Smoke drifted from the tops of the trees as we approached, the only visible sign of our tribe. Many people were already gathered in the empty clearing surrounding the burning bonfire.
No doubt, the returning warriors were already exchanging stories about how many men they had cut down in battle. The loudest voice, however, was the one that I did not want to hear.
"There we were, ten of us in the woods, surrounded by at least fifty warriors. The odds were stacked against us", Kococuom liked nothing better than the sound of his own voice, which might have explained why he spoke so very loudly. "What did you do?" asked a girl around my age, fluttering her eyelashes. He smirked.
"With the final strength left in our bones we made our last charge. And destroyed them. I killed the chief myself". Gasps and whispered words of excitement echoed throughout the small group that had gathered around him.
"The Ashante tribe was ours for the taking, but we left them to live another day. We had the territory that they had trespassed upon back. And after all, what fun is battle if you have no enemy?" He laughed, a strong, sonorous sound that the others immediately joined with.
"Is it true that the Ashante women are as beautiful as the morning sun?" called Ahanu, a fifteen year old boy who had yet to be brought on a raiding mission, but was eager for his first taste of war. The men around laughed, and the women exchanged glances and raised eyebrows. "I couldn't say. What are they, what is any woman, compared to this treasure I see before me".
Kococuom stood and walked to my side, taking my hand. The girls shot me jealous glances, but I would have gladly traded places with any of them if I had had a choice.
"Thank you, Kococuom, but I'm sure I don't measure up to the beauties of the Ashante. Demothi, you have visited the Ashante tribe, perhaps you can enlighten us, since it seems our warrior here has become so fatigued that he's suffering memory loss", I extracted myself from his compliment as swiftly as I could by directing the group's attention to a senior warrior who was more than willing to describe the Ashante women. No one seemed to notice, or care, about the barbed retort I had posed to Kococuom.
I slipped my hand from his grasp and turned to walk away. "Won't you at least stay and eat with us?" he asked, lightly grabbing my wrist again. "I have to speak with my father before I take any food, but I'll come back to eat with you", I replied, stepping out of the gathered circle.
It was a lie on both accounts; Strictly speaking, I didn't need to speak with Father, and rather wouldn't, and I certainly would not be coming back to eat with them.
To be honest, there really isn't anything wrong with Kococuom, in fact, if you asked any other girl I'm sure she'd say that everything was right. Though he bragged about his exploits, he did no more than the other warriors did. He was handsome; he had long black hair and finely shaped features, with eyes so brown they were almost black. He had never been unkind to me, and I think that he truly did not understand why I was as cold to him as I was.
The one thing that bothered me so much was that he took it for granted that he and I would one day be together. He didn't see it as my choice in picking the person I would spend the rest of my life with, he didn't even see it as his choice. It could be argued that he saw it as my father's choice, but I don't think that was the case. Really, I think he just accepted it as the natural pairing. He was the most handsome, strongest warrior in the tribe, and I was the chieftain's daughter; why wouldn't we be together?
What frustrated me the most was that I didn't have an answer to that question. I could say that I wanted to pick my own husband, but even if Father let me, I would only be directed to another warrior just like Kococuom. I could say I wanted to leave the tribe, but where would I go?
"Daughter", my father, the chief of our tribe, rose from where he sat with his council. "Father. I am glad to see that you are back safely". The words might have sounded like something a loving daughter would say to her father, but behind them was a wall of stone that kept me distanced from him.
Unlike with Kococuom, I had my reasons for not loving my father. There were the personal reasons; he had dismissed me as soon as I was born as a pawn that he could not play until I was older due to my gender.
If I wasn't a boy I wouldn't be able to contribute to the tribe except through marriage to a strong leader. Though my father viewed boys as more useful to the tribe, I think that he preferred me being a girl. This way he thought he had complete control over who the leader of tribe would be after him.
And then there were the semi-political reasons; my father favored war over peace every time, no matter how impractical it was. I don't know why this was for certain, but it my theory was that he simply didn't know how to be the leader of the tribe.
My father had been a great warrior in his time, one of the best, and that truly was where his strengths lied. Though this had served its purpose at the time, it left my father with little idea how to resolve a conflict that did not end in battle. It was one of the reasons he liked Kococuom so much; he knew that he would never question an order to charge into a fight, because Kococuom put almost no thought into his actions.
"Come, join us. I'm sure that we have enough stories between us to entertain you until dawn", Father beckoned to a place beside the fire where the council sat. "I'm actually rather tired. I think I'll go to bed, but I wanted to see you before I did", I said smiling at him, a smile filled with ice.
"Ah yes, good night, daughter", my father said distractedly, already having been drawn into conversation with one of the council members.
"Good night", I whispered under my breath harshly, before striding away to my bed. I walked back to the teepee that was my home, pulling up the flap. I said a silent thank you that I had my own space to retreat to, as all the rest of the unmarried women and children lived in the longhouses with the elders.
That night I dreamt of an arrow. Not any one that I had ever seen before though, not like the kinds we used in battle. This one was completely silver. I stood in the center of our camp where the others had gathered before and watched as it spun and spun and spun in the air, so fast I couldn't even make out the shape anymore. Finally it stopped, pointing east through the trees, to the direction I knew led to the ocean.
Pointing to something that I knew was there, but couldn't see. Something that I felt would be vastly important.