Nande Aja "The Black Giant"

My name is Nande Aja and this is my story of how I came to be near the Pictish Lands at Fort Gekada

I lived peacefully in the Southern Black Kingdoms as a southern Islander, well as peacefully as you can live when raids are coming thru all the time. Slavers and pirates were a daily event sometimes. The Southern Isles lie far to the south, along the Black Coast. I grew up with my father among the warriors and spearmen. I trained and watched the warriors closely. I became very skilled with a spear and war club, and I was the best Bird-rider in our tribe. The islands are famed for their bird-riders, warriors who do battle astride the “Birds-That-Run”, a type of ostrich.

It was the 19^th year after my birth when one morning my father woke me and whispered that a raid was on the north side of our land and moving this way. He wanted me to leave for safety (that wounded me a bit) and return in 2 days time. Then he left to fight, and I followed him. The raiders were Pirates; Black Corsairs I would find out later they were the worst and most notorious of all. Our warriors fought bravely and took many down but we are a small clan and they had many.

We intimidated some of them for we are known for our fierce displays of aggression but it was not enough. They killed my father. I swung up upon my bird and flew with the wind to my father. I was in shock and furious with the man who had killed him. I landed 2 blows on him knowing that I had broken or at least cracked some bones before he knocked me from my Bird and pinned me to the ground. He stared at me for a very long time not letting me up from under his foot. I realized I was wearing only what I had woken in early that morning, which was a thong and thin slip of hide across my breasts. He yelled something out to the left. I was grabbed by two men and dragged away, tied up, and gagged.

I awoke later in the belly of a ship in chains. I served as a slave for some time. Rowing that boat and doing hard labor upon shores that we landed on. The captain had taken a fancy to me for I was unusual and different from the slaves he had or any women he had ever seen. I was now very tall and rangily muscled: all at once lithe and voluptuous. My only garments were a thong, 2 silver earrings and metal cuffs upon my wrists and ankles. My smooth black limbs and beautiful face drove a beat of fierce passion or fear through many men’s pulse, even in the panting fury of work or battle. My rich curly hair, black as the Stygian night, fell in rippling clusters down my muscular back and my dark eyes burned fiercely with vengeance, and passions for things yet unknown.

The captains ship was raided one night when in a bay near Stygia. I was in chains in the belly of the boat and could do nothing but wait. I was taken above ship and as we passed across the bow I saw my captor was dead and I smiled with satisfaction though I was disappointed it had not been I that delivered the killing blow to the captain. I was taken to a market near Stygia, and sold for a hefty sum. I was large, strong, and what some men called exotically beautiful. I was sold to a caravan of traders that traveled the land far south and north. We would travel thru Shem, Koth, Ophir, and Aquilonia.

I gained the trust of these men and women and soon wore only cuffs of metal upon my wrists and ankles but no chain thru them except at night. The caravan was settled one night just outside of Tauran. They would trade the next morning. The leader of the caravan had not yet  replaced my chains, and when he came near I snapped his neck quick and quite. I then moved thru the camp after they slept and killed all 6 of them with very little remorse. I took what I needed from them, which is what I now wear; a thong, sandals on my feet, 2 silver earrings, and a Peacock feather in my hair. I had also a spear, war club, a few coins, food, and my will to survive. I then headed northwest until I met a river then followed it to the north until I came upon a fort. Which is were I find my self standing now this moment.