A Beast in the Bush of Dreams
The boy was lost in the bush again, but this time he gathered himself quickly and found his bearings. All around him the forest rose up like a thick green wall and above its canopy a false sun radiated pale white light that gave no warmth. The only way forward was a narrow path that he knew would lead to a crystal clear pond, fed by a small waterfall. It was a beautiful place, enchanting even and could only be made more beautiful by the presence of his love.
The boy sighed at the thought of her, though she was never truly far from his mind. Closing his eyes he called up a memory of her. She was by the river, ankle deep in it, trying to catch fish with her bare hands. He remembered how he admired her for a while and her simplistic beauty. This was not the false beauty of palace concubines nor did she stir the blood like the women in the pleasure houses. She was the daughter of a palm wine merchant so she was no beggar. Still she chose to dress simply, the bright yellow of her dress against the black of her skin made her look like the river goddess herself.
When he greeted her, she was startled and almost fell into the river. She shot him a playful frown and he instantly knew what had just crossed her mind. He held his arms up in defense and genuine horror rose in him. She had intended to splash him with water, lucky when she saw what he held in his she stopped and her light that touched her face was like the sun parting the clouds. She skipped out of the river with her skirt in hand.
“Is that the gift you have been promising all this time?” she said, gesturing to the small wooden box he held.
Without a word he handed it to her and she accepted it. But before she even opened the box, she threw her arms around him and wrapped him in a tight embrace. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Smiling, the boy replied. “You haven’t even seen what it is yet?”
“It doesn’t matter. I love, if only for the knowledge that what you give is freely given,” she said, then pulled away to look at him. Her eyes wet with the hint of tears. “In this place, sometimes I feel that you are my one true… “
The boy opened his eyes then, letting the memory fade back into mist, he found himself standing near the pond with the clear waters. Only now he was no longer a boy, but a man amongst men, he stood at least seven feet tall, broad in the shoulders and chest, with muscles like a lion and skin as dark as the moon’s hidden face. He wore only a skirt of leopard skin and a beaded necklace from which hung a strange stone blacker than his skin, but with white marble pattern.
His love sat by the waters edge staring into the dark reflection less pool. Though before she had been dressed simply, now she clothed herself as queen would. Dark purple dress of the riches fabrics, hair wrapped in the fashion of noble women. She had yet to notice his appearance and so she was still as stone. Even as he approached from behind as the shadow moon. Gently he put his arms around her and where his flesh touched hers, she shivered.
“I knew you would come,” she said, still unmoving.
“Our meeting is fated and as certain as the sunrise,” he said, then placed a kiss on her neck.
“why choose this place?” she asked.
He sighed in mock disappointment, “I wanted somewhere to match your beauty, but alas, in this I have failed, for the gods have shaped nothing half so lovely as you.”
He meant to call her name then, but something in the dark pond caught his notice and his attention drifted towards it.
“What is that?” he asked. “There in the water.”
She craned her neck to look and stared for a good while before she said, “I see nothing,”
And indeed he himself saw nothing from where he knelt behind her, but was still left with an uneasy feeling that he misliked. “Perhaps I was wrong in choosing this place for our meeting tonight. Let us away.” and before she could raise an issue he waved his hand and the world around them shifted.
Now they were in the halls of a great palace, with servants all around them, the length of which was so vast that the guards that stood at the door appeared only as faceless shadows. The man was seated upon an ebony throne befitting an Oba his love by his side. As the servants approached, they placed trays of delicious food before them. The items before made the man’s mouth water in anticipation, but his lover only looked at them with disgust. And there was something more, but he could not quite tell, as her face was nearly a blur to him.
“Is it not to your liking?” he asked. “I can have them bring you something else. Anything truly, so long as you desire it.”
“No, no. do not trouble yourself, I am simply not in the mode to eat” she said.
The uneasy feeling returned to him and it was then that he noticed that the two guards drew closer, one male the other female, yet their faces remained obscured by shadows and their hands were on their.
“I believe I know what you would prefer,” he said.
And as she was about to protest he made another wave of his hand and the scene before them melted away to be replaced by yet another. Now they sailed across a sunlit sapphire sea at the prow of a majestic ship. He stood behind her, holding her in a tight embrace, planting sweet kisses on her slender neck as the spray of the ocean washed over them. To him the touch of the water was like acid, but he ignored it for her sake.
“I should have known from the start that this is what you would prefer,” he said. But as he gazed at her he noticed that she still had a forlorn look about her.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Nothing, perhaps tonight is not a good…”
Before she could finish he waved his hand again and stood amongst the clouds the whole world spread before them. She clung to him as if she feared she would fall.
“There is no place for fear here, not with me,” then he gestures to the world below. “You need only tell me where in this world it is you wish to be and will take you there,” he said. “And if not in this world you need only tell me and I will make one suited just for you!”
“I want…”
“Yes, say it!” He held her tightly by the shoulders and she was like a child in his arms.
She wrenched free of him then, “I want to go home go home!”
And as she stepped away from him they found themselves back at that dark pond, the waterfall now still and frozen in place.
“I want to be a bed with my husband and free to dream in peace.”
Her words struck him like thunder and he was confused for a moment. “But I am your love?” he said and stepped towards her, but she backed off. That was when he saw it for the first time, the terror in her eyes and more than that.
Behind two figures approached, they were the guards from before only now he saw their faces clearly.
“Away from her, moon child,” one of the figures called out. It was the female and as she spoke she touched a hand to her face and she pulled it away again she wore a wooden spirit mask in the style of a river goddess.
“Sangoma,” he hissed.
Then the masked woman spoke an incantation and the dark waters of the pond reared up like some great tentacled beast and seized him hand and foot.
The warrior beside her charged forward then, sword in hand and the man recognized him then. The warrior was a thief who called himself a prince. The man remembered how this little prince had come to his village and stolen away his love.
“You mean to challenge me here? Fool! This is my place of power, there can be no contest here!”
And as the struck at his chest, the man pulled an arm free of from a watery tentacle and swatted him aside. The prince crumpled bonelessly to the ground and he heard his love cry out. Ignoring her in fury the man, still restrained by the sangoma’s magic. And as he wrapped one huge beastly claw around the thief’s fragile neck he felt a blade of pure ice pierce his heart. And he remembered that feeling.
It all flooded back to him then, that day by the river, he had given his love a bridal necklace made of bright glass beads and cowries. He remembered how she had proclaimed him her one true friend and fled from him with tears in her eyes.
The boy looked down at his chest and at the sword that had pierced him. He turned to see who had struck, knowing all the while. Behind him his love held the hilt of her husbands sword and theirs met she dove the blade deeper still. With tears in both their eyes he let the sangoma’s spell do its work. And as he dragged backwards into that dark pond, at the bottom of which he knew he would find his doom, he tore the necklace from his throat and threw it at her feet.
Forgive me, he thought as he sank into the depths.
Pulled ever downwards he watched as the prince took his rightful by her side, all the while the moon's hideous laughter rang in his mind.
