20. Preparations for War

Brahmuhn was sitting on his throne, all alone in the room. Besides the grief for his father, Chief Kindi and his two comrades, Mamba and Hippo, he was also meditative of the impending war which would take place the next day. The third Elder, Shiri, came in walking in hurried paces.

‘What is it now, Shiri?’

‘My Chief, it is very urgent…’

‘You know very well that you cannot consult me in the absence of the first or second Elder.’ Brahmuhn sounded very irritated. He had grown weary of the Elders. He had always watched them as a child when they provided his father with “advice” and never really saw their importance and therefore never grew to tolerate them. He began to see their services as irrelevant to the chiefdom.

‘Forgive me, my Chief but I have to tell you this.’

He sat up straight. ‘Then out with it.’

He knelt at his feet. He was breathing heavily in anxiety and he was ne