The Ancient Beast (Adere's Mission)

Chapter 11

The entry into the place where it is said to have been the best option looked like the very thing everyone in the land of Zinu was not happy with; those remaining people, those old and incapable fellows who could not run when Aboro hit the land of Zinu so hard with his soldiers. The king of Agori arriving there in the land of Zinu was the mark of the beginning of his ownership of that land..He was so proud of what he had accomplished and he felt like a god. When he sat and the old and incapable people of Zinu who were not killed and were not also able to escape the land of Zinu with Adere and the rest were brought before him he asked Aboro that he would not want to sit and have them standing. Aboro understood the signal and Immediately commanded that the old men and sick ones be forced on their kneels. They were kicked to their kneels at once and at that moment it was no longer a new thing for the rest of them who felt that the king of Agori had come to take over the land. One of the sick people stood on his feet, as old as he was he was very brave as he spoke while looking directly into the eyes of the king of Agori.

"You have actually shown us that there is nothing that you can not do and we are no longer going to have to continue living. You killed our brothers, our wives and our children. You killed those of our friends and you sacked some out of the land where they were born. You have no love in your heart king of Agori, you have not joy in your heart. As long as you have proven to be the same person that we are all entitled to we have not gotten the very thing that has become the major thing. We are so much engrossed with the knowledge of what had happened to our ancestors that we are no longer bothered seeing this which is happening to us now as a new thing. Kindly have it at the back of your mind that I am no longer in anyway bothered. I have begun to think that despite the fact that there are some who are still going to remind you of what you have done here today there is no way that you will be able to surrender to the very thing that has begun to make sense. Let us die now infront of you and stop playing the guilty one. All we sure want to do now is to allow you to dwell in your own mistakes. Go on and do whatever you wish and live the rest of your life knowing what you have done"

His words did not move the king neither did it make him to think twice about what he was about to do to them. He instead beckoned on Aboro and when Aboro approached him he said to him,

"What do you think that we should do to these people, should we leave them to live or should we have them turned to slaves who are not only going to serve here in this land for our own benefits but who will serve till the day that they die?"

Aboro looked at the old men and then said to the king, "I do not believe in old people, I think old people have come and finished what they have come into the world to do. I see no reason why we should waste our time with them. I suggest we kill them off and let it be done with once and for all. Then we can gladly call this land our own"

The king simply said, "Go ahead and do that then"

****

In the land of Akuzu and right in the forest where Edu had led Adere and his people into he watched as Renu left him standing there and went to sit beside Adere and his mother and he said to himself, "Sometimes you would think that your good deeds can automatically make you a brother to some but it is never like that and it pains to see that no matter how hard you try to please some people in this world you will not be able to and it sucks" He moved to the hill side and began to search for the woods and the thatches with which they needed to build the camp.

"Hey brothers and sisters, come up here and see for yourself!!" He shouted and the people of Zinu walked up the hill and looked down the valley to see woods and almost all they needed to make a camp. He said to them;

"Is it not necessary that we do not relax yet and go on doing this work?" he asked.

"You are right Edu, I thought as much but then we have to make sure that the elderly ones with us do not work like us. They will work but they will not get to work the way that we will because they are already old. We need to leave then begin here and go get the materials for the work and after that we can then do what needs to be done. I can see for sure that you are willing to do what needs to be done and I am glad that if you do it you will end up getting the benefits for it" Renu agreed with Adere and Adere's mother walked up to his son and said, "I heard a sound while I was seated there and while I thought that I was the only one that heard it the old man with me over there said that he heard the same thing. It sounded like the voice in the sky and i felt cold shivers run down my spine. I would not want you to go and risk your life in those woods"

."Mother, we are risking our lives already by being here. Come to think of it, there are many animals everywhere and most times these animals don't just come out as animals instead they have a way of making things quite difficult for others. Having said this please kindly go back and sit with the rest of those over there while I go with the rest here" Adere's mother nodded and went back to sit. Adere wanted to tell Renu and the other ladies to look after the elderly ones while they go down the valley but to his surprise Renu was not ready to stay with the elderly ones but was ready and gallant enough to go with the young men to the woods. Adere tried to talk her out of it but she insisted. She was actually the only female that insisted that she must go to the woods with the males. When Edu saw this he was convinced that Renu was not just a lady but a brave one at that. He said to Adere, "Most times it is those that you pity that end up being the ones that will save your ass. We are not sure who will survive this forest. I know that I decided to disown my father for your sakes, now that it is the way that it is I do not want to have my sacrifices go in vain. If she is insisting that she must go with us then let her come with us. We have already decided to make things work out for all of us and it would seem like there is not one capable enough to make things work out but then it is quite alright already for us. Let it flow man"

Adere having taken the mantle of leadership did not want to act rough or hard to convince. He turned to Renu and said to her, "If you have accepted to go with us you will have to be assured that if something goes wrong we will not be able to save you. Over there as you can see is filled with thickness of the forest and we are not sure if we will be able to make it out of there without having to face the wild animals there. You yourself knows this"

Renu was not ready to keep listening to them and their discouraging words. She had made up her mind to be part of the team that would risk their lives to do what needed to be done and she was not ready to allow anyone make her not to do what she had decided that she was going to do no matter what happened. When it was clear that she could not be stopped the over twenty younger men decided to go to the woods in the valley with Renu alone having decided before then that the other ladies would have to stay back with the old men and women. Fast forward to their leaving the place where they had been Adere's mother stayed still and not speaking to anyone. One of the ladies in the forest who was by name Aricha approached Adere's mother and said to her,

"You have a son who is not just a human but a deity who will kill the voice of the one that will torment everyone. You know what I am talking about, that right from the time that you have birth to him you have watched him grow in strength and in will. You have also watched him make decisions and you have wondered time and again what happens next with your son. You know what it is when a man is ready to face his destiny. You have not been made to neglect this fact which makes you look gloomy most of the days. Your son will inherit so much but I must tell you now that the one that will be his downfall is right beside him already. You know this or you will know it soon" The lady stopped and Adere's mother got up to look at her eye ball to eye ball because she had not clearly understood what the lady had just said to her.

"Who are you and what do you mean by all the things that you have just said to me now. You know quite sure that I am not going to allow things like this to keep on happening simply because you are one of us here. I will not allow you say strange things to me without getting ready to explain to me in detail all that you have just said to me now. Go on and say to me exactly what I want to hear. what do you mean by what you have said concerning my son and what did you mean by that the person that will be his downfall standing right beside him. I am really readily waiting for your explanation"

The young lady acted like someone that just realised herself and all of a sudden she fell to the ground and started shivering. The mother to Adere did not know what had happened and she was not sure if there was something really wrong somewhere. She kept looking at her there. The old men that came to the girl's rescue were actually asking Adere's mother if she had anything to do with the talking of the girl but she shrugged and said that she had nothing to do with it. This did not stop the fact that they were not ready to believe her. They shoved her aside and tried to revive the lady who already laid before them like a dead person. Adere's mother did not need someone to tell her that what had just happened with the lady was not ordinary. She watched as the men attended to her. For a while the lady would open her eyes only to close them again.