Urenma (The River Goddess) - Episode 5

 

When the signal came, he didn’t run towards his opponent to bring him down, he waited for him to come for him. The young wrestler disdainfully sized up Obinze and spit in his direction before saying to him, “I will break your neck for what you did to my colleague you little dog. I hope you cooked for your grandmother, because when I break your neck there will be no one to prepare her food”.

Obinze didn’t reply him; he stood with his gaze fixed on his opponent. The young wrestler ran toward Obinze, his feet pounding the ground like an elephant and his eyes red shot . Obinze still didn’t move he waited for the perfect moment to act. The wrestler stretched his hands out to grab Obinze and Obinze skipped to his right side and landed a deafening slap to his face. The young wrestler staggered and turned to face Obinze in anger; his lips were bleeding and the crowd was laughing at him. He felt a ringing sound in his left ear. To save face, he threw himself at Obinze hoping to grab him and break him into two pieces, Obinze swiftly avoided him and grabbed him by the waist. Lifting him very high Obinze slammed him on the ground, one, two, three times and steadied him to his feet with his left hand and then crashed a monster slap into his face and released his hold on his opponent who fell to the ground. Obinze picked up his opponent and slammed him once more on the ground; the wrestler’s neck shifted, he broke bones in his arms and left leg, on the ground he could hardly scream loud enough

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

. By this time the crowd was in awe of Obinze; Obinze’s kinsmen began to scream his name insanely and the crowd joined them.
Though it was time for Obinze to make way for others clans to fight, he felt reluctant to leave.

The crowd was shouting his name and it had gotten into his head. He fought hard to keep himself from crying openly; all his life he had been an object of ridicule and for once in his life his people and vistors to Ukeh were singing his name in praise. He stood his ground to take it all in.

While the elders waited for him to leave the wrestling ground, a jealous, fearsome wrestler who felt Obinze was beginning to take the shine off him and the more established wrestlers ran into the wrestling ground and scooped sand from the ground and held it in front of Obinze. That gesture meant he was challenging Obinze to a wrestling match. The crowd was afraid; they knew Ikeagu was a dangerous wrestler, in four different occasions he had won the wrestling championship. He always fought like a beast. Most people in the crowd didn’t want Obinze to accept his challenge; they were beginning to like him and didn’t want him out of the competition at the early stage.

Urenma’s parents prayed under their breath for Obinze to ignore him and walk away. However what the crowd didn’t know Ikeagu had picked the wrong time to challenge Obinze; he would live to rue his judgement. Obinze stepped forward and knocked off the sand in Ikeagu’s hand and stepped back. The crowd echoed the names of their gods in fear; some could be seen holding their breath in fear that Ikeagu was going to destroy Obinze. Ikeagu shouted like an animal and leapt forward like a cat, unlike how he acted in his previous fights, Obinze lunged forward, grabbed Ikeagu midair and suspended him high above himself and then slammed him on the ground with the agility of a lion and sat upon him and began to land punches on his face. After a few rounds of punches which had disfigured Ikeagu’s face Obinze stood up and lifted him up for a second and crashed him on the ground and walked away. Ikeagu’s jaw bones were broken, his neck broken and his waist broken. Obinze also knocked off several of his teeth and tore his forehead and ears open with his punches.

Then crowd was in absoluted shock of what they had witnessed; it wasn’t even a fight. It was an assault; Obinze had simply beaten up the feared Ikeagu like a child. As Obinze walked away, he had no smile on his face; his eyes seemed locked on events or perhaps thoughts far removed from the happenings at the village square. It was clear to all present that a new wrestling beast had been discovered on the wrestling sand of Ukeh land. Though there were many other wrestling matches that day, the one which dominated chatter till the next day was how Obinze beat Ikeagu up like a little boy.

That night Obinze spent a lot of time with Urenma in her father’s compound chatting about the wrestling and also the news of their love which had transformed Obinze into a village celebrity. He had not only shown them what he could do in the wrestling ground, he had also won the heart of the most beautiful woman in Ukeh and all the lands around it.

