Calabash of the gods (5)

“Aaaargh!!!” I screamed in agony as blood spurted from my shoulder. I told myself to stay calm and stop the bleeding before I died but the pain was overwhelming my senses.

“It hurts, by the gods it hurts. That bastard, I will kill It.”

“Good, this works. I originally wanted to take your head. Maybe it is better this way. Next, I will take your other arm, then your legs, your tongue, your eyes, and your genitals. I will make you scream in agony before I take your life for what you have done to us, this I promise you. Wait, you have family in ILE right, kakaka? I will track them done, rape the women and eat the children, right before your eyes before I finally kill you and consume your soul. You will suffer pain for all eternity, you hear me, MORTAL!!!” It gloated and taunted me while licking my blood off Its ax. It was fully intent on breaking my spirit and making me suffer in the worst way possible. But this had the opposite effect, for it made me much more furious and determined.

Images of Aduke, bleeding on the floor came to mind, of Akanni, his neck broken, his innocent eyes confused came to mind and an unbelievable amount of strength erupted from me. My Agbara now invigorated, flowed to my left shoulder and stopped the bleeding. I tore a piece of my cloth, tied it to the stuff, and then lifted my eyes to glare at my opponent. I pointed towards him with my other arm and egged him on to come at me.

“KAKAKA, have it your way mortal.” It cackled, before striking the same pose as earlier. Before it could bring Its ax down, I was already in front of him. I bent down and passed in between his thighs and got behind him.

His ax hit the ground and there was a flash of light and a thunderous boom. Lightning from the ax struck the position I was at initially. Seeing my plan work out, I smirked before fetching a dagger from my bag. Before the Egungun could react, I used my sword to slash behind Its exposed knees, severing Its tendons there.

‘Even if you won’t die after getting your head sliced off, I should still be able to make you unable to move. You substitute your prior maneuverability for strength, fool, now you pay the price.’ I smirked as I jumped away from Its back. I swung Its ax at Its back to get rid of me but fell to the ground, unable to move properly.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?” Egungun screamed in fury.

‘That being said, how can I defeat it? It's only a matter of time before it comes up with a solution for its legs. My machete is a bit far away, I can reach it with ease but I will have an ax flying toward me for sure. Do I burn it? But the rest of my powder is not enough to burn something of this size. Is the machete my only option?’ I pondered on my next move while dodging another swing of the ax. 

All of a sudden, I felt a burning sensation coming from my bag. I reached into it to grab what was releasing such energy only to be shocked. The originally inactive black calabash was now glowing red, the motifs, carvings, and drawings on it glowed eerily. I felt a resonance with it and I knew what to do next. I dodged another attack and dashed toward my machete. 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING, COME BACK HERE, MORTAL,” Egungun screamed and threw his ax toward me.

But it was all a feint, before I reached my machete, I suddenly changed directions and dashed to my left. The ax missed me and moved on to cleave a nearby tree in half before embedding itself in a rock.

“WHAT!?” It shouted in shock, not expecting me to perform a feint. I used this moment to dash toward my severed arm.

‘Fool, you should have used your lightning attack. Or maybe it's dependent on that posture of yours and with your leg like that, you cannot use it? I hope this works out well.’

I grabbed my severed arm, brought out the calabash, applied my Agbara to it, and placed the arm on top. All of a sudden, there was a ping sound and the calabash stopped glowing.

“WE ACCEPT YOUR SACRIFICE.”  A voice boomed in my head. The arm then began to dissolve into a black liquid.

“YOU WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? HOW DID YOU ACTIVATE THE CALABASH!!!? NO MORTAL HAS ACTIVATED IT IN OVER 200 YEARS, ONLY THE FIRST MOTHER COULD DO SO.”

I had no time to respond to what It was saying, for I was dealing with my own issues. The calabash had sucked out the majority of my Agbara and its weight had drastically increased, making me drop it on the floor. It then expanded to almost ten times its former size. My severed arm had also fully dissolved into a black pool of liquid in it. There was a terrifying Agbara coming from the liquid and I dared not breathe at all, for I knew something was coming, something extremely terrifying.

