DARKNESS COMES: A FANTASY

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Ha! they have killed us;

Fathers and mothers, sons and daughters.

We hold the scythe like staff but they see spears

And blood billows into clouds that fall like tears

From the face of the sky.

There is war and the earth is silent

As her children die one and all.

---

Ife, where is the oracle?

Ifa; cowries upon stones drawn from sacred sands

To watered bowl, where is the sight?

Olorun you lied!

The children are dead!

Hyenas nurse their young in the nursery

And wild flowers creep between the bath and cot.

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Ogun! We have died!

Ha! We have died;

Gods and kings.

Vultures sit in congress on our corpses

Bristling with truth, with hate.

We have died.
-Lament by Osun when the death drum thudded announcing Orunmila's death.

The sky billowed and bulged like a curtain pushed by a desperate wind. To those who watched, among the few still standing, it seemed as if something, some beast sought to rend through it and storm unto the earth. Lightning flashed and thunder muttered behind pregnant clouds that leaned their weight on the broken earth as if already in labour.

As if from behind a wall, cries reached the man’s ears. Let us not call him a man for he is not a man, though he seemed so. He stood eight feet tall, with broad muscular shoulders and limbs. His ebony skin shone with sweat and oil. He wore the skin of a sabre tooth tiger across his shoulder which fell down below his waist. A belt made of crocodile skin cinched the leather covering to his waist. His feet were bare and he carried no visible weapons.

He turned his gaze away from the sky and looked down. He was standing on a hill that was a part of seven hills that surrounded a valley. The hill, on which he stood on, was barren of vegetation except for some stunted trees struggling desperately to live on the sparse soil and rocks that served as their sustenance.

In the valley below, the end of a war surged reluctantly to its conclusion. The giant could see vultures alighting on corpses and gorging on still warm flesh. The cries he had heard before, came from among those dying down there. He could see the thin shapes of arrows and broken spears bristling all over the field of battle as if a large porcupine died there.

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He turned as a vulture landed beside him. It cocked its head and looked at him with beady black eyes, then it squawked and widened its beak in something akin to a smile, flapped its wings and flew to join its fellows in their sordid feast.

“War is a strange beast, is this not so?” a voice spoke by the giant’s side.

He turned to see a man standing by his side. The man reached up to his waist. He had not heard him come. He looked about him, wary for foes but saw no other person beside him.

“Who are you?” he asked the stranger, studying him.

The stranger had on a white covering made from a material, the giant had never seen before, thrown loosely about his body and he also had weird covering hiding his toes.

How does he pinch the earth when he runs? He would slide and fall. The giant thought to himself.

“I see giants still live in these parts.” The stranger muttered to himself, ignoring the giant’s question; his eyes on the battlefield. “Father will not like this.” He added.

The giant squeezed his two hands together, then he spread both folded hands apart from each other and the haft of a spear appeared between them as if out of nothing. The spear shone white like ivory. The tip was also ivory and it was carved with scrolling symbols from the shaft to the tip. It looked fragile but it was not.

“I asked you a question. Your covering suggests a stranger to these parts and I did not see of your coming.” The giant said, moving backwards and twirling the spear in readiness. The spear seemed to waver and blur in the air as if burning and the his iris glazed from black to light brown.

“I seek one who has hidden from me for too long. He took something of my father’s and I want it back. Do you know where he may be?” The stranger asked, his eyes still on the bleeding valley then he finally turned to look at the giant. Again, he ignored the giant’s question.

Then he noticed the spear in the giant’s hand and raised an eyebrow. He didn’t seem disturbed by the fact that the giant had just summoned an ivory spear out of thin air, rather he seemed curious.

“You have a spear forged. How did you come by this skill?” he asked.

The giant stopped twirling the spear and his eyes cleared. He stared at the spear in his hand and stood straight.

“My father gave me this gift to stand guard at the second gate of a kingdom to come. What do you know of this spear?” the giant asked, looking at the stranger.

“Your spear is but a pale imitation of something grander, that thing which the one I once called brother stole. It seems you may have met him.” The stranger said, then he cocked his head and peered at the giant closely; “His blood flows in your veins, albeit a tiny trickle. You are his son? What is your father's name” the stranger asked, his eyes staring at the man as if to pin him to the sky.

