My heart was pounding in my throat as I sat there on my hands and knees. I had to gasp for every breath as it felt like my guts had been pushed to near pulping by the single blow from Ade. All thoughts of challenging her for a better pce in the cn fled from my mind like gazelle in the eyes of predators. I could only think of fleeing.

  I channeled my healing magic to help recover as I staggered to my feet and looked at the eyes of my love. Melokuhle stood there, her eyes full of terror for me as she clutched her hands to her chest and rushed to me. We collided in a hug as I took deep breaths, inhaling her scent as much as possible.

  “We have to go,” She said harshly into my ears. “We need to collect as much of our things as possible and flee from the cn.” Melokuhle pushed away, turning, “I’ll get Aphiwe, we will leave tonight in the darkness.”

  My voice was harsh and I could smell my own stink of fear wafting off me. Shame burned in my chest so brightly like a second sun melting away my confidence. “I can’t. She forbade me. If I run, my life is forfeit.”

  Melokuhle turned to me with eyes brimming with tears, “If you stay she might kill you. She might… castrate and ruin your body. I can’t see you being torn apart like that.”

  I felt my throat go dry as memories of all those being punished before flit through my mind. The torture, the public poles where we were driven to throw stones at them until they y broken and bloody. The mutition of genitals and removal of breasts. Being reduced to less than a male. “We have to pray that I’ll have a modicum of mercy given to me.” I didn’t feel the hope in my heart.

  Melokuhle grasped my face in her hands as she searched my eyes. I could see fear in hers. Fear of loss, not of being hurt. I grasped her hands, “If it comes to that take Aphiwe to the edge of the vilge while I’m being punished. I don’t want her to see what might happen.”

  “But… then I won’t be there for you.” Desperately she locked her lips on mine trying to pull me into a pleading kiss, “We have to go, please, for me?”

  I tightly squeezed her, “We can’t. I can’t see you and Aphiwe hurt. Speak to all those you know I’ve seen in the dead of night. Ade already knows who I’ve been with just with the barest scent of my body. If they support me I might survive this.”

  I could feel my love quaking in my arms as she squeezed me back. She buried her face in my neck and nodded resolutely. “Ok, we can hope. I’ll speak to whoever I can. What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to find Bongani and send him into the wilds. I’ll tell him to collect enough food for the two of us for a few days. Hopefully I’ll just be banished and sent away. She should follow tradition and let me take one person with me. Then you and I can go, get far away as I get stronger and then. Maybe in a few years we can return and cim Aphiwe.” We gazed deeply into each other’s eyes and kissed once more.

  Finally separating from each other she ran off towards the huts of those I had slept with the st week. I couldn’t believe that it had been so little time since my awakening and already I had gotten myself into too deep of trouble. I remembered tales of Ade in her troublesome years and how she took the cn to new heights when the previous queen fell in combat. I took a deep breath and looked around the pit.

  A rge collection of roots, berries, and mushrooms y spread out by the meats. The sign that Bongani had succeeded in his task. I took a handful of the sheet and soaked his scent into my nose. The strong mixture of my own marking and his own meager thin musk. I walked through the vilge as others gave me furtive gnces from the corner of their eyes.

  I checked my hut first, the barest hint of his smell lingered there, maybe a day old. He hadn’t interrupted Melokuhle and I st night. I wondered just how long he had been working to gather that much food to support the cn. I headed to the watering hole and found him there soothing his parched throat with the waters we had avaible.

  “Bongani!” I hollered as I half ran towards him.

  His ears and head snapped up locking onto me in an instant as he turned, staying on his knees and bowed his head deeply. “Mistress,” He groveled and tched onto my feet when I stood before him.

  “I need you to do something for me, Bongani.” I knelt and pulled him up to look into his eyes. I had to grab his chin and force him to gaze at me. “You are mine,” I told him. “For the next day you need to collect as much food as possible and hide it to the northeast. I saw that you had brought a great boon to the vilge but Ade has returned and I have incurred her wrath. I need to be ready for banishment.”

  The heavy stink of fear flooded off him as he flitted back and forth from one eye to the other. I watched his throat bob at the sudden dryness that must encompass him. Without me he had no one to protect him. “I…”

  “You will stay there as well. We will need your skills to gather food while I learn to hunt. It should be easy with my spells. Can you do this for me?” I cupped his waist to me and pulled our chests together as I looked deep into his eyes.

  He couldn’t bring himself to answer. He only nodded and buried his head into my neck for a moment. I whispered to him, “Take one of my spare waist wraps and my trophy. Other pces won’t let you be bare like we demand. And I earned this and won’t part with it.”

