ANCIENT SONG

Chapter 4

Racheal or maybe oma as she had been called tried to slow her breath and calm her nerves on the realization that she was truly in ancient times and the dreadlock man was not lying about it
Was her mind playing some sort of trick on her or was it just some joke someone had decided to play on her
Any of which she was determined to find out
As she made her way to the igwe's obi with the guard who stenched of old sweat and mud she wrinkled her nose every now and then,only his waist and thighs were the only covered part,his upper bodies were bare and was tainted with drawings of scorpions it was the same as the one she saw inside the dreadlock man's house..maybe they were brothers or maybe that was the mark lowly guards had on them
She followed the man and placed her feets where he placed his.

Chinyere ran into ugochi's father's compound her anklets and waist bead hitting against themselves grumbling at the speed of her feets and body.
She heared their singing and dangling anklets at the side of the hut
Only ugochi and two other girls stopped to look at her when she entered the rest were still giving into the melodious tune of the drums,chinyere shattered their moment

'Unu nea ebe mgbe ihe na eme na obi igwe'  you people are here when things are happening at the igwe's palace chinyere rang out shrilly she had a tiny voice for a voluptuous young lady

Ugochi rolled her eyes at her then gave two successive hisses
'What is happening that has not happened before eh?' She asked eyeing the poor news bearer

Chinyere shook her head stronglt to disagree
'Oshimiri'. She started 'the goddes of the river has come in human form ooooooo' she said in a whispers to the girls
Their reaction was louder way louder than the drum

'Tufiakwa,me chio onu gi' the gods forbid shut up your mouth ngozi one of the dancers rebuked her
'Oshimiri can never lower itself to become a mere human better close your mouth or Ani will close it for you' ngozi warned sternly

'Chinyere mind your tongue' chioma another girl warned

'That's what everyone who saw her has been saying,she was escorted by the igwe's guard to the obi and she passed through the market square,the women who were at the market testified to her beauty,her skin was as fair as the sun and her hair were darker then the night,i got this news directly from my mum she was at the market today' chinyere said in defence to her claims

'Olee otu unumana osite obudo nta ndi nea echiche' now how do you know she's not from the neighbouring villiages ugochi asked

'We do not know yet but the dibia has been summoned to let us know,she bears no mark and according to ekene he saw her lying in the stream' chinyere supplied again

Ugochi stopped at her track
'Which ekene' she asked
'The igwes Ekene,our ekene' chinyere answered

Ugochi had always prided her self to be the only fit bride for ekene in all of the 3 villages
She was the most beautiful girl in umuawa and everyone knew that
She was a good dancer,she sings well,her father is an elder,and she does home chores perfectly well she was the better person or may be the only person for ekene or so she thought
Ekene was the last person that will think of getting a bride,that wasn't him,he was wine women and war that were the only thing he relished in
Everyone knew that
Everyone knew different maiden graced his bed every night and a new one comes every morning
He was the type of man mother's warned their daughters about

Though they never do listen
Chinyere darted back to the route she had taken 'I'm going back to the palace to see for myself everyone is going if you girls want stay here o me I'm going' she announced

'Wait for us' ugochi called out at her as they all hurried towards the direction of the palace.

Oma sat transfixed on the floor as the scary man shook the staff he was holding aroung her head,this was demonic it had to be this staff that smiled of burnt beans to her nose was decorated with little skull bones a lizards tail and some thing she couldn't quite recognize
The man was dressed with plain wrappers  and same drawings of scorpions decorated his body,it was on every person that had come to watch her like some science freak and it was pissing her off she had tried yo explain herself but these dimwitted elders didn't even let her speak they shooed her off with a fling of their hands

The old wrinkled man finally sat down on the small mat he brought and brought out tons of cowries from his hand bag that was made from  raffian

Chi anyi nke ala anyi, ihe anyi na acho ime obodo bu, onye nche anyi n’abia bia' he  started 
As everyone went dead silence
'Chi nke ala anyi anyi nwere onye obia n’ihu anyi biko gosi anyi ma gwa anyi ebe o si bia'

He shouted again as he shook the horn on his hand
He violently looked at oma and then back at the igwe

'Hmmmm hmmm' he continued as if he heared something

'Igweeeeeee' he hailed then added.
'eze m chi kwuru na ya si njem tere aka bịa ọ bịara iwetara anyị ozi ọma na akụnụba anyị ga-efe ya'

My king the gods said she is a travelling from afar off she has come to bring us good tidings and fortune we must worship her

Oma saw relief come to the kings face and in the faces of his cabinets

'Ichies you have heared him' the king started 'we will try to do our best to take care of the stranger'

The priest looked around in an exaggerated manner before adding

'Alamm'  then left

The whole crowd started talking at once some were neutral some showed displeasure
The igwe walked closer to ekene then added 'get uju to take care of her' then left
Each ichie took their turns leaving the hut each sparing a look to the girl who they had no idea of

Oma just sat there lost and tired and hungry
She was really in dip shit

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