The Legend of Cush

Coming of Age

Chapter 5: Coming of Age

Cush was twenty years now, a full-grown human living among creatures, surrounded by creatures, communicating, and interacting with creatures. His centaur mates, Eamon and Safiza who were twins and three years younger when he was born are now all matured, stronger, and sprinting around with him. This is so strange because, in a community of over fifty centaurs, none other family has come to familiarize themselves with the human creature, they all stare from a distance, watching as Eamon, Safiza and Cush play around the creature enclave were no man has accessed except the gods. His winged serpent, Tata which he caught as a baby creature, measuring barely three feet, is now about ten feet long, four feet above the ground, and its wingspan measuring five feet on each side, its four legs muscle stronger which it uses for landing after a flight.

Included in Cush’s company is a male tiger, a wily gorilla, and a glittering boa constrictor about fourteen feet long, weighs over three hundred pounds. When he flies off with the flying serpent, his companions, including Eamon and Safiza, will wait together in one place until he returns, and the moment he lands he has a gift for everyone; for the tiger, a live buffalo; for the boa constrictor, a wild mountain goat; for the gorilla a bunch of wild apples and bananas and his centaur mates he gives fruits that taste like honey for which they would run off to share with their parents. His flying companion feeds on the dainties of the seas, and once it lands him on the ground it goes off to the seas to feed himself and returns to him, like a faithful servant to his master.

It happens that one fateful day as he relaxes among his friends, in a trance-like vision, the Sun god, the mastermind of the queen’s escape to the Forest of Death to be delivered of whom he will possess amidst the invasion of Matella, appeared to him in a human form, as fierce as a god, and he spoke like a god. “Cus…h”, he turned his side on hearing his name first time out of another mouth, he sat upright and before him stood the guardian of the Seven seas, “Cus..h”, he repeated the name in a drawl, hoarse voice and unpleasant to the ear, reminiscent of the centaurs manner of speech and he wonders how this flaming being known his name.

 “Son, of Ukal, I am the grand guardian god of the Seven seas.  Listen, oh Cush that you may deliver your people”.

He strained his eyes to see clearly, and lo, he beheld, it wasn’t a dream, but reality and he sat up from his laid down position on the bare earth.

 “I saved the mortal that begot you from the brutality of king Isasda of Alonika.  She gives birth to you in death, her memory you must honor. I have claimed and possessed you. You are mine, and you shall liberate your people. Prepare, and be in haste, a man like you shall train you in sword art, and you’ll be handed a sword from the gods with which you’ll defeat king Isasda possess by Libi, that vile god of Strength. No mortal left on his own can defeat Isasda, but you shall defeat him and likewise defeat his master. Go, have I not sent you? I sit in the sun; I flame up my enemies, go, go”. The Sun-god standing by as Queen Ro gave birth to Cush did invoke his powers over the infant and possessed him for himself, a divine impartation of partly divine qualities on a human that leaves the child forever immune to fear or danger.

Cush has seen a Being; a strange being, whose appearance is like nothing he has ever seen, a dreamy form, a smokescreen, with vapors of smoke evaporating from him like water ripples. He looked around him at the creatures sitting quietly around him; none is like what he just saw. He got up, examine closely the centaurs, who with their human upper bodies resemble remotely the being he just saw, but whose lowers limbs were those of the various animals he has encountered within his home and in the wild mountains. The centaurs, seem to sense a change, they screamed in unison, a scream which in an instant saw their parents in full haste gallop into their midst seeking to find out the cause of such a cry from their own. But they found the company quiet, looked at their children, communicated a little, and galloped back to their abode. The transformation of the wild breed to an actual human has begun and cannot be hidden.

The centaur’s sense of awareness is keen because they rightly noted a change has come over Cush; a sense of humanity has overtaken his sense of beastly existence, and immediately he mounted Tata and took off for the wild mountains overlooking the Seven seas that have become a favorite haunt; the moment he lands there stood the Lesser spirit. This messenger of the Sun god, transformed into a human stood and exudes friendliness to relax Cush’s nerves. The Dragon serpent, sensitive to the supernatural presence, made a squelching noise, and lunge forward like a praying mantis posed for action, seemly to protect his master from danger, but Cush lifted a hand, a hand that always mean calm and Tata looked at him with those little penetrating piercing eyes of his, nostrils snorting and cringes.

For Cush, who did not understand any human language nor ever uttered meaningful audible words, opened his mouth but only screamed which sent Tata swirling for action, but the Lesser spirit made no move but rather beam a benign smile and beckon on Cush to come close.

Curiously, Cush moved forward and in a flash, the Lesser spirit reached out his right hand encircled by flames of fire and touched his lips, but a strange coolness surged through his body, not the heat he supposed and he recoiled, “Cush”, the second time his centaur given name is heard from another mouth,

“You’re the son of a man born of a woman, the great-grandson of the mighty guardian god of the Seven seas”, Cush came forward bravely, made to touch he who speaks, but his hand hung midway going further.

 “No, no man can touch me. I m a spirit, but came in human flesh that you may believe”. “Your humanity has returned to you, Cush, son of the gods, you now may speak in the language of man, speak, I command you to speak.”

