MAIDENS

MAIDENS 19

Wura dropped Lola at home and waited for her to go inside before running back the short distance to the school. There was a feeling resembling hunger in her heart and she would obey it. Even if it was something as dangerous as spying on Eku-Emó. She crouched at the small fence she had been sitting on earlier as she had watched Wura defeat Eku-Emó and felt very proud. This time she would only be watching not doing any talking.

Eku-Emó had stood from the ground where Lola had thrown him by the time she came back. He dusted himself and stood long thinking. He looked sincerely worried and Wura refused to believe it was because he had truly loved Lola. He was a liar and deceiver incapable of love. It must be for another reason, very likely dubious. Eku-Emó began to move slowly away from the school and Wura followed him at a distance. When her feet crunched on dry leaves and Eku-Emó looked back sharply, she hid behind a building breathing hard. He finally continued moving, scanning his environment.

They were heading out of the village and Wura kept moving carefully. At the last building, she looked behind her. This was the last shelter she would have before she had to follow in plain sight, exposed by the dead but wide fields. Wura, it will be wiser to go back now before it is too late. What am I doing? Father will behead me when he finds out where I am. If I don't die first. Eku-Emó was still moving and Wura had to make a decision quickly. What to do? What to do? OLÙRÀNLÓWÓ. "Olùrànlówó, I want to follow Eku-Emó. Please, hide me from his eyes."

She waited some more but did not feel anything special. Father had said not to focus on the signature but on the words. It was not about feelings but trust. The king had said "accepted" meaning he would meet all her reasonable requests. Her request was already granted and the king was not a liar. Wura stepped out of her hiding place with her eyes closed tight. She began to walk slowly. When nothing happened, she ran to catch up with Eku-Emó. He looked behind him suddenly making Wura pause and suck in a breath but he soon continued moving. It worked! It worked! Thank you, Olùrànlówó!

Thus, she followed Eku-Emó through the Onà-ìparun path. The same way father had brought her through the last time. They got to the place of Pàkúké and somehow, she knew where to place her legs. Father had been right – Olùrànlówó made the difference. Immediately after the place of Pàkúké, something strange began to happen. The air became thicker with...evil...wickedness. She felt no joy here but despair. Persons that escaped the Pàkúké traps would not be able to escape this particular area without external help. It smelt thick of something different from Aiyélojà. They must be very far from Aiyélojà now. How would she return? Focus, Wura. We will worry about that later.

Sometime in the journey, Wura sure about the protection of Olùrànlówó had gotten closer and closer until she was walking shoulder to shoulder with him but now she noticed something strange. Eku-Emó had begun to change. Right before her eyes, his body got thinner, wrinkled, pale...dead. He looked like he had lived thousands of years but in sorrow and hard labour. He was bent and shrivelled. Suddenly he stopped and looked around very troubled and Wura held her breath again in reflex.

His eyes were wild, like the wild animal that entered their land once in a while and attacked people. Though they were always defeated by a group she now knew were the Àwon Asónà. Wura knew deep within her that if he found her, he would do all in his power to not let her live. Satisfied by the nothingness he saw, Eku-Emó kept walking until he got to a river.

This river was flowing in a different way than she had seen all her life. It flowed from different locations and met in the middle where it dipped inside into a pit-like hole. Wura was sure this was what her father had called the River Okan to Sonu. The river that anyone who crossed never returned from – the last boundary between Aiyélojà and other kingdoms. It looked dangerous indeed. What now?