KING ZOOMORAH

The villages lived happily ever after like never before. They had increased in numbers and were gradually spreading towards the west where they believed had greener pastures.

Kinds were born and these kinds grew to become man, from crawling to walking, falling to standing, and from jumping to running. Just as the clans  increased in population they would spread and at all sides, all headed west.

Funni clan, one of the clans increased rapidly with an outrageous number of men and women with children, and that was the beginning of the second war fare between mankind. The struggle was as a result of which of the clan would dominate and rule over the others. This was were their quest for power domination begin, notably it was known that the Funni were the largest as such it should be used as a means of determining the ruler.

The village held a congress and summoned all the aged from all the clans, and their ages determined on how many children you have produced. Those with fewer children of six were not classified as elders of the clan. Men with many children of Twelve and above were given such title as an elder.

The sitting was made up of eight clan elders a ten from each. All together were the Funni clans who were the most populated clan of the village, second were the Amori clan, then follows the Samari, , Nndoki, Bafria, Ijele, Owenla and the smallest clan Abaki.

Elders from the clans sat and deliberated with no agreement at the end. The Funni had suggested that they rule over the kingdom and transfer to the Amori when their king dies. But every clan thought of this as a trap that they must have plotted secretly.

The Amori objected the Funni, they argued that since there was peace and harmony they had remained united to fight against external aggression, the giants that had came and gone, there should be no alarm for clan hegemony, they are happy as one and equal.

At the the Funnis revolted and promised to declare a war against other clans who would stand against their decision. Since they had their numbers and enough military strength to defend them against invaders.

Upon the declaration of another mankind war the other clans made decisions within themselves to move at next dusk to another place to settle far away from the Funnis since their negotiation ended in deadlocks. It seemed like the wisest decision at the moment among all the clans and a vote was cast and won over six to one. The Abaki clan had be the ones who refused to move and for fear of what the Funnis might do because they were the underpopulated clan, so the Abaki clan were standing alone in the vote.

The clans agreed on moving the next night and to prepare their families with enough of what harvest they had stored in their barns and to navigate rivers for drink on the exodus. After the council had dismissed the elders from the Abaki clan for fear trembled them went to bargain with the Funni clan, that they would remain under their protection and that night they pledged their loyalty to the Funni clan and that night it was sealed as an oath and never to be broken in generations to come.

“ On the night of their departure…”

“Momma what tribe do you come from?”…Saint interrupted my story.

I was mute for minutes. I did not expect such question from the little lad. It should have been Aka  or Morris and Olivera but little Saint was out of my guess. I was perplexed…..rather frozen for a while.

“Thelma???” Olivera’s voice echoed in my head .

Things were begining to happen to me, things that  I do not expect. How I had become like this, the way I are this way, at the moment I can be conscious, and the next minute I am lost in the moment looking lost deeply.

“Thelma, Thelma…” The voice repeated. This time I was revived and at once I became conscious again. I reached for my hair bonnet lying where i stood at the bed next to me. I packed my hair nicely and had it put on, then I sat down on the bed. It was Olivera’s. Then I continued.

“We were the Samari clan and that was where I came from, that was where your fathers… your great great grand parents originated from. Our linage begun from Papa Kabahka. He was a real hero and we are his descendants.” I looked at little Saint.

He was relieved with the answers I had given but still not satisfied as he looked hungry for more, he wanted to become Oliver in Charles Dawkin’s “Oliver Twist”. But I put him on a hold with a gesture from my hand. He was quiet. I had known that children could be inquisitive and more philosophizing, and that was the little lad’s case. Although I do not find it difficult to control him or any of them.

“That night, the night before, my people sealed an oath of servitude that they had to deal with till now.” I stopped to  search for something to be busy with. What is story telling without the story teller getting indulged in an activity too. I stood up and went to Fejiro’s cabinet. It was a plastic cabinet for women, fancifully made and decorated blue cabinet. From it I took with me a knitting wool and crocheting needle and I went back to Olivera’s bed and sat at the same place I sat before, the bed end. Then I continued.

