The Secret of the Sands
The story of Cheikema
Chapter 1 The death of Aikonoaiga
"Many seasons ago there was a great war. Our people fought hard but unfortunately we lost."
"Were you there Grandfather?"
"No, That was a long time ago."
"What happened next?"
"Ok. So the Guku tribe kept the golden sands. The Hrriei tribe went back to the ocean"
"And our tribe Grandfather? What about our tribe?"
"Well our tribe was the nameless tribe. We were a new tribe. What our tribe did was gather weapons food and water. After that we started to look for golden sands."
"And we are still looking right?"
"Yes we are still looking ."
"When are we going to find it Grandfather?"
"I don't know child. Look your father is back from hunting" I stared at my father. He was hurt
"Father! Are you ok?"
"No. I was attacked by a lion when we were rabbit hunting. But we got the rabbit we will eat today child." "But what about you?" He was badly hurt . The others helped him lay down and treated his wounds. My mother saw him and ran to him
"Aikonoaiga!" My mother sat at his side. She cried.
"Cheikema!" My father called me. I sat at next to him
"Yes father?"
"I am very hurt child."
"I know father. I know"
"I don't think I will make it." He told me I only stared at his black eyes. I didn't want to believe he could die. I didn't want him to die.
"Cheikema! I want you to take care of your mother for me."
"Yes father I will"
"Now listen carefully. When I die my brother will be the new leader of the tribe."
"I understand"
"You follow your uncle and find the golden sand . I want you to be the first one to have a family in the golden sands. Promise me you will find them."
"We will find them father. We will!"
"Good. Now let me talk to your mother."
Some hours later my father died. We mourned the loss and gathered our things and moved on like we always did in search of the golden sand.
My uncle was now the leader. I was now under the care of my Grandfather.
"Cheikema!"
"Yes Grandfather?"
"I don't trust your Uncle. He may be my son but I'm sure we have been here before. He is not very good at searching for the sand."
"What can we do?"
"I'm afraid we can't do anything about it child. Until you grow up child"
"I don't get it?"
"When you grow up you can challenge him and become leader."
"But Grandfather I can't fight uncle Maike!"
"Not now child. First you have to be a strong warrior and you have to enhance your skills. If you are better than your uncle the people will choose you. Why do you think your father was leader even if your uncle Maike was the oldest Cheikema?"
"Because he was the best warrior?"
"Yes Cheikema. If you become wise, strong , and brave you will be the best leader and the tribe will want you to be the leader. Your uncle is a horrible leader. We are going in circles. We can't have that."
I guess he was right. But I liked my uncle. He may be a bad leader but he was a nice person. And he tried his best to be a good leader. It wasn't his fault he had a horrible sense of direction.
Chapter 2 Cheikema the lion hunter
Seasons went by and I had grown. I was still considered a child but I could hunt with the others. We were still going in circles. I gathered my courage and decided to talk to my uncle.
"Uncle Maike?"
"Yes Cheikema?"
"I have to talk to you. Alone"
"Sure kid" So we went to his hut.
"Uncle Maike we are going in circles. I didn't want to tell you but we have been since my father died."
"WHAT!"
"The people are getting angry I don't want them to hurt you. They want me to challenge you to become leader. I don't want to. I'm afraid uncle Maike you have to help me!"
"They want you to be leader? Why you?"
"I don't know. I guess because my father used to be leader."
He looked down at the ground
"Well Cheikema. If you are going to challenge me go ahead."
"I don't want to challenge you uncle Maike. That is why I came to talk to you."
"Oh, I see. So what are you planning to do Cheikema?"
"Ok you let me tell you which way to go so we wont be going in circles anymore but you will still be the leader." He stared at me for a while.
"Sounds good to me. Cheikema, for a kid you are very smart" My uncle said and smiled.
For seasons we did this. I would tell my uncle where to go and he would give the orders. I didn't have to challenge my uncle and the people were happy.
