Sarah Hosking - Final Rewrite

The Amahagger Tribe was located deep in the mainland of Africa and there lived Billali and his people. Once under the spell and harsh control of "SHE" this was no longer true. Outsiders had come from a far away place and rid them of her and her rule. He wasn't sure how this could be true, as "SHE" was a particularly powerful woman who had never shown a weakness. Because if she had, she would of been gone and he and the rest of the Amahagger would be free. So If it was true that "SHE" was gone and that they were free to live how they wanted then this could only be a good thing.
But what now worried Billali was her possible return.
The Outsiders (who had become great friends of Billali and the Amahagger) had told him of her possible reincarnation. This arouse many worries in Billali. The most important one being the fact he'd let the Outsiders return to their own land. Not only that, but he had personally escorted them off Amahagger land. One solution remained in Billali's mind. He must leave, or make it seem as though he had. Because knowing "She" his life could be taken with a flick of her pearly white hand.
A number of years later a chance showed itself. Another Outsider arrived on the Marshes which lay on the outskirts of their land. Which was the same place the first Outsiders had been found.
Billali was at once shaken awake.
"Juta, what is it my son?" Billali spoke.
The Amahagger were a incredibly respectful society. Son's were not of blood but a term of respect. Billali being one of the eldest people in the Amahagger was treated with the greatest respect and was almost always addressed firstly as 'Father'.
"Sorry to awaken you Father but Ubwa and Abuu just returned from the Marshes with reports of Outsiders. What is your wish My Father? Are we to return with them for supper?"
"Ney, ready my cart. I want to speak with these men, I warn you now young Juta, your last feast on flesh will have been the last."
Ballali got to his feet, no longer young and easy to rise. But not yet old enough to give up. The opportunity he had been waiting for finally had come to pass.

--------------

With Billali's cart readied he took the mountain pass to the marshes. His cart was flanked by fourteen teenage Amahagger, six of whom were carrying his cart by lugging three large wooden beams underneath the carts central cabin where Billali sat patiently.
Thoughts filled with worry ran around Billali's head.
The cart stopped and the young men set the cart down with a low thump. Billali stood and exited the cart and saw to his left the vast land in front of him, damp and green and moving fast paced in his direction, Juta. Billali immediately became anxious, Juta face was smeared with horror. Billali felt panicked. Worried he was about to make a bigger mistake then he first thought.
"Father" Juta bowed.
"My Son. You seemed scared of something, tell me what it is." Billali spoke leaning hard on his ivory cane showing signs of visible worry.
"There are thousands, Father. The white men I saw weren't the only ones. They are building things and cutting our land. They have the same weapons the other Outsiders carried. I saw them use one to kill five Boran and Father you should of seen it. Slain right there in a moment. I don't think they are here for innocent reasons and there are too many Father, even with our woman fighting we wouldn't have enough. I'm lost father, and most afraid." Juta breathless at this point began crying. Heaving and groaning he fell to Billali's feet.
Billali sighed long and hard. "Where is Ubwa and Abuu? I thought they were here, guarding our land near the marshes?"
Sobbing Juta scrambled to his feet "Yes Father, they are still here. I was with them now keeping watch over the Outsiders when we heard you arriving. What are we to do?"
"Bring them to me. I'll wait in my cart. You fear too much, Juta. I don't think these Outsiders you speak of are here to cause us any harm." Billali spoke with such resounding authority that any order was followed without question. Therefore his opinion on everything was treated as fact. Juta felt quick relief, but somewhere deep inside his subconscious, he couldn't help but feel afraid. They were beyond his reality, and weilding weaponary so amazing it excited and shocked Juta to his core.

--------------

50 years later
Worlds away in the lands north of the Amahaggers province, Ballali's fears were soon to be realised. Ayesha woke with a start, as if she had been startled awake from a dream that had been tormenting her. The cave was black and cold. She stood and brought her hands to her face and starred. Still beautiful and pearly white and wrinkless, despite her 2000 years or so, on earth. She felt the smooth curves of her body and discovered that she wasn't clothed and knew this would become a problem. Where was she and how did she come to be here? It would seem that no memories had been lost in her reincarnation and these hit her all at once. Ayesha strided towards the stone wall directly infront of her remembering all that had happened and using her supernatural powers held out her hands and blasted a hole the size of a fully grown elephant through the walls, exposing a beam of white light to the world.

