The Legend of Hombarume (Legends Series, #1)

43.

The majestic masquerades, captivated the audience and seized the dance floor with their incredible performance. Tapfuma had never witnessed such a spectacle in his entire existence. His father, the deceased healer never allowed him to go out but he was even stricter when it came to major social gatherings.

Tapfuma was beyond mesmerized, the masquerade performance had everyone in awe, to say the least. The drum players knelt down and the center, beating on their instruments as if dear life itself depended on it. Their large, tough palms moved at an unbelievable speed, forming an enticing rhythm with every movement.

Around the drum players, the masquerades moved in a circular manner, flinging their decorated feet high into the sky with each movement to unimaginable heights. Their garments seemed to be dancing as well, responding to the rhythm of their muscular arms and legs. Tapfuma could not resist the strong urge to move as well, dance to the spell-binding rhythm of the drums. Revai, who stood next to the chief and his advisors, one on each side, raised his hand in signal and in no time, the masquerade performance came to a halt.

Tapfuma wasn't particularly happy with this because he immensely enjoyed the performance so much that he didn't want it to stop, secondly, his respect for Revai had quickly diminished after their encounter, first at the Eagle homestead and secondly during the trial at the palace. He did not want to think about him any longer than he should but he could not help but wonder what kind of man he was. Were his intentions pure or not? It was hard for him to tell, he often could do it really easily, but recently that had changed.

After a short while, Revai disappeared into the crowd. It was only then that Tapfuma realized that he had been eyeing him like an eagle the entire time. After that long while of trying to figure out Revai and what kind of aura was emanating from him, Tapfuma was handed a small gourd, filled to the brim with a thick brownish foaming mixture, a little of it even trickled down the side, running toward his tightly gripping hand.

He was about to take his first sip of beer. His father never took beer, as far as he knew, so he did not at all anticipate the taste. He took a larger gulp after he was acquainted with it, some of the people around him had gulped down the entire helping at once. He felt out of place having to slowly take the beer, one sip at a time until the gourd was empty.

He saw Ushe, standing on the other end of the sparring ring, beer in hand, with a wild smile plastered across his face. He was obviously happy because his best friend Hombarume was competing at the famed contest.

The crowd raged on as the first stage of the competition was announced, the double fights. The contestants were now in view, standing in a queue a short distance away from the Chief and his guards. One man stood in the middle of the ring with a gong in his hand that he struck exactly three times after announcing the names of the first four contestants to take the ring.

Immediately, four muscular men ran into the ring one by one. One man with a long beard, very thick arms and closer to the ground than the others but more vocal than the rest, came in very confident and the crowd cheered for him, proving that they were equally confident in him as he raised his fists, punching the hot summer air.

His opponent was much taller, more physically advantaged but he did not evoke the same emotion from the jovial crowd as the other one had. The other two followed and when they all successfully assembled on opposite side of the sparring ring, the gong was struck three more times and the fighting commenced immediately. The drum players started playing immediately as well, the rhythm of their drums exhilarating and giving the match a lively feel that was most certainly important.

Tapfuma was in complete admiration of what was happening, from the cheering of the vibrant onlookers, the liveliness of the drums, to the ululating of the women at the edge of the sparing ring. It was like nothing he'd ever witnessed before. His attention was grabbed during the entire match. Apparently, the initial stages of the competition were one round each, therefore when it ended, more names were announced and contestants came in very quickly for the next match.

Those who had won the round had a line of red ink etched under their left eye and they immediately moved to the back of the line to await their next match. Those who lost unfortunately had to leave the queue of competitors and join the crowd of onlookers. The short enthusiastic man cheered greatly for himself while some of the onlookers patted him on the back as he headed back to the competitors queue, the red dye under his eye making him seem like a ritual leader.

Tapfuma watched as swiftly, the fighters tackled each other while half of them were eliminated and the rest moved on with their pride intact and with zeal to continue with the competition. The crowd was particularly enthusiastic about a fellow named Dererai, the men close to Tapfuma had already been bickering about him for quite a while, how he had the power of three gods combined and could fight fourteen men at once. Through the chatter around him, he had also figured out that the same fellow was the one who was triumphant the previous summer along with Simba, who was still missing.

He knew which one Dererai was when he came into the sparring ring, he needed no introduction. His charisma was unmatched, his confidence could take the thatch off the roof. He did not look physically capable of fighting fourteen men at once like they had suggested but there was something about his energy that made Tapfuma sure that he was undoubtedly the best fighter around. His match did not take long; he handled it quite well, swift like the leopard and just as cunning.

Dererai's opponent was simply not as qualified as he was in the art of sparring, his hits were often and almost always misses. He was too slow, taking too much time to thrust while Dererai's attacks were swift, you would just hear the crowd screaming afterwards and not know what happened.

Dererai won the match after his opponent surrendered, one of the three ways in which one could lose a match. His partner fell by the second of three ways as he was beaten until he could not fight back. Apparently, if you did not fight back for a monitored length of time you were automatically forfeited from the match. Lastly, if you dared step outside the fighting ring you would be disqualified.

Tapfuma cheered for Dererai who was truly a formidable fighter. The man walked out of the ring a victor, with the red dye as his sign of triumph as he walked to the end of the line. The crowd was out of control as they continued the raucous after the village favorite had left the ring. The energy reached a level that could not easily be surpassed and Tapfuma was curious and eager to see how the other fighters would best Dererai.

The gong caught him by surprise this time as the ringing receded slowly in his ears and by the time he shook it all away, the next batch of fighters had been called out and among them was one with an extremely dark aura to him, Hombarume.

Tapfuma immediately sensed that something was wrong and instead of concentrating on everything that was occurring in the ring he ended up focusing all his energy on Hombarume and the terrible sting of bad energy that was oozing out of him. Hombarume would no doubt be a worthy opponent in the ring. He was swift, he was patient and he was tough and resilient from all Tapfuma had already gathered. There was still something about him that was still a mystery, something he couldn't exactly figure out.

He managed to peek across the fighting ring and saw Revai hurrying to the Chief's side so that he could witness the fight. He was really eager to watch it, as if missing it would be a great mistake. Did he have an axe to grind with Hombarume or was he still upset that he slipped through his fingers and avoided conviction?

Another mystery had just presented itself. Hombarume's match was slow and careful and it ended with his triumph. His partner also won and they prevailed to the next round. Revai disappeared into the crowd just as quickly as he had emerged. What in the name of the gods was he doing?