Kadian

The Great Past

Zee led Kadian around the village until the two reached a large, eggplant colored tent. Kadian was pleasantly surprised to discover that her tent was well ventilated- she was not used to the Azuraya's constant heat.

The dimly lit, purple room had an assortment of beads and shells strewn across the ceiling. The place, full of chests, shelves, and tables, was cluttered in a neat way.

One table was littered with beads, clothes, plants, dolls, and an array of unrecognizable objects. Another had multiple first aid kits, mysterious bottles, and herbs. The most mesmerizing part of the room, however, had to be to be the table full of photos and polaroids. Kadian longed to run over to the table and stare at all of them, but restrained herself.

"Pretty nice eh?" Zee fiddled with a few bottles. "I'm known for my medicine, but I dabble in otha, special things." She grinned mischievously.

"Uh, that's nice." Kadian said, chalking up Zee's behavior to old age and insanity. A small part of her, however admired the woman's confidence.

Zee motioned to a bare spot on the floor.

"Sit," she ordered. Kadian did so with crossed legs.

"So," Zee began as she hobbled slowly around the room. "Azuraya. Let's take it way back."

"How far back?" Kadian asked.

"Waaaaay back. Azuraya is centuries and centuries old. But you won't hear about us in no textbook, or history class. Everyone thinks we're new-a thousand years old or so. Truth is, we've always been around. Kenya, Rwanda, Algeria, Sudan, Botswana..." Zee looked off into space dreamily before continuing.

"Libya, Guinea, Chad, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Egypt. Even the Americas and Europe for a while, I think. And so much more. We've been around since the beginning of time."

Kadian no longer saw a crazed gleam in Zee's eyes, but a dull, truthful glow. She saw nothing the woman's eyes but sheer honesty, pain, and memories when she spoke. It may not have made the most sense, but at that moment Kadian knew that every word that came out of the woman's mouth was truthful.

But that also worried her. How could a country (or part of a country, in this case) fail to receive any form of recognition for millions of years? Most of the books and maps she used in school made no mentions of the place.

"But...what happened all of those years? How can no one know about all of this?"

"I hardly understand it myself, child. Our people lurked so often. We were always somewhere, always in the background. We were always the underlying cause of everyone's problems. So many wars were secretly because of us. But we've also helped many people, and created many beautiful things. Forget almost everything you ever learned about Africa. Yes our brothers and sisters have done so much on their own, but also so much because of us. Azuraya held everything together." Zee paused to stare at a clay vase, and stroked it gently.

"And somehow I have managed to live to see it all."

Kadian choked. "What?! How are you alive? Why doesn't anyone know this, or remember anything? You can't just ignore all of that. But wait-how are you even alive?"

For what seemed like the longest time, Zee stood with her back to Kadian, holding the clay vase, hardly breathing.

Kadian's eyes began to water. It was clear that something she said had struck a chord, but that was never her intention.

Suddenly, Zee gave a small laugh before softly saying "Child, I will no longer hurt my myself wondering those very things. And I hope you never will either, a'right? Because that's just the way it is."

"Alright."

"Good."

Relieved that Zee had recovered, Kadian broke into a genuine smile-which Zee warmly returned before continuing her story.

"Sooo now ya know Azuraya's old, and important. And what Sister said about woman? It was no joke. Our women today?" Zee blew a raspberry. "But women then? Very important. Of course we cared for our families-but only because we had to."

Kadian's eyebrows raised at her last remark.

"Wat child?"

"That just seemed...harsh."

"Oh no, no, not at all!" Zee's eyes widened. "We loved our men and children with all our hearts, and still do today. It's no burden to take care of them." Zee looked lovingly at a picture Kadian couldn't see.

"It's just that some of these girls act like that's all there is to life. But the Azurayan women from the past? We knew what we were really good for-everything. We fought side by side the men, and no one blinked an eye. Occasionally, we were spies too, you know."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah child, the very best! We knew what information to get, how to get it, and just what to do with it. And we were BEASTS on the battlefield, just absolute beasts." Zee threw her head back and wailed her battle cry, causing Kadian to flinch.

Zee then grabbed a random spear from a pile on the ground and viciously stabbed the air with it. "But, even though we fought many wars, we also prevented many." She calmed down and put the spear back into the pile.

"We were so gentle, and had a way with words that so many people didn't. Even the most sensitive, well spoken person couldn't hold a candle to Azurayan women's grace, and intellect."

Zee spoke in soft, graceful tone, that Kadian wouldn't have expected from her. She also noticed that the heaviness of Zee's accent fluctuated from time to time. "That sounds amazing Elder Zee. But why did that change?"

Zee's face suddenly went sour. "You can thank Ziki for that."

"Who's Ziki?"

"The idiot who did something so stupid during a battle that women weren't even allowed to be chiefs anymore. We weren't allowed any power after Ziki. It was a gradual change, but eventually, families were the only things the men trusted us with-so we decided to excell at that. It passed on generation to generation, and we lost our values along the way...hence the weak women of today." Zee waved her hand in the air.

Kadian was itching to know what Ziki did, but something told her it was best not to ask.

"Not all of this century's women were weaklings, though. A few women still had it in them, like me and- "

"Kaaaaaaaaaadian." A voice from outside of the tent droned.

"Kaaaaadian, it's time to go back to the hotel! Don't make me leave you!"

It was Jade, the tour guide. Kadian had forgotten all about her, and the fact that she was sleeping off reserve during her stay. It was almost dark. She looked over at Zee as she stood.

"What were you going to say?"

"Eh?"

"You just said you and someone else hadn't lost 'it', or something."

Zee began to push Kadian towards the door. "Oh, those two women are a whole 'nother story for a whole 'nother day!"

*Author's Note*

So we've got Azuraya's backstory out of the way- they've been around forever, but nobody knows (minus their own people of course.) And Zee is immortal! Weird, isn't it?

Won't give too much away, but in the next few chapters you'll learn a little bit more about about the prophecy, and the women Zee was talking about. You'll also be introduced to two critical characters, won't say names ;)

Vote and comment please if you like what you see!