Urenma episode 2 – 3

Urenma

Chapter 2

Ages had passed and the pain of the people Ukeh over the loss of its sons and daughters – children of the gods who were born as men- had dulled,
A princess of the river kingdom was born in Ukeh as a baby girl.

A barren woman, Ngbankwo by name, who took in after many years of barreness gave birth to a baby girl whose kingdom could not be determined by being thrown into Nwangele River.
When the child was thrown into the river it sunk in, then moments later it sprang up. It kept doing this until the priest who tested it in the river lifted it and gave it back to its mother and pronounced the child to be of men. The priest did not understand what happened nor had he seen anything like that all the years he had been testing babies in Nwangele River. When the baby was handed back to Ngbankwo, she and her poor husband broke into celebration. They had thought the baby was gone when it sunk into the river. They took the baby home and named it Urenma.

When the baby had grown into a girl, tales of her unusual beauty spread through Ukeh and beyond. Men and women described her as beautiful as the moon while others said her face shone brighter than the sun and some even dared the gods and said they must be jealous of her beauty. Young boys of her age claimed she was no human; no one took the little boys seriously because she had survived the test at the river and so must be human.

Urenma had reached the age of seventeen, her father’s house became some form of tourist centre; men of different classes and from all clans did flock to her father’s house to ask her hand in marriage.
Urenma’s father, Okeke, who had since the birth of his daughter became a wealthy man, was loaded with all forms of gifts and presents by men who sort to marry Urenma.
Those men hoped that their gifts would persuade Okeke to make them his choice for his daughter.

Though Okeke gladly recieved their gifts, the power to choose who Urenma would marry was far removed from his hands. His daughter Urenma, had made it clear to her parents that the choice of whom to marry would be hers to decide.
However Urenma had no intention of ever getting married. She was a princess of the gods from the river kingdom who was granted permission by the gods to be born as mortal and to dwell amongst mortals for a brief time and then return to the water kingdom to fill her role as a princess of the gods. Okeke and Ngbankwo were not aware of this. Though they had often wondered how she was able to do some of the thing she did, they did not think she was a child of the gods. How could she have been, after all the gods returned her when she sunk into the river? When her parents asked her about how she could do the unusual things they saw her do, she would explain that she saw them in her dreams.
Though she always visited the river world every night in her dreams, that was however not an explanation for the things she could do. Urenma was able to heal her parents sick animals, predicted the weather, described un-harvested farm produce, told her parents the persons who would visit them before the guests arrived and spoke to animals.

Chapter 3

While Ukeh and the villages around them waited with bathed breath to know who Okeke would give his daughter to as wife, Urenma had a fatal accident- she found love. One day Urenma was at Nwangele River washing sliced cassava for her mother when a handsome young man walked into the river to fetch water. Some young men who were washing thier clothes at the river began to poke fun at him. The young man was poor and looked dirty; his name was Obinze. Obinze had lost his parents while he was still very tender and was left with only his aged grandmother. The old woman was too old to fend for herself and Obinze, so from a young age Obinze began to farm and hunt to care for his grandmother. Life was not fair to him, but however he killed enough game and harvested enough farm produce to keep him and grandmother from starving to death. This time of the year, Ukeh youth wrestling festival was about to begin. Every young man in Ukeh had taken to the chief priest a strong and healthy c–k, for the chief priest to perform a ritual which would keep them from breaking bones or sustaining injuries which could lead to death in the wrestling match. Every wrestling festival Obinze would fail to take part in wrestling matches because he could not afford to give the chief priest a c–k.

Even in times when he had a c–k to give to the chief priest, he would sell it so he and his grandmother could eat. So some of the boys at the river that day ridiculed him for his poverty and continued failure to take part in the wrestling festival every year. Thier caustic words shot at Urenma’s heart like arrows. Obinze did not reply a word to them; he simple held his udu (earthen pot) under the river so water could fill it. Meanwhile Urenma could no longer bear the taunts hurled at Obinze; though she had not met him before nor had heard of him, her heart went out to him in compassion. From her task of washing sliced cassava tubers, she raised her head like a cobra and barked at the young men who made fun of Obinze, “Shut up you fools! How I wish your mothers squeezed you all dead while you were trying to come out of them. You are all filthy and deserve not to live! I swear by th gods, tomorrow, Obinze will fight at the wrestling festival and he will break each of your bones and be crowned champion”.

Urenma’s words broke over the young men with the power of her other nature. The boys cowered and froze with fear. Obinze was afraid and raced to her defense thinking the boys would attack Urenma. He was surprise that they didn’t, Obinze thanked her for coming to his defense but told her that she shouldn’t have bothered because he had grown accustomed to their taunts. Urenma told him that she meant what she said and asked Obinze to wait for her to finish washing her sliced cassava. As Obinze and Urenma walked home and chatted about the wrestling festival she took Obinze’s hand like a woman would take that of her lover. Obinze was surprised and couldn’t say a word, he had heard of the fame of her beauty and the class of men who jolted each other with their wealth to win her hand in marriage. Urenma deliberately took Obinze’s hand; she knew what she was doing. She knew the news of that would spread through the entire village and she wanted it so.
She was miffed at the way Obinze was treated and wanted all to know that he was going to be the next big thing in Ukeh, she, would make sure it happened. Urenma told Obinze to meet him at the chief priests shrine as soon as he got home and set down his water pot.
About forty minutes later Obinze met Urenma at shrine of the chief priest holding a gaint c–k. She handed it to him and said, “Go in and see the chief priest. Let him offer the ritual for your safety in wrestling festival, by tomorrow you will be breaking bones at the village square”. “But Urenma, I won’t be able to break their bones. Won’t the same spirit protecting them be protecting me?”
“Don’t worry about that, by tomorrow the spirit that protects wrestlers will not be at the village square. I will be the one watching over the wrestlers and will decide whose bones I want broken. Go in now and see the chief priest”.

Obinze did not understand her meaning, nor had he seen a weird character like her before. After the chief priest was done with Obinze, he come out of the shrine and met Urenma. Ure; as she was fondly called, was happy for him. She gave him a pile of new clothes hideen in a basket and said. “These are for you Obi M. Tomorrow you will be dressed in your best as you make your way down to the village square”.

To Be Continued….