Uncle Maike was my best friend we always went hunting together. He was good at finding rabbits. And I was good at catching them. Together we were the best hunters in the Tribe.
But I knew Maike's secret. He was not afraid of lions he was terrified of lions. He was there when the lion attacked my father and since that day if we ever saw one he would panic .
We went hunting with the rest of the hunters. We caught two rabbits. That is when Maike saw the lion.
"Ahhhhhhhhh …kaian, kaian, kaian!" He took off running. The other hunters laughed.
"Some leader. Look at him run in fear!" One said
"SHUT UP!" I shouted at them. Since Maike ran the lion saw him and went after him.
"I lost my father to that beast I will not loose my uncle too" I said and took a spear and went to rescue my uncle.
Maike ran and the lion chased him. The lion scratched his face. He fell on his knees. He had given up. That is when I jumped and landed on the beast's back and drove the spear into his head and killed it. The hunters usually ran from lions. We were rabbit hunters and we were no match for a lion but I had killed one.
Uncle Maike's face was covered in blood. I helped him up and we went back to the huts.
Uncle Maike recovered but he now had scars on his face and had lost one eye. The people tried to make me leader again. I was afraid to be leader.
"Cheikema go ahead you are a better hunter than I am. You always were and you have good sense of direction. Go ahead and take my place" My uncle said
"I can't! I'm afraid to be leader. "
"You will be a great leader Cheikema. You are not a child anymore. You will be a legend like your father was. You might even be better. You killed that Kaian out there. I have never seen anyone do anything like it. Your father would have been proud of you Cheikema.
And so from that day I was leader of the Akhrrana tribe.
Chapter 3 Competition?
We continued the search for the golden sands like the generations before us. Stopping during the egg seasons to care for the eggs. The other seasons we would travel. I got married finally. I had promised my father to be the first to have a family in the golden sands but I decided to have one now. I married a beautiful zhrray by the name of Oitha. We had 7 children though some of them died. It was a sad fact but we had to live with it. Living out here was not always safe. The wolfos sometimes came and ate some of the children. We would fight them off but sometimes we were not so lucky. So now we had 4 children.
We reached an area where other people lived. There were other huts in the area. We decided to take a look.
This strange people lived there. They were hunters too but they looked nothing like us. They had dry skin, and pointy ears and they covered their bodies with animal skins. We built our huts in a different meadow. When we went hunting they were there too. They were great hunters. We were able to catch a bird. They came up to us but we couldn't understand.
We had to stay because of egg season so the other tribe was not very happy. We tried to explain but we couldn't communicate. We didn't mean to invade their hunting grounds and compete against them but we couldn't leave for the next four months.
They attacked us. Those people attacked us with without warning. They had better weapons than we did. They shot at us with arrows. We had to leave the eggs behind or die. Oitha wouldn't leave her eggs, not that I would have either. The hunters shot her with their arrows. She fell at my feet. I fell to my knees to cry.
That is when one of he hunters found out we had eggs here. He lifted the egg and walked up to me and handed it over to me. I held my future child in my arms. I was crying My wife was dieing and I could do nothing about it. The strange looking hunter kneeled next to Oitha and took the arrow from her chest.
She screamed in pain. He said something to the other people and none of them moved so he got up and came back with a huge red leaf and placed it on her wound.
"Cheikema?" Oitha finally said something.
"Yes my love"
"It doesn't hurt anymore. That leaf it takes the pain away. I think he is trying to help us" she whispered.
"Yes Oitha I think so too" I held her in my arms and kissed her.
"Please don't leave me Oitha. Please…don't.."
"Don't let my eggs die Cheikema. Don't let them die"
"I promise I will guard them Oitha. Oitha? NO! don't go…" But she did . She died right there in my arms. I put her down and got up. I was angry. I felt like I wanted to kill every single one of those hunters. But I didn't know why they attacked. Or who started it. And that guy who looked like the leader had tried to save Oitha.
