LARA: THE god OF HEKO

EPISODE FIVE

EPISODE FIVE

It was dawn. Lara had been swallowed up by her tent in absolute sleep and silence. The forest around her existed in terrifying silence. Her new world was solitary but peaceful. The birds maintained absolute silence. The animals stopped roaming. The only thing she could hear now was the whistle of insects from far distances as they penetrated the thick darkness like needles penetrate clothes. She was half-awake as she laid on her back staring into the darkness about her, thinking hard. She had been weeks in the jungle. She had come to love the prevailing peace of the wild. She loved the lessons she learned from wild animals daily. She loved the superior unity that reigned among these animals, how they stuck together as families, how they coexisted side by side - every animal after its own kind. What's more, the wild had been caring for her needs every step of the way. She reasoned that humans might have a few lessons to assimilate from wild animals. 

Since she moved into this shack, she had not attempted to check what it contained. Each time it came to her thought, she had convinced herself that it could wait for later. She had seen several bags tied up. There was an earthen pot carefully covered. She reasoned they might contain something valuable or something deadly. What if she opened the pot and a python bulge out? She thought to herself. She had remembered the head of the snake-god in Heko. Mysterious and terrifying. She remembered her wrestling with the snake. It was an experience she would not want to relive anymore. Nonetheless, she resolved to search the tent by day break and take full account of its contents.

Just about then, she heard a bird cuckoo from the distance. The bird flapped its wings as it flew over her tent. Then as she looked around, she saw light penetrating some tiny holes around the tent. It was day break. She stepped out of the tent and took a good look at her environment. Her meats were carefully arranged by the fire side, dried. The fire coal had burnt out leaving only ashes. One or two logs smouldered. Lara went to the stream down the slope and gave herself a good wash. 

Getting back to the shack, Lara settled down to a lap of antelope. Cooked and dried by raw coal, the venison gave the best taste a barbecue could offer. Lara savoured the and was reminded that this was a luxury she could only wish for back home. Forest life suddenly tasted sweeter than the modern lifestyle she had been accustomed to. 

Picking up the first cowskin bag in the shack, Lara untied the strap. In the bag was a bow and some arrows in perfect preservation. She brought out the bow for observation. It was like none she had seen before. It was a wooden bow, carved in mahogany. The handle was sealed in gold plate. The middle of the bow from where the arrows were shot was decorated with pearls. Then it dawned on Lara that this was no ordinary bow. The one who owned this must have been a noble man of wealth and worth. Lara reached for the arrows in the bag. They were seven in all. The arrow heads were coated with a black substance. She put them back and tied up the bag as she had met it. From now on, this instrument would be indispensable. She tossed it aside as she picked the second bag. It had different kinds of knives, machetes, gunpowder and bullets of different sizes and shapes. Then there was this fabricated handgun. Lara picked up the g*n, c****d the hammer and the g*n signalled a perfect health. She replaced the g*n as calmly as she had picked it. Then something in the bag caught her attention. It was an object that flashed blue and green lights. Depending on what direction it was turned, the object glittered a different colour each time. Lara picked it up and observed it clearly. It was a knife, a jack knife of Arabian source and inscription. Obviously, this was no ordinary knife, she thought. The body of the knife was not smooth and the edge was not razor-sharp, but she intuitively observed that this knife could do great harm to the body. She tucked it back into its sheath which now laid at the bottom of the bag. This would be reserved for difficult tasks, she concluded.

Turning around, Lara saw the earthen pot covered and concealed. The thought of a starved python sitting angrily in the dark hollow of the pot flashed through her mind. She would dare it, she said to herself. Lara picked up the hand g*n she saw earlier, loaded it with gunpowder and bullets. Coming from a family of hunters, these weapons were no strangers to Lara. In a bow and arrow shooting competition in school, she had scored multiple bullseye. Lara c****d the hammer of the handgun firmly ready in her right hand, and with her left she opened the pot cover gently. When she had finally opened the pot, she was greeted with gold bars and various types of silverware. It was nothing like she had ever seen before. While she truly didn't know the actual value of this massive treasure, she knew quite well how humans treasured gold and silver and the mad rush for them. She picked up a gold bar and admired it thoroughly. She was holding a silverware when the first bang of drumbeat hit her eardrums. It was a distant sound, and depending on the direction of the wind, the drums rose and faded into distant forests. When the wind carrying the sounds blew in her direction, and the drumbeat rose high, the tune was unmistakable. She recognized the sounds. She heard the bata drum booming with fury. She heard the gangan or talking drum being twisted to tunes of different kinds. She heard the obele cascading on the sounds of the two bigger drums as they all weaved into one incongruous sound. She could hear the fainting sound of the flute wriggling its way in-between trees. She remembered that these were the same sounds they had heard three years ago when Nikolo was declared missing in the forest. The hunters had converged in Olle-Bunu with drums and flute and guns. They had besieged the forest with them all. They found Nikolo deep in the forest at the point where three paths met. He was dead. The hunters had brought his remain to the village for proper burial. Nikolo's death had brought panic, fear and sorrow upon the village and the people were to make a sacrifice of black cow to cleanse the land. It was an abomination for any man to die in the forest. It could be that the gods were angry with this village. A purification, therefore, would appease the gods of the land.

Now Lara was hearing the same sounds they heard three years ago and the memory of Nikolo made it more terrifying. In the riotous confusion buried in the sounds being transported by the wind, Lara thought deeply about her next move.

Olu Majek.