Read up (Journey To Igbo-Irumole — Episode 1-20)

My name is Benjamin Watson, but my friends call me ben10, Am a boy of 24 years old, no parents, I actually stay with my street friends and we are about 6 guyz staying in the same room, this story is all about my experience in the quest of getting rich and making it in life.

At first, when I lost my parents, life became hard like oluzo dickson lol, cus my family reject me with the excuse that, my dad doesn’t care about the other family members when he was alive, so I should carter for myself. Even the landlord sent me out of his building claiming I don’t have enough resources to retain the room. Then I meet with some of my street friends who stay alone, and they let me in, at first their kinda life was a bit too rude and dirty but time they say it heals pain faster than anything else, I come upgrade.

It all started around 5pm in the evening one day, when me and my friends where busy gisting outside our building, we noticed 3 guyz coming towards our direction.

Me: who dose guyz de find come for this arena nah
Jahrul: I no know o, make we just de look dem first.

Immediately I compose myself and sit calmly, they got to our place and we all exchange greetings. Three of them were actually tall and bold looking, fear don begin catch me maybe dem be SSS, cus na SSS we fear pass for that area. I could recall when SS came to arrest jaga the baddest boy in our area that time, jaga is a brutal cultist guy who commit different type of evil, he rape, steal and even kill, but when SS come catch am, carry am go for 6 months, my brother jaga is now a pastor… but I was totally quoted wrong when one of them finally table the reason for their visit..

Tochukwu: hello guyz, my name is tochukwu but my friends call me tk, this is jude (he said tapping the other guy shoulder) and this is emmanuel.. the reason why we are here is very simple, and I can bet you guyz this will brought you all cool cash I mean cool cash. Before he stop speaking, the other guy broke in

Emma: Yes, am sure if you guys agree to do it, you will become millionaires…
Me: Abeg, muna no vex o, wetin una de talk no clear for my ear o, abi you understand am ni jahrul?
Jahrul : No o, make una tell us the koko, cus others de inside and na wetin una tell us we go take clear them
Jude: Ok, it’s about a simple ultimate search, a company is sponsoring a search in one of this forest around, and if we successfully find what they asked us to, you all will become millionaires…
Me: Oga no vex wait make we call others, jahrul abeg call them Chris brown come

Immediately jahrul ran inside to summon others..
Jahrul: blanny, sege, kola, Chris brown muna come outside cool deal don land o…

four of them actually came out to see what jahrul was calling them for..

Kola: jahrul wetin na, why you de shout like fowl whey snake de fight so?
Jahrul: alaye sitdown make u hear latest..
Blanny: ok we de listing..
Me:oya oga continue

Emma went ahead with his explanation, and they give us sometime to think about it, they dropped their number and they left..we all think about it overnight and we plan to visit them the next day…but when we got there what we actually meet was far beyond our imagination

….Episode 2….

When we get to the destination, jude and Emma usher us in and we actually meet two white men accompanied by some black guyz..we got in and we all look for a place to sit, the white man stood up and address all of us congratulating us for being so wise to grab such beautiful opportunity, he went ahead to explain more about the search to us, right from that hour I started having bad feelings towards the search, I excuse my friends out and I told kola and others that we should turn down the search and move on, but they were too deaf to hear me…

I tried all my best to convince them, but they fink am trying to be a lazy coward

Me: kola, guyz my mind no free with these people o..
Jahrul: alaye go sitdown jorh, u too lazy..
Kola: ben 10, nothing go happen
Chris b: ben 10 why you no de like to do hard work self, abi you the expect angels to carry money come give you ni?

Me : guyz muna listing, no be say I de fear hard work but I no just trust these oyinbo people, you self see tk and him guyz, them no go follow us go and na igbo irumole we still wan go find that stuff..muna reason na
Blanny : see nigga, nothing go happen tk and him guyz don make am, shebi dem talk say one baba go give us wetin we go use, ?so that one no be issue
Sege : tell am o..
Me : ok I don hear una if una no wan hear me..

After our conversation we all went inside and the oyinbo guyz warned us that at this stage there is no going back cus we have signed an agreement, so they gave us the clue of what we were actually searching for and it’s a hidden treasures which is called egg of life..

5 minutes later the herbalist man came in and he gave all of use some set of magical stuff that will guide us to the egg and he gave us some kind of warning also

Herbalist : you all should listen and listen carefully, you have 7 days to locate this egg, within this 7days no one of you should have s-x with any girl, you should drink no water and no food from the forest ,one of you will have the ability to see things when ever something bad is gonna happen, you all must always listing to what he or she say..
Me : haa!no food keh
Chris B : shut up, no be for just seven days you wan tell me say you no fit fast for seven days?
Kola : baba shey dats all?
Herbalist : yes..
Kola : it’s okay den, we will do it…

The man went ahead to give us all we need for the journey, then we all set for the quest, when we got to the entrance of igbo-irumole my mind started beating faster than a samba drum, but as a man na once I go die, so I calm myself and follow others, we keep walking till the herbalist and tk and others got out of sight, at first the journey was kinda interesting as we chilled with others and mingled,
As we were discussing, I saw something with red eyes looking at us from our opposite, I called the attention of others but they never listen to me, before I could spell nun the light went off… Ahahaha! and guess what happened next?

….Episode 4….

