Zephyra

“Get into the tunnels with the stores,” said Nandi, “and do not come out. Do you understand, Zephyra? Zephyra!”

“Yes mama,” she said, barely registering what her mama said as tears streamed down her cheeks. The sounds of fire and death is all she could hear as the Ahweezult warriors raided the village, burning and killing all in their path.

“You hide until I or your father come get you. You come out only when I call to you, understand me?”

“Yes mama.”

Nandi moved the small table where they sat on the floor and ate together. Zephyra remembered the corn porridge sweetened with a small piece of honeycomb they had ate there just that morning. Nandi pulled back the rug that was under the table exposing the bamboo grate on the floor. In one move Nandi pulled up the grate and dropped the child down the hole.

“Go down the tunnel. I’ll be back.”

Before Zephyra could even plead for her mama to stay with her, the grate and carpet had been placed back. She heard the thump of the table being set down on top, separating her from the madness above. Wiping away fresh tears from her eyes, she headed down the tunnel.

Her mother had never returned. At one point she had to hide deep in the tunnel under a natural chimney that let the air in. The smoke was so thick it made her cough so much she thought she would be heard. She watched the smoke rush up the rock as she covered her mouth trying to force her coughs to remain silent.

She ate from the stores her family kept cool underground. How long she did not know except she had slept and ate for what seemed like many days. She waited near where the grate in the floor used to be, but she feared her mother dead and was scared. Finally, she heard footsteps near the entrance. She hurried towards the light shouting, “Momma, Momma.” Strong hands reached in and grabbed her shoulders, lifting her out into the brightest light she’d ever seen.

After her eyes adjusted, she saw that it was not her mother. The figure wore a hood adorned with antlers and thick fur. It was the crazy old woman from the mountain her mother warned her about. “Never go near that witch,” her mother had warned. “You see her you better run for if she gets you, she will eat you.”

Zephyra kicked at the woman and bit her hand as hard as she could. She could taste her blood. The woman dropped her to the floor. That’s when Zephyra realized the roof was gone, burned away by the fire, and that she was kneeling in ash. Up she leapt and ran towards the door of the hut, jumping over any blackened debris in her way. When she made it out, she had only run a small distance when she stopped in her tracks. The biggest lion she had ever seen stood in her path amid an ochre tableau of ash and black where her village once was.

“They are all dead,” said a raspy voice behind her. Dead or taken as slaves.”

Zephyra gazed at a charred hulk that had once been human. She could not recognize who it used to be. “My momma and papa, where…” Zephyra cried out but couldn’t finish the question.

They did not come for her and she knew they would never have left her behind. She collapsed to the ground with giant sobs as reality crashed down upon her. She cried a long while. The woman and her giant cat leaving her to her grief. She wanted to die right there if she could be with them again. She eventually dragged herself to her feet and looked up. The woman was standing by her cat, scratching it behind its ears, her face still shrouded behind her hood.

“Come with me,” the witch told her, as she turned and walked off, her lion following obediently. After taking a few deep breaths, Zephyra obediently followed as well.