OZIDI EPIC OF NIGERIA: PART SEVEN

FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE. PART TWO HERE. PART THREE HERE. PART FOUR HERE. PART FIVE HERE. PART SIX HERE. 

PART SEVEN – Picking up where we left off, Ofe the chief conspirator in the murder of Ozidi the Elder had cowardly fled once again rather than face the avenging son Ozidi the Younger in combat. Ozidi’s grandmother Oreame cast spells to flush out Ofe no matter where he was hidden.

Ofe’s magic had let him hide underneath the ground itself and he now involuntarily sprang upward from that hiding spot and stood face to face with Ozidi the Younger. With the eyes of everyone living in Orua on the combatants, Ofe had no choice but to at long last stand his ground and face his fate.

Ozidi advanced, wielding his sword made of lightning while his musicians played and sang his glories. Though Ofe was a coward he possessed powerful magic and fought Ozidi to a draw.

As the hours passed, our hero at last got past the defenses of Ofe’s own mystical weaponry and prepared to deliver the death blow. Ozidi’s lightning sword sliced his foe’s body in half at the waist.

So powerful was Ofe, however, that his body was immediately made whole again and the battle resumed. More time passed, and Ofe managed to cut off one of Ozidi’s hands.

Because Ofe had already used magic in the battle, Oreame used her sorcery to reattach the hand to her grandson’s arm, good as new.

More hours passed, during which Ozidi again and again delivered death blows to the evil Ofe but the latter’s body reassembled itself and the fighting resumed. At length, night had arrived and it was decided to continue the battle at sunrise.

The entire next day was spent on fighting which progressed again and again the same way. No matter how often Ozidi would kill Ofe with his lightning sword, the villain immediately came back to life and the combat continued.

As another night arrived, Oreame and Ozidi arranged a temporary truce with Ofe. The fighting would not resume until Ozidi would again call upon Ofe at his home.

Oreame and Ozidi returned to the home of our hero’s uncle, King Temugedege, the unfit man who had been placed on the throne by Ofe and the other killers of Ozidi the Elder. The witless Temugedege had been a puppet king while the villains had ruled Orua behind the scenes. 

The next morning, Oreame and her daughter Orea – Ozidi the Younger’s mother – made the young man promise them not to emerge from King Temugedege’s home until Oreame returned. The elderly sorceress went into the jungle and other villages to consult with other sorceresses regarding how to permanently kill Ofe.

After seven days, Oreame returned to King Temugedege’s home and told Ozidi & Orea that she had learned how to kill Ofe for good. As instructed by an oracle, she took an unglazed pot and placed a mandrake, a plantain and the head of a rat into the pot.

Ofe, Oreame and Orea proceeded to Ofe’s home and demanded that the battle resume. Confident now, the villain emerged without hesitation and clashed with Ozidi once again.

Oreame waved around the pot with the mandrake, plantain and rat’s head in it and at last caught Ofe’s eye. He noted the contents with alarm, knowing he now could no longer return from the dead.

Ofe fought desperately but in the end Ozidi once again sliced him in half at the waist with his lightning-sword. This time the crowd of spectators gasped with awe because Ofe remained dead.

Ozidi picked up the villain’s top half and cut off the head to the cheers of the Oruans. The villagers, his mother and grandmother, his musicians, lizard and monkey accompanied the young hero to the Trophy House. As he placed Ofe’s head in its place, the people ululated while the musicians played and sang about Ozidi’s greatness.

With every single murderer of Ozidi the Elder slain and their heads placed in the Trophy Room, the soul of our hero’s father was at last free to leave the deadlands limbo in which it was trapped. It joined his ancestors and Oreame proclaimed the good news. Ozidi’s revenge quest and the salvation of his father’s soul were finally complete.

THERE ARE A FEW MORE ADVENTURES FOR OZIDI IN THIS EPIC, AND I’LL CONTINUE WITH THEM NEXT TIME.