Cynthia and bola the two girls amongst us grab me from behind out of panic, Immediately kola stood up and turn on his touch, but he see nothing,

Kola : guyz calmdown, it’s nothing maybe it’s the air work
Bola : kola are you sure?
Kola : yes trust me, it’s nothing

Before kola could complete that sentence, we heard yet another sound, but this time it’s very loud and clear. Yet the same sound come again and again, immediately everyone started running heading straight towards the same direction but actually we don’t even know where we were heading to, jahrul looked back and he saw some set of masquerade chasing after us..

Jahrul : see them o! Them de behind us o…
‎We all ran as fast as our leg could, till we get to a certain
point where we no longer see them..

Sege : guyz make we stop, them no fit see us again , Cynthia : no o them fit catch us if we wait for this time na..
Bola : na true o, them fit hide for one place de wait make we relax so that them go catch us ..
Kola : muna relax them no fit see us again

We all agree to his suggestion since kola is the boldest among us, We all sit and relax, eventually we started sleeping one after the other Cynthia was the first to sleep followed by blanny, then Chris, bola, jahrul and I while kola and Vincent didn’t sleep, cus they stood to watch and guide us for the night…

Around 4 o clock in the morning bola woke up and she asked jahrul to follow her cus she wana urinate, the two of them went out of our gathering, both of them started discussing some irrelevant stuffs..

bola was the first to make the move, she stood up and undress herself infront of jahrul, jahrul on the other hand respond immediately by giving her a wet kiss of which bola welcomed by holding jahrul’s head, she knelt down and unbuckled jahrul’s belt she pull down his shorts and she brought out his solid hard c–k, she kissed it at first and then started sucking it, as this drama was going on vincent also excused himself from kola, he trailed them down and he hear some romantic sound coming from the other end…

Vincent : jahrul, bola!!! What’s happening here?
Immediately he landed a hot slap on bola’s face and he gave jahrul a hard punch on his nose, jahrul also punched him back and they started fighting, bola ran down to inform us of what’s going on and we all rushed down there just to find out that jahrul is lying in pool of blood.. I screamed haaaaa!

….Episode 4….

Then I woke up and saw everyone starring at me..

Cynthia : oga, nawa o wetin make you begin shout like person whey dem they chase so?
Blanny : guy wetin happen?
Me : chai! So na dream?
Kola : no nah reality, abeg tell us wetin u see jare…
Me : nothing, where jahrul de?
Vincent : e go pee
Me : bola nko
Kola : she go pee self..
Vincent : e don Tey whey dem two don go self mah go check them..
Me : no no, chill dem go soon come

I tried my best to stop him from going but he never listen

Chris : ben10 wetin de worry u dis days? Person say him wan go check him sister out u de stop am, nawa for you o
Sege : ben free am na abi which one be ur own self
Me : guyz una no go understand, I know why am doing this
Kola : benji just shut up and sitdown, your wahala self too much…

I tried to hold Vincent down but all of them turn out to pull me back, but before he could go bola was already on her way coming as we all see them even jahrul was coming from the other side, I started thanking my stars on behalf of jahrul cus I know if Vincent actually caught him, he won’t live to tell the story..

We relax for 20 more minutes to prepare our stuff then we proceed with the quest, we were about crossing over a foot bridge when something told me to warn everyone not to look down from the foot bridge, I told everyone this and they all agree..the water was actually as red as blood.. we all were passing over when jahrul had a voice similar to his late mum’s own the person was actually drowning in the river screaming jahrul’s name for help..

Me : jahrul no look down o
Jahrul : but na my mama voice I de hear so nah.
Me : just de go no look down
Jahrul : make I leave am make e drown for this red water ni
Me : jahrul shut up nah, abeg no look down if you want to live
Jahrul : ben shut up, I go look am and nothing go happen, who even give you the right to lead self, you whey lazy pass fowl so

After saying this he looked down from the foot bridge then he slump and fell into the water, the person who was calling him turned to a big crocodile and tore him apart..others screamed and I samba the warning to them that none of them should look down until they drop from the bridge, immediately everyone started running till we finally cross the bridge, we stood there and watch the crocodiles feed on jahrul with eyes full of tears..

Everyone looked at me and they were very surprise to see that am the choosing one the wise herbalist man was talking about.. We all cried a lot cus one of us is gone and what this mean is “death is waving over ours heads” but the question is who next…?

….Episode 5….

Five minutes later, every where became dark and noisy we heard a strange sound coming from the east like that of lion..

Me : something is coming,let’s get out of here
We all started running,but everywhere was still dark, I check my watch and it’s 2pm, but everywhere was totally dark, my mind keep telling me there is light after the this very dark edge, I asked everyone to keep running till we get to a place of light..

Then finally we are out of it, but one of us is missing OMG! It’s bola vincent ranted with much anger that can part a bridge,I could feel his pain cus it’s not easy to loose your blood sister to an unknown monster,most expecially when you don’t have the power to save her, we all sympathise with him and for ourselves also, cus we see ourselves as brothers..but deep down inside of me, I know that the reason behind their death is not far fetch, it’s all about s-x..

