I was still thinking about Daria when I exited her hut and saw something that made me stop dead in my tracks.One of my hands still frozen in midair clutched a red vial of health potion that I'd been in the process of stuffing into a cloth knapsack with the rest. My immediate thought was to hurl it at the creature before me. But I never did.
Perched on the fence that divided the residential section of the village from the cattle's grazing field, was the biggest raven I'd ever seen. What kept me paralyzed was its eyes. The left one was the usual pit of shadows I'd come to expect from such birds, but the right… white. Pure white. It was like staring into the moon on a pitch black night.
The raven looked at me, unblinking, then cocked its head to one side. A strange feeling began to brew in my gut. I didn't like it.
"Bah!" I suddenly cried out.
I leapt forth waving the vial like a baton and scared the massive bird away. Even as it took to the sky, I wondered if I'd seen correctly. Had its eye truly been white? It was pretty hot out here. Acting on that last thought as if any further delay would bring on another preposterous hallucination, I uncorked and downed half the vial of health potion and savored its almost too sweet tang before sealing it and putting it away.
I passed women carrying bulging baskets of laundry with small, laughing children chasing each other around in tow. A group of men were eating some kind of bread and drinking from wooden mugs in front of a half constructed hut. Birds, normal birds like sparrows and robins, blue jays and green jays soared through the air that smelled more and more like fire the closer I got to Jamal's outdoor setup.
He stood in front of a hut with a wide door that showed the blacksmithing forge unattended, but releasing roiling clouds of inky smoke through a hole in the roof. Erin must have stepped out for a moment. Jamal collected a mix of gold and silver pieces in exchange for a karambit, thanked his leaving customer, and looked up at me as I approached his bench.
"Hey!" he exclaimed with a toothy smile. "I knew I smelled old onions!"
This guy.
I laughed, "Maybe it was just your upper lip."
Jamal Udanta was the village quartermaster, and the two of us went way back. There were indeed very few individuals who I made privy of my given assignments, and here I was talking to yet another one.
Hell, half the time, Jamal came with me. Some quests were simply too difficult to handle on my own, and while he wasn't the village champion, I knew he'd be the one iNkosi Bafana called upon if something happened to me.
I removed my birchwood dlala 'nduku and placed them on the table. He scooped them up and examined them, then grimaced.
"You been chewin' on these?"
[TO BE CONTINUED]