Urenma laid her head on Obinze’s laps as he told her several stories about his suffering from childhood and about the tortoise and his wife Aliah. The parts where Obinze told her about the pains he had been through from childhood made her cry, but the stories about the tortoise and his wife Aliah left her doubling over with laughter. That night they probably kissed each other a hunderd times and still couldn’t get enough of each other. However each time Obinze broached on his fantasies about living together with a woman of his love, Urenma would wince and shed a few tears. When Obinze asked her why she cried she would tell him that her tears were tears of joy. She lied and Obinze didn’t know it. The truth was that she would never get to marry any man; as a princess of the gods she was forbidden to marry any mortal man and she had only a short life to live amongst men and it broke her heart.

By the next day the village square was filled with greater number of people who had heard about Obinze’s prowess on the wrestling ground. Young and elderly women sung new songs in praise to Obinze. Even his aged grandmother was carried out by her kinsmen to the square to watch her grandson break more bones. The people of Ukeh could not understand how Obinze was able to break the bones of his fellow wrestlers. No one had been able to do that in decades, the gods had been able to protected them doing the wrestling festival.

There were a few wrestlers who by night went to seek the oracles to find out the source of Obinze’s strength and to acquire charms to subdue him. The medince men they approached revealed to them that the source of his strength was the love of a woman and gave them charms to subdue Obinze on the wrestling ground. However the medince men did not know and neither was it revealed to them that Urenma was a goddess, a princess of the river kingdom.

In the village square that evening the men who had gone to acquire power to subdue Obinze arrive with overwhelming confidence that they would disgrace him. The men were Ikemefuna, Ezenwa and Uzokwe; the three of them were from differnts clans and Ikemefuna was the reigning champion. When Ikoro (Wooden gong) was sounded they were the first to jump into the wrestling ground and began to dance. Though the wrestling matches were planned in such a way that the last two standing clans would slug it out in a final wrestling match, wrestlers were permitted to challenge other wrestlers for bragging nights.

After some clans had wrestled each other that evening Ikemefuna, Ezenwa and Uzokwe made their way to the wrestling ground and each of them openly challenged Obinze who all that evening had not wrestled. Obinze and Urenma were in a corner of the village square watching the wrestling. When Ikemefuna, Ezenwa and Uzokwe challenged Obinze to wrestle each one of them in separate matches that evening, Obinze stood and met them on the wrestling ground and humbly declined the challenge. The crowd was not happy, he had become their favourite wrestler and they wanted him to teach each one of the three wrestlers a new lesson in wrestling.

The three men booed and mocked that he was afraid and that his success the previous day was circumstantial.

Read " S.I.R.E.N (The Journey of Love) " by the same author ( Ifeoma Isabella Okeke )

. Obinze ignored them and walked back to sit with Urenma. When he sat down beside her, Urenma whispered “Obi m each one of them had gone to get charm to fight you, but I want you to accept their challenge. This day Ukeh will know that there is no charm strong than a woman’s love. Obi m, go back to the wrestling ground and challenge them to fight you at the same time. I want you to break their bones and knock off their teeth. Will you do that for me?” “I will Ure”.

Obinze stood up and began to run to the wrestling ground, by then an elder was announcing next rounds of wrestling matches to take place. When the crowd saw Obinze running the wrestling ground, it roared and some young men began to hail him, “Ebube dike! Ebube dike! Obinze Ebube dike!”
Men and women and children took up the chant from those young men and began to sing along with them. Obinze scooped up sand from the ground held it out and shouted “Ikemefuna! Ezenwa! Uzokwe! I will wrestle the three of you on the condition that the three of you accept to fight me at the same time!” There was silence when the crowd heard Obinze’s words. They thought he had gone mad or perhaps had allowed his little success to get into his head. How could he a beginner in wrestling, challenge three ace wrestlers to fight him at the same time? Ikemefuna, Ezenwa and Uzokwe also wondered if Obinze had gone mad, they queried “Obinze do you know what you have just asked for?” “If I am mad or unaware of the gravity of my challenge, why don’t U accept first and find out for yourselves?” Ikemefuna, Ezenwa and Uzokwe ran towards Obinze and knocked away the sand which held out before him. The elderly man who was announcing matches left the ground and the wrestling gong began to sound.