Slave Hunters

Lisa, The Stream goddess

CHAPTER FOUR

Slave Hunters

The priest went straight to the brick-built palace of the village head, and as he stepped into the royal court, he noticed that other chiefs were already seated waiting for his arrival. The priest felt very important because all the chiefs were waiting for him, he bowed his head towards the high chief first as the head of the Community and then waved his staff of office in greetings to the rest of the chiefs.

“Take your seat,” the high chief pointed to a vacant seat on his right hand. “How did it go with the goddess?” The high chief asked the priest. “Well, I don’t know if there is a solution yet,” the priest said, without looking at any of the chiefs, but he cast his eyes on his staff of office which was on his right hand; and that was a sign of uncertainty.

All the chiefs were shocked, one of the chiefs asked; “What do you mean priest of the stream?” “Say it in a plain language to us, Lisa’s priest,” another chief said, looking very scared. The priest opened up; “Lisa, the stream goddess said her daughters will defend us, and that is what is disturbing my mind now.”

However, the high chief knew what the goddess meant because of his personal encounter with the goddess and her mermaid daughters in the past, he did not reveal what he knew about the mermaid daughters; and then he asked; “How can fishes fight and defend a human community?”

All the chiefs were looking at themselves, waiting for others to speak. “This is becoming complicated and scary,” one of the chiefs finally said to no one in particular. “We should not have gone to the goddess in the first instance, but you the priest suggested it,” the high chief said, out of frustration.

“Yes, I suggested it because you cannot take any important decision without consulting the goddess first. Moreover, the goddess told me many times that she will not allow any tribal war to destroy our village as long as we pay her homage in our annual festival and offer sacrifices to her,” the chief priest replied, in defense of himself.

The high chief resisted the temptation of revealing what he knew about those mermaids, but how can mermaids defend his community? He asked himself. “But my question is, how is Lisa going to defend us with her daughters? I mean; we all know that the goddess’ daughters are mere fishes in the stream,” the high chief said, helplessly looking at the faces of other chiefs in his palace. The priest replied calmly; “Lisa told me to come and collect fresh water that is gushing out from her source early in the morning before sunrise with a brand new clay pot whenever we are ready.”

The high chief looked sharply at the priest, and asked; “And what are you going to do with the fresh water in a new earthen pot from the source of the stream?” At that stage some of the chiefs made signs of relief. The priest did not particularly believed there was a solution yet, but he knew all the chiefs were depending on Lisa through him for a solution, he replied calmly, not showing his doubt.

“The goddess told me to sprinkle the fresh water from the source of the stream all over the Community at the early hours of the morning before the sun rise without speaking to anyone; that should be immediately after the fresh water might have been fetched from the source.”

The high chief now looking a bit relieved also, and he asked; “When are you going to fetch the water from the source? I will ask my son Omobolaji the potter, to send a new clay pot to you this evening which you can use to collect the water from the stream,” the high chief promised. “In that case, I will go and fetch the water with the new pot very early tomorrow morning,” the priest responded. “We thank the gods, for bringing us to this location; where we can be defended by the goddess and her children.” The high chief said, finally smiling at the chief priest for the first time that evening.

The new clay pot was sent that night to the priest as promised; the village

Announcer went through the village that same night, informing the villagers not to go to Lisa’s stream until afternoon on the morrow for the safety of the Community, the Announcer further informed the people that, a special sacrifice shall take place soon, and that people should not go out of their house after dinner for the next seven days to avoid been enslaved by slave hunters.

Even though the priest did not understand how fresh water from the source of Lisa’s stream could save them from the hands of slave grabbers, but he did all that was required of him by the goddess, and the chiefs.

Few days later after the chief priest had performed the sprinkling of the fresh water from the source of the stream, news of the slave grabbers came to Odogbagede that the slave Raiders were already at the border of the village with their well armed mercenary soldiers. The people of the village had been told a night before to stay in their homes. When the slave Raiders with their armed soldiers came to the border of the village, they met twenty four women in white robes, and all the women were standing on their fish tails; not on human legs. All of these strange beings carried clay-pot filled with water in their hands. The numbers of these women standing on their fish tails were also equal to the numbers of the invading armed soldiers.

These women with fish tails looked harmless to the armed soldiers, the captain of the armed men shouted; “Who are you, and why are you blocking us from raiding the village for slaves?” The strange women all spoke at the same time; “We are the daughters of Queen Lisa, the stream goddess of this Community, our mother sent us to defend this village against villains and bandits like you, and where you all are standing shall be your burial ground today.”

The captain and his men busted into laughter, and said; “With what are you going to fight us, with clay pots?” The men laughed again. “Go back to your stream, you are not even humans, this is human to human battle, mermaids functions in the ocean, they cannot fight against our human’s fire arms power,” the captain said proudly.

Before the soldiers could lift up their guns, the mermaids moved very fast and poured the water in their pots on the armed men; one mermaid against one armed solder; all the soldiers fell on the floor and they immediately turned into catfishes twisting on the floor, and fighting for breath, and their weapons of death fell harmlessly on the ground around them.

The strange mermaids with fish tails disappeared from the scene, but the stream priest witnessed the shocking battle from the bush around the battle ground; and what had happened to all the armed soldiers who invaded their Community was inconceivable to him.

The priest had used the magical power which the goddess gave him to remain invisible to the enemies.

He shook his head in wonders, and said to no one in particular, “Lisa, the stream goddess, you will never fail to surprise me, but what you did for us here today through your wonderful daughters, would be written down in the history book of Odogbagede, it was an amazing battle indeed, no one could have imagined the outcome of it this way.”

He checked all the catfishes on the ground; they were all dead like frozen chickens. Lisa, the stream goddess watched the whole attacking drama of her daughters on the armed soldiers in her magic mirror; she smiled when the mermaids poured the fresh water on the soldiers; and when the soldiers dropped on ground dead, she clapped her hands in approval.

The priest reported what he had witnessed that day to all the chiefs at the palace, they found it very difficult to believe, but when the priest took all of them to the dead catfishes at the border of their Community, they could not close their mouths in wonders. From that day onward, and up to the end of slave trade, there was total peace in Odogbagede.