I-I: Daughter of Man
Mt. Nimba, West Africa
851 Anno Domini
The night was calm and cool atop the mountain. There, a small fire blazed quietly on one of the level surfaces of the highland, the tribe that calls it home are called the Mani. They are part of the Kru peoples, which is also part of the Akan heritage. The Kru are quite different from their eastern brethren, the western tribes were infamously known for being pirates, the reavers and raiders of the coasts.
This particular tribe liked to go downhill from the river, but their raids don't really go as well as they hoped, as the coastal Krumen had better spears and more men than them.
Perhaps those outsiders beyond their seas had something to do with it.
Nonetheless, they made do with the few sheep that can graze atop their mountain home, the relative safety from the warring jungles was a blessing in their eyes.
The biggest hut was owned by a large man named Guere Yawo, this large man was their leader, and he is currently trying his best to not shit his pants. Guere Yoofi rolled his eyes at his elder brother.
"It will go well, today is the seventh moon. Nothing bad will happen on the seventh moon!" he patted his brother's shoulder.
"Oh, come off it! What if Ami perishes!? I am old, Yoofi! I will not be mocked by the likes of you and your perverted friends for not bearing any firstborn!" he glared at his brother, several of several moons younger than him.
"You know that was a joke, brother-" he started.
"Unhand me, you mischievous usurper!" he slapped his younger brother's hand away and hissed at him.
Yoofi rolled his eyes at the senile man bearing down on him, he ignored the stink of his beard as he peered his eyes at the leather curtain. He raised one eyebrow.
"Come on then! Speak up! Let us duel-" he was interrupted by a shush and finger on his lips.
"Honoured brother, it sounds like-"
"Waaaah! Waaaaaah! Waah! Waaaaaaah!" a cry rang out within the small chamber.
"It is a girl! Lady Chief! Healthy and hale!" the shaman announced, holding the baby in the air.
The battered and broken body of the mother, Ami, smiled in aching repose. Her eyes blurry with tears.
"Pass her to me." she whispered, weakly presenting her sweaty arms to the shaman-midwife of Asase Yaa, mother-goddess of earth and life. The shaman looked at her before peering down at the baby, then slowly, a scrutinizing look was present on her face.
"Asì? W-Why are you looking at her like that?" she tittered nervously. Was something wrong? Is her baby truly healthy and hale? Was she-
Gone from this world too early?
"Your daughter…" Yes! What about her daughter!? What happened to her!?
"She is… different." Asì said, a strange look on her face. She still couldn't see her, she needed to know now!
"Tell me!" she hissed in pain, terror, and hope.
"She has-"
"I've had enough! It is time to see my heir!" a gravelly voiced boomed from beyond the curtain, revealing the large chief that towered over most of all them. He looked to the bundle and commanded-
"Woman, show me my heir! I must look closely." the shaman gave him an unimpressed look, and looked towards the wife for confirmation instead. The chieftain's face only grew more agitated at the gesture.
Sighing, his wife said-
"Show him, he is my husband after all…" she said breathily, her head slumping down into the table, which she let out a small grunt. Tightening her face and with great reluctance, the priestess of the earth-mother uncovered the bundle, to reveal some kind of small, bloody, hairy, and white beast.
"You show me a lamb?" Yawo looked at this feisty priestess, incredulous.
"It is not a lamb, you old fool! She is your daughter!" Asì said, heat radiating from her declaration. At that, Yawo had the last straw and took a deep breath as much as his failing lungs could muster.
"OF ALL THINGS, WHY MUST ALL GO DISORDERLY, A FAILED RAID, HALF OF OUR TRIBE MISSING, NOW YOU TELL ME THAT MY HEIR IS A FEMALE LAMB!? I AM DISAPPOINTED, SO MUCH SO!" he rumbled, body shaking in poor health and in rage, spittle dropping over their old carpets, his hands clenching desperately to crush the object of his ire. His wife began to sob softly, with the woman shaman quickly going to her side with the baby to comfort her.
"Brother, calm yourself-" Yoofi attempted to calm them, but that sadly wasn't meant to be. The shaman, after saying gentle reassurances to her, and gently laying the infant in a nearby crib. She marched towards the bearded giant that was twice the size of her, and began to show off her prowess in the arena of words.
"SHE IS NO LAMB, GUERE! SHE IS AMI'S DAUGHTER AND HEIR, YOU-"
"SILENCE! YOU IRRITATING-"
"-POMPOUS, PRIDEFUL, WHY DID WE EVER AGREE TO MARRY MY SISTER-"
"-THE GODS HAVE CURSED ME! FOR WHAT!? FOR-" he began to raise his hand.
"BROTHER NO!" Yoofi yelled, in fear for the consequences of striking an agent of the great spirits, the abasom. Another for…
*SLAP!*
"AH!" the priestess fell on her hunches, holding the stinging pain of her rapidly reddening cheek. She lifted her hand on her face to reveal…
Blood.
