LIONS SONG...1ST CHAPTER OF MY BOOK. A REPOST
THE MUSIC FOR THIS WRITE...ACTUALLY THE SOUNDTRACK...
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ONE OF MY MAIN INTENTS FOR WRITING WAS TO CREATE NEW AFRICAN HERO'S. SOMETHING TO COUNTER THE NEGATIVE IMAGES OF US...THE JIGABOO SYNDROME. THIS IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER IN ALL OF THE STORIES THAT I HAVE DONE.
As I walk away from the burning building the screams and shouts of the slaves meld with the crackling of the fire. The slaves who see me look at me with terror in their eyes and most run away, the others fall to their knees . Across my shoulder I carry the gold and money that came from the footlocker in the house. I am not worried about what they will say because most of them will swear they saw a haint or ghost. My face and my body are painted white with ash. All that I wear is a loin cloth and a leather pouch which is around my neck. My feet are in sandals. As soon as I leave the yard of the house I melt into the woods that run along the road. I can still hear the screams of the slaves and the frantic cries of the animals in the barn as the smell of the smoke reaches them.
As I walk I think back to another time, a time when I was younger. This too was a time of screams but they were the screams of my people. The raiders who came into our village came with no mercy or remorse. They killed almost every man who rose to fight them off. I can still see the look on my mothers face as she told my sister and I to run away and hide. I did not listen for I thought that I was a man. I had just completed the training that turns boys into men and I was a man or so I thought. I saw the men falling from the sticks that sang like thunder and I ran out with my spear and my shield. I saw my father as he swept one of the men from the strange zebra and thrust his spear into his heart. My father looked at me and then his eyes stretched wide as he fell across the man he had just killed I ran towards him and was almost to him when I was hit from behind and knocked unconscious.
I woke to a living hell, fire blazed from every hut in the village and the bodies of the dead were piled up like blankets in the center of the village. The women and children were herded together and placed in chains I did not see my mother but my sister was there, she was crying and I tried to move to her but I was chained to a stake in the ground. the old people were herded together and shot. The women were stripped of their clothing and many were raped right in front of our eyes. If they resisted they were killed. As I looked around I saw that I was not the only young man to be spared, there were about thirteen of us chained to stakes in the ground.The white demons shouted things at us that we did not understand and they had two black men with them that spoke their tongue and ours. Eventually we were all chained together and led on a long march to the ships that carried us to this country.
At this time my thoughts are interrupted by the sounds of horses and I crouch behind a tree as they pass by. I hear one of the white men say to the other. "Goddamn billy you reckon they got out okay, do you see the size of that thar fyar?'
"Shit yeah Claude!" says the other white man.
There are a least six horses on the road but this is all the conversation I hear as they thunder past my hiding place. I continue moving through the woods and I start to relive the events of the past night. I arrived in this area around two days ago and established my campsite, it was at this time that I made contact with the slave whose family sent me to get him. He wanted to be free, I would free him, it was as simple as that. There were 6 other slaves who wanted to leave with him. this was no problem I would help them all.
I have learned that the best diversion is something that is totally unexpected, hence the fire. I've also learned that the main factor in the capture of many runaways is the descriptions given by the masters to the authorities, I have a remedy for that. After I was sure that the house was asleep I snuck into the room and made my way to the masters bedroom a slave was asleep at the foot of his bed. In most instances the slave who sleeps in the masters bedroom is as dangerous as an attack dog, so I simply slit his throat. The master woke up as his slave thrashed on the floor and I put him back to sleep with a well placed lick to his head.I then tied him up and went down the hall to where his wife was and I gagged her and tied her up as well. I did the same for his son a boy of about ten years of age.
I was then able to move about the house rather freely. The wife's slave was one of the slaves who was leaving with me and she had given me an excellent layout of the house. The only other slave around was the cook and she slept in a closet in the kitchen and she was half deaf.
I tied the master to a chair and did the same for his wife and son. I placed them across from him and removed his gag he began to curse at me at the top of his voice. "nigra this and nigra that. Even as he cursed me I could see the fear in his eyes at seeing an African man in his house. I asked him where his gold and money was and he continued to curse at me it was at this time that I dragged his sons chair into the hall. I then came into the room and stripped his wife of her clothes. When she was naked I stood her up and I treated her much as a slave on the auction block is treated. I caressed her nipples and then I made her sit down with her legs spread wide in front of him. He continued to yell and scream until I slit her throat. At this point he started to beg for his sons life and his. I asked him where the money was one more time and he told me I went and got it and I walked back in the room and killed him, I then went into the hall and killed his son. This seed would go no further. I then set the house on fire and walked away.
The slaves who are with me will not be missed for some days, all records of them are gone in the fire. I reach our camp and cleanse myself. This has been my eleventh mission. And I am the Lion.
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