Chereads / THE LEGENDARY ADVENTURE / Chapter 2 - Chapter 2: THE INITIATOR I

Chapter 2 - Chapter 2: THE INITIATOR I

After my father's death, my mother took over this kingdom as the Queen. She ruled with great wisdom. Everybody in the kingdom respected and loved her. At that time, I was a baby. It was the day my mother gave birth to me the news of my father's death reached her. She took heart to forget the pain of my father's death and decided to concentrate on taking care of me but she vowed to raise me to avenge his death. My mother took care of me until I attend to the age of fifteen. One evening she sat me down and said, "Oh my son, the heir to the throne of Hisham, you are just fifteen years old now but you have the body of a strong warrior and that is what I want you to be. I am surprised that since when you were born till now you have never asked me about your father, who he was or where he was." I then said to my mother, "oh mother, I know that my father is dead but I don't know what killed him I didn't ask you about him because it might hurt you." She then said to me, "you are wise my son and today I will tell you about your father. Your father was a very wise and brave King. He lacked nothing in life. He was a brave warrior and was feared by the neighbouring kingdoms. One day, a wrestling contest was set to choose the bravest wrestler in this kingdom and your father was among the contestants. The contest lasted for days and your father made it to the final round. The day of the final round came and merely some seconds into the round, your father was already beaten and was on the ground. A day after the contest had ended, your father met Sakhraj's father who was the priest at that time and said to him, "oh the great priest, the ears of the gods, I have come to you with a big problem that needs to be solved. Oh great priest, you saw what happened at the wrestling field yesterday. How can I as the king of this kingdom be disgraced before my peopl..." "It wasn't a disgrace my king, moreover you made it to the final round and everybody was happy for your participation in the contest, nobody is thinking it to be a disgrace my King." The priest cut him short. "Great priest, your thinking is not the same as mine. I am looking at this with a totally different perspective. What I want from you is to help me make a charm that will never make anyone victorious over me in a fight or war. You are the only solution to my problem and that is why I have come to you. "Oh great king of Hisham, this request you have made is a very deadly one because the conditions attached to it are very deadly and impossible for a mortal like you. I don't need to start telling you the procedures to follow for your request to be granted because it is just like singing into the air." Despite all what the priest told him, he insisted that he will do anything even at the cost of his life. He even said he will rather die trying to succeed than to live. At last the priest agreed to tell him the procedures he will follow to achieve his aim. "Oh great King," The priest started, "the only way for your request to be granted is for you to get some items which I will use to make the charm. These items are the brain of the oldest living female gorilla who is about 950 years old, the heart of the wildest living lion, the intestine of a lioness in labour, the trunk of an elephant being reared by a very heartless monster called Kilkusa. You will get these items from the four deadly Forests at the back of the earth. I will cook you together with the items in a pot for 7 days and afterwards, on the 8th day you will walk naked to the graveyard at midnight, sit beside an old grave and bury your left fist in it till dawn. After that, your aim will be achieved." Without hesitation, my father told the priest to start making any necessary preparation for the deadly journey. He informed my mother about his journey. She was pregnant at that time and she pleaded with him to abort his plan but he refused. When the time came for him to leave, he went to the priest and told him that he was ready to set off. The priest advised him to retreat if he comes across any difficulty and gave him some charms that would keep him safe. He also gave him the staff of the foundation of Hisham and attached one of his genies to him to keep him company during the journey. My father left and eight months after, the genie that was attached to him came back and informed the priest that my father was killed. He explained how my father planned to start the journey from the toughest to the least forest. He had carried my father in the air pass through the first three forest and they landed in the forth forest Kilkusa's den. The forest was so quiet when they entered. The monster grabbed them immediately they landed in his territory but the genie somehow managed to escape from the hands of the monster and hid behind a very large rock to see what the monster was going to do with my father. My father struggled hard to free himself and it annoyed the monster. Out of annoyance, the monster snatched the sacred staff from my father and pierced it into his mouth coming out through the back of his neck. My mother stopped the story about my father here and then told me that her aim in life is to train me to avenge my father's death. Still at the age of fifteen, my mother took me to the King of war of Hisham and begged him to teach me all the necessary skills a warrior needs. I stayed with the king of war for five years. After becoming one of the bravest and greatest warriors of Hisham, having led many successful wars, the war king sent me back to my mother that he was done training me. Two years later after the death of the priest and the taking over of his son Sakhraj, I got married to your mother. Months after my marriage, my mother called me and said to me, "oh my son, you are now a brave warrior and