“The rest of the clans broke out from the village and left the Abaki clan behind, although they chose wrong  but their decision was right at the time. The Funnis assembled all their military might about seven hundred thousand men and they were divided  into three groups. The first  and second group were to lead an attack on the clans they had chosen to break free whilst the third group were later sub divided into a sub group.  The sub groups were sent as envoys to leave and follow the other clans to live with them in disguise so they could be penetrated easily. The sub groups left in disguise and joined the other four clans as Bafria, , Nndoki, Ijele and Owenla. They infiltrated the other clans and lived among them this way. The Amori and Samari both experienced attacks, a  mission of sparing no lives. The first group conquered Amori and defeated them sparing no male from their clan, even children from four were slaughtered. The Samari received their attack in good faith and fought back and merited victory at last and enslaved the survivals from Funni clan. This was used against the Funni clan as they captured victims were tortured and all the secrets were leaked, this way the Samari disguised their men as spies and sent them to the Funni.

The sub groups later sent a message through their carriers whom were Funnis, these emissaries traveled a long distance until their messages were delivered.

The Funnis held hostages of women and their children ageing from zero to three . Days came by and no news was received from their men sent against the Samari. More men were sent to them to aid the fight but never returned. It happened that even their spies whom were sent against the Samari were all slaughtered. A notice was declared in the Funni village that they have been penetrated and had men from other clans living among them, however detecting these men became a problem and the king as at that time stopped the attacks as he sought other ways.

The women from the Amori clan they had   captured were laid with, the Funnis were eager in growing large in their population as declared by the king. King Damis, whom as at that time died all of a sudden. Then came King Vansha, then King Jaguar, and King vongor. King Vongor was the shortest lived and reigned king who lived to be king and died the next night. He became example of the shortest ever reigned king to the next king. King Sacca who died two nights after becoming king. And then reign took its longest reign again when King Zoomorah a mighty man from the Funni warriors rose to assume the leadership of the Funnis over other clans. King Zoomorah was a mighty man, full of vigor and a warrior too. King Zoomorah became the sixth king of the Funni clan and the most brutal, he was a dreadful ruler who ruled with  fire and slavery.

Under King Zoomorah’s rule he had divided the land into units, these units he called tribes, and all together were one hundred and twenty one tribes. Each tribe was obligated to have their women and court to give birth so as to raise a men who would serve to the throne where he would rule. Nobody ever knew what type of dynasty the king was building as at the time. Men took unto them the women and laid with them as delegation from the king demanded five men  from each tribe to be sent to the throne in five years to come or else your household would be annihilated from the face of the planet. The king was going to build an army creating an Empire to himself. Meat and other essential necessities were sent to him, compulsory levy were duely paid in form of servitude and food for his protection against his wrath. The whole village now feared him. But the King Zoomorah wanted, more.

He gave a decree giving each tribe a prolonged period of six years to be able to provide five males each to the thrown and that at the age of four these boys would be taken from them and put under his care. What did seem like a protection was no longer looking safe. Because the people now lived in great fright of the king but with no where else to go to, they had stayed and paid allegiance to the king.

King Zoomorah sought  different ways in his thoughts to gain more strength in order to achieve what he wanted, he needed powers, the power to take every control because he feared that someday one like him would want to challenge him and by then he would be old to duel.

King Zoomorah set out on a journey, what looked like a quest of search, a search for something unknowingly to mankind or to its race… Human race. And that was how evil began.”

“I took unto me three hundred of my best men on the quest for my powers, I had believed that I had powers but I don’t know where it is hidden waiting for me to come get it out. I had always had the feelings and it was real, it became real as much as I could imagine it. A real power that I could use to summon the impossibilities at my command. We had already lost two hundred thousand of our men to the battle between the Funnis and the Amori, three hundred thousand to the Samari who are still silent and who knows their plot, one hundred  men were sent to the  Nndoki clan , one hundred and seventy men to the Bafria,  seventy to the Ijele, and sixty to Owenla clans as spies. Only the Abaki haad chosen wisely to remain under our protection.  We already have the bloods of the clans running in the dynasty . I shall avenge the bloods of my warriors against the Samari clan that had laid attack against my men . I will not stop until I had captured and conquered. ” King Zoomorah awoke from a deep dream of  peace. Startled after being rejuvenated and marveled at what he had seen in his dream, a woman of sleek hair rode the floor.

