Ironic Odessy

APRIL 15,1780 A.D.

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA



The Rendezvous





by



Night Quill





































It has been a laborious journey but now it was coming to the end, it had all gone off without a hitch. Twenty captives from a neighboring village, five of our own people who had committed crimes in the village serious enough to be banished or executed. They will bring a good price. It had taken three weeks to bring them up from our village, a trip we made every four months, the rewards were always well worth it. Metal blades for knives and spears, colorful fabrics, tobacco, chocolate, and some of the most potent alcohol.

For three years now I had been the one leading these trips to the north where the nomadic tribes of the desert would be waiting to welcome us with their treasures and once we had returned to the village we were welcomed as heroes. I was betrothed to the village headman's daughter and this trip along with my normal party, her two brothers and three cousins were on the trip. This was perfect. If I could maneuver it so the caravan took the five of them and then make it look as if they had taken a portion of the village's goods and run off, I would be the next in line for the position of headman.

We were early for our business so I sent the regular guards to a nearby village to buy some fresh provisions, a two day trip telling them that surely with the headman's kin the prisoners would be safe. The plan was alcohol after dinner and then put them in chains after they passed out.

I started feeling drowsy at supper, as I woke the nomad checking my shackles said, “You talk in your sleep!”