I had this cold feeling and sensation around my body as though I was freezing. But funny enough, my body liked and welcomed the feeling. I felt as though I was floating in the cloud and that thought jostled my memory as everything came back to me.
I quickly opened my eyes and screamed in shock as I grasped my throat. I was under the water and everything was pitch black. I tried swimming to the surface but it was a meaningless struggle. It felt as though an invisible force was trying to keep me in place. I yelled at the top of my lungs for help but who was I kidding? The only ones that were around in these parts were probably sharks and other carnivorous aquatic creatures and clearly, they wouldn't be there to help, only to have a feast.
But I noticed that I had been screaming and yelling below the water depth I was in and yet I was breathing normally. I removed my hands from my throat to avoid embarrassing myself further.
"Did you just notice that now? You are really slow." A voice said around me and I snapped my head in the direction it came from.
"Who's there?" I asked while feeling the urge to swim as fast as I could. But who was I kidding again. I couldn't swim away.
Suddenly, blue lights appeared all around the corner as I got a good look at the surrounding and gasped. It was breathtaking and beautiful. I could see fishes swimming past me and there were buildings everywhere and each of them had blue lights radiating from inside.
"Woah! Is this Atlantis?" I asked with dreamy eyes.
"You wish it was Atlantis." A female voice snickered and I snapped my head in her direction so fast I thought my head would fly off my shoulders.
"Who's...?" My question got stuck in my throat as I looked to see a beautiful woman with flowing white hair. She wore a blue lace top and her lower half… Well that was the problem because it wasn't human in any way. It was a shiny sea blue fin, like those ones seen in mermaid movies except this one was real.
"Mami Wota!" I screamed and edged away from her.
She just laughed "Mami Wota? Yet again you wish. I am not Mami Wota. And she is not who you guys make her out to be. I wonder where that ridiculous story originated from anyway."
"Then who are you?" I asked still trying to keep my distance from her.
"I am Yemoja, the divine mother deity of mankind, divinity of the sea and wife of Aganju", she said.
I squeezed my face. "So you are Aganju's wife?"
She just smiled. "I know how you must think of me because of my husband. But be rest assured that both of us are not in alliance. I'm not in support of whatever Aganju is trying to do. Whatever he is doing Is affecting my world as ..."
"My legs! What happened to my legs?" I screamed out as I suddenly noticed that in place of my legs were now silver fins just like hers. And by now, other mer-folks were beginning to gather around us.
"Are you just noticing that now? Gosh you are really slow. You think you would be able to breathe down here without that? You might be undergoing metamorphosis but it isn't complete yet so even you could die of asphyxiation down here." Yemoja explained.
I calmed down because she made sense. I wasn't an aquatic being so there was no other explanation why I was breathing under water. Suddenly I felt like little Melody in the Little Mermaid and swam around feeling my fins as I reached my hands towards the surface of the water. I was about to break into a song when Yemoja interrupted me.
"If you start singing 'part of your world', I'll jam my fist down your throat", she said, jamming her fists together. I gulped. No singing then.
"As I was saying, whatever Aganju is doing Is affecting me too. Swim with me." She said and started swimming away. I followed in her fin steps.
She led me as we swam to a part of the water that wasn't illuminated by the blue lights. She motioned for me to stop but I didn't notice on time as I slammed face first into a barrier.
"Ouch!' I exclaimed painfully.
"You are too feisty. I signalled you to stop didn't I?" She said with her hands akimbo.
"Ugh! What's with the barrier anyway? And this other side, why is it so dark?" I asked as I looked across the barrier at the darkness. It felt so ominous.
"Well ever since Aganju began whatever he is doing, there has been earthquakes and cracks at the bottom of the river. It infested and poisoned aquatic lives including my people and its spreading fast. Even my barriers are not enough to stop it. I've been reducing the range of the barrier because it keeps spreading."
