The Legend Of Dayo is back…
AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN
THE LEGEND OF DAYO
SEASON 3: THE RIVALRY
CHAPTER 1
Warriors and White Kombas
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The Author
Temidayo found himself falling and rolling down a steep incline!
Branches slapped into his face as he rolled, feeling the cold grass on his body, and then he gasped with shock when he finally tumbled into a stream of water!
The water was ice-cold, and he got to his feet immediately, his handsome face scowling as he felt a terrible headache splitting his head. He stood in the middle of the stream in a strange forest, breathing quickly as he surveyed his surroundings with a confused expression.
“Neji Helen!” he whispered, and his confusion grew, even more, when he heard what had come out through his mouth.
“Where am I?” he asked softly, looking at the beautiful green trees around him. “There’s someone, a female, what’s her name? What name did I mention? Neji Helik? No, no, what? Neni Helip? Niji?”
Temidayo passed a hand over his head in abject confusion and distress, and then he looked up with surprise when a powerfully-built man with grey beard suddenly emerged from behind one of the trees and stood gazing at him with absolute shock on his face.
The man was dressed in black clothes and had a raffia hat on his head, but he looked absolutely familiar to Temi.
The prince raised his hand and pointed at the elderly man.
“I know you!” he said softly. “You’re the Commander I saw, the one that tried to protect King Demi. You’re old, but I recognize you, Prosper Freeman!”
The former army commander of King Demi Dayo of Dayo bowed his head once.
“The Grand Oracle was right!” he said, still sounding and looking shocked. “You’re indeed the son of my Lord, King Demi!”
“What am I doing here?” Prince Temi asked, still confused. “I remember Jhon Moziz showing me scenes from Dayo, and then suddenly I fell down into this stream! Where was I? Where did I come from? There’s something important in my head, someone important…”
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“Who are you referring to, Prince?” Prosper Freeman asked with narrowed eyes, his face looking concerned suddenly.
“A woman, a girl, I guess!” Temi said. “Jiji Pilen, something, it keeps escaping me! Do you know this maiden…this Earthly Maiden?”
“There’s no such person, my Prince,” the man said. “Indeed, you were hidden in a pod from the wicked Leke Olugbade Bally when you were born, waiting for such a day to be released. You were given a set of memories, so perhaps you’re having conflicting images from your time in the pod. Believe me, I’m the first person you’ve seen in your adult life.”
Temi’s brow was still puckered with confusion as he looked at Prosper Freeman.
“Please, what was the name of this girl again?” Prosper Freeman asked tentatively, and with great worry, and Temi shook his head dazedly.
The young man sighed heavily, his face looking very confused now.
“Girl?” he asked quietly. “Which girl are you talking about?”
“The one whose name you just mentioned, my Prince,” Prosper said carefully.
“I mentioned a girl’s name?” Temi asked, puzzled. “Are you quite okay, sir?”
Prosper Freeman sighed, inwardly very relieved, and he beckoned to the handsome young man.
“Never mind, my Prince,” he said. “Please, come out of the stream.”
And when Temidayo David Dayo of the Dayo Empire came out of the stream, he had forgotten all about a beautiful girl he had met, kissed and loved dearly called Neji Helen.
“We need to hurry,” Freeman said as he began to walk briskly down a bushy path. “We’re in Aradise, the land of peace. But we need to get indoors before sunset.”
“And what happens at sunset?” Temi asked as he hurried after the man.
“The White Kombas come out,” Prosper said. “And don’t ask me what the White Kombas are…believe me, you don’t want to know anything about them!”
Prosper was walking too fast for Temidayo to ask questions anyway, and soon they came to level ground and out of the thick forest. There was a two-horse cart waiting in the underbrush.
Sitting in the driver’s seat was a young powerfully-built man. He wasn’t really tall, but he had massive arms and a barrel chest, and he looked darkly at the naked Prince Temidayo.
“Mickey King, the clothes, fast!” Prosper said in an anxious voice.
The young, grim-faced man picked up a sack lying beside him and tossed it. It hit the ground near Temi’s feet.
Temidayo looked down at the sack and at the unsmiling face of the young man, and he decided that he didn’t like that young man at all.
“Get dressed, Prince,” Prosper said. “Quickly!”
Temi picked up the sack. He opened it and found a pair of dark trousers and a brown cotton shirt inside. There was also a pair of sandals. He quickly pulled on the trousers and the shirt and pushed his feet into the sandals.
He sat down in the cart beside Prosper.
“Go on Mickey, quick, quick!” Prosper Freeman said with real urgency and worry in his voice.
The man called Mickey King picked up a long thin reel at the tip of which was a piece of cord forming a whip. He cracked it across the heads of the horses, and they leaped in respond, hurtling down the rutted track with increasing speed.
Temi held on to the side of the rocketing cart to prevent himself from being thrown into the bottom or worse, out of the cart into the rocky terrain around.
Prosper Freeman checked the sky frequently, his face registering a bit of concern at the low-slung sun in the horizon, hanging in the sky like some overripe orange waiting to fall free to the ground and burst.
Soon they left the rocky plains behind and came to an amazing part of the strange land. The path was no longer dusty but slick and smooth packed earth. It ran right through a magnificent green field, and Temi stared at the natural beauty of that green sea of beautiful grass.
“This is beautiful!” he said under his breath.
The sun was very low in the sky now, its brightness dimming as the darker edges of the night began to steal across the sky.
