19 - Take

"The two of you should go on, I can't come with you."

The supposed leader of the group said. He wouldn't be able to stand the shame of not being strong enough to watch over his men. He wouldn't even have a word to say to the Monarch. What would he say.

"Do not say that. None of us is perfect."

The indifferent guy said fighting his palms into each other as though he was trying to ride a rollercoaster.

They had come that far from the odds and calls of misery. They even had no idea how they had made it to that extent.

Killing the Cougar which had charged after them had been by the odds of cooperation.

One of them had climbed the tree, another with peg in his hand to the right and the last with his peg in his hand to the left.

They had fooled the Cougar till it had come to the position of the one at the top. Calculating, the one at the top had jumped on the Cougar, almost broke his back, but crushed the Cougar's strength. The remaining two went ahead to finish up what had been started.

And now, there they were.

They were standing at the end of the forest looking at the village.

Anything could happen where they were standing. They really needed to do something quickly or might possibly have themselves to blame.

"Let him do whatever he wish to do."

The guy who was at odds with the leader said. He was still at odds with him. The fact that he had lost his brother to the Mangani would never be healed.

To him, the leader was to be blamed. And of course he would never forgive him. Not in the nearest future until he had seen harm catch up with him.

The indifferent and third guy had wondered how the two had settled over their dispute when they saw the Cougar. How they had cooperated and killed the Cougar.

The indifferent guy was the one who had jumped on the Cougar.

"Of course. I'll do whatever I want."

The leader seemed to find his words again.

The three of them were standing but cautiously.

The leader facing the right, the indifferent guy, the left and the one at odds with the master, the forest.

Each one was watching the other's back. They didn't seem to hate themselves to death's call.

The leader continued, noticing that it seemed as though he was speaking to himself.

"When you get to the village. Tell the Monarch that I wasn't a man enough and was nothing to show for. Tell him that my incompetence caused the death of one, capture of two and a missing fourth."

"I know what to do, do not bother, if you do. Say to my fiance that she could go ahead and marry the bully because she would never see my face."

He stopped talking for a while as though he heard some movements, then he said.

"Give me some moments."

He walked away from them into the woods, till they couldn't see him anymore.

"What'd you think he's up to?"

The indifferent guy asked. The other guy snorted and retorted,

"Who cares?"

The indifferent guy ate him up with a belittling ogle, but the fella didn't even bat an eye.

"I think he wants to do something stupid."

The fellow didn't say anything to that. He seemed not to care about other people's opinions. He only seemed to be seeing himself.

"I should get going now."

The crazy guy said.

"Go fuck yourself. Why are you being like that? It's nobody's fault. You can't blame anyone for what happened to either your brother or mine."

The indifferent guy was flaring up too, but the crazy guy always did have an answer,

"See who's talking. Your brother is still fucking alive. Mine is no more. Like no fucking more. And now you're making comparison I don't even..."

"I can hear something."

The indifferent guy cut the fellow short and headed straight into the woods, in direction of leader.

The crazy guy called at him,

"Are you crazy? Where you going? If it's another Mangani would you handle it? Let him die for all I care."

The fellow had only puffed the air, because the indifferent guy retained his tag. He didn't even look back.

The indifferent guy fought his way through the woods till he got to the spot.

He saw blood dripping from the top of the tree and looked up at the tree.

The leader had hung himself and was choking. He had even stabbed himself.

He seemed to had stabbed himself before he had done the hanging.

"What have you done? Stupid?"

The indifferent guy forgot the fact that the fellow was his leader. Made no difference at that time.

He tried all he could do to get him down and he did.

He undid the rope around the leader's neck and the choking stopped, but he had lost tons of blood.

The leader tossed his head towards the fellow and slurped the air of death around him. There was pressure in his breathing pace,

"Thanks for being good."

He said and looked up to the sky.

"Stop saying shit. I can still save you."

The indifferent guy stood up from the leader, scrambling around to get some herbs. He wasn't even sure what he could do.

"I don't want to be saved."

The leader struggled and succumbed to gloom.

The crazy guy had been standing there all along. He said to the fellow who was looking for the herbs,

"He's gone."

The fellow ran to the leader and began to wail. The best way he could.

The other guy who had his back leaned on a tree went down thus till he was sitting on the earth.

He seemed to had giving up too on the hatred.

"Isn't this what you wanted?"

The indifferent guy asked and tried to carry the leader but he failed at the first instance.

The other fellow offered to help but he denied him.

"Fuck off!"

He spat in the crazy guy's face and carried the leader's corpse towards the village.

He couldn't do it on his own, he was passing out.

Few steps from the forest, he fell on his face but he felt a coarse hand pick him up and an enormous creature towering over him.

He almost quaked. A Mangani?