She was definitely right. I could see yellow cracks across the floor on the other side of the barrier. Aganju was going too far with this scheme and I didn't know what his aim was but I was going to stop him no matter what.
"Where are we anyway? Which river is this?" I asked
"Somewhere under River Niger." She replied
"What? How did I end up in River Niger?"
"I brought you here through a portal as you were falling." she explained.
Suddenly there was an earthquake and I looked in the direction of the crack as it began to widen.
"Umm… I know I'm new here, but something tells me that crack is not supposed to do that." I said, pointing to the crack.
Yemoja rushed to the barrier and looked. Her expression changed.
"No it's not. I'm getting a bad feeling about this."
"No kidding." I retorted as I reached for my leather bag which wasn't there.
"Umm… excuse me. Did you see any leather bag as I was falling?" I asked.
She looked at me with the worried expression still on her face. "You mean that leather bag floating over there?" She said as she pointed to a part of the water where the leather bag was floating in a bubble.
I swam towards it and opened it. The quadent was still inside with my phone. My phone! I hoped it wasn't spoilt, being under water the entire time. I pulled it out of the bag and turned it on. Strangely enough, it was still working fine. It had a water proof symbol floating on the screen. Ogun was amazing.
"Emeka! Yemoja shouted. I quickly swam over to her but on getting to her side, I almost bit off my tongue.
Creatures were crawling and swimming out of the crack on the floor and they were coming towards us. Merfolks started running around picking up weapons and preparing for war. They all lined up in war formation. Two of them that looked like the strongest among the others approached Yemoja.
'My goddess, let us go out of the barrier and access the situation." The male said.
Yemoja shook her head. "Taiwo no, you can't go out there. It's dangerous."
"But you have to let us try. If we don't do something, we won't know what we are up against." the female said.
"Kehinde, you guys don't have to do this. I appreciate the suggestion though." Yemoja said and turned away.
Taiwo and Kehinde looked at each other. Apparently they were twins and they seem to come to a silent conclusion.
"We are sorry!" they both said in unison as they held their hands. A light flashed and they both swam out through the barrier. I was surprised because that was the same barrier that almost gave me a new nose job when I slammed into it.
The twins were amazing with the manner at which they hacked the monsters apart. They were fearless against that many opponent and frankly, I admired them. More enemies poured out of the crack and it was getting too much for them to handle.
"Order them back in!' I told Yemoja.
"I can't do that." She said with her eyes closed.
"What do you mean? They are clearly outnumbered." I said as I looked the twins fighting with all their might.
"Once we go out to battle, its either victory or death. There is no turning back. The twins understand that." She said but I could feel the pain and hurt in her voice.
One of the monsters swam with speed and with one bite, it snapped off Taiwo's arm and he cried out in pain. Kehinde lost focus and went to help him. The monsters then crowded them and just like that, they were gone. I looked on in shock and disbelief as the monsters advanced towards the barrier.
"Can't you do something?" I asked Yemoja as she shook her head. She was still suffering from the pain of losing two of her warriors.
"I'm focusing all my power on defence right now. If I lose focus, everybody here will die."
I turned back to see the merfolks all cowering in fear. Even the battle squad had lost the morale to fight after what happened to their strongest warriors. I saw children holding tight to their mothers and the look of despair on their faces. It was a stupid idea and I was a foolish person but if I couldn't do something to help these people, then how will I succeed in my quest, I wondered. I clenched my fist and gritted my teeth.
"Open the barrier and let me through." I said to Yemoja.
"Umm… are you crazy? If anything happens to you, Amadioha won't forgive me." She said staring at me in shock.
I turned to her and she flinched when she saw the determination in my eyes. "Trust me, I can do this. I have to do this."
After hesitating for a while, she nodded and opened a space in the barrier big enough for me to swim through. I channelled my power through the baton and it extended into its full length and Yemoja gasped. I swam towards the enemies approaching and I could swear I was crazy. But one thing was certain, I was ready to go full James Bond on these monsters.