have led many successful wars. It is time for you to prove your bravery and love for me. Seven years ago I told you my aim in life which is to train you to avenge your father's death. It is high time you made the pains in my heart fade away. I trust you my son I know you will not fail me. I want you to start your legendary errand as soon as possible. Inform your wife and promise her that you will come back safe then meet Sakhraj for all necessary preparation." I did what my mother said. I informed my wife about my journey and she pleaded with me not to go and leave her when she needed me the most because she was pregnant but all I did was to plead with her too that I cannot make my mother die with the pain in her heart. I promised her that I will come back and she agreed and prayed for my success. I left my wife and went directly to sakhraj's house to tell him about my vengeance mission but before I could say anything, he said he already knew what I was up to. Sakhraj said, "oh my brave prince of Hisham, you are now old enough to go and take revenge on what monster kilkusa did to your father, our late king. I want you to know that you are not going on this deadly journey with the aim of vengeance alone. There are two other aims you will achieve if you succeed in this journey. The first one is that the staff of the foundation of Hisham is presently in the possession of monster Kilkusa, you can't kill the monster except with the pointed end of the sacred staff. After killing the monster you have achieved your main aim which is vengeance and bringing the staff back home is your second achievement. The third aim which was the aim of your father is for you never to be brought down or defeated in a fight or war. This aim requires more stress to the second aim but without passing through the stress of this aim, there is no way you can get to your main aim. I know you are confused but let me explain what I have just said. Now, for you to achieve your main aim you have to go through the 4 deadly Forest which are at the back of the earth. The first forest you will come across is called the valley of death. It consists of a thousand gruesome gorillas. There are only two parents of these thousand gorillas. They are the oldest living gorillas in the world. What you need in this forest is the brain of the female parent that is, the mother of the thousand gorillas. There is no way you can get the brain unless you eliminate the whole of its children of which each have the strength equivalent to 40 hefty men. After eliminating the children, you will have to face the male parent who will give you a very tough time. If you succeed in getting rid of it, the female gorilla will get mad and start destroying trees. It is weak and can't run away from you. You are to chase it and aim at its head with your axe, break open its skull and pack out its brain into your sacred preserving bag to avoid rotting. From there, we will head towards the second forest called the demons playground. Your aims in this forest are two, the heart of the wildest living lion in the world and the intestine of the lioness in labour. The wildest lion is the husband to the lioness in labour. I have reversed all the incident that took place in this forest. You have just fourteen days to reach the lioness in labour you must beat the time before it puts to bed. Similar to the first forest, the couple of lion and lioness have many grown-up children. These children always leave home early in the morning to go for hunting which they bring back for their mother to eat. The lioness is about to give birth and cannot do anything for itself so the lion is always together with it to ensure its safety. What you will do is to go into the forest after sunrise when the children are out for hunting so as to minimise the obstacles you will face. You need to kill the lion after which you will kill the Lioness and then open them up to pack out their brain and intestine respectively. You have to be fast if not the pride of offsprings will come back and get mad at you. After putting the items inside the sacred preserving bag, you are to start running until you're out of the forest. The third forest is called the evil valley, you don't need anything from this forest but you have to pass through it to get to your destination. The forest is full of evil creatures. They won't harm you until you fall into their trap. What you are required to do is not to touch anything or talk to anyone or have any sympathy on any creature. When the evil creatures see that you are not falling into any trap, they will start coming to you in form of wild animals, for you to avoid any harm from them you are to run as fast as your legs can carry you until you enter the forest called Kilkusa's den, where your vengeance lies. Kilkusa's den is the last forest and I don't have much to tell you about this forest because many great priests have tried their best in making research about this forest but have not succeeded. Every year, thousands of genies are sent to make discoveries on this particular forest but none of them ever returns. Even the most fastest genie that can fly around the earth within two minutes was sent and also didn't return. The only thing I know is that without the sacred staff of the foundation of Hisham which is presently in the possession of monster Kilkusa, you cannot kill him. You will have to find the staff before confronting the monster. If you are able to kill the monster, you should search for the elephant he is rearing and cut off its trunk, put it in the sacred preserving bag and immediately start coming back home." After Sakhraj finished briefing me on the obstacles I will meet during my journey, he prayed for me, gave me some charm and gave me the sacred preserving bag and attached to me his best genie whom he called Hifreetu. I bade Sakhraj goodbye and left his house alongside Hifreetu.