In the central part of Botswana, along Majane Road, there is a village located between two huge mountains called, Gouna. In Gouna village rules are bent and twisted in unusual ways. It is a village without a leader but rather have the leadership of elders, and the people there are all the descendants of the Tswana tribe.
There is peace and harmony among the people, as they treat each other as equals, everyone is free to speak their mind with their mostly quoted Tswana saying that says "mahoko a kgotla amantle otlhe' meaning everyone's point of view is taken into consideration regardless of who they are. They share their dreams and work together as a close-knit community.
*Although Gouna is a great village, there was something strange about the way the people living here moved. Unlike other humans the people in the village did not walk but rather they floated above the ground. Their feet were stacked in a living creature called the craviyal, which moved them as they wanted. *
Among the villagers there is a boy called Medina. He is the heart of Gouna, loved by all and admired by many for his unwavering loyalty and commitment. Medina's role in the village is unique and huge. He is the messenger and delivery boy, one of his roles is to find lost people, as well as objects that the other villagers wish to find.
Among many of the objects he has to find there is a strange one which is a small shiny stone called, the Soulfinder which appears at least twice a year. It is Medina's responsibility to find this shiny stone and take it back to the village elders every year. His great ability to find lost things has earned him the nickname "Megafinder" among the villagers.
Medina is no ordinary boy. He grew up without parents, and though surrounded by the warmth of the village, is still on a quest to discover who he truly is. Medina is known for accepting every task given to him and never asking question no matter how strange or mysterious the task at hand may be. He is driven by the attention and affection he receives, and by a deeper, unspoken desire to find his purpose in life.
One day, while returning to the village from his latest mission retrieving yet another Soulfinder, Medina encountered something that changed his life. As he floated silently through the dense woods, the newly recovered Soulfinder glowing faintly in his gloved hands. It was a strange object smooth, cold, and pulsing with a life of its own. Though he had retrieved it many times before, he never understood its true purpose. It always disappeared into the care of the elders, who offered no explanation.
As he moved through the forest, his mind drifted to his own mystery. Who were his parents? Why was he different from the others in the village? His ability to float, his unique connection to the Soulfinder, and the odd whispers he sometimes heard when near it all of it weighed heavily on his mind.
On this day his questions would find a strange beginning to being answered. Medina came to a sudden stop. In the shadows ahead, a mysterious figure emerged, it was a being unlike anything he'd ever seen. Its upper half resembled the usual woman Medina was used to seeing in the village, but its lower half was strange to him as it was not whole or solid like his and moved without the craviyal.
"What are you?" Medina called out and asked with a shaky voice steady.
The figure turned its head and smiled widely. "I am Jusky. And you?"
"I'm Medina," he said cautiously, gripping the Soulfinder tighter. He had encountered wild animals and strange happenings in the woods before, but this was entirely different.
"What kind of creature are you? How is your lower half...… not solid?" (he asked curiously)
Jusky's facial expression also change from a smiley face to a face filled with fear as she noticed something equally odd about Medina. She widely opened her mouth in awe, pointing at Medina's feet.
"A..nd ... and... what kind are you? You're floating! No one moves like that aren't you human?" (Jusky also asked curiously, filled with fear for her life)
The two stared at each other for a while, each seeing something unfamiliar and unsettling from one another. Jusky's fear took hold, and her survival instinct kicked in, she then turned around and started running in an opposite direction to where she was facing.
But no matter how fast she ran she could not get any far because running through the dense forest was no match for Medina's floating movement.
"Stop!" Medina shouted, as he caught up to her. He grabbed her arm and began to pull her back to where they ran from.
"Let me go!" Jusky screamed, struggling to break free.
Medina could not think straight as he thought it was his duty as the trusted village messenger as always to take care of any creature or being that may pose threat to the village.
As he pulled Jusky the Soulfinder began to move around in his hand, its then glowed intensively. He remembered the warnings of the elders: *To Never touch anyone with bare hands while holding the Soulfinder. But Jusky's resistance as he pulled her left him no choice as his glove accidentally slipped off, and his bare hand brushed her skin to skin.
The forest was brightened up with a light explosion from the glow.
