The Adopted Daughter Who Was Sold

Chapter one – The Attacked

Once on early spring morning, when the sky was very clear, the sun shines brightly, the air breezing gently, the birds were chirping happily, the dew drops on the leaves were shining through the ray of the Sun light, making it perfect day for the hilly folk to go to the field, there stood a little girl with sad face facing toward the southern part of a mountain in the middle of the forest.

She looked tired and miserable as if she had been running from something. Her eyes were swollen as if she has been crying a lot earlier. Her face, arms and legs were full of fresh marks where her clothes did not cover, due to scratching of plants and thorns. She wore a traditional weaved cotton clothes, which reached her knee.  Her short hair was messed with small pieces of dry leaves and stems here and there.

It would have been perfect day with beautiful sunshine for Nalilu and her family to do all their chores if her situation were different. Though, she looked thin and skinny, she was matured for her age and do all kinds of work at home and in the fields to help her parents to bring meal for the family by the end of a day.

Nalilu had been sitting on a stone to give a rest for her breathe and legs as she was running since last night. After sometimes her breathing had become normal so, she decided to walk down the hill hoping to find a river or spring water to drink as she was thirsty and her mouth was very dry because of too much crying.

Nalilu looked here and there as she walked to see a better view on the other side of the mountain, hoping to see any village or sign of people around. Then, she came to a spot where she can see everything on the other side. She did not know how far she had come from her village but she saw vast paddy fields like steps with dry paddy plants. When she looked closer she realized that the harvest was done and the fields were ready for ploughing.

Nalilu took a deep breath and wiped her forehead with her hand as she looked the fields below. She hoped to meet someone in the field and ask for their help.

From distant, she saw around five to six men, each man carried spear on their hand and some of them put on baskets as backpack.

For a moment she panicked,” Are those bad men who came to attack the village last night”. She murmured to herself. However, she assured herself those bad men came from the other side because after the attacked they did not follow the path she walked toward to.

When she looked closer, she realized that the men were going to the field to work because they carried spades over their shoulders. She stood there watching as the men go to the fields to work.

Nalilu don’t know how long she had been running and walking. When she saw the attacker start slaughtering everyone in the village, she knew she had to run. She saw all her family members killed. She slept next to granary so, when the bad men started attacking the village, She hides herself in the granary.

Nalilu lived in a small village which consisted of 30 to 40 houses. The elders in the village used to talk about head hunters and villages attacking each other villages. But she never imagined the attacked would be so horror. The previous village where her great grandparents came from was also attacked and the entire villager scattered to different areas. From the location and stories used to tell by the elders, the village was far from where they lived.

A year ago some people came and attacked the village. The villager killed most of the attackers however, some ran way. From then on, the villagers were always caution and guarding the village because of outsider invader. They appointed some of the village youth to guard the village all the time. However, there was a festival yesterday and everyone got drank. The attacked happen in the middle of deep silent night and the villager were so drunk that they couldn’t safeguard the village.

Nalilu didn’t know why those men attacked her village. The villagers don’t deal with other nearby villages much. The people in the village are not rich. They have enough to eat however there was no much surplus. When she thought about last night, she believed those men did not come to take their things, because they burned all the houses. “Maybe they came for revenge for killing their friends last time”, She murmured to herself.

Her parents used to advise her brothers and sisters, if there were any attack in the village they had to hide inside the jungle below their house till the attack was over. So, when Nalilu heard loud shriek, she moved inside the granary because it was night and she was scared to go out.

Before Nalilu went inside to hid, she called her parent, “Mother, father, there is an attacked in the village.” She heard her family getting ready to run for their live. But before escaping she heard someone open their door and came inside. Then suddenly she heard shouting and crying sound of her family member.

Nalilu was so scared she closed her eye and stacked her fingers in her ears when she heard her parent and siblings crying out for help. After some times the house was very silence. she peeped through the hole to see what was going on, she saw their door was open and through the ray of moon light she notice there was no one inside the house. So she slowly came out from the hiding place and inspected her family members. All her brothers and sisters and even her parents were death and covered with blood. Some of them, their head were not attached to the body. The blood was everywhere in the house.

Nalilu went to her room and grab a small piece of shawl which was lying on her bed and came out of the house. She looked here and there to see what actually was happening in the village. She saw the houses were burning like a wild fire and the people were screaming and running for their life. She knew there was nothing she could do so she started to run for her life.