I stared at him with tears running down my face. He placed his hand on my shoulder and said something but I couldn't understand. I went to our nest and started digging looking for the rest of our eggs. I found all five of them. I held all my six eggs. I called the others and we all started to get our eggs.
Finally I think they understood . That we were staying because we were waiting for our eggs to hatch.
That same guy stopped me and took one of my eggs and put it back. I only stared. He pointed at my eggs and back at our nest. They were letting us stay.
"I think they are letting us stay."
"I don't trust them Cheikema." My uncle said
"I think they didn't trust us either but they found out we meant them no harm."
"You want us to stay Cheikema?"
"If we take the eggs they won't survive, they need to stay cool and we can't leave the eggs behind . My wife died trying to save my children. I cannot honor her if I let the eggs die"
So we put our eggs back in our nests and guarded them day and night or the four months. We took the hatchlings to a water pool.
As soon as our children could breathe air we took them with us.
The leader stopped me before we left and gave me a bow and arrows. I think it was a gift.
I took the lion tooth I had around my neck and gave it to him. He nodded and I nodded back. I went to where I had buried Oitha and said goodbye and we moved on.
Chapter 4 Dry lands
We walked for seasons stopping only because of the eggs like always. But soon we reached a land that was filled with Golden sand.
"CHEIKEMA WE DID IT!" I couldn't believe it either. There was golden sand as far as my eyes could see. So we had our eggs in golden sand. I was not the first like I promised my father I would be.
But it was hot. We were loosing moisture fast.
"Cheikema something is wrong about this place" My uncle told me. He was right. It was to hot to live here.
So I called a meeting.
"I don't think this place is safe" I said
"But Cheikema we found the golden sands"
"Yes we did. But I don't want to die here. Look at me! My skin is drying up. And so is all of yours. If we don't find water soon we are all going to die"
"I'm staying here. Our ancestors didn't die searching for nothing!" Hrrim, who was one of the hunters , said
"It's to dry here. We will die! This is not what our ancestors were looking for. They said there would be water. I don't see any !" Uncle Maike said
"Maike is right!"
"But this are the golden sands Cheikema" Hrrim shouted
"I DON'T CARE! I don't care if we never find the place our ancestors looked for as long as the people I love live. I have lost to many people to see you all die because I brought you here!" I shouted
So the tribe divided. Those who wanted to stay joined Hrrim and those who wanted to move on joined me. They dug their eggs out.
"Ahhhhhhh! MY EGGS! NOOOOOOOOOO!" Someone shouted we all went to look. The eggs had boiled to death. It was to hot for them. After that many of the people who were with Hrrim changed their mind. Most of them did.
"You want to stay here and die! GO AHEAD I wont stop you but don't say I didn't warn you."
We started to walk away when we heard someone shout
"WAIT! I'm coming with you" So that day we lost five people who dried up in the sands. And Hrim was one of them. Many people started to believe that all our traveling was useless
"There must be a better place. The Golden sands were not like our ancestors said"
"I agree. From now on we will search for permanent nesting grounds close to fresh water" I said
We finally got out of the sands and the sand storms. We reached a land with less sand and covered with rocks. Other people lived here too but we tried to avoid them. I didn't want a misunderstanding like before when Oitha died. We were thirsty and hungry. I was about to tell the tribe we were lost when one of the scouts whistled.
"WATER!" He shouted we all ran to look. Yes there was water but at a canyon below us.
"Well what do you say? Should we start climbing down. I'm thirsty."
"LETS GO!" Someone else shouted and everyone started climbing down to the river below. There was not enough room to build our huts down there and we couldn't find anything to build huts with. So we just sat there by the river. I saw more fish than I had seen in my entire life. We drank from the water and ate fish.
"Cheikema!"
I turned around . It was my uncle.
"Yes uncle Maike?"
