Chapter One - Stormborn
For those who missed the first release of Rave God, here's a rerun
Thunder crackled and lightning sparked, leaving trails of blue light across the sky. The cry of a baby could
be heard in the village. Footsteps pattered in the mud caused by the torrential downpour.
'It’s a girl, it’s a girl mama'
The speaker was a young girl with striking features; dark eyes complemented her dark hair and Fair skin.
She looked the spitting image of the woman on the bed who was gasping from her last exertion which
pushed the baby out. She looked down at her daughters, both the old and the new born and smiled
weakly. There was no midwife in this part of ile-ife as their hut was built on the fringe of the forest few
dared to enter.
Her husband came in, tall and powerfully built with a kind face. He knelt beside his wife and took her
hand.
'It is time my love, she is here '
They both turned with one accord to look at the child already swaddled in blankets by her elder sister.
' Omotola ', the mother breathed.
The newborn turned her head towards the sound of her name her eyes closed as if she could hear.
Omotola walked through the market, her legs moving on autopilot. Since she bought the egusi for
tonight's soup, she had felt a prickling sensation at the back of her neck like she was being watched. It
was one of those 'unexplainable' things that happened around her. Once when she was 5 and throwing a temper tantrum, she screamed and the earth had trembled, opening up and swallowing trees and houses.
Another time, when she was ten years of age, there was a scorching drought in ile-ife. It was a bad time
for the proud Yoruba people as they were forced to travel long distances to beg for water. No matter
how much they dug the earth, Olodumare refused to let water come forth. People died left and right
every day. She had felt so sad when she saw iya basiru, a beggar that patrolled the pathway to the
stream die slowly of hunger. As the first teardrop skimmed down her face, the rains came with a
vengeance and fell for 3 weeks straight. People of course noticed these occurrences that were somehow tied to the white haired girl and they began calling her Stormbringer while others called her Earthshaker.
Not like she cared anyway, they were all insignificant..
She halted. Where had that thought come from? That prickling feeling came back this time, but worse
and she began to jog out of the village towards the Forest fringe where her home was located. She still
had about 2 kilometers left to reach the house when she turned a bend and almost crashed into a man
coming her way. Her body tingled, and in the most unpleasant way possible and she hurried to put
distance between them both by drawing back.
Quick as lightning, the man whipped out an actual lightning bolt and sent it towards her heart. She
watched it as if in slow motion, the way the lightning flew towards her, the smell of ozone in the air, the
clouds in the sky darkening in response to the lightning strike. Blood roared in her years as the lightning travelled closer. Terror oaked every cell in her body as the flash of white blue lit up the landscape. Then, something broke within her and she stretched out her hand and caught the lightning bolt on her fist.She looked at her palm, unfamiliar feelings racing through her. She felt powerful, strong and exhilarated all at once. She looked at her attacker who had suddenly gone pale.
'They forgot to tell you I'm stormborn didn’t they? '
Where the words came from she didn’t know or care at that particular moment and without waiting for
a reply she extinguished the lightning with a thought. Only, it didn’t go out. The lightning crept into her
hand, and slithered through her body before settling in her stomach.
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Something tugged at her gut, a
well of seemingly endless power, growing in strength with each second. Frantic, fearing it would
consume her she released the well and poured it out at the lightning tossing stranger.
He winked out of existence.
TV
The power loss staggered her and she fell knee first, her head heading towards the ground. Just before
the crack that would send her into oblivion, she made out blurry shapes coming towards her. Wait, was
that a li.......
The four of them looked down at the young maiden lying sprawled out on the ground. With one accord
they knelt, each one holding a part of her. Then they all disappeared, strangers and maiden all.