Urenma episode 6 – 8
URENMA
(Journey to the River world)
Episode 6
“Well mama, I have seen it. It will happen this evening at the village square, I want the two of you to come and watch him. He will make the legendary Ojadili to look like a beginner”. Okeke and Ngbankwo had seen a lot about their daughter to know that her words never fail. There was no basis to argue with her so they accepted all she said and asked her to bring Obinze home after the wrestling festival to share a meal with them.
By evening the village square in Ukeh was filled with people from far and near. The village troop danced to ebullient drumming by young drummers. There was fanfare and boasting as each clan in Ukeh boasted that they would win the wrestling championsh¡p. Except the few young men who Urenma rebuked at the river and the chief priest, no one else knew Obinze was going to take part in that year’s wrestling championsh¡p and that he was coming to take revenge for all the ridicule he and his clan had suffered. Every year his clan had managed to send three wrestlers who always were beaten at the early stages of the wrestling competition. While the people waited for all the wrestlers to arrive they were entertained by dance groups and masquerades. Obinze was the last wrestler to arrive at the village square. When he showed up, he was dressed in costly apparel and had Urenma by his side holding his hand and occasionally brushing her cheek against his. There was a hush at square; one could have heard a pin drop. The drummers stopped beating the drums and the dancers missed their steps, as all eyes were fixed on Obinze matching into the square with Urenma.
He led Urenma to the corner were his clan took their position and announced that he had come to wrestle. His clan brothers were shocked, none amongst them had seen him neither practice nor wrestle before, but with Urenma by his side they could not deny him. Her beauty was such that men acted cowardly before her presence. He was asked at what time he would like to enter the wrestling, he replied. “From the beginning”. With his entrance and the amazement that followed it, the drumming and dancing came to an end.
The elders who were preside over the wrestling competition took the centre stage and announced to all present and the wrestlers that the competition had begun.
They announced the rules of the competition and invited the clans who were to do the first round of wrestling. When it was time for the Umu Umeh clan to wrestle, Obinze stepped into the center square and the crowed booed. Then his opponent was called out and he ran into the square and began to gyrate and the crowd cheered him on.
When the referee signaled that the wrestling had begun, Obinze’s opponent ran toward him to sweep him off his feet. Obinze grabbed him with his left arm and swung him around in the air like a rag and then flung him to the ground like a log of wood. The painful cry of the young man hushed the crowd. His th-gh bones had been fractured by the impact of his body on the ground.
He couldn’t stand up, his cry sent attendants into the square, when they found out he had broken bones, they put him on an Nkpoko and bore him to a native orthopedist.
The crowd, his fellow wrestlers and the elders were all shock to see a wrestler break another wrestler’s bones. It had not been heard or seen in Ukeh for many decades. There was no one alive in the land to testify of having seen that at anytime. Meanwhile Obinze took his position for another round of wrestling match with a new opponent. His new opponent took to the wrestling ground with some pomp and pageantry, having made a name for himself the pervious year in the competition.
The crowd roared and cheered as he pomped his fist into the air and beat his chest with pride and zest. Obinze didn’t take any interest in his opponent’s ostentatious bravado; he just waited for the fight to begin.
Chapter 7
When the signal came, he didn’t run towards his opponent to bring him down, he waited for him to come for him. The young wrestler disdainfully sized up Obinze and spit in his direction before saying to him, “I will break your neck for what you did to my colleague you little dog. I hope you cooked for your grandmother, because when I break your neck there will be no one to prepare her food”.
Obinze didn’t reply him; he stood with his gaze fixed on his opponent. The young wrestler ran toward Obinze, his feet pounding the ground like an elephant and his eyes red shot. Obinze still didn’t move he waited for the perfect moment to act. The wrestler stretched his hands out to grab Obinze and Obinze skipped to his right side and landed a deafening slap to his face. The young wrestler staggered and turned to face Obinze in anger; his l-ips were bleeding and the crowd was laughing at him. He felt a ringing sound in his left ear. To save face, he threw himself at Obinze hoping to grab him and break him into two pieces, Obinze swiftly avoided him and grabbed him by the w–st.
Lifting him very high Obinze slammed him on the ground, one, two, three times and steadied him to his feet with his left hand and then crashed a monster slap into his face and released his hold on his opponent who fell to the ground. Obinze picked up his opponent and slammed him once more on the ground; the wrestler’s neck shifted, he broke bones in his arms and left leg, on the ground he could hærdly s¢ræm loud enough. By this time the crowd was in awe of Obinze; Obinze’s kinsmen began to s¢ræm his name insanely and the crowd joined them.
Though it was time for Obinze to make way for others clans to fight, he felt reluctant to leave.
The crowd was shouting his name and it had gotten into his head. He fought hærd to keep himself from crying openly; all his life he had been an object of ridicule and for once in his life his people and vistors to Ukeh were singing his name in praise. He stood his ground to take it all in.
While the elders waited for him to leave the wrestling ground, a jealous, fearsome wrestler who felt Obinze was beginning to take the shine off him and the more established wrestlers ran into the wrestling ground and scooped sand from the ground and held it in front of Obinze. That gesture meant he was challenging Obinze to a wrestling match. The crowd was afraid; they knew Ikeagu was a dangerous wrestler, in four different occasions he had won the wrestling championsh¡p. He always fought like a beast. Most people in the crowd didn’t want Obinze to accept his challenge; they were beginning to like him and didn’t want him out of the competition at the early stage.