They both got momentarily blinded by the intense glowing of the Soulfinder. This is when Medina's story began to unravel. In the brightness of the glow, visions unfolded before his eyes, he saw a vivid vision of his parents, their faces blurred but he felt the powerful presence of motherly and fatherly love from them; a younger version of himself still clueless of what happening around him, bound by a mysterious force as tears rolled down his face.
He saw himself with no craviyal in his bottom part of the body in the vision. He saw the villagers standing over him, whispering words he could not hear and showing him, their backs walking back into the white like cloud smoke.
The craviyal that had bound his legs for as long as he could remember began to loosen his legs, its dark tendrils falling away. It slithered away, leaving Medina to collapse to the ground.
For the first time apart from the vision he saw his legs as they got free, but they were weak and unsteady and could not move them.
*Seeing this he thought in his mind "am I going to move with my hands again just like in the vision?"*
"Who am I? am I like Jusky? and will I be able to move like her if I practiced like I did going up with craviyal" his mind flooded with questions.
"What is happening to me?" he cried out, panic gripping his chest as his heartbeat increased and beat faster nonstop. "Am I dying?"
The craviyal's voice echoed in his mind. "You broke the rules. You touched the Soulfinder. You are no longer my master; I am no longer entitled to whatever happens to you."
Medina watched helplessly as it disappeared into the woods.
Jusky, who had been knocked unconscious to the ground for quite some time since the intense glow of the Soulfinder, scrambled to her feet after awakening moments later after the Soulfinder departed. She found Medina on the ground, sobbing helplessly like he just lost a relative.
"What did you do to me?" she asked Medina, while keeping her distance. "Why are you crying? Did you think I was dead, is that it?"
"I..... I don't know what's happening," Medina answered her, his voice was breaking and trembling. "I can't move my lower part is strange now it looks like yours. I have become like you, and I don't even know what we are? or what I am"
Jusky moved closer with some hesitance. Despite her fear, she couldn't bring herself leaving him behind looking helplessly.
"You can't move, can you?" she asked.
"No," Medina admitted.
After a long pause, Jusky sighed and crouched in front of him. "Okay here, grab on to my back I'll help you get up for now. But don't get any ideas or try anything funny or else I'll throw you off and leave, okay?"
She got him onto her back, and together they made their way to a nearby abandoned house.
Over the days that followed, Jusky and Medina worked together to help him regain his mobility. Jusky crafted wooden supports to aid him, while Medina, still reeling from the loss of the craviyal, shared stories of Gouna and the mysterious Soulfinder as he missed his village everyday as the days went by.
"I am sure they have started to look for me and wonder where I am" Medina bluntly said as Jusky was helping him stand as a way to help him to get to move on his own.
Jusky, in turn, revealed her own troubled past. An outcast in her village, she was seen as a bad omen and shunned by her people. The two found solace in their shared loneliness, though neither fully trusted each other.
Weeks turned into months, and Medina's legs got stronger by day. Slowly, he began to walk on his own with small child steps, though it was a very painstaking process for him. Jusky, meanwhile, started to see Medina not as a threat but as kindred lost spirit that grew in darkness.
After a year and a half, Medina was finally able to walk unaided he now had to learn to do it faster and adjust by even running. Grateful for Jusky's help, he offered her a place in Gouna as he started to show plans of returning and going back to his people, promising her a fresh start in a village that had always been his home.
Jusky calculatedly asked him. "Do you really think they will accept me? Someone like me?"
"They'll see what I see," Medina said. "A brave, kind soul who saved me when no one else would, even when my craviyal couldn't. I have to show them that they should not be afraid of the Soulfinder not the craviyal as they can move without its aid. " He added.
Jusky smiled and spoke. " Well, if you say so let's go then."
Together, they planned for the journey back to Gouna. Medina had to find his village again as he no longer had the craviyal that used to guide him back.
But first they had to find the Soulfinder that had left where they met almost 2 years back and give it to the village elders, in hopes for answers concerning it, as it has been a symbol of mystery and power, for a long time and Medina's connection to it had been irrevocably altered.
**What awaited them in Gouna would test their bond, their courage, and their understanding of who they truly were. **
** The start of the journey of Returning to Gouna Village *
Jusky and Medina returned to the place where they had first met, drawn by memories and the hope of retrieving what they had left behind nearly two years ago the Soulfinder. It had once pulsed with energy, a mysterious stone whose origins neither of them fully understood.
