ZUNA: THE LION BEHIND BARS

The Victory

Sequel to the discovery of gold in the land of Zagada, the Zagadans felt dispirited for coming to know about this treasure the hard way. These treasures had quietly lain under their very noses unnoticed for generations. Children played on the land, women walked on it to their various businesses and men dug shallow portions to get sand for small renovations of their houses. All these years they were close to the life savior of all times without any clue. They felt like life was over and that they don’t know why they should continue living. Two Zagadans were found dead a day after the gold were discovered. The reason for their death was the disappointment which they came to meet about the gold. This was what resulted to their suicidal death. But amidst all these, the silent lion kept his calm. He had earlier dug a tunnel through one of the houses to the spring of waters. He did that in order to find an escape route for himself and his friends. Considering the weakness in the hearts of his friends and people, he planned the tunnel digging all alone. Zuna did this when the guards were less in the middle of the night and the Zagadans were all asleep. He would camouflage himself with black wide pieces carefully arranged on his body and sneak through the dark terrain of the village contours to his hidden tunnel. He continued this till he got to the spring of water which was flowing down beside a rock. Having learnt how to fight from his father, he was always prepared could any guard of Shuta or Tukala came his way; he will battle with such to the death. On the last day of his digging the secret tunnel, he came across someone standing in the middle of the tunnel. Sighting this personality from a distance, he brought out his sword and walked straight to him fiercely ready to strike. As he came closer, the personality seemed to move farther away though not making a literal movement. He was shocked. The more he came close, the more the personality went away. This continued for some hours and the morning was beginning to approach. He then spoke quietly to the personality with a beckoned signal to come closer. When the personality came, he pleaded for help knowing it was not one of the enemy guards. In a minute, a bright strong sword and a shield appeared in Zuna’s hands. Confused about the sudden happening, he turned to ask the personality why he was given the weapons but saw him no more. He thought to himself what else the weapons given to him could be used for if not for battle. He wrapped the weapons and went to take his rest with the others. Waking up the next day with orders being thundered into the air by the guards supervising them, he struggled to wake up from his sleep. It wasn’t too long he closed his eyes that the sun decided to come out, he thought to himself. As the day’s work began, they were to go to a nearby hill to get stones with which they would continue the building they had stopped. As they walked in a single file, the guards ordered them to speed up and whipped them as they went. Zuna spoke to two of his friends closer to him for an attack on the two guards closer to them but the friends refused claiming that if the guards raised an alarm, they would all be dead because other guards would come around. Not minding the fears in his friends’ hearts, he called one of the guard’s attention to a small rock closer to him, purporting he wanted to show him something very important. When the guard came close, he sliced his throat with the sharp edge of the rock and the guard fell down and struggled for life. On seeing this, some of his friends quickly dragged the guard and hid him in a nearby bush where he finally died. The other guard who was much closer to the guard who was just killed was called by Zuna again. He requested why he was called and Zuna told him that the other guard had gone into a nearby bush and sought for his attention. Sheepishly, he came and the young boys around killed him by hitting him with stones. A reasonable number of them far behind the line were now without a guard and they strategized how to get to the front of the line till all guards were killed. The uniforms of the two guards who were killed by the young boys were worn by two Zagada’s boys. They paraded themselves as guards and signaled their friends that they were the ones at any given opportunity. This availed Zuna the opportunity to go fetch his special sword and shield. Hundred of the Zagada’s boys were controlled by just fifteen guards from both the Tukala and Shuta’s villages respectively. When they reached the hill, the two fake guards attacked two more guards and killed them while the boys attacked the rest. As the attacks were on, Zuna showed up and everything became dramatic. As he rushed into the fight, behold he was running on the air. Focused on the enemy in front of him, he didn’t notice what was going on. Before he could reach the guard, the guard fell on his knees begging. Shocked at the guard’s behavior, he turned around and saw his friends and the rest guards looking at him with a surprised look. He was told what he just did and was also shocked at the special ability which he possessed. The guards were all killed and the boys matched back to their land to face the ones remaining.

A new phase of battle began as the boys came back in full force to Zagada. The boys hid behind Zuna when they were to be affected and attacked when the way was clear. Deliberately, Zuna allowed one of the guards to run away so he could take the tidings to his masters while they killed all the guards remaining on their soil.

The two greedy leaders couldn’t believe their ears and armed themselves in order to come and see what gravity the tale they heard contained.

Facing the entrance into the land of Zagada, the two rulers watched carefully but saw only Zuna standing at the entrance which led into Zagada. An archer was commanded to shoot him. When the arrow came two centimeters to Zuna, it stopped and turned back to its sender and killed him. Shocked but still proud, the ruler of Shuta commanded twenty more arrows to be shot. The same thing repeated itself as the first. What! Who would dare try another thing? The men of Shuta began to run away despite the command by their ruler to return. This was strange!

The ruler of Tukala shrugged his shoulders and ordered his men to follow behind him with their swords and shields. As they came closer to Zuna, Zuna stroke two Tukalans and immediately they were stroke by lightening from nowhere. This was too difficult to comprehend as the men began to retreat. Their master came down from his horse and came to Zuna. As he wanted to pierce him with his sword, the sword broke. As the opportunity presented itself, Zuna caught him by the throat and sliced it cutting his head off his body. On seeing this, the ruler of Shuta took to his heels but it was too late. Zuna overtook him by running on the air. He killed him exactly as he did to his partner in crime. With the special ability to navigate through by air, Zuna went to Tukala and Shuta and retrieved all the Zagadans. All the gold and possessions they took were brought back to their land. The Zagadans learnt the bitter way to always be prepared for eventualities. They flourished in their new found peace and made the two enemy villages their slaves.