--------------

The world was completely foreign to Ayesha, but one thing hadn't changed. Beauty was still the most revered quality to possess. Above everything, Ayesha had that. She glided through the cavernous hole she made in the caves rocky wall and was bombarded with a dozen or so men and woman screaming in a language of which only a few words she understood. The men and woman upon laying eyes on her froze, a few gaping in delight at the vision infront of them. Completely naked she stood, looking onto their faces. She had just supernaturally blown a hole through a wall metres from these peoples homes, yet they were frozen by her beauty. At a complete loss of what to do. Ayesha smiled broadly and spoke.
"I require cloth to wrap myself in." Her voice sent lightening down the backs of the men and woman. Few for a moment temporily seemed confused, but one woman seemed to understand her.
"I don't know who you are, but I can clothe you. I havn't heard the old language spoken so freely and naturally anywhere." the woman was almost hypnotises by Ayeshas beauty, completely overcome she was falling over herself to please her. "Come, my husbands mother knows of the language and taught us few words, I can take you to her if you like? I would love it if I could assist you. Come, come."
Ayesha smirked "Your kindness is refreshing and I accept." She spoke to the woman and as she did she slowly approached her, untill she was directly infront of her and proceeded to lay a hand on the womans shoulder. "I will reward you for your assistance, but first take me to your husbands mothers house. As you can see I'm in desperate need of clothes and I'm afraid to draw any more attention to myself."

--------------

Billali and the Amahagger tribe were now Africans. Before they were told this they had no idea the place they had been living was called this. The Amahagger were a small group of people, numbering around 1500 the Outsiders had guessed. They lived in what was typical to the "uncivilised" and often acted in a way that would send them to a jail for a number of years. Their clothing barbaric and eating habits worse, Captain Wallace who originally found the Amahagger after being shipwrecked on the African east coast sent his superior a letter detailing just that with the words "...completely untouched and unaware of the outside world. Colonisation will commence henceforth."

--------------

Clothed and fed, Ayesha became reckless for her own home. The woman who had showen Ayesha such gracious hospitality had become dependent. Never leaving Ayesha alone and it seemed she still couldn't take her eyes off her. Ayesha, after only two hours with the woman had already grown angry at this, being adored was her curse in life. So knowing only one solution she covered herself in drapery. Covering her completely from her toes to the forehead, in a similar fashion to a Egyptian Mummy.
Ayesha longed desperately for her home. Longed for the acres of marshes and the surrounding mountains to surround and tower over her once more as she was carried by her slaves and taken to her grand home carved into the largest mountain any Amahagger had ever seen. Ayesha was standing outside the home she had been taken too. She was planning on leaving the moment she could find out how to return to the Amahagger to take back her place as leader and also to punish whoever is responsible for her desmise. As she was standing there plotting her return, the woman who had been under Ayesha's spell approached Ayesha.
"You should be sleeping." The woman said while laying a hand upon Ayeshas shoulder. "And you, you foul stench of a human won't ever touch me again" furious, Ayesha turned on her heel and placing her hands on either side of the womans face set her alight, the woman burn't to a crisp and callopsed to the floor at Ayesha's feet.
"That was easy" Ayesha said with that familar smirk. There was a bash and rattle coming from inside the house where hours before the womans husband and mother-in-law went to sleep. Ayesha looked at the crumbled mess before her and without a single feeling of regret disappeared in the crisp night air.