The first monster came at me and I impaled it with the spear part of the quadent and tossed it away. I killed monster after monster at lightning speed but it just wasn't enough. I aimed my quadent at them and breathed in, then I let out a lightning blast that exploded for miles frying them all in the process. I checked myself to see if I was fine and I was alright. I didn't feel out of breath, fatigued or light headed. My body was adjusting to using the weapon and my power.
I turned to Yemoja and smiled and suddenly, something sharp impaled my shoulder and pain shot throughout my body causing me to let out a scream. Yemoja was about to come through the barrier and I motioned for her to stop.
I looked at my shoulder. Blood oozed out. But it wasn't only blood, it was mixed with something golden that I didn't have time to really think of. I turned in the direction where whatever attacked me came from and saw smaller monsters pooling together to form a dark shadow as the biggest and ugliest fish I had ever see emerged from the shadows. It was bigger than a whale and I couldn't help but edge backwards.
It shot another thorn at me and I swatted it away with the quadent. With the pain coursing through my body, I was surprised I could still hold onto my weapon. The monster shot another thorn and I dodged it and it embedded itself in the barrier causing a small crack to appear and that was when I realized what it was trying to do. It was trying to break through the barrier.
"Like hell I'm going to let you do that!" I muttered and fired another blast of lightning which only fried the smaller monsters around it. But the monster didn't stop advancing and it seemed pissed this time.
"Great!" I said under my breath.
It started firing off multiple thorns all at once from different parts of its body and I did all I could to keep them away from the barrier. One impaled my fin and I stifled a shout. I removed the thorn and cast it aside. I noticed that I was adjusting to the speed at which the thorns were being fired. If I could just focus perfectly, I thought as I closed my eyes.
"I can see them!" I said and I unleashed a shock wave that knocked the thorns off balance sending them flying in different directions.
The monster unleashed another wave of attack but I thwarted it again before it could even reach me or the barrier. The monster stopped in its tracks and was staring at me. It was probably thinking "Who is this dashing young man standing in my way?" (Just kidding. It was definitely thinking of a thousand ways to rip me to shreds). All of a sudden, it's body began to morph giving it arms, with talons as long as my quadent. One swipe from them could shred me into ribbons or confetti. (Told you it wanted to rip me to shreds)
It raked the talons in my direction with such speed that if my quadent had been made from any other material, I would have been sushi by then. I stopped the attack with my quadent and swam out of the way quickly enough to avoid the attack from the second arm. I looked back and noticed we were so dangerously close to the barrier. I held my quadent and charged it with so much power that it began to hum and I released a shockwave so powerful it pushed the monster backwards. My body was on fire but I didn't stop. I charged the quadent again and released wave after wave, sending the monster backwards and far away from the barrier.
It quickly regained its composure and countered the next wave with a sonic wave from its mouth.
"Okay, that's new. I guess shockwaves wouldn't work anymore." I said coming to the realization that one power in my arsenal had been rendered useless.
The monster came at me again with its talon and I quickly dodged it and dug my quadent into its forearm. It let out a painful shriek. I exploded my powers through the weapon and shattered its forearm. It receded backwards as black substance oozed out of its amputated limb.
"That's one down. One more to go", I said pointing my quadent at it. I then shot a powerful blast of lightning but it swam out of the way quickly enough and avoided the blast. For something that big, it swam fast. It shot those thorns at me again but I dodged them easily.
I seized the opportunity to unleash a shockwave concealing lightning inside it and it made impact with the creature creating a massive explosion that spread for miles. When the explosion settled, the creature was still alive but the other hand was gone as well. I guessed it had used the hand to block the explosion.
I was about to celebrate decapitating it when I heard a scream from where the barrier was. I turned in the direction to see another monster as big as the one I had been fighting, breaking the barrier.
