Two Moons is a new novel by J. Raymond Ractliffe that explores the inner spirit life of Africa, her people and their powerful faith in the world of the Unseen.
Pathera looked up and over to the blue mountains and rolling hills stretching out to the horizon. The thin smoke from her new fire gently waving its welcome to the sky as it rose from the grey powder of yesterday. Up in the mountains the morning chill brought a last bite to the new day. Her skin danced as the fading night cold caressed her skin, bringing out the last shivers as the pale sun broke through the shimmering horizon to find its place in the sky. The thin dry sticks that fed the small flame brought out the first warm blush of the day. Pathera looked down at Chezwe, who lay sleeping, huddled in his blanket beside the now cold firestones. Even in the twilight, a smile rested on his lips. Last night the stars had welcomed them as they sat under their blinking lights, the fire capturing the warm glow of their love. Chezwe had kissed her long in the night. As the fire grew weaker, the woodpile stacked beside the firestones remained untouched as their minds and hearts sailed far away in the heavens. While the fire faded, Chezwe picked her up carefully in his arms and carried her away from the mouth of the cave to the side of the mountains where large boulders hid their night's passions away from Mother. Fingertips caressed hot skin while endless dreams poured from their hearts, the pock marks on his head, back and arms glistened in the moon light, Pathera touching them one by one as she mouthed a prayer of thanks that he had lived through the night of fire. The boulders had shielded their love making from the eyes of the cave but did little to muffle the cries of happiness echoing off the mountaintops. Her blush melted into the morning hues as she remembered their loving, her rounding belly not hindering the full passion that they had enjoyed. Chezwe's strong arms held her steady as he pinned her to the side of the mountain, her slender arms steadying his thrusts as the sweat rolled off his brow until a lion roared from below, joining him in victory as they both signalled their night time hunt had come to an end. The path that had brought them here had been long, it had lasted three years from the night that Mother had left her sacred fire and walked away in the darkness. It was the last time she had seen her sister other than in her dreams. Gileni had left in the morning to walk in the footsteps of her young betrothed. Etona's destiny had become hers; his blood flowed in her veins while the power of her love flowed in his. Pathera had stayed at the compound while the blistered skin of Chezwe healed, the burns soothed by loving hands and special salves prepared under the warm light of their own evening fire. The last of his hair had been shorn; the burnt locks of his traditional life fell away as the young warrior emerged from his fiery ordeal. They first made their way northwest, to the Samburu Peoples who were a related people of the Masai who lived in the foothills of Each time the Dream Visions came from Majura, they stopped as ordered or began their next stage as her fragrant powders adorned their dreams, gentle morning coughs the reminder that she had come. They never questioned Majura's visits, or the reason for their stopping or moving on. Mother's smile and Milk Eye guided them as surely as the stars lit the invisible path before them. They moved from village to village, from people to people, all the while following the dreams that came in the night. Each time they stopped along the way, they were welcomed by the villagers as their herbs and incantations healed the sick and made the bedridden rise to walk again. While the glittering heavens arced overhead, the silent footprints of Ngai appeared in their midst as they travelled. His spoor signs disappearing into the tracks left by the villagers retrieving their morning water, or were churned behind the hoof prints of the beasts that the villagers followed. While the winds came to caress the longs grasses and play in the trees, Ngai would wave as they passed, visiting the huts of the aged and poor, His smile joining their own as they filled their days touching His People with the herbs He had left them all. Gileni had seen her sister in her dreams while she was at school. The sudden pains in her palms stinging as surely as if she herself had been beaten, shared moments brought them together over the miles as life and time touched them daily. Pathera cried with Gileni during the empty months as Etona travelled back to Love had crowned them both, the thorn's in their crowns the price for their walking into the Love Pathways of God. Her Twin's own heart leaped with joy when the baby she now carried, stirred the first wings of the rippling butterflies in her belly. When the baby was restless, Pathera could feel the extra arms protecting her baby come to sooth the soft new brow, bringing whispered kisses to its sleeping dreams until a thumb suckled calmed the Little One into the warm loving hands of Ngai. They had finally moved southwest to the Baganda Peoples, who originally had seen the tall mountains peaks on their horizon, white tipped and blazing in the sun and called them "Gambaragara,” which means "My Eyes Pain." The Greek geographer Claudius Ptolemy, the father of the geography, in 150 AD spoke of the "Lunae Montes,” the "Mountains of the Moon" on the edge of the Africa's third highest peak, Mount Margherita is situated within this mysterious mountain chain, now called the Rwenzori Range, where the local god Kitasamba lives within the glaciers and high altitude overseeing the lives of the Bokomu Peoples. They guard the footpaths that lead up her winding paths through the valleys and rainforest gorges filled with hidden elephants, while the chimpanzees watch from high above in the lush canopy. It was here Pathera and Chezwe found the blue mountains where the Crystal Waters fed Majura's Their long quest complete, they made their home to the side of a dark cave that housed the still form of Majura who sat unmoving before the Crystal Waters, where the visions of the twin worlds became mirrored in her Milk Eye. Pathera looked down beside the firestones, the surface of a water gourd beside the growing fire suddenly rippling without a hand having broken its surface. She peered closer, her own hand waving over the waters, trying to touch the Unseen that had come to speak to her. The quivering water became quiet; the trembling signal successful while the smoldering clouds trapped within began to part. Like milk separating itself from running water, a vision emerged from within. Peering closer into the now still waters, Pathera could see her own face smiling back at her, the warmth of love filling her eyes and inflamed lips that the night before had burned with hot kisses and endless love. It was the soft colours painted over the eyes that made her suddenly frown. She peered closer at what she thought had been the reflection of her own smile, then realized the mirrored smile was that of her twin. She watched as Gileni's eyes filled with love, a tear rising to greet her returned lover as a warm kiss came from out of the darkness to fill her heart with his own. As the light faded from the living waters, her Gileni's radiant face tilted forward to hide her shy smile, long blond hair slipped from her head before her hand reached up quietly to correct the long wig's proper place. Shy at its newness, she blushed as strong black hands rose to cup her smile and pull her back to their love matt, the long golden hair flashing into the firelight as the waters closed their story. Chezwe began to stir beside the growing fire, its burning scent touching his own fading dreams as Pathera stared at the now silent waters. The fevered golden dreams of the past had found their place with the living.
Chapter 6
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