  I slipped off my trophy shoulder cover and thrust it into his hands. I grabbed his face and kissed him deeply as a thanks for doing this for me. “I w-w-will be ready. N-n-northwest.”

  I stood and took a deep steadying breath while Bongani sprinted off to do my bidding. The stink of his fear still wafted off him so strongly it fouled the air. Drums began to pound as the horn called for everyone to assemble. I swallowed my fear, Ade said I would have a day. This isn’t a call for me.

  I responded to the call heading to the center of the vilge and looked on in horror at what was happening.

  Three rotund crocodilekin knelt in the center of a collection of women. They were calling out for mercy in their guttural raspy nguage. “Mercy!” “Please, we are peaceful!” “Why have we been taken!” No one else could tell what they were saying. If not for my feat I would have no idea what they would be calling out for. Instead it sounded like they were ready for a fight in my ears, not desperately pleading for their lives and freedom.

  Ade stood before us all. She wore several trophies upon her shoulders and head. Her full regalia that marked her as our leader. In her hand was a wicked curved dagger she had crafted from a fallen star. It gleamed in the light of the day as she looked on to the vilge.

  “I have heard that we have lost our hunters. To those that my foolish daughter assigned to be hunters in their stead, I thank you for your attempts to serve us but I will revoke that privilege to you. Instead several of our most swift warriors will take your pce. With the deaths we have received it is imperative that we bring about a new, stronger generation.” The gathering was silent in response to her words, “Today I earned a new feat, one that will greatly increase the strength of our cn.”

  She grabbed the first sve by the chin and exposed his throat. “It is called, ‘Strength of the Fallen’. Anyone that partakes of the flesh of my kills will be given a boon to their bodies based on what flesh I give you. No longer will we sell all our sves, no longer will we let the scavengers feast on our enemies. They will fill our bellies, bringing forth a new age for the spotted cn!”

  I looked at the pale faces around me. The sick looks of the breeders, and the frenzied looks of the warriors as the words of Ade washed through their minds bending them to her will. I could see several males shudder in want. More food for the cn meant more scraps for them. I felt disgust rise in my throat.

  Ade slit the throat of the first sve. His lifeblood poured from his wound as she pced a skin to the gushing blood and gathered as much of it as possible. He thrashed but was held down by three warriors, until he slumped taking his st breath in this world. “String him up! Gather the st of his blood and drink of it. His heart shall be mine!”

  Three more hunters walked to the next pleading captured crocodilekin. “Please! I have children! I bid them to run! Release me I beg yorccchh” Her words were cut off by a ssh deep across the throat as blood was collected in another skin.

  The third looked on in defiance and made no noise as he was sughtered like a boar. Within minutes all of them were strung up by their ankles while bucked captured all the blood that flowed from their throats. Ade sat, “Lethabo!”

  Our one st warrior, her body scarred beyond measure, the one that would care for Aphiwe stepped forth. Taking a knee and bowing her head she spoke, “Yes my Queen?”

  “Butcher them, bring me their hearts raw. I wish to sate my hunger.” Ade grabbed one of her males and forced him down between her legs. “All my hunger.”

  Lethabo paled but could do nothing but comply as the male began to service our tyrant queen. She would have us turn to madness and eat in the way of the cannibals. All for strength. I felt the gorge of my bile rise in my throat once more. I could feel the crying of Hathor deep in my soul as I turned away and walked from the madness. I could see Melokuhle still desperately trying to talk to whomever would listen as I fought off the nausea.

  I tried to imagine that the sounds I heard were just more animals being sughtered. But hearing their words and knowing they were not the ones who had taken one of ours pgued my thoughts. I could see it in Ade’s eyes. This was just the beginning. There would be far less hunting and more war to capture sves. Sves that would be used to feed new strength into the cn. If her feat was true, for all I knew she could be lying to us all.

  If only I was strong enough to stop her. It would be a one sided sughter if I raised my hand against my mother. She would dispatch me like I was an ant. I stumbled away clutching my mouth as the scent of frying meat filled the air. Much to my disgust I could feel the flood of saliva fill my mouth. Somewhere deep inside of me I wanted to feast on those sves. I wanted more strength and some quiet voice in my head whispered, It could be how we usurped her. It wouldn’t be enough.

  My stomach grumbled in hunger, so I did the only thing I could bring myself to do. I walked away. I had to stop Aphiwe, we had dried meat in my home. It wasn’t much and I would need to be sparing so I could take some with me.