Malcolm returned back to the hamlet to the villagers burying the dead. Men stood around like monoliths while the woman and children wept for the deceased. An air of grievance and tragedy filled the atmosphere. Drowning the villagers in it's powerful current.
When a few people took a look at Malcolm they were visibly shaken for what they saw was a bleeding teen walking slowly towards the hyena with Amara's face. His face and body were covered in claw marks and bites but what really unsettled people was his calm and cold gaze. One of the healers tried to approach Malcolm to help to him.
"Hey.. young man are you ok? You disappeared for a while there and your still bleeding. Lemme see to your wounds." The woman put a hand over a gash that went across face.
Malcolm with a smile that didn't reach his eyes reached out a hand to grasp to hand the woman put on his face gently.
"Don't worry about me ma'am I'm still breathing as you can see, so there's no need to give me any treatment. Im sure someone's got it worse then me right now."
"Anyone who had it worse nearly turned so we had to kill them. Young man please you need to rest."
"No ma'am. I can't rest now. Not while the old lady's still gone, someone needs to stand guard. It might as well be me." Malcolm said solemnly.
The woman looks at Malcolm deeply then gives him a few natural herbs to rub on his wounds, then she goes to attend to others who are hurt.
Malcolm turns around to look at the corpse with Amara's face on it. Then he sits down cross-legged and uses some of the herbs to rub down some of his wounds. After that he closes his eyes and begins to meditate, closing off the world around him.
Yara along with the rest of her class have just gathered at the city gates and are ready to depart to the outer periphery.
"Now everyone if I may have your attention!" The teacher shouts getting everyone's eyes and ears looking at him.
"I know I say this everytime but I believe it must be reiterated before any accident or misunderstanding occurs. You are all the current mystic seeds for your various clans or family. Your lives are all precious treasures that should be protected not just by me but ourselves also! Now where we're heading to specifically is one of the smaller hamlets the closest to the border of our Ashuwa tribe. We'll spend sometime with the locals so that all of you have a clear understanding for a different way of life."
Yara is inwardly excited everytime they go out on an outing like this since it means less eyes are focused on her at all times. The slightest feeling of freedom can be heaven for those who know hardly any of it to begin with.
One of the students raises their hands to the teacher who gives permission for the student to speak.
The student who raised his hand is a young man dressed in an all black kaftan with gold stripes mixed along the sleeves. He has his hair locked and tied in a ponytail. This young man's name is Safari Makumba of the Makumba clan, the second most powerful clan to the Ashuwa clan who have always been the ones in power since the founding of the tribe.
"Teacher not to sound rude but why must we take time out of our days to occasionally go outside the walls? Surely once we receive our first art and step into the world of mysticism we'll hardly ever see any of the lowly locals of the outer periphery."
The teacher looked at the young man with a complicated look before responding.
"Honorable young Makumba heir. The reason for our excursions is simply to broaden your horizons so that in the future when your given tasks are related to the common people. You'll have the understanding and empathy on how to deal with the people. This goes for all of us in the Ashuwa tribe. We may come from different backgrounds and different clans but at the end of the day we are all one united family!"
The teacher finished off with evident passion in his voice. Most of the students nodded in agreement at the sentiment including Yara. While the Makumba heir was more reserved but in the end he nodded with clear hesitation.
At this time an elderly woman came to the gates approaching the teacher who bowed in greeting along with the students.
"Elder Mashallah I didn't expect you to be coming here. Im sorry if we're in your way."
"Raise your head little pumba and that goes for the rest of you to." Everyone did as they were told.
"Auntie Masha it's good to see you!" Yara yelled before running to hug Mashallah tightly. Some of the other students looked on in envy.
"Little Yara sweetie how have you been?"
"Oh I've been good auntie it's been a while since I saw you. Oh by the way how's Amara been doing by the hamlet?"
"Hmm from what I know she's been fine but sweetie please I don't want to delay your class in whatever you were all about to get up to."
"If you don't mind me interjecting elder Mashallah we were actually going on an excursion to your hamlet shortly. If you don't mind you could join us?" The teacher explained respectfully.
"Oh strange no one decided to mention this to me earlier. Must be that bastard Shanti's scheme."
"Hey auntie cmon don't talk bad on uncle Shanti!" Yara pouted in response.
"Yeah you're right Yara my apologies. Let's head out back to the hamlet." Mashallah said warmly.
So with that the group exited through the city gates and traveled to the hamlet getting close at around the late evening. A man was spotted by one of the students running towards their direction. The man could be seen breathing heavily as he closed in. When he saw elder Mashallah he ran till he bowed on his knees in front of her.
"Elder! The.. hamlet was.. attacked.. by two faced.. hyenas!" The man stammered out between breaths.
Mashallah's gaze became serious as she questioned the man for the specifics details of the attack. Her hands clenched tightly at the news. Yara adopted at concern look as she spoke up.
"Wait two faced hyenas!? This close to our territory!? They usually only attack small groups of people! Even with the small size of the hamlet they shouldn't of attacked so fiercely!"
Yara being around wise elders for most of her development and being the daughter of the renowned Hasani. She naturally knew alot more the others who hadn't even begun practicing mysticism yet.
"That would be the case normally but im afraid that this might of been orchestrated by someone or other." The teacher spoke up grimly.
The students shuttered in clear fright of the implementations of the teacher's assessment of the situation.
"We can theorize later right now we need to attend to the ones in the hamlet that are injured and send for reinforcements to establish a defense line around this whole area!" Mashallah commanded strongly. The others nodded and traveled the rest of the way to the hamlet.
Meanwhile Malcolm who had been in meditation ever since the fight ended. Began to feel something was feel something was slowly changing within his body.