Nalilu house was situated at the end of the village so, when she got the opportunity to run, she jumped inside the jungle. The jungle looked scary as it was dark however, she did not have a second thought about it. She just wanted to escape from terrible things that were happening in the village. She knew if she did not escape, she will die of horrible death by cutting of head and piercing of spear on her chest like her family. 

As Nalilu was hiding quietly in the brushes below her house, she could hear lots of screaming and shouting. She stacked her fingers in her ears so that she cannot hear any more painful noises. However that was in vain, she could still hear children crying and calling their parents. She cried and her tears were falling like water but she did not make any sound due to afraid of attracting killers.

Although She heard screaming and killing of the people in her village she was scared to make a move from the bushes where she was hiding because the bushes was so thick and she couldn’t see which direction she should take.

But after some time, she couldn’t take anymore from hearing the screaming sound. She also felt the noises were getting nearer to her so, she decided to make a move. She paved with her hand through the grass and took a step slowly one by one and not making any sound. She escaped from her hiding place and moved to a far place from the village.

After Nalilu had cross some distant from the village, she turned and saw the whole village was burning like wild fire as the houses were made of thatch. She saw the attackers chopping off people head and throwing spears to those who were running for their life.

By seeing the horrifying scene Nalilu ran very fast in the jungle. She just wanted to get away from all the horror that was happening in the village. She did not notice where she was going. She did not think about wild animal that might attack her.

After running for a long time, Nalilu stopped and observed her surroundings.  She did not know where she had been. The sky was very clear and the moon was shining brightly. Through the light of the moon she saw that she had gone very far from her village. The village was no longer to be seen.

She sat down and started to cried. She had good cried for her family, friends and everyone in the village. From the distance she heard growl sound of animals. Now she started to felt scared of the wild animals when she came to her sense. When she was running she did not think about anything but to run. She did not know which direction she should take however, she felt so scared to stay in one place so she wandered in the jungle.

As dawn was breaking, she realized that she was in the very deep forest. She had never been to such a far place. The people from her village usually don’t come so far. She doubts that there was any route to pass through.

Now, her village was completely destroyed and Nalilu did not know how many people survived in the attacked. She knew it was futile going back to her village. At that moment she realized she was alone and will never see her family again, the drop of tears rolls down on her dirty cheeks. She never imagined that all her family would die at the same time. She felt that the horror attacked was like a nightmare and she should wake up from her bed.

“Now I am alone.” Nalilu whispered.  She was never alone as she had two brothers and two sisters and there were many people around her all the times. She cannot think of not seeing her family again.

For some time Nalilu had been staring at the men working and thinking, ‘what will happen to her? How will she survive without her family?’ She just turned twelve some few months ago.

“I wish it was just a bad dream and all my family are with me when I woke up”. She muted.

 So many things were running on Nalilu mind so she was not hungry before. Now she was tired, hungry and very thirsty. She did not eat anything since last night. She looked down and saw her feet had bleed and now were covered with dried blood.

Nalilu did not know how to approach the men for help. She was scared that they may kill and behead her. She heard lots of stories about the villager that she was about to encroached. She knew she will not survive alone in the forest. Some wild animals might attack her during the night. She thought for a while and realized that there was no other option but to approach them. After thinking for some time she walked down toward the field. 

As Nalilu walked, she became aware of her surrounding, the bright morning sunlight makes birds chirp happily singing like a choir and bees were buzzing searching to suck some wild flowers for their hive. The early morning gentle breeze touched her arm making her body chill. She warped the small shawl around her arms where her dress did not cover.

“Why do bad things happen to us?” She questioned herself. But she did not have the answer for that. She wishes that it was like some other normal days.

At the bottom of the hill there was a small river with very clean water. Nalilu drank lots of water as she was very thirsty. She washed her face and combed her short hair with her fingers to look presentable.

Nalilu looked around and saw a canal that connected to paddy fields. She took the canal route that leads to paddy fields. When she reached at the end of the canal, she saw that the fields looked vaster and bigger than from the hill.

Nalilu slowly walked toward the people who were working in the field. The men were ploughing the field as they were singing country folk song. They had clear voice and their song was very harmonious to listen. It brought back the memory of her village people as they sung and worked too.

