*Thats her hair until further notice*
Onika's POV
Same day(8:45pm)
Madam's Backyard
I finally was able to leave Hilda's house after she had done my hair and let me change into my old clothes, i put on one of my long skirts with a white shirt that had about three buttons up top but wasn't the same length of a real one with short sleeves and I had a scarf around my arms. I rushed outside to see if the ceremony started and I saw a larger bonfire so I waited for Hilda until she walked out and we went to it seeing it blaze in the night while everyone was sitting around and or coming around if not there already.
When we made it she found her husband and sat with him while I found the girls and sat in the front with them, soon the adults all came dressed in somewhat of occasional attire. I smiled at the ones who I knew waving some but then I saw Madam and my smile fell, she was with her husband I gulped and lowered my head turning my attention somewhere else's. "Ms.Maraj" I heard and turned with a soft wondering smile on my face to see Nasir "Hey" I said with some excitement in my voice standing up from sitting on the ground and hugging him "Hi, wow you look different." He said doing a one over on me as we pulled back from each other.
I laughed at his face as he did and we continued to talk for a good moment "Well, I'll leave you be I need to get ready" he said leading me to become confused "What do you mean?" I asked as my eyebrows furrowed together "I need to get ready for the ceremony" "You're in it?" "Yea, I never got my coming of age in my village so Madam allowed me to participate in this one." "Not to be rude but how old are you?" I asked shocked by this all "I'm 19, she got me a few months ago seeing they were going to put me down since I was what the called unreachable." I looked at him even more lost "I wouldn't do as they told me trying to change my name and things I didn't take it so they sold and if that hadn't worked then I wouldn't be here now." He smiled some in a grateful manner "Wow, I'm sorry to hear that. But you made it, and you're basically free now right?" "Of course this is the best I've lived in years I'm grateful, but I'll see you soon" he said quickly hugging me tightly before following the other boys.
When he did so I turned my head seeing she was still talking to her husband and I saw that his friends were around as well, after a while of me talking to the girls the ceremony started. They had people playing a steady beat on the drums while other instruments were being played as well, the boys had on a different attire their faces were painted along with their chest. They now had on shorts and no shoes but their legs were also in the light paint they had, they did a step going around the fire to stand in a line in front of everyone the music stopped as one of the older men began to speak with scares over his body meaning he's been through things in life. "Tonight is a night of growth, not only for these soon to be men but for this community and this day in age. Our people have fought for our freedom which is yet to come but we shan't give up, no real victory is won in a day, a month, nor a year. It takes time to have real warriors and real people to know what should be done to secure our freedom from this oppression forced into us, these soon to be men will be the ones who fight against that oppression to fight with the others and protect our people from any further damaged caused by these ungodly acts."
He was passed a bowl with something on the inside of it, he walks around with it putting the dust like paint on their faces creating symbols as they stood with straight aggressive faces as he spoke things to them that I couldn't hear. The people on the instruments began to play music that was more intense by the second, when he was at the end the did a tight drum roll then stopped at the height of it "These will be future fathers, warriors, and leaders of us. Shall they receive eternal life fighting for us." He finished before moving out of the way, the boy in the front spoke in a foreign language yelling out to the rest and the crowd before the music started again and did what I assumed was a traditional dance that was soon followed by the rest one by one. When they all started to do it the seriousness began to disappear as the people clapped and cheered while some mothers cried and fathers smile, the moved around the fire freely as the rest of us sat on the out skirts of it.
