Mighty Brahmuhn

The giants ran towards him and knelt before him. The fear in their eyes was clear and could not be hidden.

‘I never asked for anyone to kneel before me. I asked, who is next?’

‘We implore you, oh Great Brahmuhn! Spare us!’ one of them begged him.

‘I do not spare the lives of cowards! Now get up and get ready to fight! And… how do you even know my name?’

‘Some men call us demons. We were only following our master’s bidding,’ the other one spoke.

‘And where is your master so he can taste my bidding?!’ He waved his knobkerrie in the air.

‘Uhm…’ the first one spoke, ‘…you are sitting on him.’

He looked confused for a while. He stared at their master beneath him. ‘This fool was your master? I thought or at least heard that a demon’s power actually meant something?’

‘Except maybe to one with your mark,’ the first one answered him.

‘Then why did you attack me?’

‘There is a belief that we were banished from heaven for disobedience then we took the bodies of men. Our leader never believed in the powers of a medium, that is why he attacked and we, being his followers, merely followed suit.’

‘A belief? Surely you would know what you are.’

‘Yes we would but we don’t. All we do is exist but we do not know or remember how we came into existence. Perhaps it is one of our punishments for disobedience.’

He slammed his knobkerrie into the ground making the giants shudder in fear. Brahmuhn said, ‘This is what is going to happen. You are now under my leadership, understood?’

‘Yes, Oh Great one,’ they said.

‘And if you set one foot, just one toe out of line, I will end you.’

He stood up and looked behind him.

Cheetah had been watching them for a while, leaning weakly with his back against a tree clutching his wounded shoulder. He was sitting on the ground and his body was sore allover but he was bewildered at the events that had just transpired.

‘Come, Cheetah. Let us leave. Time shares a bed with no one.’

He wearily got up groaning and he followed Brahmuhn as he plunged deeper into the forest.

Before they left, they grabbed the fish that the giants had been cooking.

The two men just watched whilst Brahmuhn and Cheetah devoured their food before disappearing into the forest.

Brahmuhn knew that there was a river nearby because of the fish the giants had been eating. They walked for at least half a kilometer before they came upon a clear opening. Brahmuhn was not familiar with the river that was now before them.

‘My chief, I fear we may be wandering into uncharted territory. This may be owned by the Ndebele,’ Cheetah said.

‘Are you afraid, Cheetah?’ he asked him.

‘My chief…’

‘Good. Let us proceed.’

They both dived into the waters of the river and began swimming towards the bank on the other side. The water was cool and refreshing but the current was quite strong. Brahmuhn was not fazed much but the river posed a threat to Cheetah. Cheetah was stroking weakly and panting. If his body gave in, he would surely drown because the water was very deep.

On the bank on the other side a small group of women could be seen sitting on rocks. Even from a distance, Brahmuhn could see their beauty. Seeing them gave him quite a boost in strength and he began swimming faster. It was as though he was drawn to them.

When Cheetah saw them, he too began to swim faster. Resisting them seemed impossible.

As they got closer and closer, Brahmuhn began to notice something familiar about these women. And when they got even closer Brahmuhn then realized that these were not ordinary women. They gave weight to legends and folktales. Women whose mirage-like beauty could encourage enough lust within a man to make him lose control of his very wits. Women whose cannibalistic nature earned them great fear among the Shona people and the women who fetched water from the rivers. These, however, were not just ordinary women.

‘Njuzu’ (mermaids) Brahmuhn spoke loud enough for Cheetah to hear. From afar they looked extremely beautiful; a beauty to die for, but at close-range they were as hideous as the reeking face of a donkey’s carcass or much, much worse.

All six of the women dragged their bodies towards the river. Their half python-like bodies dragging on the bank until they plunged into the river. They were now swimming in great speed towards Brahmuhn and Cheetah. Their lower bodies moved the great waters like they were crocodiles.

Brahmuhn was more concerned for Cheetah than himself, and since Cheetah was no longer under the spell of the mermaids, he had now fallen back into the reality of his wounded shoulder. Brahmuhn turned around and began swimming back towards him.

The women however had beaten him to it. They were scratching and biting Cheetah from under him.

Cheetah was now wobbling in one place, the pain in his shoulder increasing and, aided by the women’s’ assault, he was now experiencing unbearable pain.

Brahmuhn was on it. He began poking and pushing the women with his knobkerrie but in the water, the force was obviously ineffective. After a long struggle, he managed to create a large enough space between the women and Cheetah and began swimming behind him to protect him from any further attacks.

The women though, decided to turn their wrath towards Brahmuhn. They began biting and scratching his legs more severely than they had been doing to Cheetah.

At each attack, blood would gush out from his skin into the water until the river looked like a bloodbath. Despite their efforts, he continued to urge Cheetah on from behind.

Cheetah was losing energy fast but he knew that his efforts determined whether they got to live or die. His adrenaline would not fail him. Regardless of the intense and blinding pain, he continued to swim towards the bank. The more he drew closer, the more the relief flowed into his body. Behind him, he could hear the splashes of water as Brahmuhn struggled with the six savage and barbaric snake-like women but he did not look back. He had to get to the riverbank.