Chapter Ten

" Baaba, please tell us a story. Pleassssse." Krit begged their father.

" Yes,Baaba tell us." Bahrin said excitedly. He knew he was probably too old to continue gloating over his father's stories but he just couldn't help it. The man had an almost endless store of stories,from folktales to his experiences during his military service. Bahrin doubted he would ever tire of them, infact,he suspected he would still listen to them even when he grew up.

Baaba laughed his deep baritone laughter." I just told you one in the afternoon and you want another one. What if all my stories get finished?"

Krit's jaw dropped." That's impossible. Your stories can't get finished."

Baaba chuckled." Okay I'll tell you one. In the animal kingdom,a long time ago,there was a great famine. The rains had not come that year and all the streams and rivers dried up. It was so bad that the ground became very hard and there was no green leaf in sight. The animals grew very lean and weak, some dying whilst others even killed themselves.

The Cloud People,who live on the clouds , took pity on the animals and decided to invite them to a feast. However, because they lived in the sky and their food not enough to feed all the animals,they invited only their cousins ,the birds.

Now when the other animals heard this ,they were so angry and hurt,with the most hurt being crafty tortoise. Tortoise vowed silently to himself that he would go to the feast no matter what. So he went to the houses of the birds at night and stole a feather from each one.

He used the feathers to weave two wings and also glued some to his body to make him look like a bird . When morning came, he......"

" Bahrin!!!" The voice of his mother called from the kitchen.

" Go on, we'll wait for you." Baaba told him.

Bahrin got up reluctantly and went to answer his mother's call. She was cooking the evening meal and humming to herself.

" You called me , Ma." His nostrils inhaled the sweet aroma of the tubaani,steamed bean cakes.

" Are all the guinnea fowls in the roost?" She stirred the pepper sauce slowly.

" Oh Gods, I forgot." Bahrin dashed out.

" Hurry up, the food is almost ready." Ma shouted after him.

How could he have forgotten to chase the fowls into their coop? It was part of his evening routine and he'd been doing everyday ever since he was eleven. Now because of his forgetfulness,they might have strayed far from home.

Bahrin searched round the house but found only two out of the twelve. He looked at the sky. The last Ray's of the sun we're disappearing gradually. If he did not find them fast before dark his Ma would kill him.

He continued his search, looking on trees,shrubs and in the tall elephant grasses for any sign of a grey patch. He ventured farther and farther away but there was still no sign of those stupid guinnea fowls.

When it became harder to see, Bahrin bundled some dry grass together and made a tall torch. At last, he found all ten guinea fowls sitting on the low branches of a blackberry tree.

They seemed to know why he was there, because they took off, running towards home with Bahrin chasing after them and venting his annoyance. Before long they got home and his torch fell as shock numbed his senses. The house was gone.

Not really gone,but burnt down. A few walls still stood but most of it was gone. Bahrin couldn't see any sign of his family around and wondered if they'd gone to one of the farmhouses a mile away.

" But they could have waited for me." He muttered to himself. His eyes welled up with up tears at the fact that their house was gone. All the happy memories of their home,their whole lives, everything was in this house. Bahrin cleaned his tears away.

He decided to check if he could salvage anything of value in the house. Using the eerie glow from the dying embers, Bahrin made his way carefully into the wreck.

He stopped short,he eyes refusing to believe what he saw. For lying on the ground and burnt to a crisp were Baaba, Ma....and Krit.

Bahrin fell to his knees. His brain refusing to process how he could lose his family in one day. What kind of fire could do this in the short time that he was away.

He was too shocked to think. Something snapped in him and a wave of sadness descended on his body. It was so heavy, so agonizing was the sadness that he couldn't breathe. Bahrin felt like his soul had ripped out of his body and scalding tears fell from his eyes.

He screamed his pain into the night,cursing himself and the Gods. The pain and loss was too much to bear and he punched the ground until his knuckles bled. He tore at his clothes and cried his tortured soul out.

Bahrin didn't notice as he screamed and cursed,that his Mark was glowing faintly. A whitish aura was surrounding him, pulsating with the rythym of his grieving heart. The glow of his Mark increased and so did the aura, forming a bright circle around him.

His Mark had Awakened.

. . . .

High Priestess Kirab was speaking to High Priestess Lata, when she felt the beginnings of a vision. She held up her hand and Lata stopped talking. A fog cleared from her mind and Kirab Saw a teenage boy screaming and crying. She could feel the agony of his loss and the despair that filled his entire being. A bright aura surrounded him,and lit up the burnt house he was kneeling in.

Kirab's vision receded, her focus coming back to her.

" What did you See?" Lata's voice was concerned. Kirab's eyes were filled with tears.

" I Saw a teenage boy,...and his Mark had just awakened."

" I think you need to go."

Kirab nodded.