THE LEGEND OF KIWAKAAZI

Kelu fought hard and well. But at the end of the day, he was a mere mortal fighting an immortal monster. His muscles were about to give up on him. He felt tired and sore all over. He had never fought this long his entire life. He had planned to attack Dofa’s eyes but the plan had not worked perfectly. He barely managed to make a cut on Dofa’s brow.

Dofa noticed that his opponent’s body was weakening and turned up the heat on him. He attacked Kelu and eventually injured his opponent after he drove his blade through his stomach. It should have killed Kelu but he survived. Yes, Kelu was strong and Dofa acknowledged it. Dofa’s fight with Kelu was the longest fight he had ever fought and it somehow affected his troops. The soldiers of Gamufie were inspired by Kelu’s bravery and fought hard. Gamufie was winning the second battle.

For once, the Gamufies were winning but Kelu was losing. After a few more injuries, he was completely weakened and knelt before Dofa like Kinwa had seen earlier in his dream. Dofa said “you have fought well Kelu. I shall never forget your name.” Kelu felt happy – the invincible Dofa has acknowledged him. He can finally surrender to death.

Meanwhile, Kinwa had snuck into Nsoo. Yes! Snuck, because Nsoo was a village in Hanfusu and someone from Gamufie would have been killed on sight. Luckily, Nsoo was not far from the battlefield and Kinwa can join his family once he finds the mysterious weapon. Inside Nsoo, he asked everyone he met about the Nsobuo but no one will tell him. Some people at the very mention of Nsobuo will flee from him as if he had mentioned the name of some curse. He did not know where to go. He walked and paused many times. He saw a small forest and walked towards it until he arrived at a point and stopped. He saw three footpaths leading into the forest but he was not sure which one to take. Suddenly, he felt a presence behind him and turned to see whom it was. It was an old man with a walking stick behind him. “Where did he come from?” thought Kinwa.

 Just before Dofa could deliver his final blow, another arrow attacked him from behind. He quickly turned and blocked it this time with his sword. Dofa was searching for this opponent. Once again, Dofa quickly turned and stopped an attacking sword with his. His opponent swung his sword aiming for Dofa’s neck but Dofa quickly ducked and took a few steps backwards. Now, he was looking into the eyes of the second person to interrupt his kill. He noticed he was just a boy. Dofa asked “who are you?”

Kelu wanted to be the person to kill Dofa. That way, his dreams will finally come true. He did not fight during the first battle and waited only to interrupt Dofa’s kill. It was perfect timing. First, he saves the king and then he defeats Dofa and he is suddenly a hero. He ordered Tete not to interfere no matter what happens.

Tete was many things but one thing his father loved about him was his obedience. Perhaps that is why he was able to become the great warrior his father wanted him to become only after a few years of training. But the boy could not obey this order; he was sorry but he could not just stand by and watch his father die or more appropriately, be killed. So he intervened. “My name is Tete son of Kelu,” answered the boy. Dofa understood. The boy could not help himself. Tete immediately carried his father and wanted to run but was cut off by Dofa. He laid his father down gently and said “fine, if it is a fight you want; a fight is what you will get”.

Kinwa turned to the old man. He wanted to ask how an old man with a stick could just sneak up on him like that. But before he could speak the old man asked “young boy, why do you seek the caves of death?” Kinwa answered his question with a question of his own; “why don’t you tell me where I can find it, since you clearly know where it is?” The old man studied him for a while, smiled and slowly lifted his stick to show the way; the left footpath. In a typical old man’s voice, he said “beyond the waterfall” to Kiwakaazi’s left. Kinwa turned to look in the direction the old man was pointing at and turned back after a few seconds to thank him but he was gone; vanished completely.

The battle between Tete and Dofa was underway. Swords were clashing and men were shouting with excitement. His father although seriously injured advised Tete not to fight but he will not obey his father’s dying wish. He fought as hard as his father or perhaps even better than his father. All the while Dofa was thinking, “Where are these maggots coming from anyway? I have to quickly finish off this one before another one interrupts the fun part of fighting; the thrill of seeing life drain out of the eyes of your opponent.” It was Dofa’s high.

Kinwa finally arrived at the waterfall. It was a really beautiful sight. He had never seen a waterfall before and could not believe the old man called this location the “caves of death”. He stood there for a while admiring the beauty. There were many herbs and beautiful flowers bordering the waterfall. There were also some birds, butterflies and other insects around. He sighed and appreciated what he was seeing. Unfortunately, he could not spot any caves around. “So where is it?” he questioned.

“Help… Help me!” cried a small girl in the water. Kinwa spotted a young girl being swept away by the current of the river. He did not even take his time to analyze the situation. He just jumped into the water to save the girl. He wanted to save her so badly he completely forgot he did not know how to swim. He however did handle his first time of swimming very well. He splashed the water until he got close enough. He stretched out his hand and offered it to the girl but she did not take it. He shouted “take my hand!” with his arm fully stretched. She looked at his hand, smiled and disappeared.

The battle between Tete and Dofa was more intense. Dofa did not want any more interruptions. He was not going to play with his food this time. He was serious and went all out but Tete was skilled and fought bravely. Tete kept an eye on the fight between his father and Dofa and knew his father planned on destroying Dofa’s eyes. So he also did everything he could to damage the crocodile’s eyes.

The water got violent and Kinwa could not float in the water anymore. He sunk. He battled the water but could not hold his breath after some time. Soon, he was losing consciousness.

When Dofa swung his sword at him with his right hand, Tete blocked it with his left sword and drove his right sword quickly through Dofa’s left eye and it did penetrate. Tete let his guard down and almost lost his head when Dofa swung his sword at him once again. He quickly ducked and took a few steps away from his opponent leaving his sword in Dofa’s eye. Dofa withdrew the sword and was bleeding. Bleeding; no man had ever seen the crocodile bleed before especially his army. They were frightened by this turn of events. Damn! These Gamufies are persistent. They should just allow Dofa to slaughter them. What they are doing will only infuriate the invincible crocodile and no one wants that. Because then, he becomes mad and only the gods know what he will do.

Kinwa woke up suddenly in a cave. He could not believe it. He was alive. He got up and started walking aimlessly in this cave. It was dark and he could not tell where exactly he was going. It was so dark he thought he had finally solved the riddle “When you close your eyes and you cannot open it anymore, then you will find it.” But an old voice from behind him said “no, that is not it!”

After withdrawing the sword he said “this is your father’s sword, right? I must give it to you. You are as strong as or maybe even stronger than your father. But this changes nothing, you will die by your own father’s sword and I promise, this time it will be quick and merciless.” The crocodile’s left eye has been blinded and still he wanted to fight. Well, his left eye was not blinded for long. It started healing. He became serious and attacked Tete with a force he could no longer handle using the sword he withdrew from his eye.

Kinwa quickly turned to face the old lady. Her appearance somehow caused some torches to light up brightening the inside of the cave. From where they stood there were at least five other entrances in different directions – a labyrinth of caves. She was smiling at him and held an interesting walking stick; it looked more like a sword. It was like no sword he had ever seen before. Actually it was not a sword at all. The hilt was very black and a long black thread was firmly attached to it. Instead of a sharp and blunt edge as blade, five sharp edges and four thin sides served as blades. It was like a cone with four sides and five edges.

Kinwa assumed that must be the special weapon he was looking for.

The woman spoke “Kinwa-si-kaazi, I have been waiting for you.”