A painful return from the forbidden mountain

"Behold over there! Babida the knight is back from the Forbidden Mountain but the young lad Bodo is not with him," an imperial soldier exclaimed while standing in front of his tent in Okunde's garden.

All of the combatants on the lawn of the garden well as some residents who came to support the imperial troops, glared in the direction where the woodsman was coming from. He looked sad and exhausted from his overnight journey.

The inner corners of his eyebrows were raised and his eyes were red. He looked lost in his thoughts. Indeed, he couldn't help thinking about the Beast's coup de grace on the young Bodo and how he would have been able to save his young companion should the ancestors have been by their side. The film of the tragedy was playing time and time again in his head.

He managed to hide his emotion throughout the way back to the military camp but at the sight of his comrades, he broke into pieces.

Devastated, he let his herculean ax slide from his right hand and drop to the ground. Then hot tears began to roll down his jaws. He wiped them off with the back of his hands but they kept on flowing to the extent that even his chest was imbibed with some of the salty liquid.

Everyone understood what had happened to the scout mission. Some soldiers, like the tradition of the imperial forces required, planted their swords on the lawn and kneeled on the right foot to pay tribute to the courageous youngster. The rest of the combatants along with the local inhabitants prayed in silence. They begged for the ancestors' favor on the lad's soul.

Meanwhile, the pain was particularly awful for a middle-aged man in the crowd. He wore no fighter's uniform, but rather a regular brown boubou and caoutchouc slippers. He was frowning and burning inside. He glanced at Babida the knight nervously and spat on the lawn to express his contempt vis-a-vis the imperial superhero.

Then with a voice filled with sorrow, he cried out to the amazement of the troops: "No. You let my son die under the criminal claws of that Monster."

"You are a counterfeit hero. You were unable to protect a kid that could have been your son. You should have perished on that cursed mountain, not him. He was too young for a sacrifice of this magnitude," the man whined.

"If only he had listened to me. I had advised him to stay at home with us but he rather chose to act otherwise. Now he went prematurely into the world of the ancestors. What a stubborn kid he was! His mom might sustain a stroke when she is informed of this ordeal," the man deplored.

The knight heard the harsh statement of the inconsolable father directed against him but did not utter a single word. He stared instead at the ground ashamed, his hands on his waists. He was completely outpowered by the turn of events.

The Governor's aide de camp, Polo, like an arrow came out of the headquarters at the right end of Okunde's garden. He saw Babida the knight in a state of severe depression and drew with no questioning the conclusions of the spy mission.

He thereupon instructed two guards to take the woodsman to his tent so the latter could have some rest and commanded the sentinels to make sure the servants fed the knight when he got up. Then the Governor's henchman went back inside the main quarters.

One of the two sentinels retrieved the steel ax of the Forbidden Mountain's escape from the soil. Then they gripped each of his arms and escorted him to his lodging. It was a four-picket foundation that measured three meters long and was covered on the top, the lateral, and back sides with palm leaves. The front side was entirely open since there was no door. The ground had remained untouched. It was simply a portion of the lawn of Okunde's garden. The area hosted up to twenty warriors.

The soldiers helped Babida the knight lie on the floor. The latter fell asleep immediately. They looked after him for a while, then left since everything was in order.

The aide-de-camp Polo went to notify his Master, Governor Kola II, about the critical situation. He met the ruler of the village of Okunde in his private apartments within the headquarters. The man of power was sitting behind a bamboo desk and was reading his notes.

"Pardon me, Your Excellency, there is a catastrophe I would like to report to you. The scout operation has lamentably gone awry. One of the two emissaries has not come back from the Forbidden Mountain and it is the youngster Bodo. By the endless cry of his senior companion, Babida the knight, who is unable to talk for now due to post-mission trauma, I have deduced the young lad has died, probably killed by the baby Monster. Anyway, misfortune has struck us," the henchman Polo shared the bad news with the ruler of Okunde.

"How in the world did that happen?" Governor Kola II reacted thunderously.

"Bring that knight over here without any further due!" He ordered his aide-de-camp.

The latter panicked as he knew better than anyone how merciless his Master could be when immersed in anger. He commanded the two guards who escorted the battered woodsman to his tent, to go there hastily and wake him up, then take him to the Governor.

The sentinels put into action the superior's order. Upon their arrival in the knight's shelter, they found him profoundly snoring. They looked at him for a few moments and felt guilty about having to disturb the sleep of a former recipient of the medal of the highest honor and merit.

Yet, they had an instruction from the mightiest authority in the region and they could not afford the price for the infringement of their oath to serve faithfully and obediently the Emperor His Majesty Batang V and as well as his delegates duly appointed.

"Sir, please rise!" One of them whispered to the very tired knight while tapping gently on his left shoulder.

Babida the knight loosened his eyes at a very slow pace and glared at them quite confused, for he had barely recovered from his tiring journey to the cursed hill and from his emotional shock.

"His Highness Kola II wants to see you. Please, come with us to the headquarters!" The imperial guard said to the woodsman.

The latter stood on his feet and followed the imperial sentinels. However, in a hurry, he forgot to carry with him his herculean ax and left his tent in a pitiful condition, that was to say sleepy, unbathed, and unshaven.

The troops and residents began to mutter as Babida the knight and the guards walked out of the garden and directed themselves toward the Governor's headquarters.

They entered the hall, then headed to the private space of the commander in chief of Okunde village. The latter was standing and glimpsing at the picture of Emperor Batang V that was hanging on the wall. He had his back turned and his arms crossed and placed just a little bit above his rear. Polo, his aide de camp, was standing on his left and had a view of the whole flat.

"Your Highness, Babida the knight is here!" The henchman directed the attention of his Master to the visitor.

Governor Kola II halted his contemplation of His Majesty's portrait and turned to glance behind him. He had cooled down and his temper tantrum had eclipsed.

"Gentleman, I have received a primary echo of your mission to the Forbidden Mountain. It seems things did not go our way and I would like to grasp what exactly capsized," he told the logger who had his head down and his eyes slightly opened.

Babida the knight first kept silent. However, when he finally decided to speak, his words were inaudible.

"Your Hi…We….tacked...the…. term," he stuttered.

Governor Kola II was annoyed by the lumberjack's unarticulated location. So he scolded him.

"Will you express yourself fluently, for our gods' sake?" His Highness shouted at the woodsman but the latter kept on stuttering and still couldn't be understood. The scream of his commander-in-chief produced no effect on him.

Bothered by the unchanged attitude of the knight, Governor Kola II felt compelled to take a draconian measure against him.

"Guards, arrest this man and throw him in jail for some time! Hopefully, there he will come back to his senses," he ordered.