THE OZIDI EPIC OF NIGERIA: PART NINE

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

PART NINE – Ozidi’s character development will continue in this installment. It starts out like the previous part, with our main character being sought by another who has heard of the many powerful opponents that Ozidi has slain and wanting to see for himself how well the young man can fight.

This time the challenger to Ozidi is Tebesonoma of the Seven Crowns. Tebesenoma is a giant man with seven heads and on each head sits a crown made of writhing demons. The giant’s arms reach all the way down to the ground, letting him more easily reach and kill his opponents.

Tebesonoma roams the jungles near the Niger River until he comes face to face with Ozidi, who as usual stalks the land looking for adventure. The seven-headed giant speaks to Ozidi about how much he has heard about him and goes down a list of all the figures who have fallen in combat with him. He then challenges our hero to battle.

(This exchange reminds me of Old West gunfighters with one of them wanting to blow away a gunslinger with a big reputation.)

Ozidi draws his lightning-sword from his mouth and, since his retinue of musicians, singers, a lizard and a monkey were already at his side, he fights Tebesonoma.   

On and on the battle went. The writhing demons on each of the giant’s crowns would bite and claw at Ozidi so that he had to deal with them as well as Tebesonoma’s massive strength.

Ozidi persevered and at long last managed to slice off one of the giant’s heads. The head and the demons in its crown fell to the ground dead.

Tebesonoma cursed and swore at our hero and redoubled his efforts to kill the young warrior. At length Ozidi was able to slice off another of his foe’s heads and it too fell to the ground dead, demons and all.

And so it went, with Ozidi eventually slicing off four more of Tebesonoma’s crowned heads, leaving only his center head atop the giant’s body still  alive. Tebesonoma resigned himself to his imminent doom and sang praises to Ozidi – such flowery praises that our hero furrowed his brow.

He asked the giant if he was begging for mercy, but Tebesonoma said no, he was praising Ozidi to beg him for a favor after he had killed him. Our hero agreed.

The giant got Ozidi to vow on his grandmother Oreame’s life that he would carry out the dying request. Ozidi did so. Tebesonoma pleaded with our main character to immediately go and slay his sister, her husband and her child so that they would not have to live with the pain of mourning him. 

Ozidi was horrified, but as he had sworn on Oreame’s life, he had no choice but to carry out the brutal slayings. With anger over the awful dying request Tebesonoma had made, Ozidi used his sword made of lightning to slice off the giant’s final head. The demons in the crown died with the late giant.

Ozidi gathered up the final head of his foe to adorn his Trophy House, then he and his retinue made their way to where Tebesonoma said his sister’s home would be found. He silenced their singing because of how foul he felt regarding what he must now do.

With great distaste, Ozidi slew the giant’s brother-in-law, who had done nothing to him. Tebesonoma’s sister listened with dread to Ozidi explaining that he had killed her brother and he had made him vow to grant a dying request which was to kill her, her husband and her infant son to spare them having to live on without him.

With great sadness and dignity, the woman accepted what was to happen. She picked up her child and sat down, waiting for the end. Ozidi let her sing a song to her child, then killed both of them with his lightning-sword.

Silently, Ozidi and his retinue made their way back to Orua. The young man had learned not to be tricked like that again and felt the pain over what he had just done every day for the rest of his life. 

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