"No!" I cried out gripping the quadent so hard that it began to glow. And at that moment, I felt something spark inside me and my body burst with power as the quadent started emitting lightning and flared up causing shockwaves of its own. I knew what I had to do immediately and I threw the quadent like a spear and it sailed with incredible speed and before the monster at the barrier could react, the weapon impaled it causing a massive explosion such that its waves reached where I was. When the explosion settled, the monster was gone.
I was about to let out a sigh of relief when something impaled me from behind and it was lifting me up. The creature managed to sneak up behind me amidst the chaos and attacked me before I could even react. I checked my hand and the quadent had already returned and I smiled even with the blood dripping from my lip.
"You just made a big mistake and because of it, you are going to die here today, vermin!"
I held the quadent in front of me and closed my eyes as I called on the skies.
_______
Above the water, two fishermen were sailing on their boat, fishing. The weather began to change. The wind stirred up the water which started rocking the boat.
"I thought the forecast today was sunny, why are the clouds gathering?" The first man asked and the other shrugged. The clouds gathered as thunder and lightning tore through the sky.
Suddenly, lightning struck the river causing a massive wave to push the boats, ships and canoes within the vicinity away. The lightning struck the monster and it shrieked out in pain and exploded behind me causing me to drift away. As soon as it was all over, my body started getting a rebound of everything all at once. The pain was unbearable. My shoulder and fins hurt so badly as I felt out of breath, not to mention the hole in my stomach. I was falling into the darker depths of the river. I fought to keep my eyes open but my entire body had already gone limp. I finally lost consciousness.
I opened my eyes and found myself floating in a bubble. I could still feel the pains in my shoulder, my fin and in my stomach but it wasn't as intense as it was before. I looked around and saw Yemoja smiling at me with some of the Merfolks behind her.
I spent another hour in the bubble for my body to heal completely and then I was released. I was feeling better, but not one hundred percent. One doesn't get shanked from behind by sea monsters, everyday.
"How do you feel?" Yemoja asked me.
I rotated my shoulder and punched my stomach "Compared to how bad it was before, I'm fine now. Thank you for saving me."
"Your body healed faster than I expected and you seem to get one thing wrong. I didn't save you, you saved us. So we should be the ones thanking you. We would have been in so much trouble today if you weren't around." Yemoja said and curtseyed.
I couldn't believe it. A goddess was bowing to me. I reciprocated the gesture.
"I should really be going. I had two days left to complete my quest and I don't know how long I've been here." I said as the urgency of my situation kicked in again finally.
"You are right, you've already spent half a day here so you really need to go." She said as she fiddled with her phone and mine beeped at the same time.
I opened the message and saw a picture of me with my quadent in front of me, invoking lightning in the coolest way possible.
"Wait… when did you take this?" I asked feeling confused as to how she managed to take a picture in that bizarre situation and a high definition one at that. I couldn't even recognize myself because my eyes were glowing.
Yemoja just winked. "I'm definitely going to upload this on Riverbook." She said excitedly.
"Umm… Riverbook?" I asked and she nodded.
"Yes. It is an app that Poseidon, Nephthys and I created for river gods and goddesses."
"Woah! You know Poseidon and Nephthys?" I asked feeling impressed and she looked at me as though I was crazy.
"Of course I do. I know Mami Wota too. She is also a registered member of the app." Yemoja answered.
I put my phone and silver baton back into the leather bag and was ready to leave.
I turned to Yemoja. "Is there any chance you can portal me to the last place where our jet fell off the sky?"
Yemoja nodded. "Sure I can, but there is a forest there so you have to be very careful."
She opened a portal in the water and motioned for me to swim through "Once you swim through, you'll emerge from the small river located in the forest and as soon as you get out of the water, you'll have your legs back."
I thanked her and was about to leave when a thought occurred to me. "What if the monsters come back? What will you do?"
"Don't worry. By then you would have succeeded in your quest." She said as she smiled and I bowed slightly and swam through the portal.
