Scenerymania entry; predator and prey part 1

Predator and prey

Men, they would never stop amazing me with
their disbeliefs. My name is Orunmila and if you
should ask a Yoruba man who I am, he would
ask you to ask the next Ifa priest you see. So
that faithful afternoon the sun that glared across
the dense forest that I peeped at was a real
bother. Falade was there, at the lighter entrance
of the forest. He was pointing to the dense
undergrowth, just beneath a tall dongoyaro tree;
“the lion shall appear from there,” he told them.
They looked at where he pointed, it was barely lit,
and the undergrowth only got a fraction of the
initial sunlight from above. Then beyond the
thick denseness were further darkness, it wasn’t
that dark further inward as the undergrowth
faded, but see, nobody dared explored as falade
mention of a lion scared everybody. Falade was
indeed a demi-god as we made him one, the
skeptical minds of humans, believes only a man
born of a god can be a demi-god, but see; we
can bestow a common man the power of a demi-
god and he becomes one. I remember that
meeting that we held at the god’s chamber at the
beautiful rainbow cloud, I remember I and
orunmila merging our powers to create a light,
however it was not just any light but a visionary light.
So we looked through our telescope and saw
falade, he was sleeping in his room and we saw
nothing short of his heart of good. We imagined
that if he wields that power he would do nothing
but help a whole lot of people out of their earthly
mysteries. So that night, as he slept calmly in his
room, we let the visionary light descend upon
him, it impacted him, merged with his soul and
behold; a new demi-god was born. He himself
didn’t know except from then on, he had dreams
that came true. So everyone saw him as some
kind of shrink, and visions as you know are not
always positive and when he had those negative
visions and he let them be known, Confused men
thought he was their source of bad luck, like his
imaginations somewhat created their reality. So
even with his very good heart Falade began
having enemies. They seemingly waited for the
right moment to get at him. The three men
though founding falade’s procurement to be
ridiculous as the existence of any lion within that
area ought to have been reported long ago. They
yet couldn’t help it but want to see it through, so
they waited patiently even though the soon
falade claimed was getting too long to be soon.
The sign falade was waiting for was the fall of a
huge brown leaf and the sign had already shown
thirty minutes ago. In his dream the lion showed
like just five minutes away from the falling of the
huge leaf. However what he failed to realize is the
fact that the time frame in a dream land is so
disproportionate and is often graded with our
own imagination. So, one minute in a dreamland
could be actually more or less depending on how
we assumed it was when we wake. The sky was
getting a mild overcast and the resulting gloom
was getting the waiting men on an edge but see;
They couldn’t see what I see as the lion was
already nearbyas it showed its mane leaden
face, in pursuit of a very big mole. The men,
seeing the lion was actually surfacing screamed
and took to their heels and the startled lion too
dashed to the comforting gloom of the forest.
Falade however stood his ground, he knew there
would be no causalities, however he needed to
show some of his village men what dangers
impends in the forest and that they needed to be
careful when they venture into the forest. So after
the day’s event, Falade receded home to enjoy
the comfort of its serenity. The next day however
he was awaken by the sound of the village
square gong.
Falade rose grudgingly from his bed and headed
straight to the village square, the village square
gong was hardly sounded but when it was,
important information was to be passed across
to village men. He found himself among some
hundred men and he was quite indifferent from
the others as his shabbily look adequately
pointed to the fact that most off the men were
actually woken by the sounded gong.
The village king, the old man with the golden
crown; everybody respects him, especially as he
serve his men heartily. However we the gods
aren’t that pleased with him as he was of low
beliefs. He ascended the village square’s VIP
platform, a raised platform built by the village
youths, out of the oak trees that filled the forests
surrounding the village. He found the royal
corner, where stood a fancy crane chair which he
heaved into to face his village men.
“My people,’ his royal voice rattled, It was
brought to my attention that a vicious animal
now roam the forest of Igando. The animal we all
call lion. Therefore I had arranged for a team of
hunters that will help us hunt down this animal.”
He swiveled his head left to the sturdy Otun, he
then signaled somewhat to him. The robust man
simply signaled and of course the men he
signaled to understanding him perfectly walked
out of the crowd to ascend the platform. “Here
they are; he said pointing to the armed men
standing in a line facing the crowd. The men were
all middle aged and Raji, the most skillful of the
men was a respected hunter as he had hunted
down several big animals in the past. Everybody
cheered the men that stood in front of them
except Falade, He blamed himself for risking the
life of the little lion. “Tomorrow, he continued.
The team will set out on the hunt. All they need from
you are your good wishes. May they return safe
and victorious.
“Amen” the crowd echoed.
The king returned to his palace, the team
descended and the crowd dispersed. Minutes
later Falade was back home, but see; this young
man was very troubled. He was still bitter about
the king’s decision. Obviously, our claim that he
holds a heart of good is now what turns vivid to
you. He exposed the existence of the lion only to
save his people, however he didn’t expect them
to hunt down a lion that’s done nothing wrong
yet.
That night, Falade dreamt again, he saw the lion
being killed and then certain darkness, crawling
upon the village. That scared him; the next day
he was the first to knock on the king’s door. The
man was on his throne, enjoying the company of
his royal entertainer, he gave Falade a deserved
audience, though personally he didn’t like Falade
that much. He once thought and many more
times; that what if one day, Falade approached
his people and tell them about a dream that
claims his reign would bring sorrows to his people
eventually, what if?
“So Falade, what brings you to my palace this
morning? You want to give a send forth gift to the
departing team?”
“No your highness, I actually come to warn you
about the danger involved in this hunt, you
see…………..”
“Oh! I understand your fear, but this team is quite
capable. The men are up to the task.”
“No! I didn’t mean that your highness but rather
that killing the lion will bring unexpected chaos
into the land.”
“How do you mean?” the king inquired.
“Your highness, I had this dream that after your
men killed the lion that a terrifying darkness took
over our community.”
“A dream! Falade haven’t you learned that not all
dreams are visions, even if like we all know you
actually do receive those visions; what if this
one is purely your imagination?”
“This is no imagination your highness, I feel
certain boisterousness when I get these visions.
Your highness, you got to trust me on this like
you’ve always does.”
“I’m sorry Falade, but you’ve given me no
adequate reason to want to call my team off. I
see no way in which killing a lion would cause a
chaos.”
I felt where I was, a certain jostle of my crimson
cloud, now I realized I’ve almost forgotten that
Oduduwa invited me to a feast. I smiled; my
humble cloud is always there to remind me. So
soon, I shall leave for the feast. Falade though
sees some of these visions; however it is not in
his power to seek the details. He only knows the
little we want him to know. In as much as we’ll
prefer a good time for our mortals and all, yet we
must let destiny and fate have their stay.
Falade left the king’s palace utterly disappointed,
if you’ve got good eyesight, you’ll see those
worry gather on his face. Falade wished he could
actually just find a way to reach out to the lion
and warn him. However he didn’t know his
greatest of worries was yet to come. He could
her drums, gongs and the villagers ‘songs as
they send off the hunters. Not long after they left,
he heard a knock on his door. “come in,” he said.
Then three hefty strangers came in, they had
bare chests and had linen-cotton underpants
tapered by raffia leaves. The heftiest of the men,
grabbed him like a little piece of log and flung
him unto his muscle leaden shoulder another of
the men held his kicking legs and then the third
gagged his mouth very tightly and blindfolded
him afterwards. The third man handed the
second a tape with which they tied his leg and
Falade was then carried off on the first shoulder.
My cloud trembled again I smiled at the events
down below me, I’ll go for the feast now. When I
return, you shall get the rest of the event.
To be continued………………………………………