“I must kill you before you can fully activate it.” Somehow, the Egungun had managed to stand up and approach me. Its giant fist raised above me, but I paid it no heed for I was terrified to the point I was glued to the spot.

“DIE MORTAL” It struck out with all its strength, clearly intending to burst my head like a watermelon. But before Its fist could reach my head, I suddenly stopped, transfixed, Its body shivering with all Its might. I knew It had sensed it too, the terrifying Agbara within the calabash.

We were both still shivering when the black liquid started to slosh and churn, then there was a voice.

Yawn. “It’s been a while since any request was made through this calabash. The sacrifice was a paltry one though.” A lazy voice came out of the calabash.

Then to the nightmare of them both, something began to come out of the liquid. At first, they could not make it out, then it started to look like bones but with an odd golden color. After a few seconds, the thing was in full view, it was the arm of a skeleton, it was reddish gold in color and it was encrusted with all sorts of precious stones from sapphire to diamonds and rubies.

“I guess with that little sacrifice, this is the only amount that can manifest huh?”

“Hmm, what do we have here, my contractor and a little vengeful spirit, hmm, no rather an amalgamation of vengeful spirits into a vessel. What a horrible thing to do to the spirits of one’s ancestors.”

The Egungun began to move back in fear, then as if more determined to kill me, It swung Its fist at me again. 

Clang. Its fist was unable to reach me, it was stopped by a golden barrier before it could touch me.

Clang, Clang, Clang. It kept punching the barrier in fear.

“Sorry little spirit, I cannot let you kill my contractor. K@33#$ would never let me hear the end of it.”   

  Burst. The left hand of the Egungun suddenly burst into pieces. It cried out in pain and clutched the arm.

“Hmm, I guess that’s the extent of power I have here. Mortal, you gave a shitty sacrifice, I originally intended to destroy Its entire body just now.”

The Egungun did a 180 turn and then began to run away from the entity. It had moved more than a few steps when It came to a stop. It just stood there as if time itself had stopped.

“Where do you think you're going, little spirit? Sorry, but the will of his heart is for you to be dead, besides I have not come out in a long time, so I intend on stretching my bones for a bit. Kakaka.” The entity from the calabash cackled evilly. Even I paled at how menacing It was.

“Hey kid, can I kill It?” The hand turned towards me and its voice asked me.

Snapping out of my fear, I shouted “Kill It Great one.”

“Kakaka. As you wish”

The Egungun began to turn around like a broken puppet, first Its head turned with a snap then its arms and the rest of Its body. It slowly levitated towards the jeweled skeleton.

“ANCIENT ONE, STAR SLAYER, GOD-BORN. I AM THE ANCESTRAL SPIRIT GUARDIAN OF RIVERLAND’S SHO-OMO CLAN. OUR FAMILY AND ITS DESCENDANTS HAVE STOOD WATCH OVER THE CALABASH OF THE GODS FOR YEARS. IT WAS STOLEN BY THIS HEATHEN OF A MORTAL, PLEASE DO NOT HEED HIS REQUESTS!”

“Be silent!! How dare a lowly spirit like you dare to order me.”

“BUT WE HAVE HAD AN AGREEMENT WITH THE ENTITIES OF THE CALABASH.”

“I do not care about whatever agreement your clan made in the past. Besides, that was not me, for we are plentiful on this side. Just shut and die peacefully.” The entity said softly.

 Its hand clenched and the vessel of the Egungun began to make creaking sounds. The legs, the arms, and the head snapped inwards, and the rest of the body began to slowly contort and compress until it was a ball-like shape. The vessel was making all sorts of agonizing cries.

“O shut up, will you? You’re a spirit being aren’t you, stop whining. Hmm, I guess some of the remnant spirits of the vessel might be left in the body, thereby allowing It to feel some pain.”

The hand unclenched and the ball of wailing flesh slowly levitated to it. The bejeweled hand grasped the ball and began to pull it inside the calabash amidst the pleading cries of the Egungun.

