Riches Of The Dead-Ije (The Journey) - Episode 5

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A fish-like creature appeared before him and drag him down the water, he screamed for help but it’s too late cus the water is already soaked with his blood..then we started running, at this point Cynthia was actually crying while others were scared of what actually happened  

Sege : guys see this journey don tire me o,e be like say I go return back home o, no be by force to get money o

Me : Sege u know that’s not possible naw

Blanny : yes, you know wetin we see before we reach here, now only you wan waka go back 

Cynthia : Sege please stay na

Sege : no

Kola : guy no do like this na, we go soon see wetin we want 

Sege ; after all of us die finish abi? Laye!

Sege turned and walked away, we all did our best to stop him but he never agree to that, we all stand and watch him wade away from our sight. Then kola ordered that we keep moving, we all followed his order and we keep walking till the everywhere start getting dark.. 
Then I saw some strange creatures moving before us, I can see them from were I was standing but others can’t..

Me : kola! So where do we go from here? 

Kola : its almost dark, let’s sleep over till tomorrow 

Me : but this area is very dangerous, we can’t stay here 

Kola : but we can’t start moving at this dark hour..

Me : kola this area is dangerous, please let’s look for another place to sleep 

Kola : no we stay here, and it’s high time you followed my orders cus am the leader, okay?

Me : leader? We are all equal here cus no one appoints a boss when we were starting this quest so stop seeing yourself as one…

I said and walked away, everyone walked towards where kola asked them to sleep,then I interrupt them…

Me : guyz, you all should listen now and attentively, that place you all are heading to is very dangerous and full of evil, even if you all can’t see it, I can . You all should learn that we don’t have any leader here, we are all the same cus I see no reason why one should start acting like the boss when everyone is dying, if you want to follow kola’s order, that’s alright but am just saying mine just to avoid evil..

Kola : ben just shut up,what you all need is a secure protection, and not just an oral protection  now if you want to follow me,move this side (he said pointing to his left side )
But to my greatest surprise, everyone followed him 

Kola : Mr Benjamin, you see for yourself now, the choice is yours, stay or die alone…
Did he actually called my full name? It’s been long someone called me that, anyways no lele, I have no choice I followed them, as we approach the spot those spirit start hiding themselves.

I was really scared but what can I do to save everyone’s life..
As we were preparing to sleep, kola ordered that me and Vincent should guide the area, suddenly the wind started rumbling with most of our belonging, the light wents off and I know evil is coming.. 

Then we saw lights surrounding us, before we could fight back, they had already surround us and  we have no choice than to follow what they say..they all step forward ,and that was when I could get the clear picture of how they look, they all have four eyes (two in front and two behind) , four hands, two legs  and one mouth…

The tallest one among them step out of their midst..he walked closer and he gave us a dirty smile,he ordered them to take us away, and others did, they took us to their kingdom where they all live, as we were passing by I over heard them talking to eachother, though others didn’t understand what they were actually saying but I Do..

They tied us behind a tall building with all kinds of human skull and odours smell, and they all left us there, after they left us we start communicating.. 
Cynthia was the first to brake the silence 

Cynthia : *crying * I don’t know why I decide to join this search o, Vincent it’s your fault o

Vincent : how is it my fault and why are u blaming me gan? Shey my sister no die ni?

Kola : you guys should stop all this rubbish! No one is going to die, all we need is to look for a way out of this s--t..

Blanny : ben, talk put nah, Shey u no see anything ni?

I stood silent for over five minutes, that was when I noticed that am unable to see anything cus the place they put us is a power house, no form of magic stuff work there apart from theirs, but the only thing I can do is hear what they say.. 

Me : guyz gobe don shelle o, I no fit see anything o

Blanny : haaaa! Try na.
Me : av tried all my best but nothing happened 

Vincent : am not surprise to hear that sha, cus I never for once believe all u have been saying..

Me : what do you mean? 

Vincent : what I mean is very simple, you are not the seer and that’s the truth, cus if u are why don’t you see my sister’s death, why can’t you save her?

Me : what’s this idiot saying, Don’t you have sense at all, even the few I see, do you guys follow it? I might be the seer but I can only see I can’t save..

Kola : heey you guyz should stop this and be calm for once..all we need is the way out 

As this was going on two of them came in and they took Cynthia away.

Our thoughts were all strange, at first cus we all know they are going to kill her, but what will they do with her body is our best concern, the hilarious part of it is we all can’t do anything to save her life from the evil hands of the demons who took her away.

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/riches-of-the-dead-ije-the-journey

. with eyes full of tears blanny asked me what the monsters where actually saying when they were taking Cynthia away.. I gave him a quizzical look before I could proffer a suitable answer to that…

Me : the one standing on her left side was saying she looks good for their king while the second one was saying she will look good for nice soup, yet their opinions don’t count. It’s about what they are taking her for..

