Broken In Starlight

CHAPTER ONE

"Njata?"

She heard Wairimu call out her name with alarming panic. It was the middle of the night and they were out unlike any decent girl of their age group.

Njata was the last-born daughter in a family of ten boys and one girl. Everyone thought she had a strange name because she had not been named after any of the nine plus-one daughters of Gikuyu and Mumbi.

"What a strange name?", Neighbors would mutter, "I heard that she's named after a cow!" Others would add.

The reason for their puzzlement was simple.: The Gikuyu tribe came from Gikuyu and his nine plus one daughters who mothered the ten clans. First-born daughters were named after their paternal grandmothers while second-born daughters were named after their maternal grandmothers. If there was a third daughter, she'd been named after her father's eldest sister, and a fourth would be named after her mother's eldest sister. If there were more daughters, they'd be named after aunts from both sides starting from the father's side and followed by the mother's. The same case would apply to boys starting from the grandfather and then to the eldest uncle and so forth. Sometimes, people would be named after their character and role in the clan. For example, singers were called Maina meaning 'people that sing and herders were called Muriithi.

Needless to say, all names were common. All of their children had those original names because of the naming system, or a slight variation of those names, and others grew up to be named after their duties, but Njata? Such names were reserved for cows and goats. Alas!, Njata's maitû, Njeri, had a cow named "Mweri" which meant 'moon'. It had been born on a full moon night.

Njata thought her name was neither strange nor belonging to a cow. Sure, most cows were her namesake, but who else could claim that their name shined so bright? She was a literal star! She was unique and special. The best thing about her name was that it had a story behind it. Not a just mere system of naming. Nothing dull like the norm. No, her naming was bright. Just like her name.

Njeri, Njata's maitû, and Njuguna, Njata's baba, had tried to have a daughter for a long time. Njata did not know how long that time was, but she knew that it was long enough to bear ten strong sons and for maitû to be out of her childbearing age. Baba loved his mother and always wished to have a daughter to name after her but it was not to be. Njeri could no longer bear a child. The strength had already gone from her bones.

Njata's parents had already accepted that the only daughters they'd have would be ones that their ten sons would marry. Some people would advise Njuguna to take a second wife so that she'd bear him a daughter to name after his mother. He never gave in to their demands. He loved maitû. She was a beautiful loving woman that had borne him 10 strong sons.

One day, as Njuguna had gone out to the forest with other young men of the village to hunt, he saw a baby lying down on a bed made of dried banana leaves. There had been evidence of a lone lion roaming around the village and roaring at night. A pride of lions was no danger. It was the lone one you had to watch out for. And so all warriors and able-bodied men in the village had tried unsuccessfully to hunt it. It was like the lion was outwitting them.

As Njuguna approached the mysterious bundle, the baby looked at him and smiled, revealing two dimpled cheeks. He was already halfway in love with it by the time he lifted the baby into his arms.

The other men with him warned him against involving himself with the child.

"It might be a bad omen", some said.

"Or maybe the child belongs to Cûcu wa Kwerû", others claimed. Had it been just a case of an abandoned baby in the forest, the baby would have been more acceptable; but this, after a lone lion that kept on eluding them, was setting off all sorts of warnings.