Shadows had not kissed the earth when Nnena went to stream. The distance ahead was a blur. It stretched like the iroko tree, humming to the rhythm of the wind blowing on the path. 

She grimaces for the umpteenth time and stoops by the water side. When the cold flow came up to her wrist, she lingered, feeling a crystal stream course through her chest. She felt so light for a moment. First time in weeks.

" How do I tell him to stay?" She wondered. " He lashes, and snaps at everyone these days. I'm afraid of what might happen?" She thought, eyes trailing the length of the stream, thin like her wrapped body. 

Like the waters coursing between the two hills, Nnenna felt being pulled in different direction by invisible hands.

Getting home, she knocks to inform her father the water was ready. He casts a sidelong glance at the bucket outside, and turns wearing a cloak of displeasure.

“ It should have taken you forever.”

" I'm sorry," she bowed, and dwindled by the door.

He met her fidgeting slender body, and pulls a frown that could rattle the dead ancestors.

“ Anything?”

" Could you stay?" She lowered her head. 

" Any other day but today, please. The others can answer the call of the king today. 

Please, stay."

He whipped his head away and reverted his attention to her when she was done. 

“ Go and meet your mother. Tell her to bring my food before the cock crows again.”

She nods, heart drumming against her eardrums. Nnena was rightly called 'her father's mother'. In the past, she was the treasured path to her father's heart, but those days were slowly fading behind the hills that surrounded their village.

She relays his message to her mother, Ugochi. 

Without looking up, the quivering voice came, “ what did he say when you told him?”

“ He said nothing.”

Tears trickled down Ugochi's face. She dished the food and sent it through Nnena. “ I will be in the room if he needs anything else.”

"Mama...is there a chance the dream could be false?" The girl's eyes stung with tears.

" Go now. Don't keep your father waiting," she replied. 

Nnenna shuffled towards her father's room. Like always, she waited on him. From the moment he uncovered the dishes, the mountains on both plates whispered the quiet counsel. 

He covered the plate, and got up to leave. 

“ You haven't touched your food, Papa.”

" Yes," he said and smiled. " Go back and call your mother to join me. 

Nnennaya, do tell her I will stay so she can come and reduce this last supper."

The girl sped into her mother's room with that announcement.

No sooner had she left speaking, a deafening blast called a great mourning that would last through the next three years. 

Finding themselves unharmed, the family looked in the direction it came. It was the king's palace and that was the beginning of the war.