1 Chapter One

Breathing in the midnight air, gazing up into the heavens. I feel comfort in my solitude, although I am reminded of how small I am, I feel as though if I reach out I can touch the stars.

I hear my mother's voice calling my name. "Yebo, Ma?!"(Yes mom). "What are you doing out here in the middle of the night, you know it is not safe for you to be outside at this time!" Her voice is soft yet stern. " I apologize, Ma, I lost track of time, the night sky is just so beautiful..." I try to explain myself while looking down at the ground as a sign of respect. " You should be more careful, as inkosazana (princess) you should know better, come inside now." I nod, taking one last breath of the fresh midnight air before proceeding into our hut.

As I lie down on my grass mat, in my mind I see myself somewhere else that is not here, somewhere beyond our river and hills.

"Vuka, Thandiwe, vuka"(Wake up, Thandiwe, wake up), I am shaken awake and open my eyes to find one of my sisters, Sindiswa pulling my arm. "I'm up, Im up" I say rubbing my eyes then stretching. " Ma said to wake you since you are always late, we need to collect water and release the cattle, come on get up!" , she pulls my arm again and this time I let her pull me up. We each take iphangela and make our way to the river. My sister and I are two out of 12 siblings. We all share the same father but different mothers, my father, the Chief has three wives my mother being the last wife. The first two wives were unable to give him sons and so he married my mother, after having my sister and I my mother was pregnant again and gave birth to my baby brothers, Nhlanhla and Nkosinathi. As a result of the only boys being very young, we girls have to share some of the chores, well those that are left of us. Only four sisters remain including Sindiswa and I, the rest were married off to other clans to strengthen alliances.

By the river bank I see my sister Nokukhanya and Nokubonga waiting for us, " Did you sleep late again Thandi?" Nokukhanya asks, I roll my eyes and laugh because she knows I did. She and I used to spend many a night drawing shapes in the sky, although we are not as close as we used to be, she is still one of the few people who understands me. We quickly bathe in the river, careful not to wet our hair, before we each fill iphangela and place them on our heads walking back to the huts, we put the water down inside the huts and we release the cattle into the grass fields. Although quite young, at the age of eight , our brothers are charged with looking after the cattle, to ensure none stray too far away from the herd. After leaving the fields we return to the hut where Ma has made porridge.

After eating, its time to truely begin the day.

Training to fight with a spear and shield has been a daily routine since I turned nine, I am not the best at anything , but I can safely say I can protect myself. "Focus, Thandiwe!" My instructor yells hitting his spear against his shield, he charges at me, here we go again. After 3 hours of training, we leave to go Inyanga's (healer's) hut, this is my favorite part of the day, partially because I am one of her best students and partially because I actually enjoy it.

My sisters and I inherited an affinity for healing, we are instinctively know which plants have healing properties and which are poisonous plants, but need training before becoming inyanga. Thus, my father saw it fit that all his daughters train in both combat and healing, unlike in other clans where girls are limited to domestic chores. Since last month, the classes our nyanga has been teaching us, deal with how to recognise when a person has been poisened and how to figure out which poison was used. After healing classes are done we return to our hut and help Ma finish making dinner, we go collect water one last time before we help the boys bring in the cattle. Although there are servants around Ma insists we have to learn how to do things for ourselves so we can survive by ourselves someday.

As we bring in the cattle we see Baba approaching on horseback. "Baba!Baba!" we call to him jumping and waving, he slows down then stops the horse, and gets down as we run to him, he laughs as he opens his arms wide to hug us all. " My children, I've misses you all so much!" He says as he kisses each of us on the head, I love Baba and even though he knows all our names I don't think he knows all our ages, probably gave up after his fifth child.

Even though he loves us all, we can see he is especially proud of his boys, " you've grown so big my boys, are you taking care of your sisters and mothers?!" I roll my eyes as they say yes, loving Baba's attention. We all walk back to the huts to eat dinner, tonight Baba is eating in our hut. We eat supper and Sindiswa and I wash the dishes outside, the sky looks amazing as the sun sets we sit on the grass mats enjoying the view.

As the darkness decends, I carry Sindiswa into the hut, she fell asleep on my shoulder and I understand, it has been a long and eventful day, I can only hope it gets better tomorrow.

Meaning of their names:

Thandiwe- One who is loved

Sindiswa - One who is Saves

Nokubonga- Thankful one

Nokukhanya- Bringer of Light

Nhlanhla- Fortunate or Lucky one

Nkosinathi- God is with us