At a corner of a street in the south western part of Milele’s inner district, a young boy was standing at an open shop looking at the items on sale. Specifically, he was focusing on the drinks which were currently chilled in a pit full of ice near the shop’s entrance.

“Hey brat, are you buying anything? You have been standing there for half an hour! If you are not buying, move to the side. Don’t block customers!” The shopkeeper could not help but comment when he saw that the boy was not purchasing anything or leaving even after such a long time.

The boy moved to the side without replying but he still continued staring at the food and drinks.

‘Truly hungry with no money,’ with this thinking, the shopkeeper could not help but comment further, “Kid, if you have no money then don’t torture your stomach by looking at the drinks and food.”

However, seeing the kid continue to ignore his words, the shopkeeper gave up and continued with his own business serving other customers.

‘I hear this is shoooooo good!’ Although the boy had a calm and collected look, his present thoughts were far from that. He could not help but hold and caress one of the drinks which earned him a sharp glare from the shopkeeper after the latter noticed this from the side of his eye.

‘It's so hard to let go. I bet it tastes really good: fragrant and sweet.’

The drink in the boy’s hand that made him go crazy was a new product in the Axum Brand. However, it was extremely expensive so all the boy could do was admire and stare at the drink. Recently, the Axum Brand had released new products such as Axum Malt - Honey Flavored Fermented Milk, Berry Flavor, and Banana Flavor as well as recreational tea drinks such as Axum Forest Breeze - Serene Mountain Water Iced Tea, etcetera.

The product the boy was currently looking at was named "Axum Fresh!" It was stored in a spherical glass container with intricate patterns. It was said that these patterns could even resonate with nature to keep the drink in its best state.

“I blew all my money in 6 days.” With a sigh and a final longing look, the boy finally left the shop. However, he had just stepped onto the street when he bumped into someone. Food and drink spilled on the street.

Mwana and Kia had been aimlessly walking around the business district, perusing different stalls, window shopping, and sampling free stuff but when they turned a corner someone bumped into them. Mwana could only watch in pain as the snacks and free samples he had amassed tumbled to the ground. Worse off, the culprit did not even apologize and seemed to be ready to go his merry way.

Mwana stared at the food on the ground then back at the culprit then at food again then back at the boy once more. He then proceeded to give him a long stare but still received no apology.

After the long uncomfortable stare, the boy could not help but comment, "What, why are you looking at me like that, want to start something?"

‘This fellow! Instead of apologizing he’s even talking crap!’

"Did you do this on purpose? It felt like I was rammed into by a mammoth! Aish, now look I've got food everywhere. All the food is ruined! The free samples, woo, woo, woo." Mwana could not help but lament as he looked at the food on the ground as well as his dirtied clothes and shoes.

"Are you a ***** or something. Stop overreacting, ewe!" (Author’s note: not one for cursing but this refers to a female dog)

Hearing this response, Mwana and Kia could not believe it. The only thought in their mind was, ‘who is this fellow, no, who is this bast*rd?’ The boy’s rudeness truly caught them off guard.

"Why do your eyes even look like that, did you even wash your face when you woke up?" Mwana gave a completely unrelated comeback throwing off the ‘enemy’. The question was so out of left field that after hearing it, the boy almost stumbled and fell.

“Stop being stubborn and apologize.” Seeing the conflict escalate over some spilt food, Kia could not help but berate the boy. However, while this fellow dared bite back at Mwana, he didn’t dare talk back at Kia. Fellows of this age all had a common ‘weakness’.

From the side, Mwana was also giving him dagger eyes and he continued doing so long after the boy apologized and left. If one were to see the inside of Mwana’s mind, they would see the wheels of revenge plots turning.

“Stop doing that.”

“Doing what?” Mwana could only respond innocently.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you are thinking. I still cannot believe what you did to Uchoyo.” Kia was reminded of an incident that happened a few weeks ago back in the village.

“Sometimes, you are really mad.” It was such a strange incident that Kia still couldn’t quite believe it to this day. After Uchoyo had attacked Mwana that morning on the fighting stage, Mwana naturally bore a grudge against him. However, Mwana had never been a believer of ‘a gentleman’s revenge can wait 10 years’ or other nonsense sayings. Instead, he believed in swift revenge.

It was the incident or rather the incidents after that which made Kia realize the extent of Mwana’s pettiness in seeking what he called justice for himself. On the same day after fighting Majimaji and getting attacked by Uchoyo on the fighting stage, Mwana even spent money to get one of his classmates to show Uchoyo some ‘goodwill’ by getting him free drinks. He had done it several times after that with the correct timing to ensure Uchoyo’s bladder was ‘active’ at night.

Naturally, Uchoyo would have to leave his ‘keja’ (the hut of a boy who has been initiated) almost every night to relieve himself in the latrine within their family compound. Usually, a keja was just a small hut set aside once boys underwent the initiation ceremony and therefore, these houses did not have facilities such as toilets and kitchens.

On the very first night, Mwana had taken Jana with him on this important mission. However, they were caught by Kia before they could sneak out and the girl ended up following the 2 boys. Even remembering the incident, Kia was still in disbelief about this ‘mission’. Even more horrific was that she had watched Mwana and Jana repeat this ‘mission’ at least a dozen times. In fact, had they not come to Milele, who knew when Mwana would ever have stopped.

“You were willing to sacrifice weeks of sleep, stalk and camp outside someone’s compound just for petty revenge. My god, now that I think about it, Jana must be celebrating now that you have left.”

As Kia hypothesized, those days of accompanying Mwana had been hell for Jana, someone who valued sleep more than the gods and probably even more than his own ancestors.

The so called mission had involved using Uchoyo as target practice and throwing rocks at him almost on a schedule. Mwana went as far as to ‘hire’ an agemate who was a neighbor to Uchoyo’s family to spy on Uchoyo’s nightly movements. The compounds in the village had very low fences with others having none so this was not difficult.

Mwana’s friend acted as a lookout and sent messages to Mwana through Moon Bracelet resonance – a method that only worked in short distances within the village. Therefore, Mwana was always ready to pepper Uchoyo’s head with rocks and hide in the night whenever the latter thought of relieving himself before sleeping.

On the second week, Uchoyo’s brother and Mwana’s classmate Kiboko even revealed some of his brother’s woes including the fact that Uchoyo had even pissed his bed rather than leave his keja at night. In all this, no one else even knew who the culprit was. In all these machinations, the victim Uchoyo never once realized that even the free drinks he had been getting in the first place were part of the trap.

“You were crazy but I indeed learned something from you.”

“What?”

“Persistence."

Mwana’s persistence was something else. Maybe, ‘The key to everything is persistence’ could even be added to his many mottos. In his planned ‘revenge schedule’, he did not miss even a single day in the plans. Some other times he took a one or two day break within the strict ‘revenge schedule’ to give Uchoyo a false sense of security before turning the latter’s world upside down the next day.