Manchild, Page 2
Khaleel Jooste
of the group of man he belonged to. He looked not like the dark-skinned-man in the east. His complexion was much lighter. Almost like the gentle-small-man in the west. But they're height and slight builds compared nothing to that of Manchild. Nor was his hair like that of any of them. His hair was soft and bouncy and grew till over his ears. Rarely did a Tree Dweller male's hair grow longer than one hitch, and that was quite a remarkable feat. Stranger still, was Manchild's deep, blue eyes. The chief had only seen such a deep blue once, while they still dwelled in the mountains near the angry-water. This was not found among any of the man the chief had ever met. That is why the chief believed that Manchild was a blessing from the deity they worshipped.
To Manchild none of it made sense. Where did he belong if not with the Tree Dwellers. He had to prove that he was one of them and he had to start by winning the Victory Swing. Manchild has learned well through the years that he should use both his hands and feet. He was however not able to lift the baskets as the Tree Dwellers did. They never used their hands to pick up the baskets and none of them ever used their feet to hold onto the branches. They just leaped, skipped, dunked and leaped. Manchild could not. But this year Manchild had devised a new plan.
He was going to swing with his legs across the branches and scoop the baskets with his hands. Dunk it, then leap onto another branch and repeat the process. This would ensure that he would remain in the game. But win, remained another thing. There were other obstacles. Tree Dwellers that had earned the honor to take a mate, could place booby traps and even remove the flower baskets. Without all your flower baskets still in the game, you could forget to get a shy look from one of the Tree Dweller girls. If you are poor at the bow and arrow, don't think any Tree Dweller girl would then even dare look. None of the Victory Swing was easy.
Manchild was determined to be one of the Tree Dwellers, but as the legend of the Tree Dwellers went, Manchild would have an even greater fate. The chief would share this campfire story with his people often. Of the day Manchild slayed his biggest kill and became a man. And as the rule of the Tree Dwellers go, the chief allowed him the honor of a mate.
The story told of Manchild's long journey to the north. Facing not only the threats of the foe, but also the harsh elements of nature. That winter it was said that white-rain was seen on the vast-red-space. The temperatures were much lower than any Tree Dweller could bare. It was on this journey that Manchild's life would change forever and it was this remarkable feat that made him a legend amongst the Tree Dweller people.
4 – The White Lion
The first time Manchild saw the white lion was during hunting practice. He and his Tree Dweller friend, !Xe!Xo, were practicing on their own near the great river to the east. !Xe!Xo was skilled with a bow and arrow. He was rarely allowed to hunt though, because he suffered from what the Tree Dwellers referred to as eenie, which meant fatigue.
!Xe!Xo could not go running for long, because he would have no breath. Sometimes when he pushed himself too hard, he would collapse. The Tree Dwellers didn't bother to see if he was still alive whenever he just fell face first into the ground during hunts. They had grown accustomed to his condition. No one knew what it was and how he got it. The Tree Dweller herbalist made several of her highly potent concoctions and forced him to drink it when he was ten years old. He then had to spend an entire day in seclusion and this all in the hot room. The hot room was usually reserved for Tree Dwellers who were about to pass on.
!Xe!Xo, however did not die. He was wide awake the next day begging for some red roots to sooth his hunger pains. The Tree Dweller herbalist then announced that the boy is fine, but suffers from eenie, which is not contagious and not fatal. The day that !Xe!Xo was declared as not being a threat to the Tree Dweller kind, was also the day he and Manchild became friends. Something about !Xe!Xo's disease made him different from the rest of the Tree Dwellers. He shared that bond with Manchild. Who was definitely not a Tree Dweller himself. They made a perfect hunting team.
Manchild would always carry !Xe!Xo on his shoulders during hunts. Manchild had the speed and strength to pursue the hunted and !Xe!Xo was there to spear it good when they were near enough. They had successfully slain one kudu this way. But Manchild had to learn to hunt on his own. !Xe!Xo was demonstrating how to hold the bow properly when the lion appeared from the bushes on the opposite side of the great river. It looked straight at Manchild. He saw it immediately. The two just looked at each other for a few seconds when !Xe!Xo's disapproving tongue-to-cheek noise broke Manchild's hypnotic trance and the white lion was gone.
