The Dark Goddess

Chapter 38

How does it feel to be torn apart and put back together again by mystical and ethereal forces? Most people don’t know but Ami can answer that offhand.

She had explicitly told Esu the god of the underworld that she did not want to feel the reincarnation process, but then what did she expect from the god of deceit, he must be having quite a laugh now.

Ami felt everything from the moment Esu pushed her into a seemingly endless dark pit, but as she she fell, she fell towards light and that was when the excruciating pain started.

First it felt like her very skin was being peeled off, then her muscles and sinews, bones and joints were all being torn apart, all in all she felt as if she was being unraveled from the very fabric of existence and the worst part was that she felt everything.

When that stopped, the stitching began, starting from her very core to her entire body as she was being sown back into being in the fabric of existence. She was going to have serious words with Esu after this, assuming she survives it.

But she did survive, she open her eyes slowly as light filtered in gently, she was aware, of everything.

She was in a forest, a thick one, the smell of rain, trees and earth mixed up together with the sounds of birds, rustling of bushes and soft padded trots of animals.

She stood up slowly only to discover she was naked, but at the time being, she didn’t mind, she was busy taking in the beauty of her surroundings, the pure nature that existed here.

But the moment of peace didn’t last, a loud rushing rustling sound drew nearer and she knew it might very well spell trouble.

A couple of short shrubs ran forth and formed a line before her and started speaking in awkward odd voices that couldn’t de deciphered.

They were insistent and at a point even started arguing amongst themselves.

Ami took a step back but stepped on a fallen branch that made a loud c***k and brought their attention back to her.

One stepped forward and spoke in again, this time a bit slower and calmer, then Ami discovered that she could actually decipher what they were saying if they were calm and she was attentive.

“’ níbo lo ti wá àti wípé kíni o wá ṣe níbí yìí? '” the leader said.

Ami had heard the language before, as at then she only had a vague suspicion of its meaning, but now as she heard it she definitely knew what it meant this time.

“Where did you come from and what are you doing here?” Ami said aloud translating the question to English.

The leader only looked bleakly and the rest looked at each other, they probably didn’t understand her, was she going to have to speak in their language, heck she hadn’t learnt so much of it yet.

The native language of the part of Nigeria she originated from is Yorùbá and she was studying it as well in Haven, but then she hadn’t gotten to speaking it at all yet.

How the heck was she supposed to explain to these…, wait what are they?

They must be deities of some kind, although she knew who the deity of the forest around these part was.

She suddenly had an idea, “Take me to Osanyin, I want to speak with the god of the forest” she asked.

Pandemonium broke out amongst the little shrub people, they all started to run around in circles and some clashed into each other.

Then suddenly they stopped and began moving deliberately towards each other, whenever they made contact one absorbed the other and became bigger.

They did as such till there was just one big shrub person left and this person wasn’t little anymore, it was now even bigger than Ami.

“And who said the deity of the forest had to be a god?” said a female voice clear and sweet from within the shrub person.

When the shrub person turned around, Ami’s breath ceased for a second at the exceptional beauty of the forest goddess.

“Forgive my impulsiveness, goddess, I didn’t really know what to expect, this is my first time here” Ami answered.

“Do you mean here as in my domain or here as in this land? Because if you mean the later then you’re mistaken” the forest goddess said.

Ami was lost at that point, she had no idea what the goddess could possibly mean, but then she had more pressing matter at hand.

“Please goddess, I need to find my mother, can you please help me?” Ami asked.

Osanyin slanted her head a bit as if someone beside her was telling her something, but then it could be that she was trying to listen to the earth.

“Hmm, your mother uhn, the turbulent one, I know not where she is, it has been really peaceful around here for a long while now, months maybe, so she is not here” Osanyin stated.

Ami looked disappointed, what was she to do now, from what she had learned from Esu, she just can’t keep strutting about, not if the gods will notice, because as far as he knows she is still a secret.

“But” the forest goddess added “If you were to catch a storm, it’ll lead you back to her, they always go back to her”

Ami was really glad for that piece of cryptic information z at least it was something to go on, she thanked the goddess dearly.