--------------

Years of occupation later, what was once the Amahagger was now a torn third world community. The Amahagger tribe were so different that even if you had been a lost Amahagger and came to find your home after years of seaching you would walk right past it thinking you were more lost then ever. But despite the physical changes the landscape had been through the Amahagger people had remained strong. Billali was strict on this and had gone to lengths to ensure that his people wouldn't forget what was . Although the new leader of their land didn't agree or care Billali had already lived through one Tyrant and couldn't bear to see his people living in fear once again.
Where Billali's hut once stood now stands a modest white house, with a small set of stairs leading to a dark blue front door.
Inside Billali layed on a fairly large bed made in a factory in South Africa, a place that no Amahagger knew of untill they all recieved beds from there.
Sadly, he was coming to the end of his life, here he lay on his death bed in a house made from imported materials and knick knacks laying about like spoons and saucers on the walls bearing images of red flowers and green hills Billali had never seen in his life. His grand children were surrounding his bed now, sharing chairs and starring intently at their grandfather.
The two sitting closest was his second eldest granddaughter and grandson. They were cousins and together ran Amahagger (even after the British had taken control the Amahagger were allowed to keep their original tribe name "...as a reminder of how far you have came..." the General Dawson had said when he informed Billali) for the Government thousands of miles away. In charge of administration, education, health and expansion and they were definitely the most respected people in Amahagger. Billali knew all of this despite his withering body and life. It had been a long time since the Outsiders had first arrived, and it felt to him finally, now, on his death bed, that he had really done the right thing accepting the Outsiders to 'fix' their society.
There was a matter however that was troubling him. Although he had succeeded for the last 50 years in changing the Amahagger to such a degree that they would be unrecognisable to "SHE", had he done enough? Billali shifted in the bed and caused everyone in the room to ask all at once if he was okay or if he was comfortable. Still, the most distressed in the room though was Billali. Sweat beads were slipping down his cheeks and the sheets on his bed were so soaked in sweat they were transparent. Billali cleared his throat and the room fell silent.

--------------

She had been travelling now for 3 weeks and the drapery she had received from the poor dead woman were growing dirty and tattered. She had calculated that she had anothers day travelling through the marshes before she arrived at her home. Her fingers were tingling with excitement more and more with every step she took.
The sun was beaming hard down on her, sitting high up in the sky. Ayesha looked up at it and spoke softly to herself in the old language "Many days have passed without you. I miss you now. Where do you stay when I'm not home? Did you find the lady from the mountain?" and on she went, walking and at times almost chanting those same words.

--------------

He walked with great authority through Plymouth Square, his blue coat whisking behind him. General Dawson had heard word upon arriving at Amahagger that the eldest, most original remember Billali had taken a terrible turn and was on his death bed. They had become good friends over the last 50 years, and had together turned the Amahagger into the civilised society they had today. General Dawson felt for his pocketwatch and upon retrieving it was approached by a distressed Mary Billali.
"Sir! General!" she called out. "Hes in here, thank god you made it in time."
"Ah, Good afternoon Mary. Yes, yes of course. I have been abroad so long I had forgotten my way." He said with a slight smile.
The path leading to Billali's home was lush and green. There were white stones lining the path up to the entrance. Mary lead the way, Dawson following behind. They entered the bedroom where Billali lay and when his grandchildren saw him they all left apart from Mary and her cousin John.
"You came" Billali said with a smile
"Yes of course, once we heard the King allowed me to leave. I was happy to have the chance to come back. I missed you all" The general was beaming ear to ear. He had always had a soft spot for Billali. He respected him more then even his King. How could he not? Dawson had been a sailor with the Royal Navy for a decade before he came across Billali and the Amahagger and he had never seen a group of people behave so well and accept colonisation so wonderfully and he knew that the man to thank was Billali.
"SHE!"
Everyone in the room jumped. "Father, father. Relax, no one else but us is here." John said
"Maybe SHE's finally coming?" Mary asked.
"That doesn't matter anymore Mary. That nightmare is over. If she ever really existed."
Billali had fallen asleep again. The General sat there with Billali's two grandchildren and watched silently and somberly as they saw the life slip from Billali's body.

--------------

Ayesha's mind was racing and her spirits finally lifting. A feeling had come over her as she climbed the last rocky hill and the Mountain of Kor was directly in front of her. Ayesha was smiling ear to ear. Her drapery was almost gone, only her middle was covered now. "I can't wait to finally take revenge. To show my people my power, and to remind those who still linger there after all this time."
She approached the Kor entrance way, the grand mountain looked different however. Ayesha felt the first pang of anger. She broke into a run and was lost, the magnificent entrance was gone. Maybe she was lost? Maybe this wasn't the land of the Amahagger at all.
Ayesha slowly started to realise what had happened. They had all died she thought. Maybe without me they couldn't survive.
She turned on her heel still perplexed. But as she turned, everything became clear. Facing her in the deep valley was hundreds of small homes. White houses different from the ones she had seen north. She saw children running and an area where there were so man Boran she couldn't count. Her people weren't only alive but they were flourishing. Her finger tips grew red hot as her temper grew hotter. Anger was rising in Ayesha that she began screaming at the top of her lungs and burst into blue flames that engulfed her entire body, burning her flesh and melting her bones. There was nothing left of SHE but dirty drapery and her golden hair.


Written by Sarah Hosking