Finally we set off for the search, we walk for about 3 hours then kola call for a resting time, we sat under a huge strange tree, but we ain’t scared of if cus we already know where we are and monsters are familiar with us, vincent went ahead to sit alone starring at bola’s picture I stood behind him as he soliloquies

Vincent :bola I could remember when we were young, when I use to scold you for wrong doing, and when our parents died, I always promise to be there for you but I failed..(sobbing) bola I can’t see you anymore, now staring at your pictures morning and night has finally took the place of my real bola,it reminds me of those days we spent together at the school ,how we discussed about many things, how we exchanged stuffs and how your calls keep my mind alive, how the thought of you and our discussions gave me hope and reminded me of who I was,and my place of authority in GOD,how I always long to see and be with you,everything is like yesterday when actually in the real sense its now over 20years.i never believed everything could turn this way,the abadonement and neglect.many times i was down and needed to speak with someone,but you were no where to be found,that was one of the numerous reasons why i find it had to give you enough audience when you wants to join the search but you won’t listen .iron sharpeneth iron,so does a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Bola I miss you…(crying)

Me : hmmm hmmmm(coughs)
Vincent : benji how are you (he said while he used his left hand to clean his face)

Me : am fine, I have been standing right behind you for the past 20 minutes, but you didn’t notice.I also miss my friend jahrul, I miss him as much as you miss bola, cus we have been together for years, but what can we do about it, she is gone but I believe she is still with u…you have to take heart and act like the strong man you are, be strong brother…I believe you can do it ( I said tapping him from behind)

Vincent : ok, thank you ben ,you are such a kind person (he stood up and walk away)

I stood up and follow him then we heard a loud noise coming from where others gathered..OMG I shouted
vincent : ben what’s wrong?
Me : I fink something is happening down there,lets go..

We both rush down there but to my greatest surprise what we saw made us dumb for almost 5 minutes

….Episode 6…

We saw everyone sitting calmly as blanny went about to entertain them with some kinda brainy stuff..

His name was blessing , but we called him blanny . He was smooth, malleable as putty, his greasy manners oiled the clogged wheels of the deals that happened in our small town, once in a while. He grew up here, lived among us until nine years ago . When his mother’s death scattered the family in different directions, like the grains of corn from a container that crashed, leaving the blind father stranded, all by himself, waiting on hope, waiting to be picked up, the lone grain buried somewhere in sand, beneath twigs. We always knew that blanny didn’t believe in anything, but we didn’t know what he would do to prove that. He only knew how to work hard, we’d say; he knew how to deal the cards.

Late Jahrul , who was his best friend , gave him the alias (blanny), used to say that the boy could sell his mother, that the poor woman had Death to thank, for her second son was scheming to palm her off for a fistful of cash. Who would buy her, for how much, to what use,Jahrul never said, preferring to intone, ‘If there’s one person who will do anything to get money, it’s he. blanny’

Whenever blanny and Jahrul were together , I stood by the window and watched them at play.

‘blanny!’ Jahrul , hollered as blanny emerged, walking briskly along.

‘Is inside my blood!’ the boy was suddenly gratified.
But I know he will miss jahrul so bad…

Chris hailed from the gathering “the one and only blanny whey de reason wella”
Blanny :Das right. A million stars no equal the single moon.’
Sege :Na You sabi the thing!’
Blanny : Das me you hail.’
Kola : You who come across a rooster on a bushpath and ask, Your feather or your flesh?’
Blanny : Talent senior training. Abinibi pass ability.’

Sege : On account of the new yam you redesign your mother’s facial marks with a machete!’

Blanny now close to his addressor, pulled a face. The mention of his mother was part of the game, but it came too early. The gathering under the strange tree erupted into laughter, and when he made a rude sign at sege nobody really noticed. But I do, from there I cut in…

Me : hmmm hmmm! Guyz I fink that should be enough for now, it’s getting late let’s look for a place to sleep…

They all stood up in preparation for the sleeping stuff, tonight it’s gonna be me and blanny on guard, we took a walk a bit away from others as we both chatted for 10 minutes till we depart to our post..

I was sitting untop of a tree watching the environment, when I saw something strange coming towards our direction.

….Episode 7….

Immediately I signal blanny to inform him about what am seeing and he also responded that he can see everything, at first am unable to get the clear picture of what or who is coming, until when they edge closer..

I saw two dwarf they both tied red cloth around their waist,white cloth tied on their head, and they both were hawking something best known to them, suddenly I can’t feel my legs anymore, it seems maybe am on air or on water, I head became big I tried to scream but I can’t hear myself screaming.

This continued for 20 minutes till am able to get myself, then I saw blanny also battling the same thing that just happened to me. I dropped down from the tree and I trailed them till they got to the midst of sleeping others.
The male one looked at the female and they both shake their head in pity..
FeMale : what are those strange creature doing here?
Male : they are here in search of the egg of life..

When I heard him say that I almost pee on myself cus I was very surprise to see him say that. How did he know what we are here for? I said that in my mind

Female : don’t they know that this is the evil forest of the ancestors?
Male : maybe, but what I see is that, most of them are here because of wealth
Female : yes, how I wish they know what evil await them on this journey, cus no one come’s here and go freely…
Male : would they even get what they want? Cus most of them will fail to keep to the warning given to them..
Female : how I wish they can do that, all of them will survive..
Male : see let’s go, they are too ugly I can’t even stand their irritating smell..
Female : same here

*Watching from distance * I shake my head, nawa o even monster self they talk say we ugly, so monster self the get taste,see as them short and them still de abuse person, hehehe I laughed, anyways na money cus am.

As they were about going, blanny show into the scene and I quickly drag him down..
Immediately two of them halt and look back, blanny want to scream but I covered his mouth with my hands..

Me : *whispering* you de craze? U want make those short things come take us do night suya?
Blanny : no vex na fear catch me, wait o e be like say them they come our side o..
Me : make we hide wella..

