Nyansakrom: Chapter 3

Many years later, on a bright tuesday morning, Aba Amonoo among many other children, arrived at the royal courtyard for the selection of an abrewanana osuani. this referred to the selection of apprentices for the abrewanana, the sages of the village who were knowledgeable in nearly all aspects of village life in Nyansakrom , from settling thorny court cases to aiding in devising crime prevention strategies as well. this had been explained the previous day and despite the relative difficulty of being a "jack of all trades" , the numbers were larger than that of the previous year.

In the shadows of the royal courtyard entrance, three senior mbrewanananom watched the anxious crowd."so all these children expect to become mbrewanananom in three years time,? their naiveté each year is amazing ,isn't it, Adisa?" "there you go again, saying negative things so early in the morning, adwoa. isn't the first rule of an abrewanana to never underestimate anyone and overlook anything?"replied Adisa. "ah well, i am going to start grouping the candidates, they seem to have waited for too long , particularly that Aba amonoo girl" said Abrewanana ama. with that , she approached the crowd and addressed them.

To her surprise, the group she was assigned to was the asafo, the traditional militia . This was not usually done until the next year in the apprenticeship due to the harsh nature of their operations. After they were dismissed, Akos, one of her best friends said to her, 'lucky girl, you get to stop crime whilst I am stuck with picking up litter with the sanitation group. what part of facing machete brandishing bandits is supposed to be fun?", wondered aba as she trudged off into the bushes with the asafo group for the daily patrol.

We will have to join another asafo group due to the increased...' the group leader's words were cut short as several bandits leapt out from the bushes brandishing matchetes. as two of them charged towards the group leader , karikari sidestepped their slashes and struck them both simultaneously with his battle staff. however more bandits began pouring out from the bushes. aba amonoo soon realised that they would be surrounded if they did not alter their positions. in between blocks , the group leader shouted orders to avoid being enclosed by the bandits.

Suddenly , the bandit leader , with his trademark armband emerged from the bushes as well and headed straight towards aba., who was blocking attacks from five bandits. despite the asafo captain,s efforts to halt his advance, karikari was kept back by several bandits who began to target him, slowing him down. Sumina brushed aside the efforts of several male and female asafo slashing their staffs in half. Aba barely had time to dodge when after pushing back the bandits, Sumina, the bandit leader swung his matchete at Aba's head. she used her staff to avoid falling over, and took blow after blow on her staff from him.'if he keeps slashing form left to right twice then right to left thrice, i will just have to block it in mid swing at the right time, she thought. the bandit leader forced her back whilst the bandits began blocking the path behind their leader.

in the middle of his third swing from right to left , she sidestepped him, blocked his hand before he could swing the matchete and used that interval to smash the rest of the staff against his chest, bringing him down. stunned, sumina wondered how she beat him so quickly. Aba grabbed a fallen staff and held it towards him. just then the second group Sumina spoke off arrived . this turn of events as well as their leaders defeat at the hands of a child slowed the bandits soon caused the asafo to fight back with renewed vigour and soon the bandits were surrounded by both groups.

''Your first day attached to the asafo and you are already knocking down bandit leaders,aba, do you want to be an abrewanana in a week, a familiar voice called out from the second group. aba soon recognised it as that of Badu, one of her closest friends. for badu, Aba was one of the few who still remained a friend even after his parents were arrested for illegal trading practices , leaving him tagged as a "bad boy" by association.

'I was surprised to even be in the asafo group this year', Badu, Aba replied as they began to march back with the captives to the village. badu wondered why this was so and even more worryingly why the bandit leader as well as the bandits had seemed to focus their attacks solely on her.