Now, it was their only hope of finding answers. Jusky had begun experiencing strange visions, fragmented dreams he couldn't explain. The Elders in Gouna might have the wisdom to make sense of it all, if only they had the Soulfinder to present.
They spent close to five days searching, combing through the forest floor, sifting through rocks, revisiting every path they had walked. Each sunrise came with renewed hope, and each sunset dimmed it a little more. Dust clung to their boots. Their hands were scratched from thorny brush. They barely spoke anymore, conserving energy for what felt like a futile mission.
"This is useless," Jusky finally said, collapsing against a tree trunk. His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths. "Let's go back. We're not going to find it, no matter how hard we try."
Medina stood a few steps ahead, staring out into the fading light. His jaw clenched. "Let's search one last time. Just one more. We might be closer than we think."
They searched until night swallowed the forest whole, until their limbs trembled with fatigue and their eyes struggled to stay open. But it was no use. The Soulfinder was gone.
Resigned, they returned to their makeshift camp. Medina remained quiet, his gaze fixed on the fire they'd built from dry twigs and leaves. Its flame danced weakly, casting long shadows. The weight of failure hung heavily in the air.
"We'll leave for Gouna in the morning," he said, his voice low and tense.
Jusky didn't reply at first. He watched his friend closely, he'd never seen Medina like this. He was always the confident one, always sure of himself, always one step ahead.
"Have I… perhaps lost my touch?" Medina murmured after a long silence.
"What touch?" Jusky asked, tilting his head.
"I used to be the Megafinder," Medina said, almost bitterly. "Back in Gouna, people counted on me to find what was lost artifacts, paths, even people. I could find anything, like my life depended on it. And now…" He trailed off, eyes reflecting the flickering fire. "Now I can't even find the one thing I lost myself. And this time, my life does depend on it."
He looked up, the pain raw in his expression.
"I want to know my roots. I want to know who I really am. How am I supposed to do that if I can't even retrieve the Soulfinder? It's the first step to understanding… everything."
Jusky shifted closer, placing a hand on Medina's shoulder. "Don't let this break you," he said softly. "You still have what it takes."
Medina looked skeptical, but Jusky went on.
"You found me, didn't you? Back then, when I was wandering, lost and bitter. You didn't just find me you gave me purpose. You helped me find peace, Medina. I didn't even know I needed that. You reminded me what it feels like to laugh, to trust someone. That means something."
Medina's eyes welled, but he blinked the tears away before they could fall. "Thanks," he whispered. "But I don't know if it's enough. Will I ever find my way back to the village? Back to my people? Will they still see me the same way… or has everything changed forever?"
"They'll still see you," Jusky said firmly. "Maybe not the same way but maybe that's okay. You're not who you were, and neither are they. But you're still you. And you're not alone."
The fire crackled. Above them, the stars blinked into view, scattered across the vast night sky. For a while, neither of them spoke.
Then Medina rolled onto his side, staring up at the stars. "Jusky… do you have any stories to tell? Something to pass the time until sleep comes. I can't seem to shut my mind off."
Jusky chuckled lightly. "You? The Megafinder, asking me for a story?"
"Yeah, well… turns out even Megafinders need lullabies to go to sleep atleast once in a while," Medina replied.
Jusky nodded. Then she sat up, brushing leaves from her coat.
"Alright. Let me tell you a story," she said, voice dropping into a more thoughtful tone while looking to be in deep thoughts.
While she was briefly lost in thought trying to load on which story to share, Medina waited excitedly for he loved tales.
"Ok, let me share a story worth this moment." Jusky.
This wasn't just a story it was Jusky's past and background story, it's a past she wants to forget so bad that even her consciousness could not accept it as her story but rather accepted it as a story she once read in a novel from years back as she loved reading. taking back on the day that changed her life for good this was her story. She made herself believe that her own brain has been illusioned into confusing her reality with the novels she reads.
She called it The Lost Backyard Demon.
** THE NEXT CHAPTER IS ON JUSKY'S BACKGROUND STORY AND WHO SHE IS **