A Tale of Five Bandits - Episode 23

 

Even as the moon shone upon the village with chilly breeze causing their bodies to shiver and even as the evening mosquitoes buzzed in hundreds dined doggedly feasting on the blood beneath their delicate skin, the inhabitants of Aleshinloye remained outside the village’s infirmary praying to the gods for quick recovery of the hero screaming in agonizing pain as the medicine man worked tirelessly to fix his dislocated bones.

Monifa came out from the cabin and offered a weak smile at the gathering, “It is done. He is going to be fine”. 

Most of the villagers sighed in relief and rejoiced while others sang praises and offered gratitude to the gods . The children raced into the cabin excitedly to see their wounded hero but they soon walked out with a disappointed face as Ajala drove them out explaining to them that Duro needed to rest but they were children and his words fell on deaf ears only to be responded by grumbling and hisses. 

Sewa sat beside the door of the cabin and watched the children filed out sluggishly. As the last child left the cabin, she hurried in the small house, her face expressing a sad look on seeing Duro.   

“Don’t look at me like that. I swear I’m fine”, Duro said

“You don’t look fine at all”, she replied. 

Ajala coughed, “Sorry to interrupt but he needs to rest

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/a-tale-of-five-bandits

. I sent those children away and you are no exception” he said to Sewa.

Duro raised a hand, “Baba, it is okay. It is my arm that is injured not my mouth”. 

Sewa stifled a giggle and Ajala shook his head “If anything happens, don’t come crying to me because you need to sleep to recover quickly”.

Ajala hummed a song and walked out of the cabin. At the entrance, he stood and turned back “You should be grateful to the gods for keeping you alive”, he snorted and departed. 

“I thank you, oludumare”, Duro muttered under his breath. 

“You too you are thanking them?” she said raising an eyebrow. 

Duro stared at her with a puzzled look, “I’m grateful to be alive so yes”.

Sewa shook her head, her face gloomy and gray “No matter how much we try to deceive ourselves, the truth is we are all still alive because that masked man didn’t want us dead...yet”. She heaved a sad sigh “If the gods had come down from above and saved us themselves then perhaps I would be grateful to them. But that wasn’t the case, there was no miracle or magic, I almost lost...you almost died today and when I heard you screaming like that, it felt like someone was driving a hot knife into my heart. I think we all felt that way. We were completely at the masked man’s mercy and so afraid”. 

Duro reached up with his good arm and caressed her face “But there was a miracle. We are all alive; you, me, Leke, Goke, Monifa even Ajala and we get to fight another day”.

  Sewa stroked his hand and smiled weakly, “There is something I have to do tonight”. 

Duro sat upright with a worried look on his face “What is it?”

Sewa thought of off-loading her sad past to Duro. The reason why she travelled for years killing random mercenaries like he thought, how she had ended up a bandit, why the masked man had not killed her and how he promised to her the answers she had desperately searched for. Within her heart, she felt she knew what the masked man was offering. After killing most of the mercenaries that raided her village, there was still one thing remaining that she longed for.

Read " The Thorny Path " by the same author ( Obinna Tony )

. Ever since the gruesome battle ended, her heart and mind has been troubled as she contemplated on what the masked man could probably offer her. She thought of everything she could possibly want and there were only two things that seemed reasonable to her; him granting her the royal pardon she sought for in exchange for staying out of his way or if he was still alive.

She bit her lips lost in thought till Duro snapped his fingers repeatedly in front of her face, jolting her back to the present. 

“If you could zone out like that then it must be something serious. What is it?”

She shook her head and gave a bogus smile, “Never mind. Ajala is right, I should go. You need to rest and regain your strength because I need my sidekick back”. 

Duro chuckled lightly but he could still see sadness and misery lurking behind her smiles. It was obvious she was holding something and he understood that she was traumatized by the events of that day but he wished she would let in so he could at least try to soothe her pain.

As she turned to leave, Duro tried to call her back, tried to ask her to stay with him all night long but Goke banged in with two bottles of palm-wine in his hands and a big grin on his face.

He nodded at Sewa and glanced at Duro “Brother, how are you doing? I brought the one thing that can heal you sharp sharp like magic”. He sat heavily on the floor and shoved a bottle to Duro face, “It is unfortunate that you don’t have big strong bones like mine. It is one of the quirks that come with being the gods’ champion. Maybe if you serve better, you might become almost as strong as me because you can never be as strong as I am but I will pray to them on your behalf. Ah, that masked man is lucky that he didn’t cross paths with me o. I would have broken his neck with my bare hands.....”

 As Goke blabbed on, Duro saw a downhearted Sewa leave the room and he cursed himself for being in the state he was, unable to comfort her.