Female : I think someone is watching us
Male : let’s check…

Me : chai see gobe o, we die here *in yaw voice*

….Episode 8….

We hid from their sight as we move from that spot to somewhere else and cover ourselves with leafs ..then they both checked our previous spot…and they walked down to where we are, but they can’t see us cus of the leaf…the female one stand on blanny’s back whilst the male stand on my leg, though them get weight small sha..

Mehn, this short thing go brake my leg here o, I said inside of me, blanny’s eyes don almost turn red like tp and kp’s own when them just kush binish..lol. (in bojan’s voice..

Then I hear something dropping like water on blanny’s body, at first I thought was rain, but the elders say na masquerade whey wan fall him own hand go talk say make rain fall untop him head. So if that’s true why ain’t they running then.. that was when I realise that the female one was urinating on blanny’s body, at first I want to laugh but I know if I try such that will be my end,so I have to stay silent to avoid story that touch..

Female : I can smell something like those one sleeping there
Male : yes, it seems some of them are awake
Female : I don’t think so,lets go..

They both walk away, blanny stood up as he was soaked with pee. I laughed really hard that everyone almost woke up

Blanny : come wetin de funny now?
Me : wetin no funny, see as monster pee untop ur head, and na even female monster..hahaha
Blanny : e be like say you de mad..
Me ; na my body you fit get power, if na dat short monster now you no go gree talk..

Blanny : but serious o, dose monster no get brain o
Me : why you talk am?
Blanny : u no see as that female stand for my back whey she no even notice?
Me : I wonder self.
Blanny : nawa o, see wetin money de cause
Me : you even know wetin funny pass? That male monster begin tell him wife say him no fit stand for where we de cus we de smell and we come ugly join
Blanny : na thunder go fire them.
Me : abeg make we go our post jare, day go soon brake

We both depart to our point, I signal to blanny just to confirm if everything is alright, he signal back that all is well ,then I saw something coming but this time it looks more awful and strange, I saw a tall huge looking creature as tall as a nepa poll, his hands were taller than the tree am on, I saw darkness and evil in his eyes, I saw evil wind coming behind it, I quickly signal blanny and we both jumped down from the tree, we rushed to wake others.

Immediately we get them informed cus we gat no much time to give them the news in detail, but the problem is where do we run to at this hour of the night?

….Episode 9….

Vincent brought the idea that we should hid somewhere, but kola object him saying it might be very risky cus the monster is very powerful and it moves with wind, we all agree to what kola says,then we put on our touch and we start running, but the problem is we don’t even know maybe we are running towards his direction or not cus the sound keep booming louder and louder.

The day was actually getting brighter, but the moon is still very visible, then something told me we should stop running else we will fall into the deadly monster’s trap,immediately I told everyone to stop running and but some of them disagree saying it’s too dangerous to stop, I warned them that running is more dangerous than stopping after giving them enough excuse, they finally agreed, we all hid ourselves in the bush, then we saw the monster coming from where we all were actually running to..

Cynthia : ah! Tank God o, naso we for enter him hands ni
Me : I told you
Kola : so what’s next now?
Me : the search continues ‎
Vincent : so which direction do we go now ?
Me : we head west
Kola : no , let’s take east
Me : why?

Kola : cus right from the beginning of this search, you have been directing us as you wish and we won’t take that from you, we are not your slaves and you are not even the strongest here, if you wana lead you have to fight for it..now prove yourself strong (getting ready for a fight)

Me : kola, am not trying to lead am just doing what the spirit tells me,so why are you guys getting upset?
Sege : ben we don’t want you as the leader if you want to lead, then take up the challenge
Chris b : yes ben take up the challenge
Me : ok, I agree with you guys, let kola lead..
Kola : good!we head east and it’s high time we defend ourselves we what we have, we don’t have to run always,‎
Me : kola no let’s just keep running we all know we have 4 days left for this search and that has possibly tell us that we don’t have much time.

Vincent : hey ben just shut up, u coward..
We followed what kola said, then we get to a river bank, the water is as pure as a crystal clear glass, but to me, it’s as black as a charcoal.. then everyone try to drink from it..I quickly remind them of what the herbalist man told us,yet they never listen then Chris jumped into it and drank out of it, as he was trying to show others that the water is safe , something strange happened..

….Episode 10….

A fish-like creature appeared before him and drag him down the water, he screamed for help but it’s too late cus the water is already soaked with his blood..then we started running, at this point Cynthia was actually crying while others were scared of what actually happened

Sege : guys see this journey don tire me o,e be like say I go return back home o, no be by force to get money o
Me : Sege u know that’s not possible naw
Blanny : yes, you know wetin we see before we reach here, now only you wan waka go back
Cynthia : Sege please stay na
Sege : no
Kola : guy no do like this na, we go soon see wetin we want
Sege ; after all of us die finish abi? Laye!

Sege turned and walked away, we all did our best to stop him but he never agree to that, we all stand and watch him wade away from our sight. Then kola ordered that we keep moving, we all followed his order and we keep walking till the everywhere start getting dark..
Then I saw some strange creatures moving before us, I can see them from were I was standing but others can’t..