“My father! My father is Olorun, father of the gods. Maker of all that you see and even you.”The giant replied angrily.

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“Olorun?" The man said, rolling the name in his tongue and frowning as if he tasted something foul. "That is what he calls himself now? Oh well, where is this father of gods? He has something that belongs to my father.” He added.

“Who is your father? Who are you? Speak stranger before we come to blows! What is this thing you seek that makes you mock me the precious gift of my father? That makes you dare to come before me, mere mortal that you are, to arrogantly talk to me as if I am a serf in your palace. You make claims that will get you killed, human” the giant replied, his big hands gripping the spear with knuckled tension.

“Human? I am no human; I promise you this. If anything, you are more of a man than I am." The stranger replied.

"I seek a spear; I seek the spear that hung as guard in the beginning of time, the spear that stood before the horde and dared any of them to seek passage into the light. I seek it, for my brother whom you call father, casted out of my father’s sight, stole this spear as he fled with his cohorts and their renegade prince unto these lands." he added, his voice steadily rising.

"Where is your father!” the stranger roared suddenly; his eyes sparkling and his body swelling, it seemed in the shadows of the setting sun.

The giant stepped back and smiled. He twirled his spear and stared back down into the valley. The cries still filled the air but now they were cries of vultures and other carrion feeders, eating their fill and taking their own spoils of war.

“I have a brother, who does this anytime he gets angry. He has a spear made of iron. You should meet with him and compare each other’s rage and powers.”The giant said, still smiling.

The stranger nodded his head. He squeezed his two hands together and a spear formed in his hand. It was black; dull black. No light seemed to touch it from its shaft to its tip. The stranger twirled it and the air around it blurred like black fire. He turned to the giant and smiled;

“Your father may have made millions of those flimsy things that you hold but it cannot stand against me neither can it stand against what is to come. Tell him, if he wants this world that he has claimed as his own to remain, he should return what he stole.” He said.

The giant had stepped back in shock at seeing the black spear appear. His spear had quivered in his hands as if unwilling to engage with it. He perceived the stink of fear waft off from his skin into the air and he suddenly knew that he was no match for this strange man.

“I have not seen my father since he gave me the spear.”He replied, softly.

The stranger stared at him then he made to turn away but he turned back suddenly. He stared intently at the spear in the man’s hands.

“His eyes; He used his eyes to power it. Fool! Your father is dead! Where did he keep the spear?” The stranger yelled, his hand tightening on the shaft of his spear.

“I know of no spear, other than that which he had given to me. He said he would bestow each of his children with a gift; this was mine. You find the others, maybe they will know.” The giant replied.

“Maybe he too had seen what is coming. I cannot go back to father empty handed.”The stranger muttered to himself. “Where did you meet with your father?” he asked, turning to the giant.

“Ife. I last saw him at Ife. He sought to bind us to men. We had fought too long with them and this was no time for strife but a time to build; he had said then.” The giant replied.

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“Ife… I must go there.” the stranger turned towards the south, backing the blood clot that used to be a field of wild maize.

“You have to learn to harness that power, no matter how small it is. You entered here too strongly. You could die.” he said, still backing him.

“Where am i?” the giant asked.

“You are in a strand of infinity, son. The spear allows you share aspects of infinity and it seems, it also lets you see.” The stranger replied.

“See?” he asked, looking at the spear in his hands in wonder.

“It lets you see something akin to the future. You are the oracle, the eye of this tiny strand of infinity that is your father.” The stranger replied, distractedly. “I must leave you. I suggest you leave too. Something comes.” He added.

“Wait! What comes? Who are you? Please wait!” the giant screamed as the stranger twirled his spear and two pillars appeared before him.

“Darkness; darkness comes. Your father is dead. If you find the spear, guard it with your life. She wants it. With it she will bend time to her will and her will is to consume all.” The stranger said, then he stepped forward and grabbed the giant’s arms. The world tilted and the giant’s eyes opened; he screamed and fell to his knees. The stranger released him then he stepped through the pillars and disappeared.

TO BE CONTINUED

Stay tuned for part two.

You can read similar stories like;

Truth Bound 1
Truth Bound 2

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