DANUSHIKI

CHAPTER FIVE

In such dreams, he usually saw himself hurrying with his walking stick towards the sacred grove to save his son, as he slowly transformed into a statue while several king cobras prevented from coming near the entrance. 

Harshiri came inside and set up the small wooden table on which she laid his breakfast. It consisted of a porridge made from ground corn and a plate of boiled fish. He stood near the window watching the red clouds while remembering how he recuperated on a battlefield; his blood stained sword and disembowelled bodies around him, while his injuries slowly slowly. He only returned to his former position with his walking stick when she was through arranging the food.

Harshiri stood upright and began for the main door, as Darjer began to eat. His eyes reverted to her hips, and soon remembered the drinking shed gossip about Sarme. 

Many people on the island not only thought Danushiki was perfect for Sarme, but they believed he’d ‘calmed’ her. Danushiki never imagined touching or kissing Sarme in his wildest dreams, and it sometimes made him feel like a hero whenever he thought of how his hands freely explored her scantily covered or sometimes naked body in dark locations. Whenever they were out in the open, they rarely held hands, or smiled at each other, but it turned out differently when they were in a thickly vegetated farmland that’d been abandoned or any other place they found ‘suitable.’

He always told a horrified looking Sarme how he desired to enter the sacred grove and pick up diamonds for her, to prove his love for her. She in turn was always quick to shut him up with a kiss whenever he began talking about embarking on any risky act. He couldn’t imagine how he’d come to fall in love with such a maiden, and didn’t care because she was everything to him. Apart from Harshiri, Danushiki believed Sarme was the second person who perfectly understood him. The thought of going to Cobra Land seemed to tear his heart out of his body. He didn’t care about all the pain and stress he was going to experience in Cobra Land, the separation from his beloved mother or the rest of his family, but Sarme and her warmth. He’d never believed in love, but had now become a prisoner of it, courtesy of Sarme. The morning air was soothing to his skin as he remembered how they’d met, and how he’d vowed never to forget her attractive lips, which always shone without any oil being applied to them. 

He looked into her glittering eyes and wished he was a year younger so he could sneak out of his father’s compound and enjoy countless nights with her, while worshipping her lips under the moonlight. Her skin sometimes deprived him of the ability to think clearly whenever he touched it, and it was one of the reasons he believed she was his personal goddesses given to him by the gods and goddesses of Shaingwa. 

“Are you going right now?” she asked in a voice that sounded like a whisper. 

“Yes…I have to be on my way, else I might be punished for coming late.”

Danushiki was surprised at himself for raising the issue of punishment with regards to a place he barely knew about. More so, he knew it was in his best interest to lie, or else he’d be the last person to arrive Cobra Land. He wasn’t prepared to give any emotional speech, as his eyes seemed to be permanently transfixed on her shiny black hair. She came closer to him and began to stroke the necklace he wore, with a tacit plea to Danushiki for her waist to be held and pulled closer. Both of them looked at the clay pot on the ground, close to where their heads had rested last night and smiled mischievously to themselves. 

“Isn’t three years too much for that kind of training?” she asked pushing her t**s closer to him, while her fingers slowly began to interlock with his. He soon planted a soft kiss on her lips even though he tried to confess he didn’t intend to. The sun’s heat began to radiate all around their love nest as Sarme paid no attention to the woven piece of cloth which hung loosely around her breasts. They looked around the tall trees which surrounded them and tried not to imagine how it’d look after the three years ‘break,’ which was about to commence. They were constantly reminded of this painful fact by the red clouds in the morning sky.

“I’m not the one to determine that, after all that’s how it has been for hundreds of years.”

”I’m really going to miss you,” she whispered to him in a seductive tone, while both hands were soon hanging on his shoulders and around his neck. When he finally held her waist, his back leaned on a tree, as he kept looking above her head so he won’t see the tears on her face if she began to cry. Her waist was really still at the moment compared to how it wriggled throughout the night, alongside the rest of her body. They began to whisper to themselves as if they suspected an eavesdropper nearby. He teased her about how she moaned painfully under the moonlight, begging him to take it easy with each thrust since she’d never done it before. 

There was no laid down rule on the island about the consequences of sleeping with an unmarried virgin without immediate marriage plans, and from the way their affair went, Danushiki and Sarme were about to set a precedent. 

