The tears of A king
“it is a happy thing for husband, wife and children to love together, grow old and did, but the wicked people in the world will not allow it be so.”
Once upon a time, there lived in a certain village, an honest fisherman named Okonkwo who had two sons Nnanna and Chidi. The stream where they fetched water flowed into a deep lake. One day, as he leaned over the stream to fetch water, he saw how the water moved down a slope and was tempted to find out where the water was moving to. To his surprise, a girl reached out from the bark of the lake and clutched him with her magic power.
Okwonkwo cried “let me go, what have I done?” The girl held him more tightly saying” I will let you go, only on one condition, that you will give me one of your sons as husband. “Give you one at my sons? Never” Okwonkwo replied. “Very well then, I will not let you go”, the girl declared and with that she started tormenting him.
“What”, the fisherman spluttered. “Should I give one of my sons to this girl for husband”, he asked himself, off course not. But at the same time, he realized that he is in the girl’s power, and that if he didn’t do what she wanted, she would kill him. At the same time he remembered that he had taught his first son, Nnanna how to fish, that they can take care of themselves when he is not around or perhaps for the good of all, he had better sacrificed himself.
At last, he declared that he is not going to give any at his sons. And since the fisherman cannot give her what she wanted, she killed him. The girl wanted for a chance to get what she wanted. One Sunny day when the fisherman eldest son, Nnanna was out fishing. The girl came up from the bank at the lake and clutched the boast. When Nnanna tried to row back to shore but he couldn’t even make the boat to move an inch. He tried his best with the oars and the girl just let him struggle in vain until he was exhausted.
Then the girl put up her head out of the water and over the side of the boat as though nothing was the matter. She used her magic power to move the boat to the bark of the lake where she lived. The boy cried, wishing he would be safe onshore, he screamed, but there was no one around to come to his aid.
The girl used her magic power to convince Nnanna to be her husband. Finally, she succeeded; Nnanna lived with her, leaving his younger brother at home.
At first, she was kind to him; she made him master at the house and gave him the keys to all the rooms. She carefully went through the keys pointing out to two, one of the keys was labeled life and the other, death “You must not use these two keys for it opens the two room which I forbid you to enter” she said
Nnanna began keeping the house for the woman and spent his time working as he used to do at home. With time he became familiar with the house and began to know what was in every room.
As days went by, he felt the temptation to open the forbidden room. “But why didn’t she want him to open the secret room, he wondered. That if she has to keep a secret room, she wouldn’t give him the keys. One day, as the girl went out. Nnanna was tempted to open the forbidden room. He brought out the keys and unfortunately for him, he chose the one labeled “death”. He opened the death room and he firstly he saw a tree with a galaxy of fruit. He was shocked to see his father’s dead body lying beside the tree. But he was curious to know what the fruit is like. Could this fruit be the cause of his “father’s death”, he wondered. Seeing how enticing and good looking the fruit was, he decided to eat it not knowing that the fruit was poison. After eating the fruit he dropped down, dead.
In the evening, the girl returned, and as usual called the boy to come and make her drowsy for bed. She called him to a point that she began to wonder of nobody was in the house she stopped calling and went inside to search for him. At last, she saw him in the death room, lying on the floor .She cried and wondered what he was looking for in the death room. Now she had no one to keep the house for her and tend to her needs, so she decided to get another husband.
One day, while the youngest boy was fishing with his boat, he saw a big fish swimming very fast, not knowing that the girl was using her magical power to remote the fish. The boy rowed so fast in the direction of the fish wonder to catch it. Immediately he reached the bark of the lake, the girl charmed the boy, he followed her to her house. The girls treated him just as he had treated his elder brother Nnanna. She gave him the keys to all the doors with the same prohibition against opening the forbidden room. The boy had authority over everything. One day, he decided to find out why the room was forbidden. While sleeping one afternoon, he had a dream where he saw himself entering into the forbidden room. He saw his father’s spirit with that of his elder brother telling him what happened and how to bring them back to life. His father’s spirit gave him following instruction “go into the room of life, you will see a horn made of diamond, blow it near us and bring us back to life”. Immediately he woke up, he looked around; the girl wasn’t in the house. He quickly ran to the room of life and did exactly as he was instructed; he took the diamond horn and went to the room of death. He saw his father body with that of the elder brother. He set the severed bodies in place and with the magic horn, brought them back to life. They quickly rushed into the room of life and ate every fruit that was produced by the tree of life by eating them, they had much power and strength above all, they were happy to live together once again.
