AMOTEKUN: Son of The Soil [Ch. 2]

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AMOTEKUN: Son of The Soil Ch. 1

...As I kick sand back in the hole, I pause to imagine what father's face will look like when I decide to start a family with my Rolake. I will be free from him then, I know that for sure.

The process will be long since Rola's father, our oracle diviner, and my father are not on speaking terms.

Father blames him for not showing up on time when grandfather was about to die. And when he eventually arrived, he was drunk.

I’ll turn eighteen at the middle of the next raining season, yet I’ve never left the shelter without father behind me.

The other boys whose fathers are forest dwellers and hunters like mine are allowed to take part of their kill regularly to sell in town.

The fact that father and I are revered huntsmen doesn't help matters at all as the meat traders buy us out every morning.

Meaning I only get to go to town when the hunters have their meeting with the king of the town, Oba Soyinka, in his very palace.

The sound of a branch breaking brings me back to my senses and I turn to see the disturber: No one. From the corner of my eyes, I spot my cutlass resting on a nearby tree trunk and quickly grab it. My eyes study the surrounding trees, branches and drifts down to enormous black centipedes active on the undergrowth beneath my foot. I move towards the direction of the sound, and a memory occurs to me.

Father and I at dawn, making small talk, as we head home after a rewarding night of hunting; we were walking behind our hunting group that day. Everyone had games slung across their shoulders; everyone had a profitable night weighing down on their backs as we trekked home. No one was expecting to come across obstacles. More than a score of hyenas emerged out of thin air when we got to a shallow stream lying between our dwelling zone and the thicker parts of the jungle.

Father swiftly pulled me behind him, and whispered something gibberish, like run, but I ignored him, and relieved my shoulders of its weight. For the first time, I saw fear in his eyes, the type I see when I meet him on the way home from an unannounced trip.

I knew we were outnumbered despite our poisoned arrows, amulets and machetes. How could we engage so many hyenas at once? Without thinking I stepped forward knowing father would too, pulled out my bow, and readied an arrow on the closest of the treacherous scavengers as our group retreated.

Something clicked in my head right there and then, and I felt the day to prove myself had come.

I was suddenly mad at father for trying to save me when we were seriously outnumbered. So I screamed out my fear & charged forward when I felt a hand try to draw me back. What happened next was unbelievable. The sky resounded with an earth quaking thunder - Sango-esque like grandfather would say - and, lightning followed, splitting a huge tree nearby.

The tree fell between us and the starved beasts, and suddenly we had leverage. As we all looked on wide eyed, a murderous rain came down and we charged forward as the obstinate hyenas struggled to cross over the fallen tree.

We struck them all down. I like to think that was my first day as a hunter with pedigree. I was soaked in blood from head to toe when the last of the creatures took its final breath...

To be continue when next i come your way with the concluding tale of the son of the soil

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Written and compiled by @deeclown

Oct-24- 2018

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