THE OZIDI EPIC OF NIGERIA: PART TEN

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 HERE.

PART TEN – We begin this installment with a much more mature and sober-minded Ozidi. We’ve seen him go from his wild and unavoidable embrace of violence during his revenge quest against the murderers of his father to destructively maintaining that reflexive violence after his vengeance had been achieved.

From there we saw him learn humility from facing disastrous setbacks – albeit temporary ones – in combat and last time around we saw Ozidi grow disillusioned with violence due to the tragic circumstances it brought on.

Our now more serious hero has resumed his walks around his unfit uncle King Temugedege’s land Orua. Word reached him about the abuses being inflicted on the people by the brutish Ogodu, a muscular hulk of a man who had a malformed face with the eyes on top of his head.

Now moved by a sense of obligation toward the well-being of the people and no longer just revenge or proving his mettle against any powerful rival he encountered, Ozidi nobly went in search of Ogodu.

Accompanied by his musicians as they sang his praises and his lizard as well as his monkey, Ozidi located Ogodu’s home. He learned from the man’s wife that he was not at home, and because she had a roving eye for other men she flirted with Ozidi.

In fact, she flirted aggressively to make her intentions clear to our hero, who as yet had no carnal experience with women. At length, Ozidi pieced together what was being offered and the pair went inside Ogodu’s home.

Suddenly, Ogodu arrived on the scene. Ozidi and the woman were still in the early stages of their activities and Ogodu’s wife, out of fear of her husband’s brutal wrath, lied that Ozidi had arrived with the intent of ravishing her.

Confused, our hero argued with the wife for a time before departing amid threats from Ogodu. The wife slipped away from Ogodu at the first opportunity and raced to catch up with Ozidi and his retinue. She succeeded and explained to the young warrior why she had lied in front of her husband.

She then invited him to return the next day at an earlier time so they could have sex for hours while Ogodu was away. Ozidi agreed.

That night at King Temugedege’s plush home, Ozidi told his mother Orea and his sorceress grandmother Oreame about what had happened at Ogodu’s residence. They were angry and warned him against consorting with a woman like that. They told him that if he was now looking for a wife there were young available women he should pursue. 

Ozidi promised he wouldn’t meet with Ogodu’s wife ever again, but the woman had so thoroughly stoked the young man’s libido that the next morning he and his retinue immediately went back to Ogodu’s home and his unfaithful wife.

Once again, they had barely gotten started in their love play when Ogodu – suspicious following the previous day’s events – burst in on them. Soon, he and Ozidi were outside fighting with each other. Our hero as always drew his sword made out of lightning from his mouth and wielded it against Ogodu and his sword. 

At length, Ogodu’s wife – starving for Ozidi’s body – grabbed his hand and fled with him along a secret path unknown to her spouse. Ogodu searched fruitlessly while his wife and our hero arrived safely at the home of King Temugedege. Neither of them were aware of the grim turn that events were soon to take.

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