Me : kola! So where do we go from here?
Kola : its almost dark, let’s sleep over till tomorrow
Me : but this area is very dangerous, we can’t stay here
Kola : but we can’t start moving at this dark hour..
Me : kola this area is dangerous, please let’s look for another place to sleep
Kola : no we stay here, and it’s high time you followed my orders cus am the leader, okay?
Me : leader? We are all equal here cus no one appoints a boss when we were starting this quest so stop seeing yourself as one…

I said and walked away, everyone walked towards where kola asked them to sleep,then I interrupt them…
Me : guyz, you all should listen now and attentively, that place you all are heading to is very dangerous and full of evil, even if you all can’t see it, I can. You all should learn that we don’t have any leader here, we are all the same cus I see no reason why one should start acting like the boss when everyone is dying, if you want to follow kola’s order, that’s alright but am just saying mine just to avoid evil..

Kola : ben just shut up,what you all need is a secure protection, and not just an oral protection now if you want to follow me,move this side (he said pointing to his left side )
But to my greatest surprise, everyone followed him

Kola : Mr Benjamin, you see for yourself now, the choice is yours, stay or die alone…
Did he actually called my full name? It’s been long someone called me that, anyways no lele, I have no choice I followed them, as we approach the spot those spirit start hiding themselves..

….Episode 11….

I was really scared but what can I do to save everyone’s life..
As we were preparing to sleep, kola ordered that me and Vincent should guide the area, suddenly the wind started rumbling with most of our belonging, the light wents off and I know evil is coming..

Then we saw lights surrounding us, before we could fight back, they had already surround us and we have no choice than to follow what they say..they all step forward ,and that was when I could get the clear picture of how they look, they all have four eyes (two in front and two behind) , four hands, two legs and one mouth…

The tallest one among them step out of their midst..he walked closer and he gave us a dirty smile,he ordered them to take us away, and others did, they took us to their kingdom where they all live, as we were passing by I over heard them talking to eachother, though others didn’t understand what they were actually saying but I Do..

They tied us behind a tall building with all kinds of human skull and odours smell, and they all left us there, after they left us we start communicating..
Cynthia was the first to brake the silence

Cynthia : *crying * I don’t know why I decide to join this search o, Vincent it’s your fault o
Vincent : how is it my fault and why are u blaming me gan? Shey my sister no die ni?
Kola : you guys should stop all this rubbish! No one is going to die, all we need is to look for a way out of this s–t..
Blanny : ben, talk put nah, Shey u no see anything ni?

I stood silent for over five minutes, that was when I noticed that am unable to see anything cus the place they put us is a power house, no form of magic stuff work there apart from theirs, but the only thing I can do is hear what they say..

Me : guyz gobe don shelle o, I no fit see anything o
Blanny : haaaa! Try na.
Me : av tried all my best but nothing happened
Vincent : am not surprise to hear that sha, cus I never for once believe all u have been saying..
Me : what do you mean?

Vincent : what I mean is very simple, you are not the seer and that’s the truth, cus if u are why don’t you see my sister’s death, why can’t you save her?
Me : what’s this idiot saying, Don’t you have sense at all, even the few I see, do you guys follow it? I might be the seer but I can only see I can’t save..
Kola : heey you guyz should stop this and be calm for once..all we need is the way out

As this was going on two of them came in and they took Cynthia away

Our thoughts were all strange, at first cus we all know they are going to kill her, but what will they do with her body is our best concern, the hilarious part of it is we all can’t do anything to save her life from the evil hands of the demons who took her away.. with eyes full of tears blanny asked me what the monsters where actually saying when they were taking Cynthia away.. I gave him a quizzical look before I could proffer a suitable answer to that…

Me : the one standing on her left side was saying she looks good for their king while the second one was saying she will look good for nice soup, yet their opinions don’t count. It’s about what they are taking her for..
Vincent : I don’t believe what you are saying..
Me : and I never begged you to do so..
Kola : you guys should just stop this madness, it’s really annoying, let’s look for a way out of this problem, we can’t just stand here and let them feed on us like chicken..

Blanny : yes o, even if I go die I go still try fight like man o
Me : so what do you guyz suggest?
Blanny : I have an idea, one of us will pretend as if he is dead and we will scream and let them notice this, once they are here, we will let them untie him so he will fight dem and quickly untie us, we all will fight them and we run out of here..
Me : hahaha, Blanny you no well I swear, u wan fight monsters with four hands and two eyes without weapon and spiritual support, how on earth will you win the battle?

Kola : Blanny forget about the idea it won’t work, let’s keep thinking of what to do before its too late, we don’t know who next they will come for..
Me : I have a suggestion
Kola : let’s hear you out
Me : ok, I could recall one of those things the herbalist man told us to say when ever we are in danger
Blanny : you be mumu o, why u no remember since..?
Me : you be fool, your brain no de there to remember am?
Blanny : na you be seer na
Me : seer kill you for me.

Kola : ben abeg no mind that fool, pls do it
Blanny : oya nah, time no de abeg..
Me : ok but I don’t know how it works sha o, cus na that time one goat whey no gree talk anything go come begin put all d blame for my head o.
Kola : forget jorh, do wetin you go do.

Then I start reciting what the herbalist man told us, I did that for the first time and nothing happened, the second time, and finally the third time and within a blink of an eye everyone got loosed, instantly we all get up and prepare to run.Then we saw someone coming from the entrance..
See gobe o

….Episode 13….

Omg! It’s one of them blanny said, we all stand and none of us took a step forward, where do you think you are going? He asked in their gibberish language of which I interpret immediately after he concluded his statement, we stood mute and didn’t utter a word. Then we saw some set creature coming from behind, they were actually two . One of them was holding a big pole with his two hands but what amuse us about this was those set of creature where actually humans, but the question is who could they be?..

