Decades ago, the gods lived among the free world. Being gods, they were superior to the humans in every way. They could predict the future, they could hear sounds from thousand miles away, they could tell what a person was thinking and of course they were immortal.
At a point, the humans got tired of living under the gods. It felt like they had no Free will of theirs, they were compelled to always do the bidden of the gods. As a result of this, they sought means to subdue the powers of the gods. It wasn't humanly possible to battle and be victorious against gods, the gods were always one step ahead. This was until they had a deal with the god of ...
"Daniel, would you stop reading that crazy story to your kid sister and come and help me in the garage."
"But.. Dad, these are not mere stories. They actually happened thousands of years ago."
"Those are folk tales son, I've told you so several times. Well it's my fault for buying you so many fictional stories as a kid."
No matter how hard his parents and people around him tried to convince him, Daniel would never stop believing in the legends and tales of the gods. In school, he had a couple buddies who actually had the same mindset on the topic and they met once in a while in the old arts and history hall.
"All the books points towards this direction. No book tells the tales of what happens beyond this point." Ben said pointing at a spot in an old map.
"That must be the location of the book then."
Stephanie added.
"And the gold. I hope all these your assumptions are true. I wouldn't want to waste my time in a futile mission."
"Steve, we all know that you care nothing about the book of wahala. You and your crew are in this just for the Gold."
"Why should I care about an ancient book which probably doesn't have any magic like you claim. When do we leave for the journey, I can't wait anymore."
"The book doesn't exactly have a magic," I tried to explain. "Anyways we leave on Monday, I'm sure we will be back before school is over and go home as if nothing happened."
"Yeah, except will be stinking rich."
I can't believe this is finally happening. I've been planning for this all my life. Everything was perfect, I had the map with the location, Steve and his crew will give us protection against any unexpected violence. All these went through my head as I sat in my room gathering things I'll be needing for the mission
"Daniel, what are you up to?"
My kid sis said as she barged into my room.
"Seriously sis, you don't knock anymore?"
"Don't change the topic. I've seen your movement the last couple days, and I know you are planning something silly. I want in!"
I smiled at my sister, sometimes she spoke to me like she was older than me. I gestured at her to come and sit down.
"Remember the story I was telling you about the humans rebelling against the gods with the help of another god. Well you see, the god that helped them was the god of Wahala. But the humans were not actually successful, because the gods joined forces and conquered the god of Wahala banishing him into the Forest of Ife. After the great war, the gods hated the humans so much that they couldn't get themselves to leave amongst us, so they all disappeared giving the humans what they wanted, to be free."
"Why are you telling me this now?"
"The story continues, Legend has it that before the god of Wahala fell, he hid his Sacred book in a golden castle. They say the book possesses every possible trouble that could befall a person. If you master this book, you can avoid trouble before it comes your way. Also you would know a thousand ways to get a person into trouble at any time."
"Let me guess, you want to go in search of this great book. You know so much about this history, I don't have to remind you what they say about the Forest of Ife. The Forest of the lost souls. the forest where demons go when casted out."
"I know sis. I have it all planned out. I've got some native herbs and some juju [Charm] to take with me on the journey
Besides I won't be going alone."
"I want to come with you!"
"No way. I can't forgive my self if anything happens to you. Besides I need you here to cover for me if mom and Dad suspect anything."
Tomorrow was the big day, I couldn't get myself to sleep. I stayed up all night crossing my t's and dotting my i's to make sure there was no loop in the plan.
"Stephanie you have to run faster, those things are right behind us."
I screamed at stephanie who was lagging behind as we ran up a mountain.
"This is crazy! Steve I thought we hired your crew for situations like this."
"Whatever those things are, our weapons don't stand a chance against it. I lost three of my men to those creatures."
"This was a stupid idea! We should go back now."
"Ben, it's too late to head back. If we can survive the night, I'm sure things will be calm in morning."
It has been 12 hours since we embarked on our mission, which seems to have turned into a journey of no return. We spent the night in a cave, we did a head count and we were 5 out of 12 people that started the journey. The next morning, things were a bit calm as I predicted. Few hours of journeying into the Forest, Ben who was always in front screamed out loud.
"There it is."
Lo and behold there it was, few miles out, standing in it's glory, a Castle made of complete Gold. That sight lifted our Spirit, we doubled our pace. As we ran towards the castle, Steve kept screaming.
"I'm rich! I'm rich!!"
Fifty meters away from the castle, something strange happened. On stepping foot withing the surroundings of the castle, we were all bounced back by a certain force throwing us to the ground. At a corner was a sign which read.
NO MORTAL IS WELCOME HERE.
"What! We came all these way and you tell me I'm not allowed in. No way!"
Steve said bringing out some explosives from his bag.
"Steve you are going to get us all killed. It's all over!"
"All over? This is all your fault. You should have known that mortals are not allowed in here from your researches." Steve said grabbing Ben by the neck.
"It's not his fault," I said "he couldn't have known. Nobody has ever made it this far. But I assure you, it's not over. we just have to go and come back when I figure out a way across this."
"Daniel you must be kidding." Stephanie said still sitting on the floor. "You should be thinking of how to get through those creatures on the way back. If we make it out of here alive, nobody should ever dream of coming back here."
I lurked around, gathered a few samples then we picked up our things and began our Journey back home.
$toryTeller👻