Prologue
This strange Tale- Teller will tell you a Tale,
In a distant land called Illashe, its history and heritage are deeply rooted in its diverse communities, comprising five villages: Ilaji, Ilarin, Iledi, Ilefa, and Akpon. These villages were bound by an ancient artefact called “Ajosop” — “The Bind”. This artefact was no ordinary artefact but one with extraordinary powers. It was believed that Obatanla — the God of Creation, himself forged it and handed it over to four sons of men who went on to birth the four villages. The artefact was Illashe’s heritage and Identity. It was their link to gods and their assistance.
Due to the power and significance of this artefact, the sons of men decided to create a neutral ground where it would be kept. After much deliberation, they decided on a centre land of high hills and greenery that connected all the villages. This led to the creation of Ilaji, making up the fifth village. Ilaji was the smallest of all the villages, but this small village became the home of the great bind.
But as time passed — old life handing over to new life, men saw the artefact’s power and wanted it for themselves. In their greed and corruption, they fought and killed each other to gain the immeasurable powers of the “Bind”. Obatanla, so grieved by what had become of his gift, took back the precious gift. In taking back the gift, IIashe was left without his protection.
Chapter 1: The Heritage
Thousands of Years Later,
Life in Ilashe was vibrant, filled with the scent of local spices and the sound of children’s laughter. The moonlight times were mostly treasured as children and adults alike relaxed under various trees —with the cool night breeze on their skin and the aftermath aroma of the women’s cooking still a sweet fragrance to their nostrils, listening to the various tales of the great kingdom of Ilashe. These stories have been told a hundred times, yet it is new every time it is told.
The telling of tales was usually left to the oldest members of the family or village because they were believed and proven to have wisdom and experience due to the number of days they had ahead of others. While the oldest told rich tales of Ilashe, the men kept watch to protect the children, women and the weak. The need to keep watch arose from the years of wars that had occurred in the kingdom — the experience of these wars made the men more fierce and vigilant over time. So it became that men took turns every night keeping watch.
Under the embrace of the moonlight, various stories were told, the most popular of which was a tale about five warriors — two of whom are brothers, and one of the five warriors is secretly a woman. These warriors fearlessly faced off various kingdoms around them who had subjected their people to slavery. The five were once individually captured, but they broke free and stumbled upon each other while escaping. Realising they were from the different connecting villages of Ilashe, they formed a pact to free their people. The Two brothers were known as Ji and Rin. Ji was daring and strong, brisk with the knife and in combat. Unlike his brother, Rin had a little affinity for cowardice but was very crafty and cunning. His knowledge of traps and weapons was unmatched. Edi, one of the five warriors, used to be a farmer who grew medicinal herbs and knew how to treat wounds. Akpon was a skilled hunter and was rumoured to have been born with a bow, hence his spirited swiftness with it. The most mysterious of the five was Efa, the woman in their midst. Very little was known about her life besides her strange ability to foresee death and war. She barely spoke. Those who claimed to have beheld this mysterious five-member said her hair was unusual and unlike any they’d ever seen. The children, in their first tale of Efa, had nightmares for a fortnight of her eyes, which were described as being transparent. So transparent that one could see one’s guilt. Efa’s tears, they said, were poison. Her whispered chants caused nightmares because she knew how to invoke spirits.
These five formed a team and trained tirelessly for many moons. When the time was right, they went after the slavers—attacking the slavers and freeing their people from one slave camp to another. With every slave encampment they brought down, they acquired people eager to join their crusade. So the Five taught these men and women the act of war — with a focus on their unique skills.
With the increase in their numbers, they took back more and more of their lands. When the wars were over, they struck a covenant, and Obatanla, seeing the sincerity of their heart, stood as their witness. Rin had crafted a special dagger from the tusk of an elephant. Akpon had killed the elephant when it threatened their people. Efa used an enchanted bead she had created for the base of the dagger. She placed a curse of a plague on the bead on whoever removed it from the dagger. Ji created a monumental slab with a shrine fenced with herbs planted by Edi to wade off evil spirits. Then, they each made a small cut on their hand and fortified it with their blood. Ji swore to protect it as he was the strongest of all; hence, the remaining four took followers for themselves and went to create homes for themselves in various rich lands of Ilashe. That was the story of how Ilashe was restored again.
Chapter 2: Accusations and Suspicions
One day, as the sun set, the village was struck by shocking news.
The artefact had been stolen.
This disrupted the harmony in Ilaji, creating tension among the villagers. The people could not believe it, but there was one who had feared this and had been suspicious —
Asa.
Asa was a skilled fighter, but her father kept this a secret because he was ashamed of being mocked for turning his daughter into a son because he couldn’t produce a son. Through the various Diviners Asa’s father visited, he discovered the sad news that he had no male son in his destiny. So, he secretly started training Asa. He taught her the art of hand-to-hand combat and even showed her the art of different war weapons.
And so he trained his daughter with a secret tool. “A weapon must not always be a tool made by hand. It could also be a person wielding a tool. What makes a weapon is the force that acts on a tool,” He told Asa in the first as they trained.
