Urenma (The River Goddess) - Episode 13

 

“Where is this man now?” asked elder god Nshaa. “He is chained in my shrine. He has turned into a beast”. “Why did you turn him to a beast?” “The man is a mystery…… I have not seen his likes before. He carries within him a part of princess Urenma. So when I saw the sign in my pool, I attacked him with Ndana. My medince couldn’t heal him before he turned into one of the cursed beasts” . “Go back and send him to us as he is. We have a use for him in his present condition”. Immediately Akputa left for the world of men. When he left the gods continued to commune, “Now Urenma’s heart shall no longer go after her mortal husband when she sees him as a cursed beast. This brings her forbidden longing to an end”, said Nshaa.

By morning Akputa emerged from his pool of green water and to his greatest shock saw Obinze completely healed from his beastly nature. Around the shrine were heads, limbs and different body parts of the beasts that had attacked him in the night. In shock Akputa asked, “What are you? When I left you for the river world you had turned into a cursed beast. Please tell me what are you and what are these things in my shrine?”

“My name is Obinze; back where I came from I am a legend. I want you to send me to the river world now”

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/urenma-the-river-goddess

. “Yes I will. But first you will move back into the pool. When you take some portions which I will give you, you will sink into the pool. I will bring you up and lay your body on that Nkpoko (Native bed/ bench made with raffia tree branches). For safety purpose I will cover your body with opete leaves and other portions. I will lay your amour beside you, when you wake up in the river world, you will have them ready for battle”. “Shall we start now”, asked Obinze. “Yes get into the pool”. Obinze did and Akputa began to throw into the pool all sorts of powders till they formed a cloud on the pool. Akputa ran to one of his pots and brought out a portion and gave it to Obinze to eat. Obinze ate and sunk into the river. Akputa caused another storm in the pool and Obinze’s body floated to the surface. He took it and placed it on an Nkpoko. He applied opete leaves and many other mixtures on his body and lay his amour beside him. He ran outside and cut some fresh leaves and covered Obinze’s body with them. In the river world Obinze woke up, beside him were his machete, bow and arrows. For once since he beheaded Urenma, he felt the full strength of Urenma’s hairs all over his body. He picked his amour and sprang to his feet. The river world was an endless stretch of snow white water land filled with infernal creatures of different sorts, trees animals of the types he had not seen and houses which seemed as though they had life of their own.

He felt small and lost in that vest world. Still rotted to his feet and wondering which direction to go, he heard a voice. “Hide a battle is upon you! Hide!” Obinze ran behind a thick lush green plants and hid himself. The plant spread wide its branches amd s----d him in like an octopus.

Within the plant more than a hundred eyes flicked open and began to glare at him. From within them a monster voice spoke very fast. “You are not from this world! Are you?” “No, I am not. I am from the world of men………”. “Where people fall in love right?” “Yes, where people fall in love”.

The harshed monster voice changed to a tender voice, “The children of the gods have told us a lot about your world. They have beautiful tales about love in your world…” “I am in your world because of my love.

Read " O.G.B.A.N.J.E (The Child of Thunder) " by the same author ( Ifeoma Isabella Okeke )

. My wife is a child of the gods and was taken from me because she loved me and shown kindness to my people. I want her back”. “I see, men don’t come here often seeking to be given one of our beautiful damsels to them as wife. Look up….”

Obinze looked up and saw six strong men, whose handsome looks cannot be described by human words holding long, giant machetes. The plant continued, “……they have come for you. I cannot protect you from them and no one in this river world can. But I will give you a secret, you will have to fight and fight till the elder gods sit and ask you what you want. If you are thinking of negotiating with the elder gods you will die here. When Ojadili was here, he fought the gods to a submission. They had to ask him what his mission was. You will have to do the same”.

Without much ado, the plant threw Obinze out of its cover and shouted, “Here is the stranger whom you seek! Kill him!”
The six spirit warriors bore down on Obinze violently…………