The Flames of Time (Flames of Time Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

before, though all were curious to find out more.
    After throwing the subject around for a while and realising we were all as ignorant as the next, we decided to ask the lodge manager if he could find someone to tell us more and possibly conduct us to the Singing Stones for whatever was about to take place.
     
    The following morning shortly after breakfast, the lodge manager returned with a local Maasai guide, who through an interpreter, informed us that it was not an elder or chieftain who was coming but rather a ‘Laibon’ or shaman. He also informed us that the Singing Stones mentioned were a Maasai sacred site only a few days travel across the Serengeti. The exact nature of the ritual we couldn’t decipher even with the interpreter.
    As an afterthought I asked the Maasai guide about the drums and why I hadn’t heard them used over such distances before. He looked thoughtful for a while, admitting it was indeed strange, such ceremonies only took place every six or ten years, but even so, the big drums which had been used last night were only normally used for war or other very important things. Anyway we would find out more as we got closer.
    That we would be setting off to see this ritual was a forgone conclusion, the temptation of a change of scene was just too great. The local Maasai guide that we’d quizzed about the drums agreed to show us the way, and within no time we were off into the Serengeti.
    Getting out into open ground again was exactly what we all needed after being cooped up in and around the lodge for the past four days. I asked Mkize to travel with us, as I still wasn’t sure how much longer I was going to stay with the group, and he was just about able to translate what the Maasai was saying when he did rarely try to communicate with us.
    After a couple of days, we’d been progressing well, when we came across a Maasai Enkang or ‘Kraal’ which Nbutu our guide disappeared towards as soon as it came into view. We continued on our way for a short while, passing within several hundred yards of the village as we did so. Just inside the broad thorn fence we could clearly see Nbutu talking to two of the village men. There were several Maasai women also clearly visible and numerous children playing in and around those peculiarly small huts that the Maasai seem to have to bend double to get into or out of.
    We pulled up our horses in the shade of some trees at the top of a nearby rise to await Nbutu. He returned nearly an hour later with the two head-men from the village. He conversed with these for a moment and then addressed us via Mkize.
    ‘I have spoken with the Laibon of this village about the drums that were sent out across the sky. They say they have been waiting for us and that the drums were sent to bring us to the Singing Stones.’
     
    Well that caught us all off guard, the implications of what was being said taking several moments to register, before everyone started asking questions at the same time. Nbutu and the two elders stood before us in that politely aloof manner so characteristic of this tall people, waiting for us to order our questions in a way they could understand. Eventually Mkize just stopped trying to hear what each person was saying and simply turned his gaze toward me. At this the group fell silent allowing me to ask the questions on their behalf.
    ‘Mkize, could you ask them what they mean. How could they even know about us let alone be waiting for us.’
    With the smallest of nods he turned and relayed my question as best he could, and then listened as one of the elders responded.
    ‘They say the spirits of the mountain have told them.’ came back Mkize’s reply, ‘They have seen you kill the lion with your hands and take the first step on your journey.’
    Realising that Mkize had told us the first part of the message, the same elder addressed him again. The upshot of which was that we should ask no further questions, all would become clear at the Singing Stones,