Two Worlds

Chapter 1

More than two centuries ago...

Adigun, a man in his late thirties whose profession was fishing, got into his boat after pushing it into the river from the bank. The sky was almost pitch black but he had a lamp with him to help see the way. He had cast his net several days ago and was now paddling out to the open river to see if his net had had any lucky catch. He had told his wife not to wait up for him because he wouldn't be able to tell exactly when he would be back, so she had locked the door of the house.

As he paddled out, he soon drew closer to his net and from afar he could tell that there was something struggling within the net and splashing around in the water. His heart swelled with excitement as he anticipated a big catch from the sound of the splashing water. He was almost positive that whatever was making that splashing sound was definitely a big fish and catching a big fish was almost rare.

Adigun knew that the river tend to have large catfish visiting at night to feed once the humans had left the river for their homes. He began to calculate just how much cowries he would get if he was to sell such a big catfish to the Kabiyesi which was a rare catch. As he paddled his canoe closer, whatever was caught in the net seemed to notice his presence and began to frantically thrash in the water, desperately trying to break free from the net that had trapped it. It splashed so much water that almost drenched Adigun and almost completely put off his lamp. Swallowing hard and wondering why he had not brought company along to pull out such a fish from the river onto his boat, Adigun braced himself for what he was about to do.

Placing the paddle inside the canoe, he sunk his hands into the water and untied the end of the fishing net from the local floats then he started to pull the net but it hardly budge for whatever was caught within it was really heavy and began to thrash more crazily as if its strength has been renewed. Adigun tried again but he could only pull it an inch before what was trapped suddenly jerked the net back, making his canoe move too from the sudden action. After several futile attempts, Adigun grew weary and thought of smacking the fish several times on the head with his paddle, at least, if he could knock the fish unconscious or beat it to a near-death state, it wouldn't struggle too much and he might be able to easily get it into the canoe.

Taking his paddle and lifting it high above his head, Adigun paused as he tried to figure out which end was the fish's head. When he saw a big fin jutting out of the surface of the water, he adjusted his aim to the left where he presumed that the head of the fish should be then he brought the paddle down with all his might. The paddle crashed through the water and struck something that was not too hard and was not too soft, probably the head and Adigun flinched when a loud angry shriek suddenly erupted from within the net.

Shocked, his eyes widened and he wondered how it was possible for a fish to make such a sound of pain. Soon, a small pool of blood floated to the surface but Adigun was determined to take home his lucky catch, so he brought down the paddle again on the same spot, hoping to daze the fish this time, but before the wider end of the paddle could strike the surface of the water again, a scaly hand with webbed fingers suddenly shot out of the water and firmly held the neck of the paddle, suspending it in the air and preventing it from making contact with its head.

Adigun was so startled and petrified that he flinched in alarm and fell backwards. The canoe shifted a bit, sinking that part down a bit due to his weight and this made Adigun topple into the water from the unsteady canoe. Adigun sunk into the murky water but soon resurfaced, breathing noisily as he vomited the water he had accidentally swallowed and quickly replaced it with enough oxygen which instantly filled his lungs. Adigun held on to the edge of his canoe to easily stay afloat. He didn't know what was trapped in his net but whatever that was, was definitely not a fish and also not a human.