Arose Out the Fire

Dark, cold, gloomy hell clouds swayed across the sky and rested over Kajiado Jungle. Repeated fiery crackling bolts of lightning scoured across the sky with haste illuminating and electrifying the black clouds. The bolts of lightning danced across the sky and encircled the clouds like fire. The sky groaned and the black hell clouds opened and released a monsoon of rainwater over the jungle as the fiery crackling bolts of lightning continued to swirl the black hell clouds. The mix of fire and water created a mosaic of fire and ice delineation across the entire sky.

It was famed by the Kojates, the descendants of the Ka tribe, that when black hell clouds rested over Kajiado Jungle a mystic stirring could be felt in the jungle by all its inhabitants. Throughout the generations, the Kojates lost their sensitivity to the stirring, but the trees, the river, the rocks, the birds, and the beasts all felt the celestial tremble within their fibers and experienced vibrational reactions within their beings. These vibrational reactions for most beings were temporary, but for some could be felt and experienced long after the hell clouds passed over the jungle. Amos and Aziza were walking through the jungle just as the hell clouds took their rest. Amos was walking amongst the stone Tabernacles, which formed a circle around a dirt hearth. Amos enjoyed walking in this area because of the peace the Tabernacles evoked. Aziza was walking along the riverbank. Aziza adored the water and spent as much time near or in it as she could.

Amos saw the first fiery crackling bolt of lightning flash across the sky, the glint of the flames twinkled in his eyes. Aziza was the first to feel the cool rainwater plop against her skin, the droplets excited the nerves beneath her skin. Amos became entranced by the flames and fell into a reverie, losing all relative consciousness. All Amos could see were the twinkling flames, all he felt internally were the flames, all he could hear were the crackling bolts of lightning, and every external sensation felt like fire; the burn was slow and stirringly bearable. Aziza was consumed by her sensitivity to the rain droplets, fell into a daze, slipped into the river, and as she floated atop the river the heavens poured down over her. The flow of the water beneath her as rain droplets fell atop her body felt provokingly tranquil.

Amos awoke in the center of the dirt hearth with no recollection of his loss of consciousness or the events leading up to his awakening in the dirt hearth. Aziza awoke in a shallow streambed with no remembrance of entering the river or understanding of how she had come to be in the streambed. Amos and Aziza, despite the previous events of the day before felt well as they journeyed home. Amos traveled north and Aziza traveled south. The paths Amos and Aziza trod intersected twice momentarily ten minutes and fifteen minutes apart from the others passing. As Aziza's feet filled the prints Amos left, she felt fire in the form of electric currents soar through her body and then squelched to a smolder just as the fiery sensations vibrated to her eyes. As Amos's toes nestled into the grooves Aziza's toes left, he felt a refreshing wave of spring water wash over him and then smoke inconspicuously sizzled from his feet as he continued to walk leaving ash in his trail.

Amos arrived home and his mother and father looked at him differently as did the villagers of his community. Amos, too tired and hungry from his journey to inquire, went into his tent, ate what vitals had been left the night before for dinner, and then took his rest. His parents and the villagers all whispered about the mysterious ash left behind and the lava-burning glow in his eyes. Aziza returned home and her parents and tribesmen all looked at her with peculiar gazes. Aziza felt as though the weight of the ocean was on her chest, and thirsty enough to drink the entire river. Gingerly, Aziza walked into her family hut, drank from her canteen, and then drifted off to sleep on her mat. Aziza's parents and the tribe members whispered about the puddles Aziza had left in her trail and the sloshed watery look in her eyes.

~ To Be Continued