Back in the days when boys still waited under the big Udarra tree for the big ripe fruit to fall, when it was still taboo for thrown stones to hit its scared branches, when the falling fruit is by default the first pickers own, when the rush to the stream was a bigger taboo than stealing yam from an elder’s barn, when the first claimed all but was expected to share by nature of the earths law, when pre-marital sex was unknown and a woman’s pride is the stained loin clothe seen after the bridal night.Those days of predictable happenings, when men come home to their families and divorces where so rare they are stuff of legends, used to frighten the unruly daughter back in line.

These were days of plenty, men planted their bellies worth and the extra for trade by age old batter.It was in these days of fables beginning that Alika the giant walked the seven hills, sending shivery fear down the spine of the enemies of his clan. The elders recall that no one fought the Umumba clan in the hills. The warriors of the stranger clans heard his fames’ roar from afar and slunk away like women.This is story of Alika’s pursuit of the vivacious Amoge as told by his bard friend Obele Okwu the great (lets not forget that his was an apprentice at this time, though he always swears, by the thunder god’s bellow, that he was better than his teacher.) and we can only measure his truthfulness by the pinch of the salt of the river people’s salt lick.His tale came to me through a long line of oral historians who traveled the wild lands collecting stories of this like for the horsemen who plowed the northern fringes of a fading dynasty in the days of waning light. I will disappear from this tale (for this time that is.) and allow you judge his authenticity for yourself.D’Lame1 this very year 5520, after the mirror’s fall.

My name is Obele Okwu which, as you will find, is a misnomer, for I earn my living as a bard, and you know we bards sing as loud as the Iroko gong.I am of the seven hills, though I am kin with the people of the dry marshes, my mother’s mother having hailed from the foothills. I am presently on a fool’s errand for my famous friend Alika of the seven hills. Perhaps you have heard tell of his exploits in the two markets war and the taming of the plain lion.Well, I was sent into the foothills because of my bloodlines and my skill as a bard, for it is hoped that I can convince some of my grand sire’s kin to follow the dreaded path to the hills bringing the fabled northern ox with them. The ox is for Amaoge of the shrines who Alika hopes to make his partner at the bonding.   I will like to tell you a bit about Alika my friend whose tale this is. I would have loved to tell you of his exploits in the “Two Markets” war-assuming you have not heard hint of it-but we both know that will call for more palm wine than I can consume at this seating.

 Alika was not a fighter and walked away from more battles than any other warrior in the seven hills, No, not for cowardice, but for lack of a worthy opponent and the unwillingness to inflict harm on a fellow human being. The songs of the hills have it that the most well kept secret of the two market war was the fact that Alika was actually coaxed to appear on the battle field by his mother with the solemn promise that he wont strike a blow. Alika stood in the front lines of Umumba like Ala’s- the earth god- wrath, trying his very best to look as mean as possible. Now, now, I am not trying to put wings to that story and I can only confirm that Alika shared two burly rams with me after that hardly fought battle, presents from the elders he said.Yes, I assure you, even the elders agree, that had Ezilo clan summoned enough will to strike out, they would have succeeded in hauling home the lone human head that would have given them the battle. But, the fear of the gentle giant Alika robbed them of a ready victory; they out-numbered Umumba three to one and owned the most feared war Ikenga in the whole of the seven hills. And this is not summon to arms for you faint hearted plains and river men, remember that Ezilo is of the seven hills and we fight all outsiders together.But I digress; I was talking about my friend. Alika is tall. This every one agrees, the tallest man the seven hills have ever produced. You know we of the hills are born tall, most crossing the six adult feet length. Alika stands above seven and has the mass of two hill men without that fat of the low Landers.

He could easily lift ten times his body weight and till at par with five strong workers.Every one agreed that Alika is an asset to the seven hills and his height made him recognizable even in the crowded market. Women looked at him with doe eyes and all men envied him, his mother could not have prayed for a better son. All appeared well, but Alika nursed a secret pain. Marriage in the hills is unlike those of the low lands and else where. Here, parents took pride in the fact that their children make the choice of a life partner on their own. We hill dwellers bond at late adolescence or early adulthood and most get married soon after that.Here lies Alika’s dilemma. Fear, fear for the weaker sex. Though strong and built like the proverbial ox of the northern plains, Alika gets queasy around women and finds it tasking to go beyond the first few words of pleasantries before his habitual stammer takes over. No, Alika is not a natural stutter, his affliction only occurs when a maiden’s smile lights up her beautiful eyes, and Alika is yet to meet a woman who does not smile at him.Now, the time of bonding drew near and Alika’s soft heart have been sized by Amoge the medicine man’s beautiful daughter who stood taller than her brothers and is widely known to shun the womanly tasks for her uncles hunting lodge in the twin forests.