The spiritual energy within his body began to slowly come under Malcolm's manipulation. At first trying to move it was like trying to lift a mountain but as the hours passed by the energy began to flow in Malcolm's body like water.
"Strange I don't think is suppose to be this easy. I guess this another thing I ought to thank that old nigga for after I punch his ass across his face." Malcolm thought as the energy within him started to gather at a central point in his abdomen.
The energy was of a blue azure color that condensed into a spherical shape that at the moment of formation sent waves of refined spiritual energy through Malcolm body. Now at this moment Malcolm could trust feel the difference between half step and the first realm. While he's not yet a mystic due to the lack of an art. Even so at this moment now he can refined and use spiritual energy.
The feeling was euphoric to Malcolm who at once opened his eyes and looked at his body. He was shocked to see that the wounds on his body began to heal at a rate visible to the naked eye. All the wounds and scars he had were covered over with new skin.
Malcolm stood up now and looked at the scene around him to find a gathering of people surrounding him and looking at Malcolm in clear shock. At this moment Yara's class had reached the hamlet and noticing the gathered people over near the fields. Elder Mashallah rushed on ahead, quick like a cheetah with the others following behind a bit slower.
Mashallah moved past the villagers to see Malcolm standing tall like a mountain in the center. For the first time in a long time she was truly shocked for she could feel that Malcolm had already broken through to the first realm. The reason for her shock was that the distance to breach between the half step and the first realm usually took years to cross for those on the path of mysticism. Unless you had a powerful backer like a tribe or clan and even then Yara had taken the better part of a year to cross that distance to the first realm.
Malcolm turned around to look at Mashallah. He had a sad smile on his face as he spoke.
"Hey grandma, it took you long enough to get back here must've been alot for yall to talk about back at the city." The energy could be seen with the naked eye, Enveloping Malcolm like a thick winter coat.
"B-black how? You were only at-nevermind what happened here?" Mashallah brought the discussion back to the situation of the two faced hyena attack.
The others caught up at this time and looked on in shock at Malcolm and Mashallah talking, yet none of them dared to speak right now.
"Well there was a scream that alerted everyone so I along with some of the tougher men ran out and started fighting off these damn two faced fucks." Malcolm almost gave a kick to the dead beast near him then he saw Amara's face on it and stopped mid motion.
Malcolm clenched his fist and keaped talking.
"We managed to fight them off but not without..some casualties." The new power only made his rage and anger feel nearly tangible to those around him.
"They.. they got Amara grandma I..I put her to rest but." Malcolm put a hand on his chest to catch himself and steady his breathing.The world around him slowly distorted to a blood red azure color. Waves of black mixed in to form rivers that hovered around Malcolm like eels in a shallow swamp. One of the black rivers crashed down to form the image of his little brother Malachi.
"I can't believe that you would let this happen to her Malcolm. You even had the audacity to kill her with the same weapon she gave to you just a few hours prior. You really ain't shit are you nigga and I thought you couldn't get worse. It's a bad world for the helpless alright but don't act like for a second that you're helpless anymore." The darkness image of Malachi spoke in a dark tone filled with disappointment and shame.
Shame that this miserable creature that stands before him is his blood brother. Yet in reality this isn't is brother speaking to Malcolm it's only his deep shadow taking the chance to spring out and speak it's wicked truth to Malcolm in the form that would hurt the most.
Malcolm stood still unresponsive to the shadow and to anyone in the outside world. Only holding his chest with both hands gripping tightly.
Mashallah seeing the state of Malcolm walked over to help and Yara actually joined her. It was then she saw her long time friend Amara's face on the body of the dead hyena. Yara had tears welling up in her eyes but she steadied herself to help Malcolm calm down.
"Hey..hey look at me." Yara grabbed Malcolm's face between her two small hands
"Listen it's going to be okay I know you're hurt right now and I'm hurt to, Amara was my best friend but I- I don't blame you for what you had to do." Yara spoke kindly and gently to Malcolm while Mashallah put a hand on his shoulder.
Malcolm at this moment regained a bit of his clarity and rationality as his aura fell back to his body and was once again invisible to the naked eye. He took in heavy breaths as he spoke.
"Im.. I'm sorry about your friend I only met her this morning but.. she was nice I could feel that much she was so nice." Malcolm paused for a moment, closing his eyes and gently caressing Yara's hands that were on his cheeks.
"But maybe that that kindness is what got her killed." Malcolm thought inwardly.
He opened his eyes and from Yara's perspective she could've sworn she could've saw flames burning brightly in Malcolm's pupils.
Elder Mashallah while patting Malcolm's shoulder secretly used her mystic art to transfer her sight into the air that Malcolm breathed in to get a glimpse inside his body.
Her sight traveled through his body harmlessly till she got to his abdomen where the spherical shape of condensed spiritual energy was located. She only had a few moments to look before the air was expelled bu Malcolm breathing out. Yet those few moments were all she needed to see Malcolm's aptitude.
"So it seems that little black has an above average aptitude. So not on the level of little Yara's class but definitely a cut above the average man you'd find wandering about, just what is this young man's background?" Mashallah pondered inwardly while secretly transmitting this information to the teacher along with instructions.
The teacher received the orders then did as instructed and guided the students to ready themselves and contact their respective clans to inform them of the situation.
"It's seems like things might get interesting after all." Hiding in near plain sight on the savanna was a larger then normal leopard who observed the situation developing at the small hamlet. It could watch the whole scene in detail especially in the late evening as it grew dark. It gave Malcolm a look over a few more times.
"So I wasn't wrong then. Good maybe this is my chance." The leopard lifted its lips up to form an awfully human like smile on its face.