Kipkoech tore his gaze away from the man and looked with tears in his eyes to his mother who didn’t know what the sudden events and words spoken meant.

  “What is he whispering about? What magic?” Rehema blankly looked at the man and said meekly in the direction of her husband.

  “Great fortune, you gave birth to a shaman! Whole village will rise!” Chief beaming with smiles announced to the gathered family of nine, younger kids stuck their heads out of the hut, and older ones stood behind Kipkoech.

  “Yes, there are plenty of benefits relatives of our wizards get to enjoy, such as a private tutor sent here for you soon, funds allocated to the tribe, inclusion in the list of protected areas…” The blind man explained slowly aid the Luo tribe will get to enjoy because of the standing there boy.

  “You can’t take our son! Do something!” Rehema and the others didn’t understand fully what was happening, she only suspected that the man tried to take her firstborn son or perhaps all of them away, her pleading eyes on Kiprono, the boy’s frowning father.

  “Stupid, please don’t mind, Master!” Chief apologized to the whisperer who waved his hand indifferently.

  “I should have started with this… Mabadiliko chui, mabadiliko chui, mabadiliko chui.” the blind man sang in one breath, his figure clothed in a brown vest with trinkets and patches of fur sewn onto it, tight trousers reaching the knee, barefoot, started shrinking, just five seconds later, in front of the family which all members had their mouths opened into a big O, a leopard sat smartly, with its tail coiled around the front paws. “I prophesied Kipkoech to be a whisperer, wizard, shaman, or witch doctor, however legends this tribe passes down for you to call it, like me.” the cat opened its jaws and spoke with the same voice as the blind man. “Mtu, mtu, mtu.” The leopard sang three words and turned back into a human before the audience had time to react in any way.

  “See, Master here is a respectable shaman! Kipkoech has an opportunity to become one too!” Chief with fanaticism written on his face eyed the man and the boy he came to take away from the village.

  “I believe now. Son, learn well.” Kiprono with a touch of sadness went irritably away, he couldn’t bear to look at his favourite son taken away, destined to belong to another world as the coming wizard and Chief notified him of beforehand, mere minutes spent coming to terms proved a relatively good psychological quality of Kipkoech’s father, something his children seemed to inherit as they didn’t make a sound watching the transformation.

  “Can you become an elephant?” Chepkirui wasn’t scared by the blind man and went past still stunned Kipkoech to ask curiously.

  “Yes.” the wizard replied.

  “Can brother turn into one in the future, I always wanted to ride a huuuge grey cutie?” she gesticulated up on her tippy-toes, elephants scarce around their tribe, she could only listen to descriptions.

  “Hard to tell, not everyone is talented enough.” emboldened by the wizard’s patience, children of Saomei surname all went up to him and asked questions, like how it feels to be an animal, when will their brother come back after learning in that School of Magic, and so on, meanwhile Kipkoech and Rehema had to organize their thoughts.

  “Don’t stand like that, prepare our dear boy’s luggage for the journey, I will swiftly bring some refreshments.” Chief took an opportunity to lick the wizard at the expense of confused Rehema and went to his hut backwards at first to show his admiration.

  “What’s wrong with you?” The blind man asked Kipkoech immersed in his own world for a long moment now.

  “Nothing, I understand that I’m a magician…” The boy replied while spoken to but stayed in place.

  “Strictly speaking you aren’t yet, an awakening would come in a year without my intervention.” The blind man corrected. “My name is William Mukama, Uganda, Bagwere tribe, Christian.” he overlooked the family in search of religious symbols as he revealed and kissed a cross from under his vest.

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  “We aren’t religious.” Kipkoech said to a shake of head from Mukama.

  “That’s only because Jesus didn’t reveal his plans for you, someday along the path you will understand the infinite grace bestowed upon mankind by God Almighty.” Mukama didn’t press the issue anymore and turned his permanently open blind eyes to Rehema. “Madam, your son is encouraged and permitted to come back to his village as much as he wants, and during long vacation months, it won’t be a permanent parting. Uagadou is next door from here, less than ten hours.” He comforted softly the woman whose brain seemed to shut down from overheating as she witnessed a full-grown man turn into a leopard in front of her eyes.

