When Darkness Falls Read Free

their own land. Without telling anyone of his whereabouts, he disappeared for two days, and as quietly returned.
    Nunjupuni had also been preoccupied; Danaranni’s handsome face and teasing smile lurked in her thinking day and night ... She couldn’t eat, she couldn’t sleep, and she was definitely no help around the campfire. She was in love.
    At night she walked the edge of the plain ... She lay in the cool sand, and felt his arms and his breath. And when she heard a curlew cry her heart would skip a beat, and she would sound a return mating call. A curlew might wonder at her timing. One day, she told herself, he would return.
    Today the sun was sinking into the sea as she made her way to the beach. It was her favourite time; she loved nothing better than to walk in up to her waist, then sink down and let the warm water wash over her. As she stood, the evening breeze cooled her, and she felt alive and young. She was in the act of submerging herself once again when a curlew’s call rent the evening air. She froze and waited for it to come again; she knew that this was the call she had been waiting for.
    When nothing happened, she panicked and worried that he might go elsewhere to seek her out. She threw back her head, knowing that she was taking a risk, and gave the cry of a mating hen into the darkening gloom, then waited again for whatever response her cry might bring.
    She heard the gentle ripple of the waters and turned to face whatever was gliding in the water towards her in the gathering dark. She peered into the fast failing light and saw nothing but the darkness of the water. The ripples were flattening, the water turning cold. Then through the stillness of the calm sea, a head arose not an arm’s length from her; she stifled hercry of alarm, and rushed to clasp the apparition. Hugging him to her, tears flowed silently down her face, as she wrapped her arms tightly around him.
    â€œOh Dani, Dani...”
    â€œYou have some very strange birds in this neighbourhood. Whoever heard of a bird making its love call while swimming in the sea.”
    â€œOh Dani ... you have come back to me.”
    They stayed together all that night, and early next morning, as the morning star rose in the heavens Dani left. They had all that they would ever have. Danaranni had to return to his lands to care for the wife that was old enough to be his mother, and Nunjupuni would have to take her old man and be satisfied.
    As Nunjupuni watched him go there were tears in her eyes but joy in her heart; she knew that a part of him had remained within her, and would grow; One day, if he should ever return, he would see for himself why she would never mourn his passing. He would come again, of that she was sure.
    The cry of a curlew out in the water had been heard by other ears that night, and Nunjupuni and Danarrani’s union had been watched by other eyes. A message was sent to the tribal elders of Nunjupuni’s transgression. Her husband-to-be and her brothers returned home to hear the accusations and allegations. They set out to get the truth from Nunjupuni. Being so young, she broke down and admitted everything, adding that if they harmed Dani in anyway, she would take her life. It wasn’t a threat, it was a promise.
    The brothers dearly loved their only sister, and promised that they would do all they could to help. But Dani could no longer exist as far as she was concerned. She must marry the old man and make him happy, and forget the stranger.
    Though Nunjupuni’s heart asked, she knew it was impossiblefor her and Dani to try and live together; to do so would only lead to more misery and possibly his death. She would have to be happy with his memory and the child she knew he had given her in their one night together.
    The people of Danaranni’s tribe from the Big River were getting ready to return home when the Elders from the Crab Creek tribe, including Nunjupuni’s intended husband, walked