When my head broke out of the water, I was in a forest quite alright. I swam to the river bank and the fins changed back to my legs but I had a little scar on my right thigh from where I was impaled. I also had a scar on my shoulder and stomach but they were barely noticeable. I walked out of the river bank and surveyed the area. I brought out my phone and the water proof sign was gone but there were lots of missed calls. Twenty from Chioma and the rest from my family.
I tried calling Chioma but her line wasn't reachable and I desperately prayed she was alright. I started walking through the forest, observing every bit of my surrounding because obviously, no one loved to be jumped. I had to find a clear road and quickly too. There was no reception on my phone and I guessed even a phone upgraded by the mighty Ogun himself wasn't perfect after all. I couldn't use google map so my only option was to keep walking.
I ate a few wild fruits and drank from a water gourd Yemoja gave me and apparently, the gourd never ran out of water. It was pretty handy in situations like this. I was getting tired and decided to rest under a tree. I was about to close my eyes when I saw a silhouette crawling across the ground in front of me and I quickly jumped up screaming and the scariest part was that the creature screamed too.
We both screamed for a while and then regained our composure and I looked at it closely. It was a tortoise but it was a very big one.
"Will you stop staring at me like that? It's rude. Didn't your mother ever teach you that?" The tortoise snapped at me.
"What the ...you can talk?" I asked in shock.
"Of course I can talk. Are you an idiot? Do you think I'm just flapping my gum or something?" The tortoise said.
"Why am I even surprised?" I asked myself.
"Well I would have answered your question but your mother will know better." The tortoise scoffed in the rudest tone possible.
I scowled. "Don't talk about my mother so casually you snail-like reptile."
"Hey! I'm faster than a snail. I mean have you seen those slimy creatures crawl? They are so slow it disgusts me." The tortoise bit back.
I raised an eyebrow and folded my hands across my chest. "Yeah right. So what do they call you in these parts? The incredibly rude tortoise?" I asked sarcastically.
The tortoise shot me a glare that could melt stones ."it's Mbeku, but you can call me Mbe for short."
"Mbe huh? What a lame name. Don't tell me you are the same tortoise in all those children stories. Damn you were such an ..." I decided against that last part to uphold my moral standards.
"What? I was such what?" the tortoise asked curiously and I shook my head.
"You know what? Never mind. I was actually looking for a way out of here and if you don't mind, I need directions." I said as my neck was almost hurting looking down on the tortoise.
The tortoise glared at me for a while and sighed "Well, you are not going anywhere today, that's for sure."
"Why not?" I asked.
"Well ever since the earthquakes started, monsters have been lurking around in the forest at night starting from 9 o'clock pm and you best not be outside when they come."
I gulped and looked around suddenly feeling weary and jumpy about the entire surrounding. I looked at my phone and it was already 8 o'clock pm. How did time always find a way to move so fast in situations like this.
"What do I do? Where do I stay? It's almost 9 o'clock." I said as my teeth chattered and my knees knocked together.
"Well you can come to my hideout." The tortoise offered and I threw my head back and looked back at it. If there was something I shouldn't trust in this whole life it was right in front of me.
"And how safe is this hideout of yours? You could just hide in your shell if there is trouble and leave me to fend for myself. As you can see…" I said and twirled around. "No shell here."
The tortoise started walking away slowly. "Well, if you have somewhere better to be, go on ahead. I won't stop you."
I watched the tortoise as it walked away slowly and wondered if that was how it was supposed to walk to its hideout. At such disgustingly slow pace.
"Is this how you intend to walk to your hideout? You are so slow." I said looking at the tortoise in disgust.
"Well if you are going to complain, why don't you carry me and that way we will move faster." The tortoise said while shooting me a vile glare.
I scoffed. "Me? Carry you? You must be high on whatever leaves you eat because I won't be carrying you anywhere."
Ten minutes later, I was carrying the tortoise who weighed more than he actually looked and I was pretty sure I must have dropped a shit along the bush track somewhere. And the most annoying part was that it was barking orders at me as if I was some medieval palanquin bearer.
