Chapter 6

and hope not to be implicated. It was a tough decision, but one I had to make*

I prepared the poison for him on the condition that he doesn't make mention of my name when caught.

I know it was a fruitless talk then because he won't fail to mention my name if caught.

Of course, I had a backup plan; I plan I kept helping the poor girl.

Preparing the poison, I added a little dose of Agbaramebie * it's like a poison antidote, except it doesn't spotless the poison from your system; it stops the complete flow of the poison. The poison will still be in the person's system, but it won't have as much effect on the person as it would have without the Agbaramebie)* to stop the complete flow of the poison in her system.

To cut the long story short, since I'm about to head out for another herb search, he was caught before he can administer the poison to her.

Luckily for me, but mostly for him, he escaped before a trial can be made on him, and since then, Ikenga hasn't been seen nor have tales of him been heard.

Some said he was devoured by the wolves who plagued our Kingdom.

Wolves that can morph into humans, and walk among us.

Their ability to turn into humans at will was the reason they overthrew the Kingdom of Ezeugo.

Five kingdoms made up the formal glory of Mabudazou.

The kingdom of Ezeugo, the kingdom of Ugiri, the kingdom of Metu *that's the real name of my village; a village that was once a great kingdom before the wolves evaded it*

The kingdom of Aboki and the kingdom of Cherem *a kingdom the wolves now abide in since it was the head of all the other kingdoms*.

We were living in our glory until the evasion of wolves; they laid waste to the kingdoms when our Igwe * the head chef of the once glorious Mabudazou* refused their terms of a truce.

The only kingdom that hasn't been evaded as much as the others have is our village.

Most say it's because of the gods we serve, but I know it's just a moment more until we're completely evaded.

The wolf king is a ruthless human, or should I say animal? Or better still inhuman?

He kills without a second thought, wiping down all who stand in his way.

He's the most feared of all beings, an inhuman whose tales make even the strong cower in fear.

Not only that, but he's like the god of war, Agbaraike reincarnated.

Rumours have it that he's like the beasts that roam the evil forest * a beast that's rumoured to be the direct descendant of Ekwensu. I guess you can say he's my brother*, some say he has horns as long as our village; others say his eyes are as orange as our sky.

Most say he has fangs as sharp as an adult Onyeike, while others say he drinks the blood of his victims.

Hearing tales like this makes even a strong person become a newborn toddler.

Even the bold ones cower when his name is mentioned; a living nightmare walking Mabudazou.

Our Kingdom wasn't plagued with wolves until the day we saw a rift in the sky * I haven't been born when the rift happened, but my father told me all about it*

A rift that brought doom into the lives of us humans.

A rift that brought, into human existence, monsters we didn't know of before.A rift we humans thought was another moon wheeling *it's a season of constant rain with no sign of the blue sun. It sometimes creates something like a cycle in the sky; a type of hole where rain pours from·, but the contradiction to their words was the season they were in then.

It was the moon falling season *a season we hardly see rain in* and after the moon falling season comes the sun falling (it's the season when blue particles the exact color of our sun fall to the ground.

During the season, everywhere is blue, and the weather is too cold for most to travel.

We store most of our foods during the moon shining to survive the sun falling.

In Mabudazou, we have six seasons in a complete moon cycle.

The first season is the sun shining. In this season, the sun shines for five Izu Uka without a single drop of rain escaping the prison the sun confined it in.

After the Sun shining season comes the moon shining; a season of abundance.

The moon shining is the best season we have every complete moon cycle (an incomplete moon cycle only have five seasons; the season being the moon wheeling).

The third season is the moon falling; a season of perpetual day heat, and unsteady rainfall. A season that best suits the hunters.

The fourth season is the Moon wheeling; this season is the season of perpetual rain.

It's the opposite of the sun shining season. The moon wheeling doesn't appear after every ten complete moon cycles. It seizes for a moon cycle after every ten years.

The fifth season is the lunar-solar dropping; it's a season of the moon and sunshine at the same time, the green moon on one part of our sky, and the blue sun on another part,

and the last season of every complete moon cycle is the sun falling; a season the blue, sweet-smelling particles fall.

It's always a surprise we don't get blue stains on our almost white skin.*

The Rift caused numerous speculations in the mind of the elders of Mabudazou.

It caused a lot of searching that led to no fruitful results.

The more the Ubochi breaks, the more the rift expanded until it reached the size of a house, and that was when the wolves came to Mabudazou.

Wolves that took almost everything from my kingdom.

When they came, we were not aware of them.