Cush opened his mouth and to his amazement asked “who are you?” in the Abyssinia language.

 “I am the Lesser spirit, messenger of the Sun god, guardian of Matella ancestry, children of the seas. I have come to prepare you to receive the handler of the sword, the instrument of death, he shall train and equip you in the art of the swordsmanship, hand you a sword from the gods to put evil away from among men. For the god's desire justice, truth, and equity oh Cush. Prepare now, prepare he shall come to you in a forth night, and here is your training ground.”

 “Why choose me, seeing that I was born among creatures, nurtured by creatures of the wild and no knowledge of the world of humans, how could I possibly be the liberator you seek?”

“You are chosen by the gods, the unborn hero untainted by human corruption, of a pure heart. Your heart is pure. Do you not wonder the reason why your friends, the creatures you keep serve and are loyal to you? Do you not? They will fight with you and for you. Only obey the will of the gods, the Sun god, is benign but fierce, it is he who has begotten you in the world of the gods. Go now, and await your human instructor. Be warned, protect him from your creatures”, with that he vanishes into the air. He still not deemed it time to let Cush into his ancestry, but hints were given, ‘son of man, born of a woman’.

Cush, in between the space of two hours has encountered vague resemblance of humanity, but unknown to him, gods; the greater and the lesser spiritual beings. He walked back and sat beside Tata and the creature crouched by his side and spread his wings around him for a cover from the sun. The events of the last two hours have served to change Cush perspective to life, a life he knew only among beasts only to be told he is the son of a man born of a woman. So centaur Ara and Zira are not his parents, or else he should appear in their image as is Eamon and Safiza.

From what the fiery looking being told him, that he saved the mortal that begot him from one Isasda, the sore enemy of Matella, whom he shall destroy and do much more by destroying the god of Strength, the strength of Isasda, king of Alonika and that can only happen because he is possessed by this all fired up being. Who is this mortal that begot him? The question lingers in his untaught but active mind.

His rumination brought sleep which took him to the world of the dead and there were his father and mother, king Ukal IV and Queen Ro. Both rose to their feet as they saw their son, and rushed to snatch him to themselves but the guardian of the Seven seas interposed himself between them, and at that, they withdrew backward and bowed in reverence to the great guardian god.

 “You shall not take him to you, he is not among the dead”, he addressed the former monarch.

“My son, oh my son”, cried Queen Ro. “Should you deny me of my own, great guardian?” asked King Ukal V.

 “He lives, and shall yet deliver those you left crushed by your pride, summon him not again, or you shall incur my wrath”.

And immediately took Cush by the hand and away they departed as Cush woke up startled from his short sleep and his Tata swirling anxiously each time it senses what he estimates as a danger to his master.

He calmed Tata with a pat on one of its heads and readied himself to mount him when he sighted from afar a thick dark cloud bounding towards them, but in what yet again startles Cush, the serpent acted like never before; swiftly. Tata spreads out its huge colorful wings over Cush, and stood tall on its hind legs and spit out balls of fire out of it two massive heads towards the incoming dark cloud, the dark cloud diverted from the path of the fire and turned around and back it goes. Thereafter the serpent crouches down and Cush mounts him and off they flew to join their company anxiously waiting for them. As they landed in their forest home his creatures flocked to him, he touches each on their heads, a touch which reassures them of his friendship.

From these encounters, Cush emerged more human than ever he has felt in his dwellings among the centaurs and the motley creatures around. He has been aroused to his humanity, given a human voice, and certainly thrust into a destiny he cannot resist. He began to be sensitive to the environment he had lived in carefree for so long and felt a strange detachment and unbonding from his family of centaurs, and more strangely so, the centaurs even began to notice his changing demeanor before he noticed their super-sensitive nature and reaction to his all too well human adaptation.

 He was then troubled at what has come upon him, troubled that his creature family will not understand, will not come to the knowledge of his being, he cannot rationally express the schism growing between them. It became a burden to him, and one he will carry till his final departure from the Forest of Death.

Eamon and Safiza, were more affected by the change of events, they felt lost and losing their childhood friend, they will belch out their cry which is the sign of anger and frustration, and the more it leaves Cush lost for an appropriate response to their strange feeling of loss, having bonded from childhood and now it seems they are losing him to another world even in their world. Given the violent nature of centaurs, to have cohabited with other beasts, (a gorilla, with it near human characteristics, a sound understanding of Cush’s feelings and ever closer to him and packed with natural strength; a tiger, more of a solitary nature, a deadly predator and a boa constrictor, a large non-venomous snake, that can bite and then constrict it, victim, by shutting out the blood flow to the brain till it death occurs), without any skirmishes could all be due to Cush’s thorough breeding within their fold, as he related to each of them and eventually creating an unusual family of different creatures, never alike but living with one interest, to fight for and defend him who has the human spirit that is dominant over every other creature.

Cush felt all the with pain in his heart, wondered why the god who abandoned him to be raised by the centaurs is now imposing his will on him, a fate he did not relish, nonetheless beyond his power to resist; but has in his special way of communicating with them assure his friends that he will never abandon them, that he remains a brother and friend. It was not to be, a different fate awaits them.