“Oh and one more thing ‘omo ìjì'” Osanyin added as she started shrinking into the earth “Don’t stay long here, storms always finds more storms, we have had peace here for long, I’d like to keep it that way” the forest goddess said and shrunk totally into the ground without a trace.

Ami knew a warning when she heard one, so immediately she started moving, she needed to find storms to find her mother, she had no clue if that was to be taken literally even but she pressed onwards still.

There was still the matter of her nakedness to be solved as well.

Ami wandered really far, Osanyin’s forest was really vast and all the while she moved along in it, she could feel eyes on her, watching her every move and all.

By that time Ami was really feeling the need to get some clothes and cover up, she wouldn’t mind if she found a place to bath as well, she had all these new born baby fluid on her body drying up all over her.

Just then Ami heard the sound of water rushing along, a river must be nearby, she traced the sound till she got to where the river was.

It was a small and slim river but it flowed very strongly and there was no doubt its current were strong enough to swift a whole person away.

Ami walked alongside the river till she saw a part ahead were the river gathered by the side in a gentle brook.

As she approached the place she heard voices coming and so she hid amongst the bushes.

Then about four ladies appeared all with large gourds, they got to the brook, bathed and played a little while as they chattered, then they fetched water into their gourds.

When they were ready to move, they all helped each other lift the heavy gourd to their heads and then they moved along.

Ami moved in after them and hurriedly took her bath before following the path they took from the side of the bushes lest she encounters anyone coming towards this same direction.

She followed the path till she could her sounds of human activities, she was sure there was a town or so nearby.

She hot more careful and moved closer, she got to a building first and it was one of the most crude type of house she had ever seen.

She had only seen pictures from her studies of how houses were built in villages of these parts, but then she hadn’t expected it to be this crude.

The house seemed to be made out of clay and mud and the roof were thatched with palm fronds, it looked like something that wasn’t fit for the rain but then it is still standing strong and she knew it must have been that way for a long while.

She waited carefully till she was sure no one was coming, then she hurried into the yard where she saw clothes spread and picked a few to wear then headed back into the bushes.

She wasn’t sure how these people would react to a stranger, because she would definitely stand out, being of lighter skin color and different language.

Osanyin told her to look for storms, yet she hasn’t found one, probably it wasn’t meant to be taken literally.

She felt awkward in the big top and big shorts, the material felt hard yet flexible, and the short had to be tied with a rope embedded around the waist.

She stumbled along and suddenly heard someone shout “’ Dúró níbẹ̀ '”

She was shocked as the interpretation of the phrase came to her as “Stop there” she mumbled to herself.

She had finally been discovered, she turned very slowly to face them, she knew they were more than one because they had suddenly started chattering pretty fast amongst themselves, faster than she could follow.

Turning fully she saw they were three, all male and they had weapons with them, she saw machetes and clubs that had a flat oval shape pan at the big end.

Looking at the weird instrument she remembered that these were tools for farming not necessarily weapons.

It was then she saw the shock registered on their faces, surely they must have seen a foreigner before, so why were they shocked?

“’ Ẹwo irun è '” one said, she pick that roughly as ‘See her hair’.

“’ Àti aṣọ tí ó wọ̀ '” another said, and she picked that as ‘and the clothes she wore'

Ami didn’t anything wrong with what she wore though, at least it was the exact same thing they wore as well.

“’ Ṣé kìí ṣe ẹbọra ní báyìí?” the third asked and she could only decipher that as 'isn’t she a creature of some kind”

 She had feared this would happen and that was why she had been avoiding an encounter with the humans.

She would have really preferred to have landed in the city or a town but to have landed in a remote village could only have been one of Esu’s cruelty, he really must be laughing his rockers off by now.

“I am human” she said and that only seemed to make matters worse as they started shouting and whooping and then they started to urge her forwards.

They wanted to lead her somewhere and she was sure it was the village she had just stolen from.

“See, I honestly mean you no harm, just let me go and I won’t bother you or anyone” Wmi said to them which only got her huffing responses like they were trying to intimidate her into moving where they wanted her to go.

There was no way she would follow them back to the village, she thought.

The language barrier was going to be the end of her, she thought.

Then she turned and ran.