Send Petebert

Our Zulu village was desperate; so many people were dying. We knew it was time to send someone to collect impundulu eggs. Let’s send the captive boy, someone suggested. He was from another village. If the lightning bird got him, who would care? But he seems rather nice, Grandmother Lionheart said. Let’s send Petebert. Petebert’s mother was oversized and overbearing, so that did not work. Finally it was decided that Gabsma, the captive boy should be sent. He nodded his head as if he understood but was gone for a month. On the thirty-first day a human-sized lightning bird attacked our village. It landed on Petebert, killing him. We watched in horror as she drank his blood. Is that a shape shifter or an impundulu? I wondered, fearful to get close. No matter, the head witch doctor told us. We will have to send someone else. I ran screaming from the village after piercing black his eyes landed on me. His lighting bird familiar caught me and dragged me back. I knew my death was only a matter of time. I drank my psychedelic medication eagerly.