"I have an idea but I'm not sure if it will work"
"Ok go on"
"Look at the water. It's going very fast that means its going somewhere big right?"
"I guess" It made sense the water had to be going somewhere and this somewhere had to be big enough to hold a lot of water. So we could be closer to our nesting grounds than we thought.
Chapter 5 Follow the river
We followed the flow of the river. Unfortunately we were spotted by the tribe who lived around the area. They looked very much like the other people we saw before but they were darker and didn't have the pointy ears. They were fishing with spears just like we were. I don't think they were happy to have us around their fishing area. They stared at us.
"What do we do Cheikema? Run?"
"Not unless they attack us Maike"
That is when we heard a sound a blowing sound. I turned to the sound and saw a strange creature blowing a shell. Suddenly more of them popped their heads out of the river. The people from the other tribe looked like they had seen them before. To our surprise the heads from the river attacked they shot fire from their mouths. We ran.
They were able to swim faster than anything I had ever seen. They would leap out of the water and shoot fire and go back under water.
My youngest child fell into the river rapids. I jumped in after him. To my surprise I could swim very well myself.
"Maigaku!"
"Father!" Maigaku climbed up on a rock and held on. I reached the rock and climbed it to. Maigaku gave me a hug.
"Maigaku it's not over look!" They were back one of them jumped on to the rock. I used my fighting fins to fight him off. I think I killed him. He fell into the river. I held my son and swam back to shore.
"Wow Cheikema that was amazing!" My uncle said. They all cheered for me but I didn't feel happy at all. I had just created an enemy. I didn't like that at all. The last thing we needed was an enemy. We left the area and the other tribe on the other side of the river waved at us. I don't know why.
I had saved my son and we had all survived so far. We continued walking stopping only to get food and water. We were attacked by the people of the river over ten times. We lost some people to the fire I was not very happy. We tried to move out of the area as fast as we could.
And finally we did. It was a beautiful place I have never seen so much water in my life.
Chapter 6 A new home
This is it. We finally did it. There was clear pure water and fish all over. There were trees with shade around the lake. So we started building our huts.
"Are we going to stay here Cheikema?" My uncle asked me.
"I hope so! Look at this place. The sand is not golden but it is much better than when we found the golden sand." I dove into the water. The water was calm and relaxing. This is where we belonged. In the water. We had fins for a reason. We had almost forgotten who we were. We were people from the water. We were like fish with fins and scales but we were different. We had free thought . We could decide what to do with our lives much more than a mere fish. We had something they didn't. The ability to feel love, sadness, rage. Other feelings like happiness and fear are to simple and are expressed by the fish but a fish can't feel hope. Yes we were different. And we still are. Those are the kind of thoughts that went through my mind when I laid down to sleep in my hut.
My eight children slept comfortably in their own hut, all my people were at peace. It was this night when I realized that I was a good leader. I never wanted to be a leader but sometimes things happen and once you are over the fear you may find out that you actually like it and it makes you feel good.
I walked out of my hut and sat there under he moonlight. I thought about Oitha. I still loved her. I wish she could see her children, how big they were now. The moon gave light and I saw my reflection in the waters of the lake.
"Cheikema, you finally did it. You have done everything you needed to do. You protected the people and lead them to a new home. Now what ?" I told myself. Then suddenly a face was there. It was not my reflection. My first reaction was to back away. I didn't move and he came out of the water. It was about the size of a child, actually he was a child. He was covered with spots. He looked very much like our people the fins and the scales but the tail on his head looked more like a regular fish. He smiled he had needle sharp teeth I smiled back. That is when his mother came out of the water, hissed at me, held her child, and jumped back into the water. Other people lived here. I was sad now I had to tell the people that this little paradise was taken.
To my surprise the child came back and handed me a fish. I took it and smiled. I sat down. I turned to the Lake. They were staring at me with their golden eyes waiting to see what I would do.
I took a bite from the raw fish. It was good fish.