The one holding a long pole try to hit the monster with it but, before he could the monster caught him and he smashed him down, it was then we could get the clear picture of who that was..”its sege blanny echoed in his high pitched tenor voice ” .and Cynthia was the second person following him, how could this be ?(I thought )
But this is not the right time to ask questions

Without no much time wasting we all stormed the monster and we successfully killed him without no much stress..we ran as fast as we could just to get out of their kingdom before day brake…

After 30 minutes of running, finally we are out of their reach.. we all sat under a big tree fully exhausted and panting hard…for about 5 minutes no one was able to utter a word cus we are all tired..but Vincent finally broke the silent

Vincent : sege how you take do am nah, we think say you don die o
Sege : me die, that one no be this year nah
Blanny : how did you do it, how u take know say dose things catch us

sege : ok, on my way going back, I lost track and I don’t even know where I was heading to, so I started crying like a baby cus I know one of those evil monsters will surely come for me. I decide to sit under a big tree waiting for my death, at first I dozze off then I begin to hear some strange sound approaching where I was sleeping..i quickly stood up and hide behind a big tree, then I saw some set of monsters passing by I was wondering where they were heading to until I saw you guyz being arrested by them, so I began to follow them, till they got to their village that’s all..

Me : but how did you get cynthia and how did you save her
Sege : immediately I got to their village, I traced down where they keep you guyz and I saw them taking cynthia to some where else, so I followed them and I wait till they left her there! I fought with the last one standing next to her and I killed him, Before I could saved her..so she followed me down to where they tied you all, but to my greatest surprise, I saw all of you standing in front of the monster , so I quickly attack him.

Kola : hmmmm sege, you try o.. if no be you and Ben we no know wetin go happen next o .
Blanny : guyz! Look seems something is coming..

….Episode 14….

We all stood up with our last strength and try to run, then the creature quickly raise her hands telling us not to run, but we no believe yet we still wan run..

Blanny : make we no run na
Sege : you de craze? Why we no go run?
Blanny : you no see say na human being?
Kola : fool, you don forget say na igbo irumole you de?
Vincent : ask am o, how you wan take see human being here? Guyz abeg prevention is better than cure o..

Me : Guyz let’s wait, I don’t see evil behind her, she is not a monster
Cynthia : if she no be monster, who she come be? Ben you sure say you de alright?
Me : guy trust me on this, let’s wait.
Vincent : mehn! This ben na fool o,make we de wait for another monster because u just help us comot for one monster hand abi?
Kola : guyz let’s calmdown, ben you communicate with her and we will stay behind you…

Kola stylishly pushed me forward and they all went behind a tree to watch the drama, the creature move a bit closer and she stopped, it’s actually a human but the face is not familiar, she is a beautiful as omotola, I was lost and charmed by her beautiful body before when she summoned me back to my senses with her low pitch soprano voice ..

Lady : hey! Ben..
Me : how did you know my name and what do you want from us *in a scared tone*
Lady : you have spent 5 days here and you still don’t have the idea of who I could be. I want to help you all.
Me : why do you want to help us *still scared*
Lady : calm down, I mean no harm..
Me : who are you?
Lady : am moremi, the goddess of beauty
Me : moremi?
Moremi: yes
Me : ok so tell me what you want from us.
Moremi : right from the first day you all entered this forest, I have been watching your movements , I have seen how the evil monsters of this forest had been killing some of you since, but I congratulate all of you for getting to this point, you all have 2 days left out of your given 7 days..but much evil awaits you all the closer you go in this journey..
Am here to provide the final warning for the rest of you

On hearing this others starts coming out of where they hide.. she went about explaining things to us, moremi lead us from that spot, she guide us across different kind of rivers and evil lake. Then finally she stop.

Moremi : sorry guyz I won’t be able to go further
Me : why na?
Moremi : it’s nothing but this is where I am permitted to reach, but before I go, let me give you the final warning..
SEE the stage you are is more worst than the one u have seen,but if you all could follow the instructions I gave u, all of you will survive

….Episode 15….

Tears almost drop from my eyes as she was expressing herself, I will surely miss her cus with the couple of days we have spent, she has been my constant companion all time, she love talking to me alone and most time we discuss about our differences which is the human world and the monsters world.

Moremi : I know it’s too early to say goodbye, if possible I would follow you down to where the egg of life is, but it’s not my fault, you all should forgive me.

Before I go, let me tell you about the egg of life. The egg of life is being layed once in one thousand years and it’s being protected by the most powerful monster in this forest called ojiji (shadow)..no living soul enter there and comes out.

Ojiji is very powerful that even all monsters in this forest is afraid of see him.

Me : but how are we going to get the egg since the monster is very powerful?
Moremi : the only way you can get the egg is if he is asleep, cus he only sleep once in two hundred years, and he has his eyes all over the egg even when he is sleeping, the egg is being connected to his heart, so if you touch it he will know ..

Blanny : so what can we do to get the egg from him, and how do we know if the two hundred years was yesterday or even one hundred years to come?

Moremi : the seventh day of your journey makes it two hundred years, so he will sleep in two days time.. the only creature that knows how to get the egg from Ojiji, is called ogbon (wisdom)

Ogbon is the wisest creature in this forest and he is the only one that has faced Ojiji and make it home safely..

