Survival Of The Cursed

Prologue

West Africa, 355 B.C.

The wind swirled around a stick-thin man, shoving rain into his face that it slashed at his bony cheeks. The dusky fog of the night spread towards him. His short, curly hair fitted on his deep-dark skin and his brilliant black eyes sparkled like a pair of onyx. However, his thick grey eyebrows and beard covered his charm. Yet, one would discover his beauty at first glance.

Ayodeji, a farmer in his late 40s, dug the holes to harvest tuber of yams, potatoes, and cocoyams which he had planted earlier that year.

Another hit of his rusty hoe against the soft-skinned earth. It peeled it off, revealing its rich soil, along with the woody scent that hovered alongside the cold, night breeze.

With this, Ayodeji deepened his shaky hands into it to know what the earth had brought for him this time. Curiosity laced his eyes as he grabbed the fiber out of the ground.
Alas! It was nothing but rotten stems. Ayo forced it out, and the tuber bursted onto his face, filled with nothing but eerie insects and maggots swimming out of it. He threw it away immediately with disgust.

This was the last piece of it, out of the thousand tuber stems he had planted earlier that year. This was the last. It has been two years now, and no farmer in Odo-Ara planted a single crop. Every farmer failed, and the villagers were sick and dying. When this happened, they believed that the gods of the land were angry. Humans gave animals' blood and food sacrifices to please the gods but this time, everything got rejected.

With a teary gaze at the darkening sky, Ayo felt the sound of silence. A single tear clouded his eyes, filling up the empty space. Ayo's lips shivered at the coldness that blew through his skinny body like a virus.

"It's been two years without rain! My pregnant wife is sick and my son is dying! Why do you deprive us of food? Tonight, I curse this land!" He raised to his feet despite tears that dripped down and settled into his beard.

"A thousand curses upon you, wretched gods! Despite all the blood you've taken! You never satisfy me, anyway! I rebuke you henceforth!"

Saying this aloud to the sky, Ayo's voice echoed back to him, but not only his voice. As if something was there in the darkness. The sky thundered with flashes of lightning through the thick clouds. A sound of fire jarring in the air of thunderclaps, crackled. The ground trembled. Sharp grasses bowed to the north.

Hissing.

It came from below and above. Ayo's eyes widened in shock while he tried to see clearer, hoping it wasn't a dream. He wiped his eyes in the direction. Ayo had never expected this, but he stood still until he realized what it was. A purple thunder bolted the sky like a furious dragon.

A Comet.

In a split of moments, it filled the entire place with light, an arc of lightning. With menacing speed like a burning ball from the fire thrown from the sky.

His lips quivered at the words. "Praise be to the gods of the land!" But he was too late.

The comet struck the farmer down with just one blow.

His burnt body moved forward as he tried to recognize what the shiny thing was. It sparkled in his eyes with its eye-like shape. Crawling to it with the fiber of his veins twisted out with his shaky hand stretched to it. Ayo let out a choky cough as this charming brown skin turned into charcoal.

Just then, he heard another sound
whooshed from above. Hoping it wasn't another comet, he raised his gaze to the dreariness of the night and there it was. A blurred vision of a giant flying bird. The monster was so fierce and scaly that he couldn't get enough of it. Ayo wasn't sure of what it was, but it's type of golden was exceptional. His muscles twitched as he tried to survive the pain.