Slowly one by one they all came out to see me. The child came closer and touched my face. He backed away and went to his mother. That is when my only daughter woke up. She saw all the strange people around me and screamed. Everyone woke up.
"Cheikema! Are you ok?"
"I'm fine. I'm trying to communicate here. Oithakakaya, come here"
My little girl came. I sat her on my lap and gave her a kiss. They kept staring. I moved my hand asking the child to come closer. I smiled at him.
"Oitha bring your toys and play with him"
"But…papa! I'm scared"
"Nothing to be afraid of he is just a boy." Soon they were playing. They all moved and the one appeared to be the leader came up to me. He placed his hands on my shoulders and smiled. I smiled back.
He gave me a big blue fish. I was about to eat it but he stopped me. He took my arm and started to walk so I followed. He was shorter than me but you could tell he was much older.
We entered a small well decorated hut. There was a stone basin in the center and a small idol looking object. He made a small fire in the basin, pointed at the fish, and pointed at the basin. I nodded and put the blue fish inside. The fire burned it until there was nothing but ashes. He took the ash with his hands and shook my hand. I guess it was some way of letting me know we were not enemies.
Chapter 7 Krrayaku
We lived on the shore of the Lake and the other tribe lived in the Lake itself. With many seasons we finally understood each other. Actually they understood us first. Their language was very complicated and ours was simple. The leader was Hrraikelanthrra. That in itself meant Cloud I had a son named Cloud as well but it was so much easier to say Aibu than to say Hrraikelanthrra. So they spoke with us.
I started communicating with them as well. I met a zhrray by the name of Krrayaku. She was very smart and I learned many things about her people from her, and of course from her father, Hrraikelanthrra. We were not of the same species I guess but I thought she was beautiful for a zhray that was not of my own kind. I liked her but I didn't say anything about it.
One day Hrraikelanthrra asked us to become more than just allies.
"There is not enough of my people to go on Cheikema"
"I don't understand"
"Listen Cheikema. My people are dieing out. Your people are not that many either. This last days I have been thinking about our future. I think I know what we have to do. I see the way my daughter looks at you and …you I see the way you stare back. And I realized I found the answer." Hrraikelanthrra said
"I don't get it Hrraikelanthrra"
"Cheikema your people and my people are not so different. If you are yirro enough for my daughter to fall in love with, what makes you think our people cannot be more than just allies. Cheikema are you wiling to make an egg bonding alliance?" Hrraikelanthrra said and stared at me waiting for an answer.
We were not the same kind but we were alike. Their eggs were identical to ours only their eggs couldn't survive in the sand and our could. But what could happen. Will my people be willing to do it. Then it dawned on me. Hrraikelanthrra knew I liked his daughter and was not angry about it and I didn't know Krrayaku was in love with me either. He asked me for an egg bonding alliance. He was asking me to marry his daughter. I stared at him with all this thoughts in my head. And finally I smiled.
"I'll do it!" I said, Hrraikelanthrra's jaw dropped.
"You will? Excellent! Wait here we will do this as soon as possible."
"WHAT?"
"To start the alliance we will begin with you" Hrraikelanthrra said. He caught me off guard. He wanted me to marry Krrayaku now? This very day at this very moment! I ran home.
"Wow Cheikema slow down you look like you saw a monster or something" My uncle said and laughed.
"Hrraikelanthrra asked me to have an egg bonding alliance with him."
"What? You mean like trading children like our ancestors did?" Maike asked me
"Yes exactly like that"
"So did you agree?"
"Yes"
"Yes! Who are you and Hrraikelanthrra Trading Cheikema?"
"I'm not trading. I'm the one getting married"
"WH..WHAT? When?"
"Right now." I told him "I hope I'm not making a big mistake you know. Call everyone please"
"Ok whatever you say Cheikema…wait…Cheikema? With Krrayaku right?"
"Yes" I answered. He started laughing.
