The 100 sons of Samia - Part 9 - The Fate of Agumen and his sons

Samia was overjoyed to see Agumen upon his knees, “A mountain of waiting. A mountain of sorrows but now I stand upon the peak of vengeance”, she said.

“What is a fitting punishment for him?”, asked Hamaga of Samia, and her head filled with a hundred vile punishments that she would like to see Agumen endure.

But Agumens sons Trulanwa and Naboya would not see their father tortured and stood infront of him. “If you are truly good, great Hamaga, unlike our foolish father, then be merciful. It is not the custom of the four tribes to torture people or to treat a defeated chief dishonorably”, said Trulanwa.

And the kind hearted Janakwa also said, “Remember Chirimoya and what it means,great Hamaga. Vengeance is not our Chirimoya. Vengence is merely the reawakening of a dormant evil, forget vengeance and the evil will die; hate and it will breathe and feed; torture and murder and it will breed.”.

But Hamaga and Samia would not listen. The demons of hate had crept into their hearts and made them hard. “No”, said Hamaga, “Agumen is a monster, not a chief. He is not worthy of our respect or our kindness. We are the vessels of his victims.
They cry through our tears and breath and move our hands to strike the fatal wounds!”.

And Agumen was taken and placed inside a cave which was guarded by Imekana warriors with long spears and, because Agumens sons refused to abandon their father, they too were kept prisoner in the cave and, while they were being held prisoner, the Imekana people prepared a feast in honor of their victory.

But,while the village prepared to celebrate the end of one trial, another was about to begin, for deep inside the giant Termite mound, the giant Termite mother was stirring.

She had heard the distant death cries of her termite children and her heart now blazed with bloody thoughts of vengeance and out of the mouth of the Termite mound she emmerged; her legs as long and broad as tree trunks; her mandibles like great scimitars that could slice a man in two with one bite; her eyes like two red crescent moons filled with rage and bloodlust.

Seeing her, the people of the Tetrapi village screamed and fled their huts, running towards the Imekana land for help.

When the Tetrapi villagers told Agumen of the terrible towering death that was approaching, Hamaga thought that all was lost. “Oh God!”, he said, “This is a test too great for me. If you want to destroy me then take me but spare my village and its neighbours”.

But God did not wish any harm upon the innocent villagers, “The Termite mother is not my doing. Agumen conjured the termite nightmare through his contract with the evil ones. Have faith Hamaga. Tell the sons of Samia these instructions and all will be saved. Tell them that the hundred sons must all join hands in a circle and that they must invite into that circle the two sons of your enemy Agumen as their friends and equals and that they must chant four times, “Let love flow through the bonds and the hundred shall become one!” and, when they do this, all that is good shall be saved”.

And so the hundred sons were told of God’s instruction to Hamaga and they all joined hands in a great circle and the sons of Agumen were welcomed into that circle as friends and equals but they refused to help unless their father’s life was spared and his freedom granted and so Hamaga had to promise that he would spare Agumen’s life and grant his freedom once the Imekana village had been saved and, when the sons of Agumen were satisfied, they stepped into the centre of the circle, and all chanted three times, “Let love flow through the bonds and the hundred shall become one!”, and when this was done all the sons felt the power of God pass through them and the hundred brothers were transformed into one giant warrior called Azmass which means Friendship, who held, in his boulder sized fists, a giant bronze spear and a bronze shield and marching across the land he faced the giant Termite mother and though the battle was fierce and the giant warrior was burned by acid and bitten twice by sharp bone crushing mandibles, when he pierced the abdomen of the Termite mother four times the mother fell onto her back and,screaming like thunder,died and then Azmass kicked her giant corpse back into the mouth of the Termite mountain and the evil mountain sank back beneath the earth and disappeared like a swelling going down and, so that no more sacrifices could ever be made to the evil ones, Azmass trod upon the mosquito headed altars that Agumen had built and ground them into dust beneath the heel of his enormous right foot.

And, when the Termite mother was dead and buried and the Imekana village safe, Hamaga was forced to keep the promise which he had made to the sons of Agumen and so he spared Agumens life and set Agumen and his sons free on the condition that they go into the Nameless Forest and never return from it.

Agumen and his sons fled happily into the forest but,sadly for them, the evil ones whom Agumen had summoned, and given sacrifices to, were angry with him for his failures and, in the nameless forest,every bird upon every tree and every cricket and even the wind seemed to chant, “Agumen, we will kill you!” and Agumen became terribly afraid although his sons, who loved him enough to die for him, swore to protect him and,after traveling half a mile through the nameless forest, they came to a narrow rope bridge which spanned a deep ravine and,as there was no other means of crossing they had no option but to cross but Agumen was afraid, “The evil ones have surely cursed this bridge so that it will collapse the moment that I step upon it”, he said and Agumen was considering turning back when the great spotted cat Jazira roared behind him.

“Now we cannot go back”, said his sons, “If we go back then surely Jazira will devour us”.

But Agumen refused to go forward, “You go, my sons”, he said, “This is my punishment for a life of greed and evil and so I will face Jazira and give you time to cross over to safety”.

The sons were unhappy to leave their father to such an awful fate but their father took up a club and beat them when they refused to go and so, weeping, they crossed the bridge without him and, while they did this, the stealthy Jazira advanced upon the fallen chief of the Tetrapi.

This would surely have been the end of Agumen if his three sons had not implored Mother God to spare their father. Mother God was angry with Agumen for his evil actions but, unlike the evil ones, Mother God was merciful and kind and so she transformed Agumen into the Kurako bird; that fabulous horned bird which is only native to Tetrapia, and the bird flew away while, thanking God, the sons of Agumen crossed the bridge to safety.