"YOU DARE STRIKE MY WIFE!?" Yoofi also had enough of this farce.
Quickly, he punched his bigger brother in the jaw, before he was suddenly out of breath as his elder gave his stomach his meaty punch. Some of the midwives in the room were screaming their hearts out, enough to wake the rest of the tribe of the commotion. But these two men were in their own little world now, only Yawo and Yoofi existed, and only one of them was allowed to continue existing.
They continued coming to blows, Yawo nearly taking out Yoofi's eye with his vicious open palm spearing. The priestess was quickly got up and already become a shield for the newly-made mother and child.
*CRASH*
"Goddess…!" she watched them crash and break the wall of their wooden hut, she heard the support of the entire dwelling near its limit. The creaking of wood and the flapping of cloth did not give her any sort of goblet for living a fulfilling and long life.
"Oh Goddess, protect us…!" she thought, her calloused hand holding her sore and bleeding face, the cries of mother and child echoing in the night.
Meanwhile, the two men rolled down the hill, holding each other in place, dirt and rock scraped skin and broke some bones as they neared the bottom of their tribal holdings. A medium-sized boulder, violently and divorced the two men, both breaking their arms in the process.
…
"Ugh…!"
"Uggghh…"
…
…
…
"Brother…" the younger one spoke, his gaze was cast towards the twinkling stars above.
"Why are you like this…?" he continued, wanting an answer.
"... Heh, you know my time is up. You are stronger than I am now…" the older replied, no longer grumpy, but bemused, like he was… his younger self, so long ago.
…
…
…
"Father was cruel to all of us."
"Maybe this was his revenge, heh. Your fiery wife was right, I am a fool." in response, the younger laughed in pain.
"You were always a fool brother, irresponsible, reckless, and then-"
"The most beautiful woman in the world presented herself in my eye, then she fell in love with you, I was stuck with her dull sister."
"You are not very tactful, are you?"
"You said it yourself, haven't you? A fool, I am."
They both laughed painfully, together.
…
…
…
"Take care of her brother… she deserved better than a… poor excuse of… a chieftain I was…"
"Don't be silly, you can apologize, then we can pretend this was all just a misunderstanding."
"..."
"We'll have lamb, to celebrate. My wife will berate you as usual, heheh, then we all drink and feast like no day was ever different."
"..."
"We'll be there for the naming ceremony, you can choose a name! A beautiful name for your pride and heir!"
"..."
"Maybe, our days will be happy then, by Nyame! Maybe we'll have a successful raid this time! Then we can free the rest of our tribesmen out east! Isn't that right, brother?"
"..."
"I-Isn't that right? Heh… h-heh…"
"..."
"Brother…?"
"..."
…
…
…
When the men found them, only one was alive, his face covered in bruises, blood, and sweat. His eyes, they were glistening, though no one bothered to notice.
Not even him.
He looked at her, her hair was white like the purest ivory, her face had the markings of a beautiful and demure woman in the future, at least that was what his wife told him. For him though, it triggered a mixture of feelings of grief, hope, anger, and… and…
He sighed, as he observed the mother feeding her, a blank look was on her face. Honestly, she wasn't that dull of a woman, but still…
"Antó." she said.
Asì and Yoofi looked at one another.
"Antó is her name."
At that, they both nodded their heads solemnly.
She didn't see him, indeed.
Mt. Nimba, West Africa
854 Anno Domini
Her eyes were red, that was what the boy hunter noticed when she looked at him most curiously from her crib.
He preferred that she didn't.
It was raining outside, the weather too cold for any substantial raid or hunt. So he and the rest of them were stuck here until Nyame Above All, deemed them ready.
So here he was, being the object of her fascination.
It felt like she was looking through his very soul, like how a hunter would evaluate their prey. But it was more than that, it felt like she knew his weaknesses, his strengths, his fears and contentedness, his entire bloodline. He was even sure she knew his most deepest and darkest secrets…
"Are you scared of her, Kobbi?" Kobbi was scared then, as he let out a shrill cry and dropped his little spear on the ground. The voice above him laughed mockingly at his shameful and embarrassing display, he whipped his head behind him only to be met with bare brown cleavage.
"Mother! I was not!" his face seemed more red than brown now, presenting the laughing woman with an indignant look on his face.
"You kept looking at her, your little knees were shaking too." she said in bemusement.
"My knees were not shaking!" he said, upset at the slander of his noble character.
Picking up his little spear, she gave it to him with an easy smile on his face.
"Hmph!" he grabbed the spear out of her hands and walked off outside. She shook her head, a wry grin on her face, before looking towards the crib. Her sister's infant-child was tilting her head at the side. She found it most adorable.
She walked closer to her, and crouched to one another to meet eye to eye. Then she gently shoved her nose to meet hers.