"I think Krrayaku asked Hrraikelanthrra to make the alliance. Have you seen the way she looks at you ?"
"In fact, yes I have" I said
"It doesn't bother you that she is using this alliance thing as an excuse to make you marry her?" I frowned and shook my head
"Wait you like her too don't you?" He asked suddenly.
"Yes I do . You think I will marry anyone just to make some alliance? No! I will only get married for love not for pact of loyalty. What kind of person do you take me for?"
"Sorry Cheikema I didn't mean it that way"
Hrraikelanthrra came back with Krrayaku and soon enough everyone was here. From both tribes
"I would like to say something before we begin" I said. They all became silent waiting for me to speak
"I don't know how this will turn out. I made an arrangement with Hrraikelanthrra. I agreed to marry his daughter. The truth is I ..well…I love her too so if this works out it will be a good thing. I will marry Krrayaku if our essences are compatible and not only our hearts and we are able to have children we will allow both of our tribes to have an egg bonding alliance and we can do what our ancestors did and trade children but not until we know if it's safe" I explained
"So let me get this straight you are using yourself as a test of judgment even if you can be forever bound to someone who will never be able to give you any children?" One of the gatherers asked
"Yes. I will live with it. I am a father of eight, seven boys and a girl. I have already lived as a parent I will not loose much."
So I married Krrayaku and her father allowed her to live with our tribe. She moved to my hut of course. It was all new to her. She was used to sleeping underwater not on dry land. She was not used to eating anything else but fish. But she said that as long as she could stay with me she would live with it.
I could never forget Oitha but Krrayaku filled that hollow emptiness inside my soul that had been there since Oitha died, and she made me happy.
Chapter 8 Egg bonding alliance
And so by the next egg season everyone was waiting to see if Krrayaku would lay her eggs. She did.
She had 7 of them. I didn't want to risk it so we had the eggs taken care for the way her tribe did, underwater. It felt strange not digging a nest this time but I guess they knew how to care for the eggs and Krrayaku said she knew how to fight the fish off. The fish in the lake can eat the eggs if you are not careful. But We didn't want to risk killing them by taking care of them the way my people did out of water. So we waited patiently and 4 months later they hatched. Most of them. Two of them didn't
"Kaya? What happened to those two" I asked
"Nothing they are duds"
"What?"
"It's normal with my people for some of the eggs to be fakes. It helps protect the eggs if a fish takes one it might take a dud egg and you still have all your children"
"So they are fake eggs?"
"Yes Cheikema! They are fake they were never meant to hatch so don't feel bad"
I had 5 new children. I was now a father of 13 children. Soon enough they grew and I started to see how different they were. They were so different. They were a perfect blend of the tribes. They were bluish green. Blue from me and green from her. They had spots but not so many. They had strong tails like my people did and the black dark eyes.
So from that day on my people blended with her people and we were like one tribe. We were not the Akhrrana anymore. We didn't care about the sand. With the seasons we were acting more and more like them. They called themselves the Zohrrahrrathrra but it was a long name so us Akhrrana kept calling them Zohrra and so with the seasons we called us all Zohrra. We started to follow their traditions and their rituals. They had gods and goddesses they worshiped. We used to be more ancestral. But we mixed ourselves completely with them.
I was still viewed with great respect for a leader of a tribe that didn't exist anymore.
Krrayaku' s father died so everyone looked up to me.
My children grew up and got married.
I was a well respected Yirro but I knew I was old and I can't live for much longer. I knew one of my many sons will be the next leader. I didn't know who. It would be for the people to decide after I die.
I had done what I was asked for. I took my people to the golden sand. But I found out it was not what we expected. But I did find the people a place to live and we even found a way to keep our bloodline alive even if it was with a different species. And so I guess I can die as a happy old Yirro who accomplished what had to be done for the survival of the people. And even if we Akhrrana's vanish a trace of us will still be there in the blood of the Zohrra of this Lake.
The end