"You are too slow. What are those long legs for? I know they aren't for eating. Move your ass young man. We don't have all day." It said pointing in random directions. That is if one could even call what it was actually doing pointing.
I was down to my last nerves. "Yell at me one more time, I dare you and I will toss you into the corner of that bush over there."
He led me to the foot of a big tree which had a giant opening at the foot and I dropped the tortoise which crawled in.
"What are you waiting for? Come right in." it beckoned on me and I followed it.
As I bent and entered the tree, it was more spacious than it looked from the outside. The tortoise went to a basket which was sitting at the corner of the room. He spoke to it and different fruits came out. He offered some to me and nibbled on the rest.
After eating to my satisfaction and praying I don't get a runny stomach, I drank from my water gourd and relaxed.
"I need to get something outside, I will be back real quick." The tortoise said and started crawling out.
"Real quick huh… wait are you being serious right now?" I looked at my time and it was already past nine. "Weren't you the one who said monsters lurk about by nine o'clock? What then are you going outside for?"
The tortoise just glared at me and crawled out and I relaxed back. It was his problem after all if the monsters decided to get him.
I hadn't even relaxed up to ten minutes when I heard rustling by the bushes followed by agonized cries. Chills ran down my spine and my blood froze. What was that sound? I asked myself.
The second cry shook me back to reality and I grabbed my leather bag and brought out the silver baton and that was when the voice came.
"Where is it? Nibo ni o wa?" It asked.
At this time, I was already on edge. I shifted closer to the entrance of the tree and peered out but didn't see anything. I was about to relax for two seconds when a dark face with red eyes loomed over me and I fell back on my butt as it came into the tree.
"Se o ji agbon mi?" Did you steal my basket? It asked again and I couldn't respond.
The creature let out a deafening shriek and it felt as though my ears would explode. When I removed my hands from my ears and they were already bleeding red and gold.
This time around, the creature was face to face with me as it asked again and this time I understood it.
"Iwo li o ji agbon mi?" Are you the one who stole my basket?
Why was it asking me about its basket? Why would I want to steal a stupid basket?
The creature scanned the room and its eyes landed on something sitting in the far corner of the room and it started crying. I followed the direction of its gaze and my eyes landed on the basket and it dawned on me.
"That two-timing no good son of a she tortoise hag." I blurted out as the creature shrieked out in anger and jumped at me and I dodged and ran out of the tree.
"Ole!" Thief! The creature shouted from a distance as it ran after me hurling stones, tree branches and other things at me. One even grazed my shoulder. I was pretty sure the tortoise was having a good laugh wherever he was.
As I ran, I tried to think of all the folklore to determine the creature that was after me but none of them came to mind as I didn't know any Yoruba folklore.
The creature was still crying and chasing after me "Kilode ti o fi ji agbon mi?" Why did you steal my basket?
I was confused as to why the creature was crying for a ragged old basket and it suddenly clicked and I stopped running. I remembered memes I usually posted on Facebook and I asked my friend Wilson what it meant one day and he explained it to me. There was this saying that knowing the true name of something actually gives you power over it. So I ran my power through the baton as it elongated and hummed with power as I slammed it into the ground creating a wave. I then spoke in Yoruba which I didn't even know I could do.
"Egbere!" I called out and the creature stopped in its tracks and looked at me as I continued. "Emi ko ji agbon re, Mbe lo ji". I didn't steal your basket, Mbe did.
The creature raised its head and looked at me blinking its eyes. I spread my hands. "Find him and lay your curse on him, don't let him get away with it."
The creature bowed and said. " E se. mo dupe". Thank you. I'm grateful. And it disappeared into thin air. I clenched my fist in anger and rage. If I ever got my hands on that no good two-timer, I would smash it to smithereens with my quadent, but the creature will probably get him before I do and he will be the one crying in ekun egbere.