Love & Sprites

Chapter Five - Tails of leaves.

   Efya bandaged the koddoelo's sides with a row of stringed leaves. Then she took a piece of cloth and dunked it into a calabash filled with water and massaged his bleeding muzzle. She was careful with her hands; she cared for him like a mother took care of her wounded son; like a hunter took care of his wounded animal companion; like a lover took care of her lover. All this while Kofi didn't flinch or move for his hateful gaze were fixated on me. I was expecting terror or fear from those monstrous pair of eyes, after all, I nearly buried an old cooking knife in his chest and nearly took his life.

Efya scanned his body curiously for more wounds and cuts sustained. She cupped his furry cheeks in her hands. No sooner had she done this than she winced at the sight of a little cut on his left cheek. She applied the ointment on it quickly and carefully. When she was done the koddoelo held on to her hands and wrapped them in his. When her eyes met his, he nodded, and chattered inaudibly. The way they gazed at each other lovingly now irritated me, and gave me a rethink.

Was Efya engaged to the koddoelo forcibly like the rumours of the cultures of the sprites to any mortal that trespassed or did she fall in love with a sprite? A mortal lady and a sprite? I retched. I hoped it wasn't the former. I didn't at all care if it was the latter.

I got the hindsight on how she had survived this long in the Land of the Sprites. It was never by her wits. Alone, at least.

"Why did you come here?" Kofi finally said, breaking the long held silence in the cave. I was surprised he could speak. The way his lips moved and bent those words was unnatural. Only in the ancient times and in the fables do animals speak like people.

"What does that have to do with you attacking me?" I said.

"You are in the wrong domain, wahala." He said between gritted jaws.

I was starting to grow tired of that word 'wahala'. "You sprites are the cause of all this. Why can't you just stay in your own lands without coming to ours by the gods plan?"

"Perhaps, if your gods were not so drunk and selfish to help our great goddess during the Asédaye there wouldn't have been any puncture of any sort between our worlds. And if you wahalas aren't at lust for power and dominance as your drunken gods had made you to be, maybe that puncture would have completely sealed off—"

"Stop," Efya interrupted. "Both of you." She looked at me when she said these words like I was guilty of the crime. What's more, I'd never heard the Creation stories before. But the koddoeloes words and his anger were convincing enough for a truth.

The air between us seemed to descend in its tenseness. Kofi cleared his throat and began with Efya. "The asanbosams sent words of a mortal crossing into the borders of Aàla. I thought they may have found out that it was you, my mate, at first, so I relieved myself of my duties immediately and came running here until—" he shot his glare at me now and growled. "I scented him. What are you doing here, wahala?"

"I'm only here for the fruit of the Umdlebe tree. I meant no harm at all." I defended.

"You razed the forest of Aàla and roasted their numbers, wahala!"

"They were going to kill me if I didn't do something," I shot back. "You sprites are killers and monsters. That's what lead me here in the first place."

"Hey!" Efya interrupted, suddenly defensive. "Not everyone of them are killers."

"Really?" I guffawed. "Is that what the bakanga on your head told you that made you stab it to death? Is that what the baboon by your side is feeding you with?"

"He's a koddoelo and he's not a killer."

So it had a specific name. "It tried to kill me, Efya!"

She turned to him, acknowledging the wounds she had stitched up and bandaged with leaves, refusing to believe. "Not by the looks of it. Besides, Kofi would never do that to a human."