When the girl came back, she was what had happened and screamed. She rushed, towards them to kill them but they stopped her and killed her instead.
As time on, Okonkwo and his two sons harmonized with the villagers. And with the help of the horn, they can feed well, they can raise the death. What ever you command the horn to do with the power in it, it will do. Due to the help they rendered to the villagers. Mr. Okonkwo was finally crowned, the King of that village. His or deal with the lake girl finally brought him good fortune.
One morning, “As the sun was rising and the flowers where beginning to witness the early morning sun”. The king woke up, only to discover that their magic horn was missing. He summoned the elders and chiefs in the village and a search was conducted round the village but they couldn’t find the horn. “Who must have taken the horn? “They asked in utter amazed, the king consulted his oracle and discovered to his surprise that it was a dwarf native doctor, from a deep forest who had stolen the horn. At this, the king prepared to embark on a mission to recover the magic horn.
One week later, after serious preparations, the king with his two sons left the village and headed towards the forest. And on their way, they encountered many problems. “First a lady appeared to them” you must not enter the forest”, she warned. But they ignored her and entered for a whole day, and by night fall they were already for a whole day, and by night fall they were already exhausted. They sat down to rest on the foot of a tree and after sometime, they dozed off. The next morning, as they prepared to continue their journey, a spirit with three eyes appeared in front of them. “This mission you are into, is a difficult one” the spirit told them, “you may or may not succeed; but “I am going to help you” the spirit continued. The spirit told them not to eat or drink anything on their way. Two days later, they got to a junction where three roads intersected. They stood there, not knowing which way to take soon, the spirit with three eyes appeared. “The road to the left leads to the land of the dwarfs, the one of the right, is the road of life, while the one at the right, is the road of life, while the one at the middle leads to the land of the spirits” the spirit told them. “But first, you must follow the road of life”, and with that the spirit appeared to them again and gave them the following instructions. “You’ll see a man standing in front of a river, he will offer you food but do not take, instead kill him. Then, in the middle of the river, there is a tree containing having some fruits. Eat the fruits to your satisfaction” with that the spirit disappeared.
On reaching the river, they saw the man; he was trying to deceive them with his food. They remembered what the spirit told them and immediately, they attacked him and tilled him. There was no boat to get to the centre of the river, so they all swam to the tree, plucked it’s fruits and then ate to their satisfaction as the spirit had directed them. After they had regained their strengths, they continued their journey back to the road that leads to the land of the dwarfs. The spirit appeared to them on their way and told them that their magic horn had been hidden in the land of the dwarfs. The spirit also told them that they are going to encounter challenges on the way, and that if they are not strong enough they may die. At this, the travelers were a bit scared. But they had no other option than to continue on their guest, since the horn was the only reason why they are being recognized by the villagers.
At last, they arrived at the boundary of the dwarf village. The village was surrounded by a river, and the only way to get into the village is by boat. But there was no boat at the river bank. They stayed there for about one hour not knowing what next to do. Suddenly, the spirit with three eyes appeared to them again. This time, the spirit gave the king a staff and gave the following instructions. “Whatever you need, just pronounce it with some incantations and it will happen as you desired it”. The king did as he was told, and with some incantations, he dried up the river. They all walked on dry ground and entered the village happily.
When the dwarfs noticed that there were some strangers in their village who have come to take the magic horn, they immediately informed their king. The king of the dwarfs quickly brought out the horn and kept blowing it with some incantations. Immediately, wild animals of all kinds appeared and moved forward to attack the strangers. On seeing the animals Okonkwo the king immediately brought out the staff which he had received from the three eyes spirit. With some incantations he kept pronouncing “disappear wild animals” But the animals kept drawing closer and closer. He suddenly realized the he was missing some words in the incantations which are “three eyes in one man”. But before he could say anything, the animals had attacked and eat two of his sons. He quickly uttered the words and at once all the animals varnished. At this, the dwarf villagers were amazed, they scattered themselves running this way and that way.
As the dwarf king was running to their shrine to prepare some magic. Okonkwo struck him with his magic staff and immediately, the dwarf king died. He took the horn and claimed victory for himself. The king set out for his village with the horn, tired and weak. On reaching his village, the villagers greeted him warmly, they were all happy to see him back, because they thought he had died there. The celebration continued and they were all happy to have their horn back. The horn was moved to a more secure location and the villagers lived in peace and prosperity ever after.
By kingsley .c. Ugwu
A Nigerian