No one knew what caught Alika’s attention but, I, Obele his bosom friend and confidant in many an adventure, swear by the thunder god’s bellow that it had more to do with the fact that she is the only woman in the seven hills who looks Alika in the eye and hold his gaze than the fact that her beauty makes even the old men dream of youth long spent.The bonding ritual is done at the lesser market square away from the cradle of the elders, effectively hidden from the prying eyes of parents who are known to harbor prejudices, wanting to lift their families standing in the hills with choice choosing. Before the day of bonding proper, a suitor is expected to secretly give his intended a gift known only to her. If she fancies him, she will in turn give him hers on the day of bonding.Now, it is common occurrence for suitors to be lead on and then dumped for another at the bonding, in the hills a woman’s pride is measured by how many suitor gifts adorn her mother’s hut before the bonding. The youths avoid this situation by seeking and getting assurances from an intended before hand. This is done at the Iyi Ama stream where a promise given is broken only at ones peril.it was exactly two moons short of the yam harvest, which leaves would be suitors another rodents gestation to either get the promise at Iyi Ama or hope for any maiden left over from the choosing, not the choice of the most feared warrior in the seven hills. The day was not remarkable in any way and I was busy cleaning new flute woods my master sourced from an antelope hunter off the twin forests.

Having eaten a stingy meal of roast locust and ncha-that is tapioca meal to you low Landers-provided by my tutor’s wife-he got her at a good bargain from the river dwellers at his music’s prime-I was feeling hungry and was about giving in to temptation and raiding my other-mother’s loft when a shadow fell across my stacked wood pieces. Startled, I almost jumped out of my skin but for that irritatingly familiar voice reaching my well-tuned ears.

“Obele Okwu.” Alika called out in that hoarse voice of his that always jangles my nerves, “are you scared of a harmless shadow?”I looked at him for a bit, thinking up the best retort to counter his wit. I will also have you know that Alika is very quick with his tongue at least when it is not a maiden he is addressing and I am always having to fight for words to keep him at bay.“And who would not jump back from a shadow without substance?” I finally retort, daring him with my eyes to contradict my postulation.He looked at me for a long while, like he is preparing for our speech battles that always seem to lift his spirits while leaving me drained. When I thought he will throw a hard counter at me he shifted his weight and sat down heavily on a disused mortar that serves my tutor as a throne, especially when he is nipping my knuckles with his wicked stick, teaching moves that I had already learned weeks before-you know I am way better than the old crow only I do not let him see that. I noticed that Alika’s countenance fell with his decent and my concern leaped out with its customary swiftness.

“The brave warrior,” I hailed, squatting on my heels beside him, “what draws twilights’ shadow across you brave heart?”

He looked down at me, a weary smile playing across his full lips as he swatted tiny blood insects on his broad shoulders.

“Obele,” he called, looking me straight in the eyes.

“I am here Alika, speak your ill.”

“Obele, you know the day of bonding is upon us?”

“Yes, I am aware.” I replied, dreading he had gotten wind of my assent from his younger sister. An awkward situation I had hoped will only come to light after the bonding when he is forbidding by law to beat an in-law.

“What about it.”He looked at me strangely for a moment, shook his head and asked, do you not see any problem?

“No.” I replied, with all the sincerity I could muster, my heart was then falling out of my mouth.

“Obele Okwu.” He said sadly. “I thought you knew me well and is a good friend.”

My heart was now held in my hands and was threatening to slip off.

“But…but I am.” I insisted. Flexing my leg muscles as a quickening raced through my blood.

“how then, Obele the bard, can you be my friend and not know that it is a few twilights to the night of bonding and I Alika of the songs has no promise and no mate?” he bellowed, standing to his full height arms akimbo.

“How then?” he added for emphasis, his voice a whisper, belying his earlier loudness.

“OH!” I exclaimed, my heart rushing back with a release that is as painful as the quickening.

“Oh?” he asked, stunned “oh? Is that all you have to contribute to this dilemma of mine?”

“But Alika you are the last man I will expect to have that dilemma. All the girls want to be with you, even the married ones look at you with longing and I am sure it takes only the taboo to keep them from your hut.”

“And?” he asked, scowling down at me.

“And you can have anyone you want.”

“It’s not that easy,”

“Not easy?” I asked. It was my turn to be stunned “what do you mean not easy?”