The king sent out two hundred and fourty nine thousand men in pursuit of the Samari until his return.

He knew quite well it was a failed mission. He knew that the Samari clan had been unopposed and had never been easy to battle with from the time of his ancestors.

“ I had known that the battle with the Samari clans would yield not fruits, but I had wanted to loose them all to the battle because I am creating a new empire which deserves brave men and these new born would become special forces, a new form of army that you could ever imagine of…” The King said to his men.

“A force that is capable of driving out the impossibilities in mankind, never a weak one because great men like me were not made weak and never to become one. The heart of men is full of fear and wihtout fear men could achieve all posibilities even still all thaings that are impossible. In my dreams I ruled over millions of people over the land and men kneel before me and worship me for my bravery. My clan the Funni clan is the bravest among that men are now afraid to come closer, we are the wise ones that should rule until if there is an end in this planet. I am embarking on a journey, a wild and dangerous one and shall carry with me three hundred of my best men whosoever that is fit let him march along with royalty because when I shall return I shall put every head under my foot and rule like my ancestors never did. Do not tremble in fear, for any one you whom have shown weakness I shall behead and feed your carcass to the hungry vultures that wander in the desert that we are about to journey through.” He finished speaking to the  warriors that had assembled. The journey that the king talked about sounded unrealistic to the men but to one in particular, he was going to embark with him to learn his steps.

On the third day after the King’s speech they embarked and came with him were three hundred warriors. They camped forty nights in the desert, left with little supplies to carry on. King Zoomorah lost fifty of the men instantly in the desert but still was not moved. He gave orders to the commander of the army whom he had appointed .

“Take with you as many of the men here you could, go in search for meat and water that could carry all the men here for another forty nights until we had crossed the desert. Look! Don’t you see that we are almost there to the land of the  unknown. What do you think that we might find there? There must be things that can make a man more powerful in this planet and we have to continue in search of it until we have found it.” He said to Kwaku.

“I shall rather give up my ghost for my king , until we have found that which is capable of making the impossibles become possible.” Kwaku replied.

“Go on now and it shall be well unto you.” The King blessed.

Kwaku appointed unto himself two hundred men including himself and left the king with  fifty men and they left carrying sticks with arrow end, for this was the weapon as at that time. King Zoomorah lost all his men at once four days after only three young warriors had survived the hazard event they encountered , he cried out to the sky and to the three young alive blood he said unto them.

“The heart of men hunger and thirst for what is impossible without fear we had come this far, those who gave up their soul in this quest are never mere made men and to you three who had survived with me shall share of my royalty in the empire which I am building when I return, men shall kiss your feet just like me.” He said to the three and continued, pointing to the east of the desert.

“Come forward you three, let us seal this day with an oath just as our fathers did with the Abaki clan.”

He said to the men, he took a sharp stick with pointed end and pierced his right thumb and each of the men came to him, bent on the knee and had a seal of the oath with their own blood they thumb printed on his.

“On this day, I make you three my disciples, the three of you are now one of my own, and we shall rule the kingdom of our father accordingly to the wills of our destiny no man shall be born to prevail.” He looked at the three and smiled just then one of the men came up to him again.

“My king I am Bahu, one of your own, son of a Funni.” Said the first. And likewise so the second came up to him and accordingly said so.

“My king I am Keshi son of Kunanta, the Funni clan.” The king smiled at him as he looked unto the third and the man reluctantly approached him and knelt just like the other two had and said.

“My Lord, I am Kabahka…son of a Samari…cl..a…n.” He could not finish when the king’s eyes opened wide in all expression he had been fooled, his face was dampened as he squeezed his nose.

“I plead for your mercy my ancestors I had been fooled all along, that one of our enemy had imprinted on my thumb blood on to blood to seal a covenant meant for the Funni clan.” King Zoomorah begged and looked up to the clouds.  

King Zoomorah  looked at Kabahka, astonished as he could not believe what his ears had just heard, that one from the Samari clan is going to become his disciple, an enemy of his ancestors.

