Story- Ikemba and the Cripple..Chapter 5(continues)

The village square was filled with thousands of people from the two neigbouring villages participating in the annual hunting competition. The young, single and even some married women fought hard to stay in front, so as to have a good view of each participant, most especially the ones with nice abs.

 Ladies and Gentlemen, shouted Oyem, the host for the year’s competition, he continued, Welcome to another year of great feat, where each participant must bring the best kill in other to win the competition. From Ihenkanma Village we have, Ufomba, Unaeze, Unegbu, Iwuoha, Obasi, Ameachi, Amadi, Anyanwu, Erigbuo, Otuonye, while the crowd screamed continuously in appreciation of each participant from Ihenkanma village. Oyem, the host continued introducing each participant, he said, from Lorji village, we have, Uwakwe, Obinna, Nwogu, Nwaogwugwu, Okpulor, Ewereuzo, Iwuala, Egwuonwu, Chilaka and Ikemba.

At the mention of Ikemba, there erupted a lot of hullabaloos from the crowd; some were in support of the young man, while another group felt he is too young to participant. As the twenty well-dressed men stood tall in the middle of the large oval sharp that was formed by the way the villagers stood. After a while, there was extreme silence as the two kings of the two villages came out to give their royal blessings to each participant, there was a very soft sound in the background from the band group, and it was a sound of battle, a sound that told each person that the competition is moving to its epic period. After, the royal blessings, family members were allowed to quickly show some love to each participant, then the path was shown for each contestant to go and make his big kill, then the rules and regulations were repeated to the hearing of both the contestants and the people present. Goodwill messages can be heard all over the village square as the twenty contestants marched ahead into the forest following their different, yet destined paths.

After two days, only twelve of the participants returned unharmed with a good kill, ranging from large Rabbits to Eagles to Deer and one of them killed a fox. One of the participants, Obinna returned with four Crows but with a broken leg, according to him, he fell from one of the trees when he climbed to get a clean shot on the bird. Only four contestants returned without a kill, but after the two days, all the contestants were back, except Ikemba. The entire people of Lorji, most especially the family of Ojinta were indeed worried, the other wives were just trying to console Adaore, who kept crying that her son is dead, and probably he had been eaten by a wild beast. Some of the contestants were asked if they saw Ikemba, but only Ufomba saw him, and he said he and Ikemba had walked together into some of the forests, but Ikemba went ahead while he settled for the Deer he killed, he also added that Ikemba showed the Deer to him before heading further into the forest and told him that he had not seem the animal that he wanted to kill.

Hearing the words that came out of Ufomba’s mouth, Ojinta knew that his son was gunning for a top kill; he only made a quick prayer that the gods should protect his only son.

On the third day, the sky was at its brightest, it is the last day of the annual hunting competition, and Ikemba has not returned. The villagers started arriving, while the band boys played great tunes that kept the entire village joyful and flexing their dancing skills. At mid-day, the wait was becoming poignant as people became restless. The Kings and their cabinets made some quick deliberations, and decided to call the competition to its early end, so as to give chance for a search group to go into the forests and search for Ikemba.

Oyem, the host for the hunting competition stepped out, as the crowd screamed loudly, he welcomed the entire people to the last day of the competition and the people responded positively to his greetings. He called all the participants to step out with their kills, so that the judges would pick a winner out of the kills brought forward.

As the judges carefully scan through the kills brought before them by each contestant, there was an extreme, yet overwhelming silence among the villagers. They spread open a path so wide that the judges, Oyem and the royal cabinets wondered what was happening. To the amazement of the entire crowd, it was Ikemba walking slowly towards the judges and the royal cabinets; He was carrying the head of a Lion. Sighting this, there was a standing ovation for the young lad, as everyone awed at the sight of the head of the King of the Jungle.

P.S- My sincere apologies for taking longer time to complete the story, the fear of pirates made me share my story systematically..........Thanks for your coorperation...The rest of the story will be uploaded as time goes on..