KULUSUMU ANIFA

As Abu was lost in his thoughts. The horse he was riding on reached its breaking point and collapsed suddenly with him on top. He came to his senses when he saw his angle of looking at the ground changing quickly. He landed on top of the horse as it fell with a heavy thud on the muddy and wet road.

Abu's robes became spattered with mud from the impact of the horse clashing into the muddy road.

"Lahaula!" Abu exclaimed as he realized what had happened to him.

He checked on the horse by kicking it with all the force his left foot could muster to see if it could stir, unfortunately, there was no movement. He bent his ear next to the horse's nostrils and mouth hoping to detect a faint sign of its breathing. Alas, it was completely dead.

"You were not supposed to die here!" He cursed at how soon the horse had died on him.

Left with no option, Abu removed his little belongings and weapons he had put in the horse's saddle into his bag, slung it on his back, and moved on.

Looking straight ahead, walking on while trying to avoid the muddy spots on the road, he spoke to himself. "I won't suffer like this for nothing, binadamu ( a person ) will have to suffer and die at my hands to take away this anger am feeling."

***

Unknown to Abu Bin Zayyid. In a sharp turn up ahead, concealed by several trees on the right and big boulders on the right side. A group of six bandits had seen him coming from far and laid in wait for him.

The nasty weather had affected their business too as few people were traveling in this foul weather, they could have preferred to stay inside their tents warming themselves next to the fire or in the warm bosom of their women but they had to survive. Ever since the war between Sultan Saladin and the Crusaders had stopped. Resources had become hard to come across and life was tough for these bandits.

Buluhani Ashraf had deserted from the Muslim armies of Sultan Saladin and his five colleagues two years ago to become bandits on the road to Casal Maen mostly but also on the route to Jerusalem depending on their prospects. Life as bandits was rosy, they had become masters of their own destiny, reaping big in material treasures. Whatever they killed for was theirs and only theirs, no need of having to report it to a commanding officer or have him give them scraps after taking the best for himself.

Within this period, they had become infamous and elusive bandits. Whoever was unfortunate enough to land in their grasp could live to tell their brutality to the world through their decapitated corpses.

Many knights, traders, and small convoys had fallen prey to them. The local administration had paid bounty hunters to hunt them down, unfortunately for the bounty hunters, the majority of them had become their prey. Currently, the bounty on Buluhani Ashraf and his men stood at 500 silver coins.

Now here, they were, lying in wait for the poor traveler who was so unlucky that even his horse collapsed on him before he could reach Buluhani Ashraf.

Buluhani felt some sympathy for this lone traveler, in the past he could have told his men to stand down and let him pass, waiting for bigger prey but not today. He shared yesterday night, the last food rations with these men before they also shared with their families.

They had to strike big or small today if they were to stave off starving.

Patiently, and hidden. Buluhani and his bandits waited for the lone traveler with his meager luggage from the collapsed horse to approach their designated ambush location.

***

In the back courtyard of 72 Janna Promise. A beautiful female, dressed in a close-fitting black hijab that highlighted her curvaceous figure leaned against the wooden wall outside the main hall in which important guests were entertained. This was the room in which Adam had hosted the knights under Commander Gallo Francis for an evening meal.

The female had One ear pressed to the wooden wall, with a radiant smile blossoming occasionally on her sweet round face, her brown eye twinkled with excitement solicited from stolen words coming from inside the hall. She wanted to laugh but remembered that she was eavesdropping so she lifted her hand to cover her mouth and stifle any laughter that could accidentally come out.

Her name was Kulusumu Anifa, aged 16 years but turning 17 years in one month. She happened to be the young sister to the proprietor of '72 Janna Promise'. She was listening in to the conversation Adam was having with the Knight Templars and it was amusing and also delighted her immensely.

By nature, Kulusumu Anifa was an unconventional girl from childhood, and now that she was on the threshold of adulthood. She had become spirited, headstrong, too bright and talented for her age and wanted to be taken seriously by her elder brother Adam or other members of the household. To her chagrin, they insisted on treating her as their baby sister who was suspected of being harmed keeping her away from the guests and the world at large.

She had taken part in preparing the traditional Moroccan meal with the male cook but when it came to taking the glory, her brother Adam had taken it all upon himself without even mentioning her contribution, as if he could prepare such a fine meal that could make these enlightened Templar Knights be all praises about it.

Kulusumu Anifa got mad when she heard Adam say, "Alhamdulillah, that's my humble imitation of a traditional meal enjoyed by my ancestors in Morocco. We call it Cusack, unfortunately, due to the war we are short of many necessary ingredients to bring out its true taste."

How can a humble person take all the glory from others?

"My dear brother your ego is not one for a humble person." She told herself.

Listening to her brother, his words were not just going to make her mad but also furious with how much he praised himself at the expense of others. Kulusumu Anifa instead choose to listen to the words of the Knight Templars laced with their exotic accents as they discussed amongst themselves and with her annoying brother Adam.

Commander Gallo Francis, had a loud and authoritative voice with that aura of a knowledgeable and wise leader which she could have liked had he not been too old for her liking. In her mind, he was too commanding like her brother and late father. She liked his Italian accent.

However, what she looked forward to hearing was the four young knights with their thick Polish accents. She had seen them before but had never known their names until now when the new Knight Yosef addressed them as; Leo Augustin, Daniel Cyrus, Samson Cyrus, and Alexandre Hugo even though she did not hear the latter two saying much besides agreeing with what their companions said.

Kulusumu was touched by their conversation.

War was not good for anything, thinking of it brought tears to her pretty brown eyes.

She was about to be married off to a distant cousin Bashar. In the few meetings they had been together before the war, she had fallen deeply in love with him. He was very knowledgeable in medicine, music, and art as well as being open-minded, and charming in his way. Handsome, young, and reserved despite being very knowledgeable beyond his years. It's from him that she got the interest to be a healer, even though she had not yet become a full-fledged healer, she considered herself as one.

Bashar had promised to wed her when he returned from his posting in Acre with Saladin's army. Unfortunately, he never came back. She received the sad news from her brother that he had passed on during the fighting. For many months, she mourned him and now she was getting the strength to somehow move on.

The presence of these Knight Templars especially the young four ones who liked to move behind the others had brought back some of that fire for life that she had lost out and never knew she could regain. In her mind, these were her agemates who had been through the bitter crucible of war but were still optimistically looking at life. Why couldn't she be like them?

Resilient, happy, and taking joy in living each day as it came their way.

Kulusumu longed to seat together with them like her brother was doing, exchange views about life as fellow human beings and not as Muslims and Christians with all the toxic bad blood that had been bred for several centuries. When she heard that they had finished eating their meal, an idea crossed her mind about how she could get to interact with them instead of being hidden away behind the wall listening to them talk. She could enter the room under the pretext of picking up the plates and ask them how the meal was.

With this thought on her mind.

Kulusumu got to work.