Nalilu thought, ‘If last night did not happen then, we might be doing same thing today.’

They were not aware of her as Nalilu stood some few distance above them. After reaching the field, she did not know what to say to draw their attention.

‘Did I do the right thing by coming to this people?’ She questioned herself.

Then, one of men stood up and saw her.

He said, “Someone is here”.

Suddenly everyone stood up and eyed her. She felt so scared that her heart was beating so fast. The Spears and Dao’s were nearby them. They can easily grab and threw at her. She stood still and did not take her eyes off them as if she had been petrified.

The men were murmuring and talking among themselves but Nalilu did not understand what they were discussing. After some moment their eyes were everywhere as if they were expecting some more people to come out.

One of the men asked, “Who are you? What are you doing here?  Is someone with you?”

“My name is Nalilu. There was attacked in our village last night and I escaped”. Nalilu replied in a trembling voice. She was so scared and felt that they were going to kill her. Her skin turned paler than before and her heart was beating so loud as if they were able to hear from where they were standing. However, no one make a moved.

She replied again in a small voice, “I am alone”.

“Where is your village” one of the men asked.

Nalilu pointed her finger toward her village, “it’s that side, after those mountains”.

The men talked among themselves about her village. Some of them said they never went to that side of the mountain and some said they heard stories. They questioned her,

“Are you the only Survivor?”

“I don’t know but they killed all my family and burnt the whole village”. When she answered they were silent for a moment.

Then, one of them said, “Little one, come down here”.

Nalilu hesitated and looked frightened.

“We are not going to harm you”. They said. She slowly observed each one of them. Everyone looked between twenties to early forties. They had kind face and everyone looked calm.

Nalilu heavy heart was lifted and she felt she was able to breathe normal again after holding her breathes for long time. She walked slowly toward them.

Once she reached them, one of them said in a very kind voice,” Dear it looks like you have walked a lot. Did you take rest or have you been walking continually since last night?”

Nalilu had been controlling not to cry in front of them however, when they show compassion, her eyes were filled with tears and it started to fall on her cheeks and spill on her chest. She sat down on the path of the paddy field and cried.

One of the men came and patted her shoulder and said, “Its okay honey. I think you are tired as well as hungry. So, you better have something and sleep for a while then, once you woke up everything will look brighter”.

The man said to them, “I will go and give some food to her”.

“Little one, come let’s get some food for you”. The man called her.

She just nodded her head and wiped her tears with her shawl. The little Nalilu rose from her seat and plodded behind the man.

The man tried to explained to her as they walked toward a small hut,” some of those men are my relatives and some are my friends. Today they are working in my field and we are going to my friends Mhasi’s field tomorrow. We usually work together most of the time”.

Nalilu did not response as she was still feeling very emotional. Her mouth was dry and also she did not know how to response to that.

The man pointed out his finger to some of the field and said to her, “All these fields belong to me”. The man did not even bother if she responded to him. She thought the man was trying to make her comfortable by explaining things to her.

On reaching the hut, Nalilu noticed that the hut looked like theirs, the one they usually used for rearing chicken and pigs. The men kept their things neatly in the corner of the hut, making the room bigger for them to stay if it rain or give a shade to them from hot sun. 

The man said, “Sit on one of those stones”.

Nalilu noted there were three stones placed next to each other and also there was a bench made of bamboo which looked old and can accommodated around three people. Some bamboo baskets were standing in the corner. The man took out the food from a basket and offered her the food.

“Here is the food. I don’t know if you will like my food. I am bachelor and I live alone”. The man gave her food using banana leave as plate.

“Thank you, father” said Nalilu and took the food. She did not know what to call him but in her village they usually called all the man ‘Father’ if they were around the age as of their father or older. She did not know how old the man was but from the way he looked, the man might be same age like her father or four to five years younger.

Nalilu was so hungry that she devoured the food and did not know if the food taste good or bad. While she was eating, the man made her bed in the corner of the hut.

“You take a nap after having food, we will not disturb you”. The man said and left to join his friends for work.

After eating she put the leaves outside the hut. Nalilu was very tired so, the bed in the corner looked very comfortable, empowered her to the state of drowsiness. The well-fed child slept off immediately once she hit on the bed.