"Boop!" she giggled like a little girl that she wasn't.
Some things were universal, no matter what timeline it seems.
The female servant once again checked the loin cloth-cum-diaper of the chieftain's heir, and still there was no amount of ungodly substances present. Now this would be a good thing, except the daughter of the chieftain has not been… doing her business in the last six moons! Last time she checked with her own children, they always made a mess without fail when time came to.
Not her, not even once. She has been fed well, she fed her, herself! Yet nothing was coming out!
Maybe, she thought. That there was more to her, than her red eyes and ivory hair.
Then Antó let out a small burp.
"…"
Oh…
Mt. Nimba, West Africa
855 Anno Domini
"Our chieftain dead? Our tribe in shambles? The heir born with white hair and red eyes and is a girl-child? It is obvious then, she is the sign of our end." a skinny old man huffed with his arms crossed.
It was midday, the dry season had come in full force. Heads were aching, and sweat was dripping, mosquitos were hungry for blood.
"Bah, how would you know? You don't commune with the all-seeing spirits, you're a cripple, just like the rest of us!" another skinny, he was much younger.
"Foolish young man, you don't need to be shaman to commune with the ancestors and the abasom!" the old man lectured him, and grabbed from his bag and presented what looked like orange coloured chilli-peppers.
"Old man, why do you have that?" another man questioned, slightly less skinny.
"Focus young man, it is no time for silly questions!"
"We're not allowed to pick those! The shamans told us if we use it most improper we will-"
"Wah?" all of them then turned towards the voice that broke their tense argument. For standing right before them, was the heir of Guere herself.
"…"
"Let us kill her." the old man said unapologetically.
"Umphf!" in response, he was backhanded by the slightly less skinny man.
"Hah ud, warba da wah..." she said, picking her nose in contemplation.
"Why did you hit me, you hooligan!?" the old man exclaimed, waving his arm stumps in the air angrily.
"This would be an unwise course of action, grand uncle." an extremely skinny man said.
"Nephew, look at you, you are more bone than man with that appearance. You are telling me we must place our trust on some weak girl-child to lead us to victory? Our days were numbered when that old chieftain of ours was bewitched by those Ashanti women." some murmured in agreement. While a shadow suddenly disappeared from the group of retired raiders.
"Can't you see this was their plan all along!? To see us proud and strong Krumen bow down to their backwards matriarchal ways!?" some more crippled men rumbled in agreement.
"Wah wowee wah?" the white-haired toddler seemed more nervous at the gathering before her.
"Remember the time when we were rich with loot! Rich with women! Until, Yoofi, that traitorous cretin, left us to fend for the beasts! He killed his brother! I know it was no accident, he traded his soul to usurp his brother!"
"Wai sho gwe wout." Antó said with a straight face and turned around to get out of this flash confrontation.
"How would you know!?"
"I was speaking to him! I saw him in his dreams! She was no daughter of his, his whore of a wife slept with a chaos god! We must slay her before it is too late!" at that, he began to march resolutely towards the girl-child.
"No, stop!" someone stopped him in the crowd, holding his shoulders in place.
"Let go of me! I'll crush that lamb with my bare feet if I have to!" and with surprising strength he shoved his captor and, wrenching himself free, to run towards the Daughter of Mani.
Looking back, she saw the armless maniac running towards her. Then she felt it, the instinct to run, fight, or freeze in place. The memories of her first life flashed before her eyes, so vividly real and barely dreamlike. The pain, oh that wretched pain of heat and light, lungs burning into smoke and ash as it all collapsed around her. No voice could be spoken, for there was no more air left to breathe in. It was the most miserable way to die, fitting for the person who had the most miserable way to live.
The spark was alight.
Before that foot hit her, she-
"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!" Guere Yoofi, out of nowhere, still wounded and covered in medicinal herbs, delivered a fresh spearing into the old man.
"GAH!" were his last words as his intestines were ruptured and he succumbed from shock. He was dead before he even hit the ground, eyes wide open.
"Wustash wan!" Guere Antó cried and ran towards her foster father.
"What has happened here, do you doubt your brother's chieftain!? Doubt his choice of heir!?" he was not as big as his brother, but he was just as fierce and vicious. He had survived the rage of the forest after all.
"She is a girl-"
"So what? She can have sons when she is older! Now begone from my sight!" Even covered in bandages and recently lost to the Bassa tribe, they knew they shouldn't mess with the second-strongest fighter in the village, now the first. So they obediently nodded, some quietly spitting in his direction, but they fully honoured his command.
His rage cooled as he stroked the hair of his foster daughter. It was unlike his wife's or sisters, it was smoother for one, the caretakers were obsessed with stroking or brushing her hair, which was already long when she was born. They didn't even bother to tie her hair into knots, it would be a waste, and he could see why.
He could get addicted to this.
"Oh brother, you big idiot."
A/N:
It ain't BFR, but its close?