Later that night, the fire grew larger. The entire village had been nearly destroyed due to the prolongation of the raining fires. The crop that would have lasted until the winter was gone, two thirds of our cattle gone, two thirds of the village’s livestock also gone. Several lives were lost trying to save their valuables. Either way fate had the final say so that night. The fire had begun to spread north where Ali and the others were. Deka and the other children were still up, the youngest child of Ali had a difficult time sleeping due to the smoke rising behind the mountains. The fire had not yet reached my grandfather and the others.

“Do you smell that?” Deka asked. “FIRE!!” The boy’s scream woke everyone in the hut. Ali’s eldest son saw the line of fire approaching from the southern lands. Even though the fire was miles away, he knew it would spread quickly. Ali and his family lived on the northern parts of the village, on top of the hills. The daunting flames caused distressed to those inside the house, but still they needed to focus on leaving. Tears began to flood my father’s eyes as he saw the damage done to the village he loved. Everybody remained silence as they witnessed from atop the hills, the flames consuming their homes, the village being lost in smoke and ash.

Deka began weeping as she thought of her mama and her soon to be baby brother. “The baby…” she whispered to herself, afraid that someone would hear. “The baby…” she repeated as she looked away from the smoke creeping towards them. Granpapa & my father looked at Deka as the tears to flow down their faces, hitting the ground that had yet been touched by the fires. Accepting the possibility of the entire family being gone. “Who could possibly survive this?” my father thought to himself, as him and the others continue to travel further north of the village.

They were near the village of KAZA, the most northern part of the village. The people were different from the people of KABBA, where our family is from. The people of KAZA were ruthless. They committed all kinds of iniquities a man could imagine. In this village, sons betrayed their fathers and fathers sacrificed their sons. Daughters despised their mothers and mothers abandoned their daughters. Granpapa & the others where aware of this but they had no choice but to keep going.