“Just that, or have you forgotten my difficulty?” he asked sternly, glaring at me manically

“Oh, the difficulty,”“Yes, that difficulty.” He was glancing around; to ascertain if we are still alone. Spying my tutor’s foreign wife at the far end of the compound, he pulled me away towards the ill-used hunters’ path.We walked in silence for a long while. Well, long enough for my acute ears to lose the sounds of the village. Still we walked.We finally arrived at the forked cross roads at Abam the smaller. Here, Alika crossed over to the wayfarer’s seat under the large wild looking Ugba tree that is rumored to harbor the traveler’s goddess Ijedimma. Being a bard myself and considering myself more of a journey-man than a warrior I felt slightly slighted that Alika should be this free with Ijedimma’s domicile, I rushed to claim first place, managing to beat him by an hair’s breath.He looked at me with forced tolerance and proceeded to drop the customary kola nut at the sacred tree’s foot. Not being of a priestly line like him I assumed a pious demeanor and nodded my head at the appropriate places and accepted the proffered kola nut. You know what it does to a bards learning voice but then a little piece hardly makes a difference and it was shared by a friendly if not patron goddess.   

Well, we did not sit there long before Alika told me that he is taking the left fork of the road, which leads to the twin forest.Intrigued I asked him why he is going there. He looked at me with those big innocent eyes of his as if I had gone mad.

“It is not just me who is going there, you are coming too.”

“What! And when was that discussed?”“Just now, I am going to court Amaoge and I need you for moral support.” He said casually.

“Court Amaoge? And have you not being doing that a whole lot recently?”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumber Alika, everyone knows you like her,” I replied, clinching my fist to stop from laughing at the horrified expression on his face.

“And those late night vigils outside her homestead, the water fetching and barn making for her father are not hidden. What! Everyone is doing something for some girl’s family these days, even I spent the whole of last market day tiling your mother’s vegetable patch for Chi….eeh…” I cut myself off hoping he had not caught the significance of my quick tongued blunder, but one look at his smiling face and I knew that the harm had already been done.

“Relax Obele, I know about you and my sister. I am not blind too; you two have always liked each other. We all knew it will lead to this.”

“You knew.” I said as my tongue found its rhythm. “I was scared you will kill me if you knew.”

“Kill you? Far from it,” he said, laughing hard. “That is why I brought you here; you are to repay the favor by helping me with Amaoge.”

My relief knew no bounds as my greatest fear faded away like a summer smoke, a whiff blown by the strong winds. I turned away from him, hiding the relief that flooded my face.

“What do you want to do?” I asked.“We go to her Uncle’s hunting lodge. I have a deer trap near the stream, I noticed fresh tracks there yesterday and I have hopes for its fruit today.” He paused looked at me to ascertain if I am following him, I nod my head once, yes, he continues. “If that trap fails we check my fish trap in the stream. Hopefully we go with one or both. Now I want to give her the gifts before her uncle know we are there, so I need you to distract him long enough for me to deposit it where she will find it later. Are you following? Now the tricky part is not giving her the gifts but holding my act long enough to ask her.”

“Ask her what?”

“Hey! Were you following anything I said? To ask her to be mine.”

“Ok, I get it. But why don’t we just wait for her to come back home and give her these gifts at home?”

“No, it is better done in the forest, that way if she rejects me it will be known to only three people, me, you and her. Same goes for if I make a mess of it.” He concluded smugly.I wanted to argue further, but I saw the sense in his reasoning and held my peace.We took the left fork like he wanted and got to the stream at about midday. Now you know how dense the forest in the seven hills can be, especially at the peak of the rain season when the elephant grass is at its most luxuriant. Well, the trap was hid by such a growth and my untrained bush eyes did not even realize we are in its vicinity until Alika exclaimed in unabashed horror.Following his furious gaze I looked again and saw what was aggravating him, hidden by the grasses, lay the despoiled carcass of a rather large deer, its bowels had been ripped open and most of the meat chewed to the bone. What was left looked more like a bloodied mass of bone and cartilage attached to a strangely whole head, which is still attached to the taut vine rope of Alika trap.As we looked on, a young lioness strolled out of the grass with her brood, casually licking fresh blood from jowls and growling contently as she strolled casually towards us. Some of her brood, wanting second helpings, trotted back to the carcass and came off with bit and pieces which they fought over with unconcerned abandonment.I know you will be dying to ask what we did in the face of that blatant theft. Well, being of the hills, we are kin to the lions of the hills and expected them to protect our kill not use them for lunch. So it took all of my talking skill to talk Alika out of taking his own back from the lioness there and them, An action that would have brought on us the wrath of the guardians of the caves.

So, reluctantly and with great disappointment we left the trap and its ill-fated catch and made way to the stream where we hoped for better luck, leaving the young lioness rolling on the forest floor with her cubs. Apparently she needed the meal more than us, but that won’t stop us taking the matter to the guardians cave when all is said and done.The stream, it is not known by any other name not having the luck of being affiliated to any god or spirit, originates from the smaller of the seven hills and somehow manages to boycott the slopes that would have lead to its capture by any of the other streams that flow into the great Nmamu river. It ends in the twin forests where it collects into a little lake called Nma-beautiful- for its collection of rainbow butterflies and bright plumaged birds. At the center it is said to pass on into an underground river and anyone caught in its swirl is lost forever, but the shallows is perfectly safe and the fishes large. It was there, at the shallows, that Alika set his trap and as we approached, the splashing of a captured prey welcomed our wary eyes just as the water cooled our patched throats and insect gnawed upper bodies.We did not immediately go to the trap but sat by the shore eating a meager ration of dried grass cutter meat and trading banters on our extensive adventures, believing our catch is waiting for us and no harm will come to it, how wrong we were.

