are married to the king?" Bella asked, wrinkling her nose.

Okoye laughed. "Not in the way you are thinking. It is a ceremonial, or symbolic, title. It means, when they take their five year oath of service, they will honor the throne of Wakanda and the people of Wakanda with the same diligence they would give to their own husband and children. During that time, all other relationships must be secondary so they can give their full attention to their duty."

Bella continued to ponder Okoye's words while she rolled a flower between her fingers.

"You are chewing on a thought as a cow chews grass. Speak, Zimwi."

"You speak of being a mother as if it is a greater honor than being a warrior," Bella said. "That surprises me."

"It is. In our culture, becoming a father or a mother is the highest of honors and the greatest of duties. If we have no children, we are like a tree with no roots. We are the bridge between the past and the future of our people. Our ancestors, the living dead whose spirits remain with us, they connect us to the past. They remain in the world of the living by their relatives who still honor their memories and know their names.

"Our children are our future. They will keep us connected to the land of the living through their remembrances of us when we are gone. They ensure we have deep roots in our land and deep roots into the future generations of our people. What will our great cities and great works and great men accomplish if there is no one who remembers the names of the ones who built them? The works of their hands may still live, but their spirits will be lost and forgotten, wandering the earth with the nameless dead. No, it is better to stay small and be remembered for many generations, still beloved by one's descendants than to achieve greatness in one lifetime and be forgotten for many."

"But what about people who cannot or choose not to have children?"

"We are one people and one nation. My sisters' children are mine as mine are theirs. I do not need to bear life from my own body to give life to the young. I can still protect, teach, and grow those around me. I still remember the name of my grandfather's sister. She bore no child of her own, but she spoke truth to me and treated me as her own. I honor her memory. My role with the Dora Milaje means I am still fulfilling my duty as a mother to my people. If I do it well, I will have many children who will remember my name and honor my memory."

"Thank you for explaining and being patient with my questions," Bella said. "I have a lot I still need to learn."

"Karibu," Okoye said. "We must leave soon if we are going to make good time. I would like to return home by sunset tomorrow."

oooooooooooooooooooo

Okoye left Bella by the fire. She went to the nearby lake to draw a bucket of water for her bath, eager to rinse off the sweat and dust before donning her uniform. She turned and gracefully placed the bucket on her head. She began to make her way back to camp when all of the sudden, she heard a sound like that of a snake sliding on slate rocks. She glanced back over her shoulder and her heart stopped as she saw two black clawed fingers holding a grey shape near the water's edge. She threw her spear with enough force to pin a man into a tree. But this was no man.

The sound of a woman's scream pierced through the heart of camp. The warriors leapt into action, grabbing spears and running towards the sound. Bella sprinted full speed, arriving at the side of the lake within moments. She saw Okoye struggling with an opponent and lunged in preparation to attack.

At first glance, it seemed almost like a man, but he gleamed like an eel in the morning light. A large, muscular torso reflected the sun like well-polished black marble before it curved into the scaled, slippery tail of a fish. The tail glistened in brilliant shades of indigo and turquoise as it wrapped and coiled around the bank of the lake, maintaining the creature's hold on Okoye. His tail slapped at the water, making a sound like a gunshot reverberate off the nearby trees, punctuated by Okoye's screams.

Then the creature smiled. The narrow slits of eyes shone with a bright yellow light, as if a candle lit them from within the pitch black face. The face lacked any nose save for two small holes. The lipless mouth opened cruelly to reveal two rows of jagged, pointed teeth.

Claw-like fingers scratched and pulled at what Bella thought was the ground until she realized he was pulling something. The gray form writhed as Okoye continued to scream and struggle. The shape mimicked Okoye's movements exactly, and Bella realized it was Okoye's shadow caught in the creature's claws. His muscles coiled as he yanked fiercely, the distance between Okoye and her shadow growing.

"Bella! Help! He must not get my shadow," Okoye shouted, eyes wide in terror as she continued to beat at the creature's arms with all her strength. "Do not let him pull my shadow into the water."

Bella lunged, tackling into the creature with full strength, only to find herself rebounded flat onto the muddy bank without their bodies even meeting.

"Zimwi," the creature hissed. He released one hand from Okoye's shadow and began to reach for Bella's shadow with his other. As he braced to tug on both at once, his eyes flashed and he hissed again, translucent gills extending down his neck and flapping as he gurgled. His second attempt once again brought him no closer to his goal.