Kola : so how do we get to meet ogbon?
Moremi : ogbon lives untop of the highest mountain in this forest, that’s it (she point at a high mountain before us) that’s where he lives.
Vincent : for how long shall will it take us to get there?
Moremi : one day journey..so you have one day to get to ogbon and convince him to show u the secret of the egg of life..

Me : is that all?
Moremi : no, from now on, oneness is your power, always do everything in one mind..i think you should start going cus you don’t have much time..

…. Episode 16 ….

She conclude her statements and she bid us farewell and safe journey..we start moving towards the mountain till she finally disappeared, we didn’t encounter much problem on our way to ogbon’s place cus he always try to secure his territory..

Finally we get to the mountain, to my greatest surprise, everything is being set for easy climbing, cus we climbed the mountain very fast and with much ease. he is truly the wisest creature here (I said to myself). We got to the entrance and we saw two identical people standing in the entrance of his gate..

Me :this must be his guards (I said to others..)
Sege : but why are they much alike?…
Cynthia : maybe they are twin
Vincent : na true sha.. see as them resemble.
Kola : abeg make we waka, no time to check time..

We got there, we greet them but they didn’t answer, we greet them for the second time before one of them asked who we were looking for. We are here to see ogbon I quickly replied.. for what? The second asked..

Kola : we are here to seek for his advice
Guard 1 : what advice does a human needs from a gods ?
Me : wisdom advice sir..please let us in we don’t have much time..

They both looked at themselves and let us in, we enter the compound and we walked for almost 5 hours before we could get to his main entrance..

Sege : nawa o, this one self teey pass the one whey we spend from our previous spot to the mountain.
Blanny : nawa for this ogbon self jare. See night don reach before we even fit see him door.
Kola : this one na real ogbon, the name and everything fit am..
Vincent : like seriously..

We got to the door and it opens, but what we saw made everyone of us opened our mouth wide.. everyone in the building look exactly identical, no difference, the same voice, and eyes. everything were the same no different..

Cynthia : How person wan take know who be ogbon among them now..
Me : don’t worry let’s keep walking..

We entered and we keep walking down till finally we saw, a young handsome calm looking guy, of about 25 years old sitting patiently on a sofa chair..this must be ogbon I said.. No am ogbon someone else answered..

….Episode 17….

We all look back and we saw someone not different from others, he was sitting on a wooden chair busy writing something best known to him…

Me : good evening sir
Ogbon : welcome to my castle, to what do I worth such visit from the outside world?
Kola : we actually come to seek for your help
Ogbon : my help? What help would a human want from a gods who live for thousands years viewing his image day and night?
Me : it’s about the egg of life..

When he hears this, he stop writing and he looked up, his eyes were as white as a snow, so pulsating and beautiful, he doesn’t look like someone who has spent thousands of years one earth, he looks even younger than me..

Ogbon : what did you just say?
Me : we came to seek for your advice on how to get the egg of life out of the hands of ojiji..
Ogbon : do you people know what you are saying? The egg of life is connected to ojiji’s heart, once it’s been touched, he will automatically get there within 30 seconds
Me : yes we know

Ogbon : and you still want it? Do you know how powerful ojiji is? Do you have any idea of what he can do? And what do you all intend to do with the egg of life?
Me : yes we know everything about ojiji, and the egg is to be use to save our dying king’s life.(I lied)
Ogbon : you might know everything about ojiji, but you don’t know one thing
Me : what could that be?
Ogbon : the egg of life is ojiji’s external heart, once someone gets it from him, ojiji will have to wait for another 1000 years before he could get another one, that should tell you how much he will safeguard the egg.

Me : yes we know you are the only one who could help us and that’s why we are here to see you.
Ogbon : sorry I can’t help you guys, go on your own and die alone in the claws of ojiji..
Me : good and fine, if that’s what you want, but before he kill me, will I be able to say a few words to him?

Ogbon : yes, he will let you speak.
Me : good and fine, I will let him know we visit you and you are also part of the plan, let’s see how you survive his wrath this time..
on hearing this, Ogbon stood up with much anger, his eyes turned to red instantly, his hairs began to burn like fire.

….Episode 18….

Immediately others started moving back, all his guard surround us, everyone was actually blaming me for saying such word.

But I know everyone in this forest is scared of ojiji, so ogbon is also part of them. I know he will surely fall for the trick, even the boldest creature on earth is scared of death, that I know for sure. Ogbon move closer to me, he starred at me for about three minutes.

Ogbon : who are you? Are you a god or how do you reason like a god, how did you made the wisest creature on earth fall without the help of the creator?..talk.
Me : am not a god, my name is Benjamin Watson, but what I told you is what am going to tell ojiji if you refuse to help us. (i said boldly)

At this point others keep mute as they watch me battle in the realm of wisdom with the wisest being on earth..

Ogbon : ok what do you want from me?
Me : show us how to get the egg of life without the awareness of ojiji.
Ogbon : ok I will show you.. but the only way you can enter the gate to where egg of life is, is by solving some riddles by the spirit of riddles..once the riddles is answered correctly, then you will have free access to the egg, you will have to be very fast cus once you get the egg, you will hold your breath before you touch the egg till you get out of the cave, so this is when your oneness works, when you breath ojiji will be automatically alerted. I will have to go with you but after you entered, I will take my leave.

Kola : thank you sir..
Ogbon : don’t thank me yet, thank me after I fulfill my promise..we don’t have much time, ojiji would be asleep now..lets go..