Vincent : I don’t believe what you are saying..

Me : and I never begged you to do so..

Kola : you guys should just stop this madness, it’s really annoying, let’s look for a way out of this problem, we can’t just stand here and let them feed on us like chicken..

Blanny : yes o, even if I go die I go still try

fight like man o

Me : so what do you guyz suggest? 

Blanny : I have an idea, one of us will pretend as if he is dead and we will scream and let them notice this, once they are here, we will let them untie him so he will fight dem and quickly untie us, we all will fight them and we run out of here..

Me : hahaha, Blanny you no well I swear, u wan fight monsters with four hands and two eyes without weapon and spiritual support, how on earth will you win the battle? 

Kola : Blanny forget about the idea it won’t work, let’s keep thinking of what to do before its too late, we don’t know who next they will come for..

Me : I have a suggestion

Kola : let’s hear you out

Me : ok, I could recall one of those things the herbalist man told us to say when ever we are in danger

Blanny : you be mumu o, why u no remember since..?

Me : you be fool, your brain no de there to remember am?

Blanny : na you be seer na

Me : seer kill you for me.

Kola : ben abeg no mind that fool, pls do it  
Blanny : oya nah, time no de abeg..

Me : ok but I don’t know how it works sha o, cus na that time one goat whey no gree talk anything go come begin put all d blame for my head o.

Kola : forget jorh, do wetin you go do.

Then I start reciting what the herbalist man told us, I did that for the first time and nothing happened, the second time, and finally the third time and within a blink of an eye everyone got loosed, instantly we all get up and prepare to run.Then we saw someone coming from the entrance..
See gobe o

Omg! It’s one of them blanny said, we all stand and none of us took a step forward, where do you think you are going? He asked in their gibberish  language of which I interpret immediately after he concluded his statement, we stood mute and didn’t  utter a word. Then we saw some set creature coming from behind, they were actually two . One of them was holding a big pole with his two hands but what amuse us about this was those set of creature where actually humans, but the question is who could they be?..

The one holding a long pole try to hit the monster with it but, before he could the monster caught him and he smashed him down, it was then we could get the clear picture of who that was..”its sege blanny echoed in his high pitched tenor  voice ” .and Cynthia was the second person following him, how could this be ?(I thought )
But this is not the right time to ask questions

Without no much time wasting we all stormed the monster and we successfully killed him without no much stress..we ran as fast as we could just to get out of their kingdom before day brake…

After 30 minutes of running, finally we are out of their reach.. we all sat under a big tree fully exhausted and panting hard…for about 5 minutes no one was able to utter a word cus we are all tired..but Vincent finally broke the silent 

Vincent : sege how you take do am nah, we think say you don die o

Sege : me die, that one no be this year nah

Blanny : how did you do it, how u take know say dose things catch us

sege : ok, on my way going back, I lost track and I don’t even know where I was heading to, so I started crying like a baby cus I know one of those evil monsters will surely come for me. I decide to sit under a big tree waiting for my death, at first I dozze off then I begin to hear some strange sound approaching where I was sleeping..i quickly stood up and hide behind a big tree, then I saw some set of monsters passing by I was wondering where they were heading to until I saw you guyz being arrested by them, so I began to follow them, till they got to their village that’s all..

Me : but how did you get cynthia and how did you save her

Sege : immediately I got to their village, I traced down where they keep you guyz and I saw them taking cynthia to some where else, so I followed them and I wait till they left her there! I fought with the last one standing next to her and I killed him, Before I could saved her..so she followed me down to where they tied you all, but to my greatest surprise, I saw all of you standing in front of the monster , so I quickly attack him.

Kola : hmmmm sege, you try o.. if no be you and Ben we no know wetin go happen next o .

Blanny : guyz! Look seems something is coming.

We all stood up with our last strength and try to run, then the creature quickly raise her hands telling us not to run, but we no believe yet we still wan run..

Blanny : make we no run na

Sege : you de craze? Why we no go run?

Blanny : you no see say na human being? 

Kola : fool, you don forget say na igbo irumole you de?

Vincent : ask am o, how you wan take see human being here? Guyz abeg prevention is better than cure o..

Me : Guyz let’s wait, I don’t see evil behind her, she is not a monster 

Cynthia : if she no be monster, who she come be? Ben you sure say you de alright?

Me : guy trust me on this, let’s wait. 

Vincent : mehn! This ben na fool o,make we de wait for another monster because u just help us comot for one monster hand abi?

Kola : guyz let’s calmdown, ben you communicate with her and we will stay behind you…

Kola stylishly pushed me forward and they all went behind a tree to watch the drama, the creature move a bit closer and she stopped, it’s actually a human but the face is not familiar, she is a beautiful as omotola, I was lost and charmed by her beautiful body before when she summoned me back to my senses with her low pitch soprano voice ..