As It dragged the ball into the churning black liquid, the entity spoke to me. “Child, my job is finished. Be grateful to whoever gave you primal force, I can feel it in your Agbara. It is probably that child’s scent, if not for that, I would have taken your life for that paltry sacrifice.”

  Those were the last words it spoke to me as it dragged the ball of flesh into the calabash completely. I offered no thanks for I was still gripped by Its presence. The calabash had shrunk down to normal by the time I mustered the courage to pick it up.

I picked it up, still apprehensive and contemplating if I should be carrying something that dangerous around.

“Princess, just what in god's name are you planning on using this for? The beings within this thing are not meant to be trifled with.” I said to no one in particular. My brows were creased, still contemplating. But my loyalty to the mission won out in the end and I put the ominous calabash back in the bag.

I had hardly taken a step when I fell over. I was feeling feverish and weak all of a sudden. I turned over to look at the bleeding stump on my shoulder.

‘Shit I exhausted my Agbara, causing the bleeding to start again. The wound is probably infused with miasma, I should take care of it quickly.’

I grit my teeth while pulling on my cloth, tearing another piece of it. I reach for my bag for some herbs. I remove the former cloth and tie the new one tightly around the injury, to stop the bleeding. I chew some of the herbs into a paste, swallowing some and applying the rest to the arm. I should make the blood clot faster and ward off some of the miasma.

I walked over to a tree drowsily and slumped down underneath it. I tried to keep my eyes open but the exhaustion and the loss of blood and fever weakened me to the point that I could barely open my eyes.

‘I hope I dream of them again.’ I said as my eyes slowly closed and I drifted off into the land of dreams.

“WAKE UP!!”  A voice boomed, jolting me awake. I stood up and surveyed my surroundings with caution but eventually calmed down when I saw no one. I tried to remember what I was doing here.

‘I encountered those Egungun and I fought them. I ended up summoning something from within the calabash.’ I staggered over to where my machete was as I recalled the event before I slept off.

‘I must have slept for a while. The sun is already setting and my fever is already gone. It’s a miracle I survived at all.’ I thought as I pulled out my machete from the ground. I took a moment to look at my arm. It had already healed and the wound had become a stump. I was flabbergasted but decided not to think too much about how it had happened.

‘It's not a bad idea to just rest here for the night. I just need to get some water and some food to eat. Tomorrow morning, I will enter the ILE.’ But my thoughts were interrupted by some noise and the rustling of bushes.

“Over here I found footprints.” One voice said

“Are you sure?” Another one asked.

“Yes, this must be the place, the place that Sarumi’s spirit hawk saw evidence of fighting in.”

Hearing the voices, my instincts took over and I went to hide behind a tree. ‘Who are these people? Nobody ever treads this path and they are armed with torches. Wait a minute, one mentioned a spirit hawk, right? I cannot be, in the Okunkun division. They found me this quickly and left their ambush point at the valley. They must have some Oracle or Oracle charm with them.’

One of the men got closer to the site of my earlier battle and It was only a matter of time before they found me. I decided there and then to run for it, forget waiting here for the night. I was going to run for the borders of ILE right now.

I made my presence as minute as possible and I tiptoed away from the site of the battlefield. When I was far away enough, I mobilized my Agbara and concentrated it on my legs.

Boom. I ran for the border with the agility of a cheetah and the force of a rhino. The sound alerted my pursuers who began to bark orders to one another.

“Gods, he is here. You'll run towards the border quickly and cut him off!!”

It was of no use, for I was already far away before they could react. My newly unlocked Agbara gave me the agility and the stamina to outrun a cheetah. Within twenty minutes, I was already at the border. I leaped over the border, there were no garrisons in this area since it had long been abandoned.

After another twenty minutes of running, I was exhausted but determined for before me, was a village, the first I had seen in weeks.

The lights from oil lamps around the village told me one thing, and that was that I was home.

I walked towards the village with a smile on my face, my mission almost complete.

“Aduke, Akanni, wait for me, mo n bo. Mo ti wanle.”

END