The Thing I know.

Moonlight Stories 2

Nnaemeka continued with his story totally ignoring his daughter Sophia. And so in the animal kingdom, the Lion king called for a meeting of all his chiefs. Everyone attended the meeting including the tortoise. The purpose of the meeting was for the king know the wisest amongst them.

It started with a debate, and then an argument and finally turned into a challenge with the tortoise claiming to be the wisest of all.

The Lion king challenged them saying that anyone who can marry a beautiful wife for him with just one seed of corn will be crowned the wisest of all. All other animals backed out of this challenge saying that it was an impossible mission but the tortoise accepted the challenge and took the grain from the Lion King.

'Daddy do you think that the tortoise will succeed in his mission?' Ebuka asked. Nnaemeka smiled and told him to pay attention to the story to find out if the tortoise will succeed. This didn't go down well with Sophia as she thought to herself that her dad asked Ebuka but ignored her own question. So she frowned and decided not to listen to the story anymore. Just as she thought about this, Nnemeka looked at her and smiled as though he could read his daughter's mind. Sophia does not like this as the anger in her heart seem to have evaporated into the thin air and so she began again to listen to her dad.

And so the tortoise set out on his journey, Nnemeka continued. The tortoise went first to the house of a poultry farmer and pleaded with him to allow him pass the night in his house for he was stranded and as a stranger in the land he is not familiar with the people. And so the poultry farmer took pity on him and allowed him into his house. After eating, the tortoise told the farmer that he came with a sacred grain of ? and the grain should be kept safe no matter what. So the farmer took the grain from him and kept it in a safe place not knowing that the tortoise had a mischievous plan.

Before the early morning c**k crow the next day, the tortoise was already awake. He woke the poultry farmer up and asked for his sacred grain,claiming that he would be going back to his town on time to perform some rituals with the grain. Unknown to the man, tortoise took the grain from where he kept it last night and dropped it for the biggest fowl to eat. The poultry farmer searched and searched but could not find the grain. The tortoise threw himself on the floor shouting that he is finished. That the man must give him the fowl that swallowed his sacred grain so as to avert an impending calamity. Because of the chaos that he caused, a large crowd gathered to debate on the case. Finally the poultry farmer was compelled to give the tortoise his fowl and the tortoise went on his way with the fowl.

The tortoise went to the next village and waited for nightfall before chosing his next pawn. Once it was nightfall,he went to the house of a shepherd who rears goats and sheep. The farmer welcomed him and gave him food and a place to stay for the night since he claimed to be a stranded stranger. After he had freshened up, he gave the fowl to the farmer and pleaded with him to keep it safe. He explained to him that it was a sacred fowl needed by the king for rituals and must not be tampered with. So the farmer took the fowl from him and kept it in a safe place unknown to him that the tortoise had a mischievous plan.