Urenma’s parents prayed under their breath for Obinze to ignore him and walk away. However what the crowd didn’t know Ikeagu had picked the wrong time to challenge Obinze; he would live to rue his judgement. Obinze stepped forward and knocked off the sand in Ikeagu’s hand and stepped back. The crowd echoed the names of their gods in fear; some could be seen holding their breath in fear that Ikeagu was going to destroy Obinze. Ikeagu shouted like an animal and leapt forward like a cat, unlike how he acted in his previous fights, Obinze lunged forward, grabbed Ikeagu midair and suspended him high above himself and then slammed him on the ground with the agility of a lion and sat upon him and began to land punches on his face. After a few rounds of punches which had disfigured Ikeagu’s face Obinze stood up and lifted him up for a second and crashed him on the ground and walked away. Ikeagu’s jaw bones were broken, his neck broken and his w–st broken. Obinze also knocked off several of his teeth and tore his forehead and ears open with his punches.
Then crowd was in absoluted shock of what they had witnessed; it wasn’t even a fight. It was an assault; Obinze had simply beaten up the feared Ikeagu like a child. As Obinze walked away, he had no smile on his face; his eyes seemed locked on events or perhaps thoughts far removed from the happenings at the village square. It was clear to all present that a new wrestling beast had been discovered on the wrestling sand of Ukeh land. Though there were many other wrestling matches that day, the one which dominated chatter till the next day was how Obinze beat Ikeagu up like a little boy.
That night Obinze spent a lot of time with Urenma in her father’s compound chatting about the wrestling and also the news of their love which had transformed Obinze into a village celebrity. He had not only shown them what he could do in the wrestling ground, he had also won the heart of the most beautiful woman in Ukeh and all the lands around it.
Chapter 8
Urenma laid her head on Obinze’s laps as he told her several stories about his suffering from childhood and about the tortoise and his wife Aliah. The parts where Obinze told her about the pains he had been through from childhood made her cry, but the stories about the tortoise and his wife Aliah left her doubling over with laughter. That night they probably k×ssed each other a hunderd times and still couldn’t get enough of each other. However each time Obinze broached on his fantasies about living together with a woman of his love, Urenma would wince and shed a few tears. When Obinze asked her why she cried she would tell him that her tears were tears of joy. She lied and Obinze didn’t know it. The truth was that she would never get to marry any man; as a princess of the gods she was forbidden to marry any mortal man and she had only a short life to live amongst men and it broke her heart.
By the next day the village square was filled with greater number of people who had heard about Obinze’s prowess on the wrestling ground. Young and elderly women sung new songs in praise to Obinze. Even his aged grandmother was carried out by her kinsmen to the square to watch her grandson break more bones. The people of Ukeh could not understand how Obinze was able to break the bones of his fellow wrestlers. No one had been able to do that in decades, the gods had been able to protected them doing the wrestling festival.
There were a few wrestlers who by night went to seek the oracles to find out the source of Obinze’s strength and to acquire charms to subdue him. The medince men they approached revealed to them that the source of his strength was the love of a woman and gave them charms to subdue Obinze on the wrestling ground. However the medince men did not know and neither was it revealed to them that Urenma was a goddess, a princess of the river kingdom.
In the village square that evening the men who had gone to acquire power to subdue Obinze arrive with overwheling confidence that they would disgrace him. The men were Ikemefuna, Ezenwa and Uzokwe; the three of them were from differnts clans and Ikemefuna was the reigning champion. When Ikoro (Wooden gong) was sounded they were the first to jump into the wrestling ground and began to dance. Though the wrestling matches were planned in such a way that the last two standing clans would slug it out in a final wrestling match, wrestlers were permitted to challenge other wrestlers for bragging nights.
After some clans had wrestled each other that evening Ikemefuna, Ezenwa and Uzokwe made their way to the wrestling ground and each of them openly challenged Obinze who all that evening had not wrestled. Obinze and Urenma were in a corner of the village square watching the wrestling. When Ikemefuna, Ezenwa and Uzokwe challenged Obinze to wrestle each one of them in separate matches that evening, Obinze stood and met them on the wrestling ground and humbly declined the challenge. The crowd was not happy, he had become their favourite wrestler and they wanted him to teach each one of the three wrestlers a new lesson in wrestling.
The three men booed and mocked that he was afraid and that his success the previous day was circumstantial. Obinze ignored them and walked back to sit with Urenma. When he sat down beside her, Urenma whispered “Obi m each one of them had gone to get charm to fight you, but I want you to accept their challenge. This day Ukeh will know that there is no charm strong than a woman’s love. Obi m, go back to the wrestling ground and challenge them to fight you at the same time. I want you to break their bones and knock off their teeth. Will you do that for me?” “I will Ure”.
Obinze stood up and began to run to the wrestling ground, by then an elder was announcing next rounds of wrestling matches to take place. When the crowd saw Obinze running the wrestling sound, it roared and some young men began to hail him, “Ebube dike! Ebube dike! Obinze Ebube dike!”
Men and women and children took up the chant from those young men and began to sing along with them. Obinze scooped up sand from the ground held it out and shouted “Ikemefuna! Ezenwa! Uzokwe! I will wrestle the three of you on the condition that the three of you accept to fight me at the same time!” There was silence when the crowd heard Obinze’s words. They thought he had gone mad or perhaps had allowed his little success to get into his head. How could he a beginner in wrestling, challenge three ace wrestlers to fight him at the same time? Ikemefuna, Ezenwa and Uzokwe also wondered if Obinze had gone mad, they queried “Obinze do you know what you have just asked for?” “If I am mad or unaware of the gravity of my challenge, why don’t U accept first and find out for yourselves?” Ikemefuna, Ezenwa and Uzokwe ran towards Obinze and knocked away the sand which held out before him. The elderly man who was announcing matches left the ground and the wrestling gong began to sound.
To Be Continued