It was I who went to pull the trap from the lake. Not having much trap fishing experience, I wadded into the water that came to my ankle I did not think anything was amiss when I saw the black polished diamond glitter of the prey’s skin. Grabbing the tapered neck of the fish trap, I lifted it onto my back without looking and head back to shore. I noted the heaviness of my burden and smiled, knowing that it meant a big catch.I must have gotten very close to shore when Alika scream stopped me in my tracks. My heart wobbled and my knees knocked together as I looked up at and away from him seeking the source of his distress. He was still where I left him only he was no longer sitting; instead he was dancing around horrified, pointing toward me, gesturing and shouting incoherently. I turned around, alarmed, but the water behind me was as still as it was when I went in and the forest beyond held no trouble. Turning back to him I was about to tell him off for playing a loose joke on me when something slippery and wet brushed my shoulder. No, mind you, I was not spooked by it, not just then; I was more worried of the smell of the fish that may cling to my new shawl. So I lifted the trap off my back and maneuvered it to my front with the intent of resting it on the soft shore sand so that I can wash the fishy water off my shoulder before it sticks and starts smelling. You can imagine my horror at the sight of the biggest water snake I have ever laid my eyes on, staring at me with vexed eyes.I do not know how I managed to throw the trap away before its poised head struck or how I managed the strength to throw it as far as I did, a feat, I tell you, even Alika envies, but I remember vividly that it was fully out of the now broken trap and coming at me with blinding speed. I waited only long enough to note that I had underestimated its size initially and then my heels were touching my head.I caught up with and passed Alika, who was struggling with our machete, without looking back, shouting at him that it is the venom thrower. He overtook me before I got to the bush path.We ran like mad for several stone throws.

The venom thrower is as aggressive as a woman in labor and will chase you for great distance if it feels you have hurt it greatly, and we, by catching it in a trap, has done more than hurt its frisky feelings.When we had come to a heart shuddering halt and ascertained that it is no longer in pursuit, we picked a high branch to rest on, in case it is still bent on catching up with us.I do not remember who it was or how the suggestion to use it in place of the fish as a gift for Amaoge came up, but we were both too scared and beat to go back to the lake just then.We were still resting on the branch when Amaoge and her uncle walked up to us from the direction we had come. It was my acute ears that heard rumor of their whispered conversation, I alerted Alika and we climbed down from our branch and stood by the path awaiting their coming.  Mazi Akani called out to us as they neared and we walked down to meet them.Amaoge was looking very much the forest queen and even the jungle tattoos on her person and the large basket she had on her head did not take anything away from her beauty.She smiled at me and gave Alika an appraising gaze. As usual he averted his eyes and she smiled secretly at me. By thunder, I thought, she really likes him. If he can see her as clearly as I can we would not be thinking up all this schemes to win her love.

“We caught us a large venom thrower.” Mazi Akani, announced with pride, “it tired out chasing after some prey and was resting when we came up to it, Amaoge here got it dead on the head with her bow from fifty paces out.”The pride in his voice was evident even to a scowling Alika who shook his head warningly at me as I made to offer information on the dead snake.I endured the secret humiliation of weighing the snake’s worth in the fashion market as the happy old man looked on.My congress with the old hunter gave Alika his time with Amaoge. Hell, they were walking behind me and Mazi Akani so I did not see anything or heard what was said. I only saw Amaoge saunter past us, a big smile on her face.We did not follow them all the way to the hunting lodge but said our goodbyes at the next turning.Twilight was turning to darkness and I was itching to get home to my flute and well leafed yam porridge. But no, Alika had not had enough of adventure, not that day not ever. He said he had promised Amaoge an elephant tusk and a plains ox for her bonding if she will take him, now he is going to the eastern foothills to trap an elephant while I head home, get my gear and go to my grand mother’s people for an ox.

I thought him mad; I raved and ranted, telling him that a woman who loved you will not make you go to such extremes.He only smiled his eyes far away.

“Obele,” he said, “she accepted me before I made the promises, and I want her to have the greatest bonding gift ever seen in the seven hills. You are my friend and in-law, ok, ok, would be in-law, get the ox for me and you will have my gratitude for ever. There might even be an elephant tusk for Chiwendu. Think what that will mean.”

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