  “My child, it's fine, Mom doesn’t care about you being a shaman!” Taken out of her stupor much like her son, she ran to kneel and hug her boy, shortly after which the Chief came back with a backpack left over from a forgetful tourist and a procession of women carrying bread and fresh produce of the village along cans of meat and fruit purchased to store, Chief not sure if the visitor had preferences in that aspect. The group sat down in front of the hut, wizard on a stool the Chief carried attentively for him, kids and rest of the people privy to the existence of magic due to being a family of chosen Kipkoech, continued asking questions and eating Chief’s food as the boy in question packed with help from his mother, the youngest toddler Jepkorir cried as Rehema held her tightly with one hand, second one gently put some preserved food inside pockets of the backpack for her son to nibble on while somewhere far away.

  “Ready?” Mukama questioned as the boy went out with his mother shedding tears, father still absent, in the fading rays of sunlight in the evening. Kipkoech proceeded to say lengthy and indispensable of crying goodbyes to the siblings and a whole hour later took a deep breath standing in front of the blind man.

  “I want to learn magic and help my tribe.” Kipkoech proclaimed as he was about to embark on a lifelong quest into the world of magic.

  “Great, what a good kid!” Chief exclaimed from the side.

  “Kuokoa kutoka hali mbaya ya hewa…” Phrase sang three times again, Mukama touched the bald head of Kipkoech, and the boy felt a thin film isolating the entirety of his body from external factors, like temperature and blowing wind. “Mabadiliko tandawala mkubwa…” The blind man transformed into a giant kori bustard, the largest of African birds capable of flight, with brown feathers on its back, a white-black underbelly, and a thick, strong neck that went upwards in a fashion similar to an ostrich. “Come on my back and hold, it takes until dawn to get to school, this form is pretty slow, and you as an added load makes it completely sluggish. Don’t worry, I prefer to fly at night and can catch you in case of fall.” The beak of the bird opened, and a deep voice of Mukama came from within, Kipkoech looked at his still-white eyes in birdly form like the man lost his mind.

  “Come on, Master says it’s safe, so it is!” Chief came to ambush the boy from the side and put his hand under his armpits to lift Kipkoech and his oversized bag to sit on a groove at the base of kori bustard’s neck. The transformed wizard immediately started running forward, prompting the terrified passenger to lean forward and embrace the soft and silky-to-touch neck covered with fluff under a layer of small feathers. Wings flapped, a certain speed was required for the giant bird to take off with added weight, Kipkoech shook up and down during that time, clamping his legs and arms to the point of droplets of sweat forming on his wide and bald forehead, eventually they soared into the skies, a smooth experience after an initial shock.

  Under the round moon that shrouded the surface of Earth with cold silvery light reflected from the Sun’s warm golden one, Kipkoech turned his head back to witness briefly but with clarity Jepkorir cuddled by her and his mother, rising attitude interrupted the boy’s line of sight, the last look on the area around the village where he spent his whole life before becoming something either greater or lesser than a normal human. Delayed reaction from the initial boldness, Kipkoech shut his eyes tightly, afraid of looking down for a good while until the rhythmic beat of the blind bird’s wings calmed his wildly pumping heart. With a slight relaxation of his tense muscles one at a time, he stopped clinging desperately to the neck and shoulders of his steed and opened his eyes to gaze through the eyelashes into the starry clear skies at first, dozens of deep breaths later, he daringly overlooked the passing swiftly by plains, valleys, and rivers. Multiple adrenaline highs and lows endured on this day, the eight-year-old boy couldn’t keep his eyes open no matter how terrified of falling he was, Kipkoech fell asleep smoothly in huge part because of the blind man’s barrier that protected him firmly from cold and stormy gale everpresent kilometers above the ground, his legs and arms dangled freely over African land of Kenya and Uganda as the wizard-turned-bird flew tirelessly under the sparse clouds, keeping the direction unchanged from the start.

  “Wake up, we are here!” At the dawn of the next day, Kipkoech heard an unfamiliar voice as a morning call, he opened his eyes while feeling a nice smoothness and softness under his chin which prompted his arms to try and wrap around it, fortunately, he didn’t have a daily habit of twitching suddenly or jumping up the bed in joy which saved his slightly muddled brain from a potential suicide. Feeling something wrong with reality, he twitched as memories of the previous day came with a wave of unease and doubt if they were an elaborate dream, an illusion shattered as the boy opened his eyes to see a greyish mist in front of a bird’s beak, dyed that colour because the Sun didn’t yet rose up to illuminate it.