When at night time when they camped to have a rest from the sunlight that had shone on them. They had become so tired and no fuel to power on to continue their journey,  King Zoomorah saw that their supplies was not enough to feed all of them, he let them have the remaining supplies and left them to devour the last meat. The King had been kind for the first time since his reign the men said among themselves. Then Bahu stood up and followed him leaving Keshi and Kabahka the man from Samari clan behind. The king saw  Bahu coming to him and he stopped at a place.

“Bahu I cannot believe what my ears and my eyes had heard and seen, that one from the Samari clan had infiltrated into our land and been following us all the way. He had taken of the oath of kinship which I prepared for great men of the Funni clan that shall emerge future kings under me just as you and Keshi. The King pointed out to Bahu.

“My lord, if it is not well with you that he should not live then let me go forth and and send him to his chi on this very night.”  Bahu spoke.

“No Bahu. He had taken of the oath of reward from a king, and had been loyal all along, he had even dined with us, eaten of the same meal with us, he had journeyed on with us Bahu and his chi had kept him alive still. I had even given up my meal so that he may still breath. I am a great king, so great ‘n’ powerful. I shall not revoke from granting my honor to whom I had honored and my words shall come to pass. Let him live Bahu,  I have a better way for his end.” They both went back to the tent.

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Kwaku had only lost fewer men compared to King Zoomorah’s loss. He had seventy men left on the stand and they were shortage of their supplies as well, they were marching forward through the desert in search of water and maybe dead meats from remains which animals had left so that they could feed on it.

“The king had sent us on a dead end too.?”

Came from one of the men. Kwaku stopped for awhile and turned around to where the voice had came from, but there was no strength left of him to argue. He was very hungry and thirsty just like the men, if death had been far away from him now all he wished was for it to come and it should be the right time to come home. He had lost one hundred and twenty nine men at a spot in the wild desert this was a deadly journey.

It took Kwaku and seventy exactly thirty days to arrive a nearby wild forest zone and here they had settled to take a rest from the deadly journey through the desert.

Haven arrived the wild forest of weird trees and deadly flowers of trap and lock, they took another head count and there were only fifty of them including himself. They rested and hunt to eat what they could find. Soon wild monkeys were jumping over the trees making loud noise, and when there were so  many of them wanting to attack the men, bu the fifty charged against the wild monkeys but in return the monkeys distributed to each of the men a striking slap coming from a palm made of thorny fist it was so rugged and brutal. The monkeys scratched them such that Kwaku and his men fled from the jungle where they initiated to camp leaving everything they had came with for tent to save their lives. They took to their heels and ran as fast as they could. In no time they disappeared from the wild monkey forest zone at came forth in contact with a new territory, it was a water fall font and that was where they’d found rest.

At daybreak they continued their journey, drinking up to their belle filled and taking with them some calabash made pots they had found, they fetched and marched on. They walked a six mile away from the water font when Kwaku noticed another shortage of his followers and he conducted a third census and now they were left thirty five, , he stopped.

“I had lost all my men  to the hot scourging desert and now to these forsaken monkeys.” He said. He looked at his him one after another and shook his head.

“I am not as evil as the King Zoomorah. I will  live to see the death of my men no more and I will not allow your heads to fall off before I call an end to this endless journey of his, a road with no end and no  hope of return. As many of you who wish to disembark on this journey should therefore step a foot forward and I shall acknowledge your bravery and I promise to send my words to the king that I had lost all my men.”

Everyone of them became still and nervous at the same time, there was a general silence, a sense of liberation with trial at the same time but however none of them knew what was going to happen after wards. It begun with a man stepping a foot forward, followed by a second man, then a third, and fourth, fifth and six and the rest of the men all stepped forward. For all they were concerned Kwaku was as well tired just as them. It then dawned on Kwaku that he had to continue the rest of the journey alone but yet they were in the middle of nowhere.

