Chapter five

As kids, Taiwo and Keyinde omo Olufunke loved themselves. The bravery in them was no match to kids of the same age range with them. Their strengths was enough to kill a lion. One day, at the age of ten, Taiwo and Keyinde when they ran out of food.

Taiwo: Mum!! Keyinde and I are ready to go hunting. We don't have meat to eat again.

Olufunke sat up on her handmade woven mat.

Olufunke: my children!!! Hmmmmmmm!!!! The gods blessings shall never leave you. They shall never seize to protect you.

Keyinde (the female): Amen! Amen!! Amen!!

Olufunke: Don't leave each other

Keyinde: Mum!! You know the kind of children you have now!!! You know the kind of love I have for my brother, it's as if he shouldn't leave my side for once...abi Taye??

Taiwo: yes oooo

He held his sister's hand sideways firmly.

Taiwo: Mum!! You know Keyinde is my àbúrò and I love her very much. I can do anything, I mean anything just to protect her and the truth is we will always be there for ourselves till death comes.

Olufunke smiled and prayed for her children's safe return.

Olufunke: okay ooo!! Almighty God will watch over you. He will protect you. Go and come back to your mother safely, I have something to discuss with you.

The yorùbá tradition believes that he who bears Keyinde is the elder while Taiwo is the younger one but this wasn't the case between Taiwo and Keyinde omo Olufunke. Keyinde began to call Taiwo her elder brother the moment she grew to noticed that he's already growing taller and stronger than her. Even that strengthened the love between them. They got to the hunting field and got their weapons ready for kill. Hmmmmmmm!! Something miraculous happened while searching for an animal to kill. A tired Keyinde spoke out after searching the whole day for a prey.

Keyinde: My brother!! Don't you think we should start heading home? We've walked all day but didn't find any prey.

Taiwo: Why are you talking like a weak person? Don't you know that going home empty handed will make mama sad?

Keyinde:Taiwo!! Taiwo!! If we tell Mama what we've passed through today to no avail, she'll understand us.

Taiwo: But I don't want us to go empty handed oooo well, let's go.

They didn't walked up to twenty footsteps when they heard the sound of an hungry predator.

Taiwo: Hold your spear firmly and none of us should leave each other.

The predator, which turned out to be a fierce looking lion, came out of it's hiding place and faced them.

Keyinde: Taiwo! What should we do?

Taiwo: Move slowly to that side. I'll make him face me.

Keyinde: Face you alone? We're here together.

Taiwo: I know we're in this together but just move to that side. I know what I'm doing. This is going to be our take home.

Keyinde moved to the spot where Taiwo said. Taiwo distracted the lion away from Keyinde and the lion pounced on him. That was the first time he utilized his Godgiven in his slim arms. He used his spear to guide the lion's mouth, protecting himself from it's bite.

Taiwo: Keyinde!! Nooooowwwwww!!!!!

Keyinde grabbed her spear and trusted it by the it's side. It died instantly, falling on Taiwo.

Keyinde: Taiwo are you there?? Taiwo!! Taiwo!!

She pushed the dead lion and found her brother looking lifeless on the ground. Keyinde was so shocked and tensed.

Keyinde: Taiwo!!! Taiwo!!

She grabbed her brother and placed his head on her chest. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

Keyinde: Taiwo!! Taiwo!! Taiwo please Taiwo please don't do this to me... don't do this to me please....I love you so much please don't die on me please!!! We got our prey already please don't let me lose you too.

He opened his eyes slowly.

Taiwo: I'm not going to die.

She sighed!!

Keyinde: Why?? Why did you do that to me?

Taiwo: It's the weight of the lion. I don't know where the strength I used to hold the it came from if not, I might be dead.

Keyinde wiped her tears and raised her brother to his feet.

Taiwo: Let's drag this thing home. Mother would be worried about her ten years old kids by now.

Keyinde: I'm taking it home myself.

Taiwo: Why?

Keyinde: You just survived the mighty weight of a lion now. Only Elédùmarè knows where the strength to survive that. I know we're strong but surviving the weight of a dead lion for you is extremely extraordinary. I'm going to ask màámi when we get home.

She made something strong enough to drag the lion home. Their worried mother sighted them from afar and ran towards them. She was shocked when she saw her son looking so weak and her daughter dragging a dead lion.

Olufunke: What!!! Where did you two see a dead lion and what's wrong with you Taiwo?

She pulled Taiwo to herself and saw bruises all over him.

Olufunke: Why is there bruises all over your body? Can't one of you give me an answer?

Keyinde: Mum!! We didn't see a dead lion, we killed a fierce lion.

Olufunke: What!!!! You killed a lion? How is it possible for ten years old children to kill a lion?

Taiwo: yes mother!!! We killed a lion.

Keyinde: Mother!! Our great ancestors really saved me today. If not, my loving brother would have died because the lion pounced on him. He used his little spear and his Godgiven strength to save himself while I trusted my spear to it's stomach.

She was shocked.

Olufunke: What!!! Why did you do that?

Taiwo: Mother!! We walked and walked in the forest to find a prey to hunt and kill but we didn't find anything. So we decided to come home and explain to you why we should have come home empty handed. We didn't walk long when the lion appeared and we decided to kill it.

She grabbed her son more closer to her.

Olufunke: Oh God!!! Hope you are not injured. Look at you?? Scratches of lion all over your body!!! Haaaaaaa!! My only son.... Keyinde get me hot water and a dried clothe.

Keyinde: Here it is mum

She treated her son.

