ADEDAYO

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          Just a day remaining until I venture into the forest of a thousand demons. Despite it being a day to my potential doom, it's rather relaxing. Spent my morning with the maidens of the Osun river shrine as they nurse and prepare my body for the journey to come. Left there to go practicing spear attacks with Dada in the fighting pit. And now I am here at the throne room of the palace, gazing upon the empty throne and the veiled crown that sits upon it. All this wahala~trouble just to on that. And it's not like putting on that crown comes with ease, it also comes with it's own pile of trouble.
              Iléṣà, Osun, Abeokuta, Ìbàdàn, Ile-Ife, Ogbomoso, ilorin, Ijebu and Katunga with their affiliated communities all pay reverence to that crown. All of their major problems on one person's head, no wonder OYO had been a mess since my father's death left it vacant. There hasn't been anyone to single handedly leech off all that stress. And the irony of it in my case is that I have to go through a lot of trouble just to stomach that trouble.
           I then hear nervous footsteps to my back and I turn to see an unfamiliar presence. A tall skinny fair skin fellow with a little pouch that betrays his slim body frame. He has a scanty look with his face hosting a bushy beard and a bushy hairstyle to compliment it. He has three tribal marks on each of his cheeks. Seeing I noticed him, he rushes forward to me but strangely keeps about a seven step space from me as he greets me.
        
         He prostrates as he says,
          “ Ekaso my prince, I am sorry for interrupting your private moment. It's my first time in the royal palace and I wanted to see the throne room my prince.”
            Surprised by the fact he's acting this way, considering my current situation. I sat as I approach him about to get up from his prostrating position.
         “ Ohhhhhhhh, there's no problem. I was about to leave anyway. I haven't seen you before, by whose will are you here? “ And then suddenly he shouts, immediately moving away from me as I edge closer to him.
        
       Startled by his sudden outburst, I quiz him.
           “ Why this?”. With his face to the ground , immediately prostrating he replies.
   “ I am very sorry, my prince. But don't move any closer to me.”
       Irritated by his statement, I say while  moving  towards him.
      “ Look if it's about my Ashe situation, I am not an Olossi so you don't have to worry about me converting you.”

Reaching where he is prostrating, I stretch my hand towards him so as to lift him up but when he notices my presence being very close to his. But when he notices my presence being very close to his, he immediately lifts his upper body as he exclaims.
           “ Nooooooo that's not the reason!!!!”
  
        And suddenly, a vile chill takes over my body with the Ashe mark on my chest starting to fill my veins with a sensation that screams ALARM. Then an aura surrounding the man appears before me, taking the shape of a woman with the lower body of a fish. As her face begins to take a more definitive form, she wails at me furiously with long sharp teeth that looked like they were birthed in nightmares. She then grows two arms with each hosting fingers that take the shape of spears and lashes them towards me.
     
          And just in time, out of nowhere my uncle steps in to tank the attack with his arm as he pushes me backwards while receiving various thrust attacks from the…aura thing. With it being of  no damage to him, he shouts at the skinny man.
                “ You didn't tell him nii?!!!!!!”
        The man immediately goes back to his prostrating position before my uncle as the spirit being around continues to struggle in harming my uncle. Even with how ineffective her attacks are on my uncle, she continues to voraciously lash at him with each attempt more heavy than the last.
              “ Go to the room I assigned you and tame this annoying thing.” My uncle says to the man. With my uncle's statement rattling the spirit, it assumes greater form as it prepares to strike my uncle but the skinny fellow immediately takes hold as he rushes it and himself out of the throne room. I then approach my uncle to give him thanks but he interrupts the will as he reprimands me.
          “ You gannn, I don't understand. Normally you always avoid closure with people but when it comes to a situation where it's necessary, You Don't.”
           “ I thought he was keeping a distance because of my Ashe.”

“ Well that isn't why, the boy doesn't know of your predicament sef. He's an outcast from Gbongan town.”
            “An outcast? Because of that thing?”

“ Yes, he bonded with a Yemoja and not just any, the most vile amongst them.”  Confused, I ask
                 “ So why is he here?”

Looking towards the throne, my uncle  scratches his head as he replies me.
            “ I am here to enlist him to the force I will be taking with me to reclaim Abeokuta. We will need every advantage we can afford.”
“ The Olossi sent Adigun’s head to us yesterday and they hold a claim to something of his that can favor them in the war to come.”
             
      “ And what's that?” I ask.
  “ It's a weapon Adedayo, a weapon that can kill me.”