They talked about how they met, and how he only held her hand when they were alone on a footpath, or when he walked her home from one of the several streams on the island. Sarme blushed when Danushiki reminded her of how all caution was thrown to the wind last night when he carefully stripped her of all her clothing, loosed her hair, and planted kisses all over her body from head to toe. Danushiki swore he’d give anything to see Sarme moan, rattle and cry in the daytime as she did last night, but he knew that would only happen after he was back from Cobra Land.

“Last night was the greatest night of my life Danushiki, and it would always remain evergreen in my memory.” She kissed him with all her might before he could respond, and laid her head gingerly on her chest. 

“Three years is like three weeks,” he began as he stroked her shiny hair, “before you know it I’ll be back.” 

He didn’t attempt to peer into her face since he knew her face would express nothing but lust. He wrapped his arms around her, unable to accept the fact that she was a virgin (until last night). When he’d woken up four hours before dawn, it was not too clear using the moonlight, but he knew blood when he saw or felt it. A careful examination of the red liquid revealed that it was Sarme’s blood. The droplets of slowly congealing blood on some leaves were directly under her buttocks, and he was only able to see it because she turned when he released himself from her grip.

When she raiseed her head from his chest moments later, she packed and tied her hair neatly before bringing her body near his. 

“You’re the first man to see me naked, totally naked like this…to touch me like this…kiss and caress me like this…” She pulled out of his arms suddenly and began to tie the white woven cloth firmly over her breasts. Danushiki simply looked at her mammary glands without saying a word. He had had his feel of them last night, and knew they needed some rest. The second piece of white woven cloth was slightly larger and exposed her flat belly. Her knees downwards were also bare after she was done fastening the white woven cloth around her waist. Suddenly she turned and pushed him to the tree, and held his face in her palms like a fragile object. 

“You deflowered me last night Danushiki,” she began while inhaling the morning air deeply. He tried to say something but he was stopped by her right forefinger which she placed on his lips. 

“I don’t want to share you with anyone…but if I’m forced, I’ll pray to the gods and goddesses to take my life, because my soul was made to be with yours.” 

Although she wanted them to meet in a maize farm, she finally gave in to Danushiki’s suggestion after confessing that her cousin who was almost the same age with her lover, informed her of Cobra Land. 

“I’ll never forget you Sarme,” he whispered to her while stroking her eyebrows.

For one to get a wife in Shaingwa wasn’t a difficult task. It only required such a person to track such a girl down, force her against her will if she resisted, and sleep with her. This would be followed by providing any other material object or objects demanded by the girl’s parents. The ‘major’ criterion was the age of the girl – which must not be, for any reason whatsoever, be below twenty years. Both lovers knew of this but they cared less, as if they knew that the gods and goddesses would never allow them to be together permanently.

“You want to leave me like that Danushiki, when you know how much I enjoyed last night. If you go now who’s going to keep me warm at night…If you go now, I’ll be cold and lonely.” Danushiki felt sorry for her as he imagined her body to be on fire with vapours going out through every part of her body. Thoughts and tales of how Sarme fought with and beat up several young men her age buttressed the fact that she had inherited the strength of her father and the ‘madness’ of her mother in equal proportions. 

“I have to go Sarme, please take care of yourself,” he spoke as he began to notice tears in her eyes, while her entire body shook as if she’d been brought out of a pool of ice water. She tried to kiss him, but he diverted his lips to her neck, before proceeding to give her a tight hug which seemed to last for all eternity. With her father’s strength flowing in her veins, she pulled him one more time and stuck her lips on his in a long passionate kiss, before burying her head on his chest for a long time. Though she possessed her father’s strength, he secretly wished she’d gotten her father’s gentle nature. 

“I love you.” They whispered in unison. The next moment, a smile appeared on both faces, followed by a deep kiss. 

Pulling himself from her grip, he turned and ran all the way to the place which would herald the beginning of his destiny - Cobra Land. Ten minutes later, Sarme balanced the clay pot on her head and walked to a stream, before heading towards her father’s compound. Few metres to her father’s compound later, she passed Makiya who had a basket and a hoe balanced on her head. Sarme responded to her greeting and walked home with a smile.  

The silence was inexplicable, and the level of orderliness uncommon as all twenty one year old men gathered at the entrance to Cobra Land, with necklaces made from varying objects around their necks. On a special day such as this they had their heads shaven, while maintaining a stern countenance at the same time.

Standing in the sun in their woven cloths and leather sandals, it wasn’t long before they were stunned by what they beheld. Two metres close to the entrance was a large king cobra, the size of an average crocodile coiled atop a large slab made out of diamond. Each man was required to stand erect in front of the large reptile, look boldly into its eyes and find out what weapon he was to use for battle.