Manchild didn't mention it to !Xe!Xo, because he thought he had imagined it. There are no such thing as white lions. All of those he has ever seen are almost the same color as him. Like the dried grass. This one, however, was almost as white as the milk of the trees. Manchild wondered if he might be diseased. He put his hand to his head then rubbed a finger past his gums. He looked at the saliva. Nothing. Was it real. Manchild was confused. He scanned the bushes to see if he could get a glimpse of it again. There was nothing though. Just the bushes and the trees. He focused his attention to !Xe!Xo again. The white lion still in the back of his mind.
Manchild hoped that his training sessions with !Xe!Xo would help him today. All of it he enjoyed, but he also had his goal set. To win the Victory Swing. He stared at the Tree Dweller girls that were all gathered near the big gathering place. He liked a few of them. One in particular liked him. She was not one to hide that she liked Manchild a lot. Sometimes she would follow Manchild and !Xe!Xo when they went for hunting practice. She would normally hide behind a bush. Not once were they ever aware that she was there. Her name was Ee!xu.
Manchild looked in her direction just as the Victory Swing was about to begin. He was however not looking at her, but rather at the white thing behind her; in the bushes. It was the white lion. Manchild wanted to shout, alarmed, but something stopped him. The lion looked at him as intently as Manchild was looking at it. A smile came to Manchild's face, then the horn sound, that started the Victory Swing, broke him from his trance. The white lion was gone. The Victory Swing was now in full swing. Of course Ee!xu was one happy Tree Dweller girl, that giant hunter Manchild just smiled at her.
What was a Tree Dweller girl to do.
5 - Victory Swing
Manchild got a slow start to the Victory Swing. The white lion was still on his mind. He had never seen such an enormous animal. Stalking behind the bushes without any one noticing. Why was he the only one that could see it. Was he starting to turn into a hee-bab is what Manchild immediately started debating in his head. A hee-bab was someone that could see things that were not there. They were not tolerated by the Tree Dwellers, especially if it was a Tree Dweller.
Hee-babs were usually only from man.
Being a man himself, Manchild thought that this might be a possibility. The thought weighed heavy on his mind and he almost missed the second flower basket, narrowly escaping the bite of a non-lethal snake, that was placed as a booby trap just underneath it. He tossed the basket into the air and quickly lunged for the next tree, landing just in time to miss a huge net that was tossed to catch him before he could perch himself on a branch. He contemplated his next move. Quickly he swung his legs across the branch and grabbed the basket underneath it. This time there were no booby traps. He had only collected three flower baskets. The rest of the Tree Dwellers were already standing at five. Two had dropped out of the game. One due to a paralyzing dart to the neck, while the other was hanging by his feet, having been caught by a tree trap.
The Tree Dweller girls were cheering in excitement.
!Xe !Xe ban!xu!
That is what they all would scream.
Manchild liked to hear those words. It gave him some confidence. It spoke of being true to the heart. Ban!xu meant peaceful heart. The cheer the girls were shouting meant focus on a peaceful heart. This cheer they came up with after one of the chief's captivating stories around the fire. As the Tree Dweller legend goes, th
is particular story spoke of the great war the Tree Dwellers had won a few decades ago. The fight was that of the heart and not one as a result of the cruelty of man. The Tree Dwellers were aided during this time by the man that dwelled in the arid bush. Though wild, these man were better hunters than the Tree Dwellers. They could run for miles and miles and never tire. They could even go without any food for days. The Tree Dwellers called them !Xa-nan. This meant man-with-no-thirst. As Manchild remembered this story, he lunged for his next basket. He misjudged the distance and nearly missed the branch. Dangling from it with only his left hand. A Tree Dweller jumped onto the branch with excessive force, trying to get him to lose his grip. This tactic did however not work. Manchild quickly steadied himself and wanted to shake the branch to make the Tree Dweller fall. He looked down. That would sure be a nasty hurt. He couldn't be that cruel. He let the Tree Dweller get away.