Lady : hey! Ben..

Me : how did you know my name and what do you want from us *in a scared tone*

Lady : you have spent 5 days here and you still don’t have the idea of who I could be. I want to help you all.

Me : why do you want to help us *still scared*

Lady : calm down, I mean no harm..

Me : who are you? 

Lady : am moremi, the goddess of beauty 

Me : moremi? 

Moremi: yes 

Me : ok so tell me what you want from us.

Moremi : right from the first day you all entered this forest, I have been watching your movements , I have seen how the evil monsters of this forest had been killing some of you since, but I congratulate all of you for getting to this point, you all have 2 days left out of your given 7 days..but much evil awaits you all the closer you go in this journey..
Am here to provide the final warning for the rest of you

On hearing this others starts coming out of where they hide.. she went about explaining things to us, moremi lead us from that spot, she guide us across different kind of rivers and evil lake. Then finally she stop.

Moremi : sorry guyz I won’t be able to go further 

Me : why na?

Moremi : it’s nothing but this is where I am permitted to reach, but before I go, let me give you the final warning..
SEE the stage you are is more worst than the one u have seen,but if you all could follow the instructions I gave u, all of you will survive .

Tears almost drop from my eyes as she was expressing herself, I will surely miss her cus with the couple of days we have spent, she has been my constant companion all time, she love talking to me alone and most time we discuss about our differences which is the human world and the monsters world..

Moremi : I know it’s too early to say goodbye, if possible I would follow you down to where the egg of life is, but it’s not my fault, you all should forgive me ..
Before I go, let me tell you about the egg of life.

Read " Deba Ezodo (The Tale Of An African Princess) " by the same author ( Ifeoma Isabella Okeke )

. The egg of life is being layed once in one thousand years and it’s being protected by the most powerful monster in this forest called ojiji (shadow)..no living soul enter there and comes out.
Ojiji is very powerful that even all monsters in this forest is afraid of see him.

Me : but how are we going to get the egg since the monster is very powerful? 

Moremi : the only way you can get the egg is if he is asleep, cus he only sleep once in two hundred years, and he has his eyes all over the egg even when he is sleeping, the egg is being connected to his heart, so if you touch it he will know ..

Blanny : so what can we do to get the egg from him, and how do we know if the two hundred years was yesterday or even one hundred years to come?

Moremi : the seventh day of your journey makes it two hundred years, so he will sleep in two days time.. the only creature that knows how to get the egg from Ojiji, is called ogbon (wisdom) .. ogbon is the wisest creature in this forest and he is the only one that has faced Ojiji and make it home safely..

Kola : so how do we get to meet ogbon? 

Moremi : ogbon lives untop of the highest mountain in this forest, that’s it (she point at a high mountain before us) that’s where he lives. 

Vincent : for how long shall will it take us to get there?

Moremi : one day journey..so you have one day to get to ogbon and convince him to show u the secret of the egg of life..

Me : is that all?

Moremi : no, from now on, oneness is your power, always do everything in one mind..i think you should start going cus you don’t have much time..

She conclude her statements and she bid us farewell and safe journey..we start moving towards the mountain till she finally disappeared, we didn’t encounter much problem on our way to ogbon’s place cus he always try to secure his territory..

Finally we get to the mountain, to my greatest surprise, everything is being set for easy climbing, cus we climbed the mountain very fast and with much ease. he is truly the wisest creature here (I said to myself) . We got to the entrance and we saw two identical people standing in the entrance of his gate..

Me :this must be his guards (I said to others..)

Sege : but why are they much alike?

Cynthia : maybe they are twin

Vincent : na true sha.. see as them resemble. 

Kola : abeg make we waka, no time to check time..

We got there, we greet them but they didn’t answer, we greet them for the second time before one of them asked who we were looking for. We are here to see ogbon I quickly replied.. for what? The second asked.. 

Kola : we are here to seek for his advice

Guard 1 : what advice does a human needs from a gods ?

Me : wisdom advice sir..please let us in we don’t have much time..

They both looked at themselves and let us in, we enter the compound and we walked for almost 5 hours before we could  get to his main entrance..

Sege : nawa o, this one self teey pass the one whey we spend from our previous spot to the mountain. 

Blanny : nawa for this ogbon self jare. See night don reach before we even fit see him door.

Kola : this one na real ogbon, the name and everything fit am..

Vincent : like seriously..

We got to the door and it opens, but what we saw made everyone of us opened our mouth wide.. everyone in the building look exactly identical, no difference, the same voice, and eyes. everything were the same no different..

Cynthia : How person wan take know who be ogbon among them now..
Me : don’t worry let’s keep walking..

We entered and we keep walking down till finally we saw, a young handsome calm looking guy, of about 25 years old sitting patiently on a sofa chair..this must be ogbon I said..

"No am ogbon"

someone else answered..