KISHANA

Crossing boundaries: King Shukana

The land of Zuka flourished with plenty of gold and wine. They feast twice in a month in which the whole kingdom rested from all kinds of work. They would feast in the house, on streets and send gifts to one another. This was to celebrate the wealth of the kingdom and the king.

King Shukana of Zuka was a short and proud king who was cruel and also goes after other villages, countries and kingdoms to war and acquire their wealth despite the wealth nature provided him. His greed made him took any lady he saw in other countries and made them his wives or concubines. No one in his kingdom dared questioned him.

The kingdom of Zuka had a terrible rule of kingship. A king can be killed at any time by anyone if he is of a bad character as observed by his subjects as a way of justice. Anyone in his kingdom or outside his kingdom can do the killing. But his guards, chiefs and those working in the palace are loyalists and are exempted from the rule. This made everyone in his kingdom and outside his kingdom potential enemies. Due to this rule, the king is permitted to gather many people around him to be either workers, pleasure givers or chiefs. Some of his subjects preferred to be ordinary subjects because it kept them as potential kings for they eyed killing him always. These sects of people felt unhappy and pained whenever the king selected them to be in the palace because that will result to them being removed from being potential kings.

The king had three thousand guards and soldiers who were involved in various aspects of security and military force of the kingdom. They accompany the king during wars and also serve as his protectors in the palace. They were highly trained and always ready to give up their lives to protect the king.

Lyndia a captive from the land of Zamanda was a cleaner in the palace of the King of Zuka. She was bereaved of her parents by the king and had been plotting in her mind on how to kill him. Each day she lived in the palace, reminded her of the king’s cruelty toward her family. The king had ordered one of his guards to thrust her father with a spear when he made an attempt to stop the king from trying to r**e his wife, her mum and also pushed her mum’s head against the wall when she struggled to refuse him lie with her, leaving her an orphan. The memories always came fresh whenever she saw the king and always wished to slice his throat at any opportunity she would get not minding the consequences.

King Shukana was still on his quest of taking all villages and kingdoms around him and his proximity to Onak was more pronounced as the days went by. Fears gripped the villagers despite the hopes from the new formed force. Kala the village’s military force leader having just four hundred men against a whole three thousand soldiers of Shukana was really a nightmare to the Onakians. Everyone began packing their loads and arranging them in preparation to any flee that would be required. Food eaten found it hard to digest as the news was a hard bone to c***k. But amidst these things the military force of the village kept hope alive and encouraged the people to be courageous.

The elders came up with a brilliant idea to recruit all the young boys and men of the village irrespective of special skills or talents. The leader of the military force bought the idea with alacrity and swung immediately into action. All male were recruited and the number of the village’s force immediately increased to about two thousand, competing with King Shukana’s military force. The work of training all these new intakes became a concern and all the hunters automatically became chief captains under the gallant leadership of Kala in training the men. Seeing this, the old, young and teenage female all came out to the military leader for their training. With counsel from the elders, they were included and almost all villagers became fighters. For a whole week, they totally engaged in training with all kinds of weapons like arrows, spears and swords gotten from their farming implements. The village blacksmiths were not left out. They became the village’s primary hope for survival as they gave their total best to seeing everyone had one weapons. This gave Kishana freedom to showcase what he was made of. He was instructed by his father to be in charge of all the teenagers. He accepted to train them and to the surprise of everyone all the boys under his training became extremely perfect in handling bows, arrows and slings. They were fast, smart and forceful in handing the weapons. The village’s hope was regained. Everyone was now seen as a hope and a warrior. The gloom of fears and the unknowns began to rapidly evaporate.

The leader chose seven men including his son to accompany him go and spy the enemy’s camps situated in different hideouts around the nearby villages. Kishana was delighted and jubilated for this great privilege. They marched to nearby villages and saw havocs done by King Shukana and his men. Those left in the villages they came to, were those who managed to escape during King Shukana’s invasion. They came to garner what they could, including their loved ones in order to bury them. On seeing the men of Onak, they joined up the plan of fighting this tyrant. The spy continued as the spies came across one of the camps of King Shukana’s soldiers. Quietly they hid in the bushes and watched all movements and arrangements being done by the men. The soldiers wore armors to protect their chest incase of arrows. This gave more ideas to Kala, Onak’s military force leader. The spy continued for some hours after which they returned to their village to strategize.

The spies who were sent some months back as business men to Onak by King Shukana had told him that Onak was a work over. To this effect, they made a light preparation for attack unknown to them of the recent development. They had told the king that the people were insensitive about wars and were mere people who were feeble and unworthy to waste time and much strength on.

When Onak spies retreated back to their village, they made better strategies for conquests. They dug ditches round the entrance to the village and stationed men at the exterior of the forest areas and all around the village boundaries. They created good hideouts in the village’s boundaries and men were always in the hide against any intrusion.

Patiently, they waited for any eventuality.