"Maybe they wanted to hold you hostage and use that to get whatever they wanted'' Badu thought aloud as he and aba walked downhill with the bandits in tow back to the village square. "no" Aba replied, shaking her head. "their attacks, the way their leader attacked me nearly wounded me ". at this, the entire group grew silent,including their bandits. while it was true that bandits attacks were brutal, they had a strict policy of not seriously wounding their victims to prevent vengeance attacks from the asafo. the same went for the asafo group, who were only trained to restrain, bruise if unavoidable. after all, was not war the reason for the Great exodus and resettlement of the clans? Sumina, the bandit leader spoke for the first time,since his restraint, 'it was not personal, child, but i was only following orders" Whose orders?!' yelled badu, who ordered you to..." his sudden advancement toward Sumina was restrained by his colleagues .

Badu, you will not get that answer from him, we already tried , remember, Safohen edzikyir (deputy asafo captain)Karikari said firmly. Badu's group leader , asamoah went a step further and placed his hand on badu's shoulder." we will find out just what happened today, eventually'' . badu took in deep breaths, thinking it over, "i was not aware that she was attacked like that and yet she herself seems so calm about it,he thought glancing at her. " Aba had already deduced that such an event might happen , hence the reason for undertaking a strict regimen of warrior training from her auntie the month before. however, sumina and his men seemed well conditioned to not disclose any further details. "it's more like they are only supposed to reveal this one detail, she mused. as they resumed their journey, with the asafo's eyes burning into the back of the bandit's heads, karikari realised something, " during the attack they seemed to focus just on her by brushing through those around her and getting his people to form a wall behind him once he face her one on one. that sort of method is unheard of in a fight, almost like any attack from other warriors even myself was irrelevant'.

At the cave prison, torches were lighted on the walls and the thick bamboo doors were shut in the bandits faces. karikari and Asamoah spoke to Abrewanana Ama in the darkness of the caves. normally , an asafo had to go to an abrewanana's place to receive counsel. however they had rather met her there. "hmm, she is probably, trying to see if she can reeducate criminals and get them on the straight and narrow, thought Asamaoh. despite her age, Ama's powers of persuasion were known throughout the village as being nearly infallible. Nearly infallible since she had been unable to reform a single crook since she became an abrewanana. "I have heard everything and can only conclude that Badu may be right, the very idea of a bandit wanting a one on one battle with an osuani without previous conflict is ridiculous. of course aba would see it differently since she was attacked.

for now it may be best for the asafo to double their patrols , particularly around the asuafo homes.we cannot let them be used to give the bandits whatever the bandits want."she said.

"Then we will also continue interrogating the bandits to find out who gave them the orders,Asamoah said. "i will call for a meeting of abrewanana in order to help with the investigation as well" she said. ''however the remaining group meetings that she and several others will have to attend will continue as planned''. she thought as the two asafo leaders left.

Aba Amonoo was heading back home since she reasoned that recent events would mean she wouldn't have to go to music class in the afternoon and cooking class in the evening.

however, the town crier suddenly announced that despite the fierce attack on an osuani earlier, other group meetings would carry on as planned. "particularly, Aba Amonoo, "yelled the town crier before leaving the village centre. "well, aba reasoned, at least there won't be any fierce attacks during music and cooking class. "Aba!" adisa called out from the entrance of the music hut. " I heard everything that happened, are you alright?" fine, thanks for asking Adisa, smiled Aba wanly.

At that moment, Sumina smiled as several sentries were defeated by several warriors in blue and white attire, their faces masked by thick warpaint. their staffs literally crushed those of the sentries and one by one they were punched and kicked to the ground. As they began to gag and tie up the sentries a mysterious figure in a straw hat and bearing the armband of a captain, approached the cells flanked by five of the blue and white warriors and asked"warrior Sumina, is it true that she defeated you without incurring any injury?" yes, he replied, "she is quite skilled". "Interesting"she mused, "she apparently has one of our criterion"."In any event your capture is still part of the plan " she said. "Within these walls, you will be given as much comfort as possible and as far as I am concerned ,there will be no further interrogations or disturbances from the asafo or anyone else for that matter'' , she said. " ''Soon" Sumina mused as she left, "things will finally be as they ought to be within this village, under our guidance"