The grim-faced Mickey King turned a worried face toward Prosper Freeman.
“We won’t make it to the railway station, Commander,” he said grimly.
Prosper Freeman nodded.
“Take the right turn,” he said in a tight voice. “We have no option than to spend the night at the Inn.”
They were now approaching a T-junction in the road at the end of the green field. Mickey King expertly turned the horses toward the right branch, and then the cart was hurtling down a countryside road. A signboard flashed past, indicating that they were approaching the Apple Inn.
Quite suddenly, the sun was down, and the sky was wearing the clothes of night.
“Damn!” Prosper Freeman whispered and got to his feet, looking behind him anxiously.
“You seem bothered,” Temi said with raised eyebrows. “Is it about the…what did you call them again…the White Kombas?”
“Yes,” Prosper Freeman said tightly, and Mickey King only gave Temi a dark look.
The cart shook alarmingly as Mickey worked the horses hard, making them race fiercely. Prosper was still on his feet, looking behind him, and suddenly he tensed.
“Here they come,” he said softly. “Here comes the bastards!”
Temi turned his head and looked behind.
Not far behind he saw a swarm of white things!
They were screeching in frenzy and coming toward them with great loping frog-like leaps! And they were coming fast, very fast! Soon he saw that they had human forms: legs, arms, heads, and bodies…but that was where the resemblance ended!
The White Kombas had very long and narrow faces, but they had single eyes in the centre of their foreheads. They appeared to have no noses, only huge gaping mouths with long teeth that looked like knives!
They had three arms, and three legs and they moved just like frogs!
The White Kombas leaped high, landed on their hands and knees, and then leaped again, their single eyes shining with evil intent, their knife-like teeth glinting.
Temi felt a surge of panic as he watched them gaining on the cart.
“What are they?” he asked fearfully.
“Damn bloodsuckers!” Prosper Freeman said tightly. “Sick monsters! They eat anything that has flesh! You see, the Aradise is a place of peace. No one is supposed to fight here. No violence, no sin! Anyone that breaks the sovereign law of the Aradise would be killed by the Judges of Aradise. So people come here to find peace or hide from their sins. It is neutral ground!”
“If that is so, what are the White Kombas doing in a land of peace if they’re murderers like you say?”
“They live underground on the other side of Aradise,” Freeman explained. “At first they never came to town. They preyed on wild animals in the wild. They only come out at night because they’re afraid of sunlight! There was peace between the humans and the White Kombas. However, a couple of years ago some fools went to the lair of the White Kombas and set fire to them, apparently wanting to get rid of them forever. A lot of White Kombas died. And now they come out to seek revenge every night. Any human who is outside at sunset falls prey to them!”
“Oh, that’s bad!” Temi said softly. “Why don’t the humans fight back?”
“We are no match for them,” Prosper said softly. “Their skins are tough, can’t be penetrated by arrow or blade. The only way to kill them is to burn them, but we simply can’t burn them up because they are well protected underground now, and it is pretty hard finding their lairs.”
“And no peace can be brokered with them?”
Prosper Freeman turned to Temi and smiled wanly in the increasing darkness.
“Ah, thinking like a king already, Temi,” he said. “No one dares to approach them for peace. Maybe, if the Creator allows, there’ll be peace with the White Kombas one day. Right now, we only run from them to escape being eaten!”
The cart was bucking dangerously as Mickey whipped the horses into a frenzy. He glanced back and saw the White Kombas leaping quite maddeningly behind, getting closer and closer.
His face took on a frantic look as he gazed at Prosper Freeman, who was standing inside the cart, watching the approaching monsters with cold eyes.
“We won’t make it, Commander!” Mickey said, and for once his cold demeanour and haughty attitude were badly shaken, and there was fear on his face.
“Drive, MK. Shut up, concentrate and drive,” Prosper Freeman said.
Temidayo noticed that one White Komba was way ahead of the others. This one appeared fatter and had a head that was more silver than white. His leaps took him high into the sky and arced downward at a wider stretch, and thus he was almost behind the cart now.
His red eye was filled with ugly anticipation, and there seemed to be anticipatory saliva drooling out of his mouth.
“That one is almost on top of us,” Temi said, his eyes narrowing.
Without a word, Prosper Freeman reached down and picked up a silk-wrapped object from the corner of the seat. He unwrapped the cloth and pulled out a long-bladed sword.
“What are you doing?” Temi asked in an unsteady voice as the excitement of the moment began to catch up with him. “You told me blades and arrows are useless against these things.”
“My sword isn’t meant for the Kombas, prince,” Prosper Freeman said as he looked at the silver-haired White Komba with narrowed eyes.
That particular White Komba leaped high into the air, and suddenly it was shooting over the cart, and even as it passed overhead its face turned downward, and it looked at them with maddened fury.
“It is trying to cut us off!” Mickey King shouted with uncontrolled panic now. “Commander, we’re going to die! We’re going to be eaten!”
The cart was racing toward the entrance of the Apple Inn when the silver-headed White Komba landed in front of them. And then it did a most horrifying thing…
It raised up on its three legs and pointed its hands at the approaching cart, and then it bellowed in a frighteningly berserk manner, shaking its head violently, causing its knife-like teeth to rattle!
Its roar was heavy and high-pitched like a hundred lions, and its sheer aura of destructive wickedness was so frightening that Temi felt his throat drying up with uncontrolled terror!
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