“Ha!! Ha!! Ha!!!…” Kwaku’s laughter echoed on their midst, he laughed at them all. “Look at them, who then do you think is willing to give up his life to the greedy king Zoomorah of the Funni clan? I am Kwaku the beast, the greatest warrior who slained the Amori clans and returned alive. I am a son of the land where we are made leaders and I tell you today that the journey your king had sent us was a dead end. Ofcourse he may have died before this day together with his men form starvation and thirst. Listen to me this is where we had come to the end of our search and from here onward we search for any inhabitants and there we shall capture them and live among them to rule over them because we are made rulers.” He addressed his men and they marched forward in search of homes and kinds who must be living around the surrounding. And soon they sight tents with few people mainly women carrying logs of wood for cooking. They stopped and looked unto Kwaku.

“Here we shall nest and make our homes , we shall take a tour around here for any sign of man that must live among them and soon stretch out for any other kinds that may become threats to our domination here in the land. Their women we must capture and make babies with them, here is where we have our freedom from the bondages of king Zoomorah. Now we are made men and responsible for a family in the coming decades. Level your weapons of sticks, let us live freely among these kinds now and forever.” Kwaku instructed and the men followed his instruction just as he had told them they did exactly.

The men entered the community full of women and no men, they were completely astonished how they had been received upon their arrival, they took off their amour clothes and had them washed up. They were looking so skinny from the journey they had embarked through the desert. The women from the  clan let them live and they became the first kind to live among them.

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King Zoomorah and his disciples came by at a nearby cave after the thirty days of wandering in the desert. They had encountered many dangerous expeditions of attacks from wild animals of different kinds and they fought side by side to defeat these creatures and now it was looking safe even though if it was not. Here it is an unknown world different from their world across the desert and as such any thing unusual was expected to happen. They entered into the cave, the king led his men in.

The cave was dark that they could not see through at first sight, they managed to make their paths into the cave with the help of touches as they felt with their hands and step testing each step before making the move ahead to trust the step was on a safe balance and gradually they are into the depth of the cave and the black out lasted about thirteen minutes before they could begin to see themselves but not very clear enough, their eyes were beginning to get used to the darkness. As they walked on some flying creatures flew out from inside the cave and the men became still for the moment and bent so low so that the creatures do not crash at them in their flight so they took cover. These creatures were the night bats camping inside the cave, they had been disturbed by their presence. The men watched as the flying bats flew towards the entrance they had taken inside the cave but the creatures never went out, they stung up  and the sides of the cave.

They sat on the floor of the cave as they got to the central point of the cave and there they rested. They became so thirsty that they had to share each others urine for a drink to quench the thirst. Inside the cave was better enough than the hot desert and there inside the cave they had enough sleep as much as they could get and eat the animals they killed in the desert, in flesh and blood they consumed and kept some remnant for next day.

The king and his men stayed in the cave for seven days , there in the cave they had lived eating wild food and remnant from previous hunt and urine for drink. Soon they discovered a river bank down a valley. King Zoomorah said he and and his men would go and establish the territory and he called the River bank that ran through a two miles down a valley away from the cave His Nile. He called upon his disciples that he was going to send words to his people whom he ruled to let them know that he was still alive and had established a new territory where they should spread forth in population across the desert and to His Nile. And he was going to send this message through one of them his disciple and Kabahka was the messenger that the king chose to go back to his people.

“I shall send you to my people that I have discovered a new territory here in a far away land which I shall prepare for their spread and thus they shall spread forth. Say unto them that for each man to carry with him as many women as he could and to follow you Kabahka. And the total number of people you should be able to carry with you should be two hundred thousand men and their many women, and they should take with them no children for the journey through the hot land is not for children which yourself bore witness of this. Many will die all along but as for the survivors they shall inherit as much as I had established here on awaiting their arrival as I expand the dynasty till this end. Carry as much as you may require for the journey, meat and water from His Nile so that you may not get carried away in the mysterious desert.” The king Zoomorah said to Kabahka.

King Zoomorah fetched for a stone and carved the stone into a slab suitable for writing and he broke from his hand one of his fingers the tibia bone, the king in his pains broke the bones out from its flesh and with his own blood he wrote all that he had said to Kabahka in their own language which Kabahka understood quite well.

With the script on the slab stone, Kabahka took with him meat and a cup carved from a wooden log which he used as a water can and on foot he embarked on his journey back to the Funni clan.