Keyinde: Mum! I know Taiwo and I have a lot of strength deposited in our small bodies but how's it possible for us to kill a lion?

She sighed before answering her daughter.

Olufunke: It is because you'll need it survive in this jungle and when the time comes for you to raise Oluyole kingdom again.

Taiwo: Oluyole kingdom? I don't understand.

Olufunke: Oluyole kingdom was my mother's hometown and where I lived as a slave in the palace. She was a great kingdom that was conquered by small kingdom that joined forces because of the sin our ancestors committed. You two are the twin prophesied to raise Oluyole kingdom again. 

Taiwo: What was their sin?

Keyinde: Yes Mum! What was their sin?

Olufunke: They killed the blood of an innocent woman before settling down in Oluyole kingdom and now, Oluyole kingdom is no more because of that. You two must bring back Oluyole.

Both of them looked confused.

Taiwo: How are we going to bring back a kingdom that has been conquered?

Olufunke: That's what I don't know too. When the time comes for you to begin the journey to bring back Oluyole kingdom, always remember that the almighty is above. Always call onto him and he'll answer you. Do you understand that?

Taiwo and Keyinde: yes Mum

Olufunke: Keyinde! Take the kill over there. I'll roast it later.

Keyinde: Okay!!

She left immediately.

Olufunke: Taiwo! Go in and rest.

He also left.

Olufunke (soliloquizing): Oh God!! My ten years old children killed a lion!!! The prophecy is coming through!!!! What a lucky woman I am!!!

Olufunke became the most happiest woman in the world, the woman whose ten years old children killed one of the most fiercest beasts of all in the jungle, the lion. That day was a feast day for the family. They ate and ate as if they weren't going to eat again. Olufunke thought of telling her children what she had been thinking, to tell them the whole truth about how they became forest dwellers.

Olufunke: Èyin omo mi!!! Taiwo ati Keyinde omo emi olufunke!! I want to tell you something before it's too late.

Taiwo:: Maami!! What is it you want to tell us?

Olufunke: Hmmmmmmmm

Her countenance changed and she sighed.

Keyinde: Màmá!!! Tell us now!! Don't act like that or are you scared that one day, your children will be feasted on by wild animals?

Olufunke: Elédùmarè will not let me cry sorrowfully over both of you.

Taiwo: Then why that sad look? We just finished eating a whole delicious meal now.

Olufunke: I've been expecting both of you to ask me the question why we became forest dwellers like animals.

Both of them were surprised.

Olufunke: I haven't told you the whole truth.

Keyinde: I thought you escaped when the war that made Oluyole kingdom fell was on.

Taiwo: Yes màámi!! That's what I thought too.

Olufunke: Yes I know you must have thought like that but that's not the whole truth.

Taiwo: Then tell us everything that happened.

They adjusted themselves as they listened to their mother.

Olufunke told her children about how her father Odelana the great hunter was killed by his peers, how the slavery curse began in their family, how Oluyole kingdom was conquered, how the gods saved her because of the prophecy and the reason why she left the merchant's house to start living in the forest. Taiwo and Keyinde looked at themselves and also looked at their mother's sad and teary face.

Olufunke: Since the death of my father Odelana the great hunter, there has been no sense of freedom in our family but now that I have you two, there has been some taste of freedom in my life and if the prophecy is fulfilled, there will be no more slavery in our family again.

Taiwo and Keyinde understood what their mother told them.

She looked up to the heavens and sighed

Olufunke: Hmmmmmmmm!! The prophecy!!! The prophecy!!...........

Taiwo interrupted.

Taiwo: Tell us about the prophecy.

Olufunke: A man came to the palace where I lived my life as a slave to give an answer to the question, the great question that was disturbing the peace of king Aderoju and his subjects then. He told them that only the prophecy can make Oluyole kingdom rise again. Everything that happened to the people of Oluyole kingdom happened exactly the way that faithful man prophesied. All the dwellers in Oluyole kingdom were killed except me, the woman who bore the children that will give rise to a new Oluyole kingdom. Some were killed during war while the rest, which I was among, were taken as slaves that would be starved to death and our bodies would be left out in the plains to dry and rotten like the skeleton of a toad. The merchant bought me and one night, he raped me. That rape was the one that produced the ten years old kids sitting before me. Thank God I listened to my mother, I wouldn't have known the kind of kids the gods blessed me with. You two were born to give rise to a new Oluyole kingdom that is far better than the one I or anyone else knows. That was why Elédùmarè gifted you with the strength that is no match for a fierce and hungry lion, the bravery that makes you stand before any dangerous animal that comes your way and the love that makes you stick together in any situation.

Taiwo: So!! This is the reason why we became forest dwellers. Keyinde and I were born to fulfill the prophecy...........

Keyinde: Hmmmmmmmm this is really serious. We have a mission ahead of us. Mother can't we go and do the job now?

Olufunke: No my children, you can't. The gods will show you the way when it's time. Now you two should go have your night rest.

Little did she know that it was tone for them to begin their journey. Others slept off except Taiwo. The thought about the prophecy ruminated in his head. He stayed awake all night until daybreak before he slept. The gods had waited patiently for the day Olufunke told her children their purpose in life. They sent a black snake to strike Olufunke. The venomous black snake, whose venom can't be compared to other snakes of its kind, struck her on her right leg and disappeared Immediately. The venom moved really fast to her heart and within two minutes, she was dead, leaving her ten years old children to face life alone with no one but the gods to guide them. Just like her mother had said in her dream, she'll die a gracious woman, which she did after telling her children their purpose in life but her kids will never see her again except in their dreams.