The sun shone brightly in the morning, the leaves listened to the sun and dried up. It had been a cold night. With Mayowa taking all their wrappers, they both slept with nothing and had to bear the cold. It was so refreshing to experience such sun that they refused to stand up. Mayowa had not woken up since that time so they knew they couldn't leave until she had woken up and agreed to their request.
As the sun continued to shine brightly, a strong breeze passed through Sari's face jolting him up. He ran quickly to the left, a little far away from where they slept. He was bleeding and it was hurting. Dabo's reflexes jolted him up after hearing a cough.
"You shouldn't have stayed too close to her" Dabo said, patting him at the back as he watched Sari cough out blood.
"I had no choice. We couldn't let her die" Sari replied groaning. His chest muscles felt tight, making it hard for him to breathe.
"Calm down. Don't speak again. Let the pain subside" Dabo comforted.
After Sari had relaxed, the pain had reduced, Dabo sat on the grassy ground with him. Sari asked "Do you think its the fruit causing this?"
"That is what Zabu told us. For you to be free from this, we need to find the ritualist who cursed it and why? Was she planning to give it to someone or did she purposefully leave there, knowing that you would be hungry and eat it"
"I'm just tired. Ireally want this gone"
Dabo smiled. Since he had known Sari, he had never heard him express himself in regards to wanting the curse gone desperately. He always tried to be strong. "Don't tell me you want it so bad to be gone because of..."
"Yes" he confessed. He took a deep breath and continued, feeling strength coming back to him "Seeing her, I feel the gods have finally given me a chance. My family will respect me because I have what they can't have or will try to have. I have hope of getting my kingdom. And of course...I do want a wife. Even if she might not agree to that, I would still want a woman in my life"
As Sari poured out his heart, Dabo thought keenly. There had been something that had been disturbing him. He finally decided to let it out.
"Sari?" he called lightly
"Yes?" Sari replied.
"Do you remember the time Attah pretended to be a boy just because she wanted to participate in the fighting contest?"
Sari smiled "Yes. it was such a funny moment"
"Yes, but do you recall that you had no effects even when you stayed so close to her? We discovered that she was a girl two days after the contest and when you came close to her again, you started suffocating" Dabo said enigmatically.
"Yes, but what does it mean? Do you think she was immune?"
"No Sari, I think this thing has to deal with psychology. Your psychology about women has been damaged. You know Zabu said you can break it if only you see it differently but we didn't understand. The curse affects your psychology. If only you could see a woman as a man, you won't be affected" Dabo explained.
"ok, but how?" Sari asked confused.
"That's where the problem is. Maybe you have to try, because it's getting worse. You might not be able to look at them or even think about them without having a seizure".
"That's why we need to find that ritualist. I don't know why Zabu is taking so long in detecting her".
"She is a powerful ritualist. Zabu is still learning and you aren't paying him" Dabo smirked.
Sari looked at with annoyance "What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing. What you should do now is work on your psychology. It might not take it away but it could lessen or slow down the process"
Just as Dabo and Sari were talking, Mayowa could feel herself coming back to life. She rolled lightly on the ground. The weather was cool and greasy, her body nerves were responding to the environment. She opened her eyes lightly. Squninting, she looked around. Her eyes shut open when she saw two boys sitting a little far away from her. They might be kidnappers. She thought.
What happened? Was she caught? Or did Bimbo send these boys to get her? How did she come out of the water? Either way, she had to run away. She can't afford to be caught. She had to find a way to get back home.
She sat up steadily. Her legs felt weak, her bones ached and breath increased at every move. She forced herself up, quietly. She didn't want them to know. Her legs shook as she tried, making her fall before she could find her balance.
What has become of her life? When will she stop running?
She took baby steps to move farther away from them before accelerating from there. Mayowa ran as fast as she could. She was a bit slow compare to before because of how much her body had been afrected, but she gave it her all.
Out of a sudden, she stopped. She could sense something or someone was lurking behind. Had they discovered that she had left? Should she continue running? But what if she ran straight to the danger? She had to figure out where the danger is and run in the opposite. She took a big, short branch which had leaves in it to defend herself.
She could hear her heart beat loudly as the steps of the thing or person could be heard coming closer. A light growl was pronounced, making Mayowa sure it was a wild animal. Her heart kept beating, her hands was shaking and all she could think of was killing the animal.
The animal finally surfaced. Mayowa heart raced more as she saw it was no small wild animal. It was a lioness, a hungry one by the looks of it. She was sweating and shaking. Now, she was sure she couldn't run. She clearly won't be able to run very far when the lioness would have caught up with her. As she kept looking at the lioness, thinking of what to do, she felt something wither in her hand. It felt cold and dead. She looked at the branch in her hand and saw that it had dried up. It looked dead. It was shocking because just a minute when she picked it up, it was fresh.
Unconsciously, she screamed for help. The lionness hearing this, moved straight to attack her, but an arrow moved rapidly to her heart killing her on the spot. It seemed to be poisoned to kill the lioness at one go Mayowa looked at the person who shot the arrow before fainting.
Sari moved to close to her. He said "My treasure, why did run away? You should know this is a wild forest"
Dabo came to stand close to him "Sari, did you see what she did?"
"Yes" Sari replied.
"She is a mador" Dabo said knowingly
"More reason she needs to be with me"