Ara St

ants to"."As your wife too", Laziza asks to cla

ger.I stay there quietly, thinking of a way to attack them, when she says to me, "it is my job to help you".I have to teach you the ways of Miko, the god of your people, so your eyes can see and your body will feel the might of your ancestors.I look at her carefully as her tone changes, and then I sigh.If my ancestors had been great, we would not have been slaughtered like this.She chuckled and walked away into the cave, leaving me seated watching the garden.When the night had fallen deep, she woke me up.Let's go Kalenje, she instructed, and we walked a great distance with a piece of clothing covering my eyes.We are here, she says, leaving my stuff. You can take it off now. I peel away the piece of cloth, and then I look around, watching the drawings on the wall that looked like the totem.Borakama began to chant, and then the air had changed.Then the drawings on the wall had woken up, and the totem on my hand too.I pushed it away in fright, but the totem stood on its own.I could see some animals walk towards us. As they did and stopped on the altar, she took a blade from under the hide bag. she then placed it under each animal and slit their throat one after the other, all seven of them.Looking like the animals on the totem, I could see the owl, the snake, the eagle, the bull, the leopard, the fish, and the last one was small, so I could not properly see it in the darkness.And then she said to me, "Come forward Kalenje", and then she cut my palm and spread my blood on the floor. The cut was deep, the pain had rung into my head.I heard her chants fill the air as I g