The key to the Victory Swing is a peaceful inner feeling.
Ee!xu was following Manchild's every move. Dodging the tree trunks as she kept her eyes in the sky, with the hope of seeing Manchild win the Victory Swing. Perhaps if he was successful, the chief might give him
To Manchild none of it made sense. Where did he belong if not with the Tree Dwellers. He had to prove that he was one of them and he had to start by winning the Victory Swing. Manchild has learned well through the years that he should use both his hands and feet. He was however not able to lift the baskets as the Tree Dwellers did. They never used their hands to pick up the baskets and none of them ever used their feet to hold onto the branches. They just leaped, skipped, dunked and leaped. Manchild could not. But this year Manchild had devised a new plan.
He was going to swing with his legs across the branches and scoop the baskets with his hands. Dunk it, then leap onto another branch and repeat the process. This would ensure that he would remain in the game. But win, remained another thing. There were other obstacles. Tree Dwellers that had earned the honor to take a mate, could place booby traps and even remove the flower baskets. Without all your flower baskets still in the game, you could forget to get a shy look from one of the Tree Dweller girls. If you are poor at the bow and arrow, don't think any Tree Dweller girl would then even dare look. None of the Victory Swing was easy.
Manchild was determined to be one of the Tree Dwellers, but as the legend of the Tree Dwellers went, Manchild would have an even greater fate. The chief would share this campfire story with his people often. Of the day Manchild slayed his biggest kill and became a man. And as the rule of the Tree Dwellers go, the chief allowed him the honor of a mate.
The story told of Manchild's long journey to the north. Facing not only the threats of the foe, but also the harsh elements of nature. That winter it was said that white-rain was seen on the vast-red-space. The temperatures were much lower than any Tree Dweller could bare. It was on this journey that Manchild's life would change forever and it was this remarkable feat that made him a legend amongst the Tree Dweller people.
4 – The White Lion
The first time Manchild saw the white lion was during hunting practice. He and his Tree Dweller friend, !Xe!Xo, were practicing on their own near the great river to the east. !Xe!Xo was skilled with a bow and arrow. He was rarely allowed to hunt though, because he suffered from what the Tree Dwellers referred to as eenie, which meant fatigue.
!Xe!Xo could not go running for long, because he would have no breath. Sometimes when he pushed himself too hard, he would collapse. The Tree Dwellers didn't bother to see if he was still alive whenever he just fell face first into the ground during hunts. They had grown accustomed to his condition. No one knew what it was and how he got it. The Tree Dweller herbalist made several of her highly potent concoctions and forced him to drink it when he was ten years old. He then had to spend an entire day in seclusion and this all in the hot room. The hot room was usually reserved for Tree Dwellers who were about to pass on.
!Xe!Xo, however did not die. He was wide awake the next day begging for some red roots to sooth his hunger pains. The Tree Dweller herbalist then announced that the boy is fine, but suffers from eenie, which is not contagious and not fatal. The day that !Xe!Xo was declared as not being a threat to the Tree Dweller kind, was also the day he and Manchild became friends. Something about !Xe!Xo's disease made him different from the rest of the Tree Dwellers. He shared that bond with Manchild. Who was definitely not a Tree Dweller himself. They made a perfect hunting team.
Manchild would always carry !Xe!Xo on his shoulders during hunts. Manchild had the speed and strength to pursue the hunted and !Xe!Xo was there to spear it good when they were near enough. They had successfully slain one kudu this way. But Manchild had to learn to hunt on his own. !Xe!Xo was demonstrating how to hold the bow properly when the lion appeared from the bushes on the opposite side of the great river. It looked straight at Manchild. He saw it immediately. The two just looked at each other for a few seconds when !Xe!Xo's disapproving tongue-to-cheek noise broke Manchild's hypnotic trance and the white lion was gone.