We all walked out of the building as ogbon lead the journey, one our way going, Cynthia keep asking ogbon some set of funny questions which he answered correctly. This ogbon wise o.. we walked all night till finally we got to ojiji’s cave..
Ogbon : here we are..all of you should stay behind me, and final warning for you all, when I finally leave you , no one should take anything apart from what you are here for..

We all echoed okay, then we followed him as he entered the cave..
Me : why don’t ojiji have soldiers?
Ogbon : ojiji is like me, we don’t trust anyone aside from ourselves.. that’s why you see everyone in my castle looks identical..
Me : ok..but why ain’t there no door here?..
Ogbon : cus there is no need for one..

I was still wondering why there were no door on the way down to where egg of life is, when something tall and huge appeared..oh! This is the monster we saw one our way down here..

….Episode 19….

We all step back, and ogbon step forward and face him.

Ogbon : that’s why there is no need for door here..
Me : but we met this monster on our way here
Ogbon : yes, did you wait for him?
Me : no we ran
Ogbon : you guys are lucky, cus if you wait before he attacks you, he will ask you some couple of riddles, if you get it correctly, he will leave you alone, but if you get it wrong you have your stars to blame..

The spirit of riddle move forward

Spirit of riddle ; to what do I offer the wisest being alive for his visit..
Ogbon : free entry for my friend
Spirit of riddle : ok, are you ready for the test?
Ogbon : bring it on
Spirit of riddle : I am something, I don’t have live, no one see me, no hear from me, but I am the hope of the poor, the rich and everything alive, what am i?

Ogbon think for a while and answered

Ogbon : faith
Spirit of riddle : wrong..
He hit ogbon very bad.. Ogbon fell and roll in pain.
Ogbon : power
Spirit of riddle ; wrong..
He gave him another punch and this time ogbon was actually bleeding

Me ; stttoop!!! Please give him last chance … Ogbon please calm down and think like human, if you keep thinking like gods you will fail the question..

Ogbon calm for a while and he thinks deep! Then finally he answered..
Ogbon : tomorrow..
Spirit of riddle : correct…you have the free access to pass..

Immediately he vanished out of our way..

Me : ogbon I trust you, I know you can do it,..

I hugged him, as he smiled..finally the door is opened, and ogbon says it time for him to leave..he turned and leave us to decide our faith on our own..we entered and see the egg, but right beside it were golds diamonds and all kinds of beautiful and glittering chains, bangles and jewelries..

Vincent : mehn! This is great..
Blanny : omo! This one no be here o!

They both try to pick out of the jewelries, but I quickly cautioned them about what ogbon said, they turned deaf ears to my say and started picking the stuffs.

Me : Blanny, Vincent you guys should drop those stuff before its too late.
Blanny : tarrh.. for where? Do you want my suffering down to this place to be in vain? Never
Me : you two should stop na..kola talk to them..

Kola : ben free dem na..let them enjoy themselves..
Blanny : don’t you get the message?..i promised my dad that the next time I will visit him would probably be with a car, so this is my chance of making it big..

As they continue picking the jewelries, suddenly the jewelries in their pockets began to transform to scorpions..

….Episode 20….

Those scorpions began to increase, within a short period of time.. both blanny and Vincent were consumed to skeleton by the scorpions.. Cynthia wants to scream but I quickly caution her not to try such, cus it might be very dangerous..

Me ; kola, shey you know it’s your fault?
Kola : how?
Me : if to say u support me, dose guys go still de alive now .
Kola : oga it’s their choice, that’s what they wished for so stop blaming me..
Me : listing to yourself, wetin you talk make sense for your ears abi..?
Kola : wetin, shey u wan come beat me ni abi why you de shout like goat self?

We started exchanging strong words as we were about to exchange punches, cynthia and sege intervene.. they quickly summon us about what we were there for..i looked at kola and hissed, I lead the group to the egg, on getting to the egg I hold my breath and lift it, I start moving fast and I stretched it to sege, he instantly collect it and walked for 5 minutes, he stretched it to kola, kola also hold it for another 5 minutes, and he gave it to cynthia, she also moved for 5 minutes..

This continued simultaneously till we get to the exit door, at this time the egg was with me, we walked out of the cave and head straight to the forest, as we were moving, I heard a loud roar…

Me : let’s run faster guyz, ojiji is awake..

Immediately we started running, suddenly it starts raining..ojiji is chasing after us let’s keep running. I said at the top of my voice..

Cynthia : ben abeg, I no get strength to run again, I don taya..
Me : tire for this kind time? please try we will soon be out of this.
Cynthia : no I can’t! Please let’s hide..
Sege : cynthia try nah, u can do it
Cynthia : no I can’t..
Kola : ok let me back you..

Kola immediately backed cynthia and we start running till we get to a river bank, at first we wants to enter the river, but I told them not to cus, ojiji might caught us in the process of doing that..

Sege : ok what’s next now?
Me : calm down, am looking for an idea..
Kola : ben abeg be fast o, we are running out of time..
Me : chill nigga..
Cynthia : let’s enter this water, we don’t have much time .
Me : you guys should trust me on this, muna chill
Cynthia : ok o..

I start thinking of what to do..then suddenly two old women appeared, one was standing in front of the water whilst the other was standing in her opposite.. who are those one’s again?.. I asked myself..but I Can’t find a profitable answer to that..

The one standing at the bank of the river asked us to swim pass the water, while the other asked us to wait and face ojiji.. wetin man go do now ooo… Ahahaha!! na wa o!… Guys guess what happened next?

To Be Continued Tomorrow… Watch out!!!