Slay the monster
ALWAYS 15 YEARS AGO
The imperial soldiers failed to stop the foe in Okunde. The Monster of the Forbidden Mountain overcame quite easily all their tricks and arrived at the south gate of the village. It destroyed mercilessly the checkpoint and the imperial guards assigned to its defense before taking the road to the north gate of the capital city Ekule.
Alerted of the looming danger, the Emperor, The Great Batang IV commanded that all men of the land -soldiers and civilians-, progress in the direction of the north gate of the imperial city and pledged to distinguish and elevate to the highest either military or non-military position and give his daughter to whoever would slay the monster's head and bring it to him on a silver platter.
The roman emperor was an ailing sixty-year-old man. He had been ruling over the empire for twenty good years since his father's abdication. He had won battles but they were not as challenging as the war against the Monster of the Forbidden Mountain. His army was already down by two hundred brave fighters. Only three hundred were remaining to protect the fifty thousand inhabitants of the overall land. Half of the population was concentrated in Ekule.
Men of courage heard the order of their Majesty and moved toward the north gate of the imperial city. One of them was the then seventeen-year-old boy Babida who was already endowed with an out-of-norm physique. He was a woods cutter apprentice and learned the skills of the profession from his uncle Doda who had passed away a year ago suffering from lingering diabetes.
Contrary to most of the men in the troop who were equipped with a sword, the brave teenager Babida held in his right hand a Herculean steel ax weighing twice the average weight, about five kilograms. Its length went up to a hundred centimeters.
However, as was customary for most warriors, he wore silk trousers, a steel bracelet on each hand, and a tusk necklace that hung on his naked chest.
He walked proudly amid the men of courage. They chanted in unison war songs to motivate themselves. They defied the Monster of the Forbidden Mountain to set his long and skinny leg on Ekule's soil. They were telling how merciless they would be when the time to lay the sharp blade of their weapons on its neck would come. They were singing so many things when suddenly...they were rocked by an earthquake. Their enthusiasm was shattered and the north fence crumbled. In the background, the shadow of something yet unidentified became bigger and bigger.
"It's the Monster of the Forbidden Mountain!" A warrior in the battalion shouted, his finger pointing in the direction of the Beast.
ALWAYS 15 YEARS AGO
The troop went wild and began to scatter in all directions. The seventeen-year-old Babida unbelievably stood still in his position and did not move even for an inch. He extended his right arm into the air, holding tight his ax in the palm of his hand.
"Come here, you little monster. Your end is near," He said, challenging the Beast which was teased and began to swing disorderly.
The Monster screamed angrily while opening his wings, which it then used to blow, with brutal power, a sandy wind.
Babida and his war comrades were sent into the air spinning before they landed painfully on the surface of the ground. Some of them died on the spot. Their weapons were spread all over the combat zone.
Lain and hurt, Babida looked up at the sky. His ax was a hundred meters away from him. He felt like his days were numbered and therefore expressed his last wishes.
"I wished our ancestors, gods of the roman people would lend me their superpowers so I can defeat the Monster and in return, I promise to let them harness my plot of land for the next ten years as I will leave," Babida vowed.
As he was done mentioning the name of the ancestors, a voice that he only could hear, enjoined him loudly: "Babida, Babida! Rise and go pick up your weapon! Your wishes have been accepted."
A shooting star thereafter fell from the sky, rolled around the courageous young combatant, and cured his wounds before evaporating into space.
In the greatest shape of his lifetime, the seventeen-year-old boy stood back on his feet. The Monster was still yelling but he wasn't intimidated. He sprinted to grab his ax and threw it with tremendous strength and accuracy on the long and skinny leg of the giant bird.
Bingo! The Beast was hit and its blood burst out diffusely. The animal went wild, swirling like a tornado in the direction of the inner Ekule. It ravaged everything on its path before crashing into a home.
"Annaaaa, Suzie!" A man shouted hysterically while running toward the location where the Monster of the Forbidden Mountain had fallen. It was Bibi, Suzie's uncle. He raced as fast as he could but tripped over a stone and sprained his left ankle. He stayed on the ground, sobbing.
Babida began to run as well, as human voices in crisis emanated beneath the enormous injured bird.
"Help! Help! Bibi, we are stuck in the cave," Anna cried out while three-year-old Suzie burst into tears.
The Monster was moaning. Babida came up to its level, stood over it, and with an air of superiority declared: "Die, you, bird of ill omen!".
He then snatched his ax from the Beast's leg and extended his two hands in the air.
Lastly, he directed with unprecedented brutality the blade of his weapon on the animal's long neck and the Monster pushed his last breath.
"Hurra! Hurra! We are safe. The Monster of the Forbidden Mountain is no more. It has succumbed to the sharp blade of our valiant defender," Uncle Bibi intoned despite the pain from his bruises and the crowd which flocked to the place repeated the slogan after him.
Babida had just killed the villain and people were euphorically celebrating his prowess. However, he urged them to first assist him in pulling away the Beast, for there were two persons enclosed in the cave whose exit was blocked by the fallen Monster.
Anna got out of the hole holding in her hands a sleeping three-year-old Suzie. She thanked Babida and the rest of her rescuers, then walked to the position of her wounded brother Bibi and tried to bring him moral support while he was being treated by a native doctor.
As the Emperor had ordained, Babida took to him on a silver platter the head of the dead Monster and he was decorated with the medal of the highest honor and merit, however the Emperor said for his daughter was only three years old, he would wait until she reaches the age of eighteen before they could wed, which Babida accepted.
A few days later, he left the imperial city Ekule for an unknown destination to fulfill the pact he had signed with the ancestors.
BACK TO THE PRESENT
All this while eighteen-year-old Suzie stayed under the heavy falling rain to listen to her Uncle Bibi telling her a fifteen-year-old story that starred the today old, the yesterday young, Babida the knight. She was now in admiration of who she thought was a man without manners, a stalker. She looked around and….
"Where is he, Uncle Bibi?" She asked angrily.
"Where is who?" The uncle reacted.
"The knight!" The young Miss shouted.
They checked around the compound but the woodsman had vanished away...Too late, Suzie!
TO BE CONTINUED…