Maame Water: The Legend Of The Fish Queen

The Night Killer

               Young Warrior, Young Warrior             
          Do not go out to sea;                  
        She will ensnare you with her beauty             
         And trap you with her song         Ultimately when you long for breathe         
      And your drowned lungs break the spell….                                          

  19 Years Ago

The man stood at the edge of the forest and gazed admiringly at the sea. He liked everything about the sea; the breeze calmed him and the warring waves made beautiful music when they crashed against the shores. More importantly, he admired the enormous power the sea wielded. He-the sea (for the man never thought of the sea as female) - could crush even the mightiest of canoes with a single wave and starve the mightiest kingdoms by leading the fishes away from their fishermen. The man was positive that this large stretch of raging water that sent fearsome storms and frightful waves to destroy mighty lands could never be a woman. Only men commanded such power. Yes, the sea was a man, a powerful man like himself.

Indeed, the man was once a powerful warrior, one of the King’s finest until he was made a fugitive. The King had arrested him because the man had taught some insignificant woman a minor lesson in respect. He laughed to himself.

Okay, it was more than a minor lesson but the wench deserved it. 

The useless woman, whose only purpose was to please men like himself, had refused to lie with him and had hence insulted his dignity by implying that she was worth more than his manhood.

Unacceptable! She would pay dearly for her insult. 

And pay, she did.

He had waited till she was alone before he attacked her.

Initially, she had made futile attempts to defend herself by hitting him with her flimsy hands but did she really think her little hands could defeat his war- hardened ones? These same hands that had broken the muscle-bound neck of Ayiteh the Giant.

Stupid woman. 

Eventually when she realized that she would never win, she begun to beg him. She begged and pleaded, expecting him to forgive her insolence.

A man of power does not show mercy to a woman. 

Then she resorted to lying and giving excuses, saying that she had never lain with a man before and that she was a virgin.

Even better. The man had thought. It will hurt even more. 

She had indeed screamed and cried out with pain when he begun and he laughed at her anguish.
Hahaha. Scream, foolish woman, scream! You will learn respect!

And whenever she stopped screaming or pleading, he would beat her so that she resumed. When the whore was barely conscious and could utter no more than a pathetic whimper, he left her for dead.

He did not know then that the woman was the only daughter of Elder Neequaye and that she would survive the ordeal, so when the elder’s men came to his house to arrest him the following morning, he had been quite surprised. Nevertheless, he had escaped his prison the night before his trial, sneaked into the elder’s quarters and slit the impertinent prostitute’s throat.

He had been on the run ever since, raping girls where ever he went only this time he made sure none of whores lived to tell the tale.

Tonight, he was looking for his next victim and he was getting impatient because it was almost midnight and he had not even spotted his prey. He closed his eyes and prayed that the powerful sea would grant him a good hunt. He was therefore only a little surprised when he saw a young female kneeling at the edge of the sea the moment he opened his eyes.