CHIBOK (COMPLETED)

CHAPTER FIVE

The cold wind was washing her face with morning freshness.

The sound Aminat first heard was like that of the rolling sea, then it got louder, she was certain whatever it was, was coming at her. Her spine jolted upright, she began blinking before her eyes could adjust to the blinding morning light in the open wild. She stifled a yawn as her eyes saw the first of the white creatures, curved horns pointing at the sky as their great heads swayed before their humongous forms.

Cattles! Her palms moistened with dread, as the wheel of logic began squealing and turning making her head feel as heavy as lead; a vein on her temple thumping violently: these were cattles, they must have herders, where would they belong? On the side of the insurgence who might have subjugated them or...

Probabilities, at least two of them abound, both palpably possible.

Whoever was herding them was still out of sight, she tried to use her leg but it was so cramped she could hardly feel it anymore, every attempt to move it was like goading it with thousand pin pricks. "please!" she whispered as if her legs could hear.

Cattle egret flaunt their pristine white wings about, hovering over the herd of cows whose grunts, moans and lows drew nearer, black muzzles leisurely chewing in the grasses before them.

She craned to look farther than the creatures that approached. Actually, she needn't look as far, a boy made a cry toward the cow off a clump of weeds. His height had afforded him a close distance before she could notice. Few minutes later she could see two men ambling down the grassy terrain, chewing sticks, each with a riffle slung on his shoulders.

Aminat hoisted herself against the branch that had held her sore back overnight. Her leg was beginning to respond to her will, if she could silently climb up the tree, she could avoid their sight. But the men were inadvertently closer to her before she could do anything. Her legs wavered on the swaying branch. Biting on her trembling lips, she wobbled towards the trunk to climb a little higher. From where she stood, trying all her best to even out her heartbeats and steady her feeble gait.

The men were shielded by the leaves and dangling fruits, as she tried to move farther up, she realized belatedly that she'd swung the thin branch so much that it shook violently; any careful eye could have observed that.

Her breath was still held, only to breathe when she couldn't hold it anymore. Internally, she reprimanded herself for being so clumsy. They approached painstakingly slow through the swaying green grass, she hope that she'd not be seen.

The smaller boy was still bounding excitedly through the grass, the morning sun giving his brown-black woolly hair some touch of gold, a rubber sling in his left hand which he swirl playfully in the air.

"Mango!" The boy shouted of a sudden, running towards the tree. His eyes wide and expectant he could have just been about to unwrap his birthday present. Boys are never different, Abu, Aminat's skinny ten year old sibling would bounce the same way at the prospect of plucking a mango fruit, she was quite sure that most girls wouldn't spare it less such attention except there was no alternative. But at the moment, this train of thought never fully played—Aminat didn't allow it. The only thing on her mind as this carefree exemplar of boyhood came right under the tree, scanning for fallen fruits, was how she could slink away without being noticed or at least hid up on the tree with the boy hopping and bobbing under it and quite possibly throwing stones to get some fruits from the tree when the time comes.

Aminat had not noticed this in the night before, but the darkness had prevented her from seeing the freshly fallen ripen fruits among rotten leaves and decaying pulp. The boy picked some and as expected of Abu wanted to see where it came from, underneath the tree, the boy looked up, their eyes met, he gasped.