His narrow eyes suddenly opened, like arrow slits on a castle wall. He then jumped faster than even Bella could have imagined and attempted to dig into her shadow with his glistening teeth.

Before Bella could even try to fight back, his throat gave a gargled scream, half way in between a screech and a choke. He released Bella's shadow and grabbed Okoye's with both hands. Bella crouched and attacked, only to once again be repelled. The space between Okoye and her shadow inched farther and farther apart as the shadow sank into the lake.

The creature murmured something unintelligible and widened his teeth into a jagged, deadly grin.

"No!" Bella shouted desperately and jumped, this time towards Okoye instead of her shadow. Bella covered her with all the physical strength and all the mental energy she could muster. "She is mine!" Bella shouted again, burying all her thoughts into protecting Okoye.

A scream of anger erupted from the lake and the shadow suddenly flung back to Okoye, reattaching itself. Both women stared as the creature began to writhe and leap towards them again only to hit an invisible wall and fall to the ground again and again.

"I don't know what's stopping it, but I don't really want to wait around to find out. I'm going to carry you and run," Bella said. Okoye nodded and Bella grabbed both the woman and her spear and sprinted as fast as she could. They could still hear creature's furious squalling and protesting from the lake below. A circle of soldiers armed with spears surrounded them halfway between the camp and the lake.

"Are you alright?" Ayo asked Okoye.

"Yes. I have a few cuts and I will have an impressive scar on my leg, but I am alive."

"What….was….that?" Bella asked, eyes still wide, and still clinging to Okoye. She slowly set Okoye on the ground where soldiers began to bandage her wounds.

"That was Nyelu," Okoye responded, breathlessly.

"Sometimes he is called the 'Soul-Eater,'" Ayo added. "He lives in the waters, both underground and on the surface of the earth. He steals the souls of the people whose shadows he can grab. He takes the shadows deep underground to his caverns where he imprisons the souls in calabashes. The body can only survive a few days without its soul before it returns to the earth."

"But Black Panther banished Nyelu from our lands five hundred years ago," another woman said, amidst the flabbergasted murmurs of the surrounding soldiers. "And the Alur bound him into sleep a hundred and fifty years ago. It is impossible!"

"Our experience this morning would suggest otherwise," the General responded. "The real question is who has woken him and how did he gain entry back into Wakanda?"

Ooooooooooooooooooooo

Nyelu screeched and beat his powerful arms against his chest until he saw the little encampment of spears and shining heads depart. In all his tens of thousands of years, not once had he failed. The spindly life force of a shadow belonged to him the moment his claws made contact. As he turned back towards the lake and slithered towards his bank, he flapped his tail angrily against the squelching mud. Suddenly, his yellow eyes grew large again as his scales met not the warm, muddy water of the shallows, but the unyielding, frigid cold of a substance much too cold to be rock.

His claws and tail slammed down again and he found the rim of his lake had been turned into solid ice, a hazy brown color from the muddy shallows. He swung around, looking at the steaming heat rising off the tropical, equatorial land nearby. Yet, beneath him, his lake sat frozen through. He screamed again and tried to break through the barrier which left him so exposed to the dangers of the evaporating sun.

Suddenly, a white face appeared beneath him in the ice, whiter than an egret's feathers. A woman's eyes, more piercing than daggers, met his own and he drew back as he felt the power of her magic trying to entangle him in her nets.

"Nyelu, Soul Eater, why are your claws still empty?" the woman asked in a voice colder than the ice beneath him.

He growled and tried to punch through the ice to reach the woman's face. The woman laughed, a laugh that simply infuriated him more.

"You cannot reach me that way," she said. "Come, you are as hungry as I am. Let us work together. I will help you fill your calabashes. I will bring you prey and you will eat as many as you desire."

Nyelu looked at her with one eye and scratched at the ice with his claw, drawing a long, thin, screeching line across the smooth surface. Suddenly, the ice vanished and he found himself sinking into the warm waters beneath.

ooooooooooooooo

A/N

Nyelu comes from the Alur, a Nilotic people of northwestern Uganda. The legend warns people not to go to the well to fetch water at midday because Nyelu will steal their shadow. Legend obtained through oral interview with an Alur friend.

Zimwi: For the purposes of this story, vampire.

Karibu: Welcome.