Manchild didn't mention it to !Xe!Xo, because he thought he had imagined it. There are no such thing as white lions. All of those he has ever seen are almost the same color as him. Like the dried grass. This one, however, was almost as white as the milk of the trees. Manchild wondered if he might be diseased. He put his hand to his head then rubbed a finger past his gums. He looked at the saliva. Nothing. Was it real. Manchild was confused. He scanned the bushes to see if he could get a glimpse of it again. There was nothing though. Just the bushes and the trees. He focused his attention to !Xe!Xo again. The white lion still in the back of his mind.
Manchild hoped that his training sessions with !Xe!Xo would help him today. All of it he enjoyed, but he also had his goal set. To win the Victory Swing. He stared at the Tree Dweller girls that were all gathered near the big gathering place. He liked a few of them. One in particular liked him. She was not one to hide that she liked Manchild a lot. Sometimes she would follow Manchild and !Xe!Xo when they went for hunting practice. She would normally hide behind a bush. Not once were they ever aware that she was there. Her name was Ee!xu.
Manchild looked in her direction just as the Victory Swing was about to begin. He was however not looking at her, but rather at the white thing behind her; in the bushes. It was the white lion. Manchild wanted to shout, alarmed, but something stopped him. The lion looked at him as intently as Manchild was looking at it. A smile came to Manchild's face, then the horn sound, that started the Victory Swing, broke him from his trance. The white lion was gone. The Victory Swing was now in full swing. Of course Ee!xu was one happy Tree Dweller girl, that giant hunter Manchild just smiled at her.
What was a Tree Dweller girl to do.
5 - Victory Swing
Manchild got a slow start to the Victory Swing. The white lion was still on his mind. He had never seen such an enormous animal. Stalking behind the bushes without any one noticing. Why was he the only one that could see it. Was he starting to turn into a hee-bab is what Manchild immediately started debating in his head. A hee-bab was someone that could see things that were not there. They were not tolerated by the Tree Dwellers, especially if it was a Tree Dweller.
Hee-babs were usually only from man.
Being a man himself, Manchild thought that this might be a possibility. The thought weighed heavy on his mind and he almost missed the second flower basket, narrowly escaping the bite of a non-lethal snake, that was placed as a booby trap just underneath it. He tossed the basket into the air and quickly lunged for the next tree, landing just in time to miss a huge net that was tossed to catch him before he could perch himself on a branch. He contemplated his next move. Quickly he swung his legs across the branch and grabbed the basket underneath it. This time there were no booby traps. He had only collected three flower baskets. The rest of the Tree Dwellers were already standing at five. Two had dropped out of the game. One due to a paralyzing dart to the neck, while the other was hanging by his feet, having been caught by a tree trap.
The Tree Dweller girls were cheering in excitement.
!Xe !Xe ban!xu!
That is what they all would scream.
Manchild liked to hear those words. It gave him some confidence. It spoke of being true to the heart. Ban!xu meant peaceful heart. The cheer the girls were shouting meant focus on a peaceful heart. This cheer they came up with after one of the chief's captivating stories around the fire. As the Tree Dweller legend goes, th
is particular story spoke of the great war the Tree Dwellers had won a few decades ago. The fight was that of the heart and not one as a result of the cruelty of man. The Tree Dwellers were aided during this time by the man that dwelled in the arid bush. Though wild, these man were better hunters than the Tree Dwellers. They could run for miles and miles and never tire. They could even go without any food for days. The Tree Dwellers called them !Xa-nan. This meant man-with-no-thirst. As Manchild remembered this story, he lunged for his next basket. He misjudged the distance and nearly missed the branch. Dangling from it with only his left hand. A Tree Dweller jumped onto the branch with excessive force, trying to get him to lose his grip. This tactic did however not work. Manchild quickly steadied himself and wanted to shake the branch to make the Tree Dweller fall. He looked down. That would sure be a nasty hurt. He couldn't be that cruel. He let the Tree Dweller get away.
The key to the Victory Swing is a peaceful inner feeling.
Ee!xu was following Manchild's every move. Dodging the tree trunks as she kept her eyes in the sky, with the hope of seeing Manchild win the Victory Swing. Perhaps if he was successful, the chief might give him