A few days before the artefact went missing, Asa had told her father of a strange sight. While searching for an uncommon herb for her mother, she stumbled on a hut hidden away in the high mountains. The hut had piqued her interest because the path that led to it did not match the borders and landmarks of the village her father constantly drew on the earth during their training.
So Asa had gone to investigate. When she was close enough, she saw one of their own, Onde, a warrior second to her father in the ranks, with a strange-coloured man laughing and discussing. Her father became worried after she described the strange-coloured man and took her to the shrine.
She had never been inside the shrine before that day because it was restricted to the warriors and the diviners of Ilefa, who come once in a blue moon to fortify the shrine. Her father snuck her in and showed her some drawings on the walls.
“These clothes…” his voice trembled as he spoke. “The clothes” He paused as if the question scared him. “are they the ones you saw on the strange man?”
“Yes, Baba.” She nodded. She reached to trace the drawing with the tip of her fingers but stopped.“But Baba, why do we have these drawings here?”
Her father was silent for a while as though contemplating his response, and then he said, “These are drawings to remind us of the slavers who wreaked havoc on her land a long time ago.”
Asa stiffened, for she knew of the stories of the slavers and the evil they represented. She gazed up into the grave stare of her father as he held her shoulder in a firm grip. “No one must hear about this”
That night, sleep evaded Asa as she tossed and turned in her bed, unable to shake off the uneasiness in her heart and the image of Onde and the strange man who looked like the slaver. She wondered what they had been laughing and discussing about.
The next day, she had her answer.
Chapter 3: The Unlikely Alliance and The Test of Unity
After the artefact went missing, rumours of betrayal and suspicion began to circulate, shaking the trust within Ilashe. Ilaji was under fire from the connecting villages for misplacing their treasured heritage.
The artefact, which had united the village, became a cause for division among them. Leaders from different villages gathered to discuss the situation, but the meeting ended even before it started. Rather than unite against the common enemy, the leaders threw accusations at each other. This further damaged the relationships between the villages and weakened their bond.
The people of Illashe, once united by their shared history and traditions, were now caught in a cloud of betrayal and mischief. The future was uncertain as rumours of a secession began making the rounds. Warriors from the five villages were sent out in search of the artefact, but the search proved ineffective, with the warriors also suspicious of one another.
Things got worse for Ilaji when a plague broke out in Illashe. The connected village threatened them with war if the artefact was not produced. The People of Ilaji could not go out of Ilaji for fear of being mobbed by the angry villagers of the other villages. The village of Ilaji, once a harmonious place, became filled with anxiety.
Asa’s father decided to begin a private investigation because he didn’t want his family endangered. He went with Asa to the spot where she had seen the strange man, but by the time they got there, a hut that looked like it had been burnt down for days. After inspecting the place, he saw some trail but knew it would be abortive, trailing them alone. He decided to seek help from some trusted member of his kin. But that night — after he got his kins’ approval, as he slept, he caught the strange plague — that was spreading into every home in Ilashe by now.
The Kinsmen, on seeing her father, suddenly struck down with the plague after his intention to go in search of the artefact withdrew their help for fear of their life. Asa, with her father’s life now at stake, could not walk away as they had, so with the reluctant blessings of her parents, she set out alone.
***
Akua didn’t know what she, just a young maiden, could achieve alone, but she felt a prompting in her spirit, so she stepped regardless of her fears.
This marked the beginning of a journey for unity and the enduring spirit of a people determined to reclaim their lost heritage.
***
When Asa arrives at Akpon, she encounters a dead-end, but she meets Akanji, a hunter from the Akpon village. During her conversation with Akanji, she realises that the discord between the villages is deeper than the stolen artefact and is rooted in historical misunderstandings and grievances that have accumulated over the years.
Akanji was very hospitable and brought her to his home, where she met his daughter Asabi, his daughter — a skilled hunter like her father. This was a revelation to Asa, whose father’s clan, the resilience of women was reduced to household chores.
“My mother was once a warrior and had once saved my father’s life when he was almost cut down by an enemy when he wasn’t looking,” Asabi told Asa. Her face was bright with pride.
The two maidens became fast friends, and Asabi offered to join Asa in her search. They discussed their plan with Asabi’s parents, who took them to a diviner after listening to them. The diviner was an old, crunched-down man with two missing front teeth. On seeing them — without any question asked, he gave Asa and Asabi a strange round metal. “Go where it leads you” was all he said.
Following the round metal, the maidens arrived at Iledi. Tired and hungry, they decided to do some hunting. Almost immediately after they decided to go hunting, they sighted an antelope.
Asabi, with the instinct of a hunter—spare at hand, aims for the antelope; just as she’s about to strike, she hears Asa scream, scaring off the antelope. She rushes to Asa’s aid, but upon discovering the reason for Asa’s scream— a fire ant falling on her- she chases after the antelope, determined to catch it. So focused was Asabi on getting the antelope — and securing them a meal, that she stepped into a hunter’s trap without realising it. She screams in pain, falling to the ground.
“What’s wrong?” Asa runs to her aid. On seeing the blood gushing out of Asabi’s legs —
“Wait here. Let me get something to stop the bleeding” As she moved to leave, a maiden suddenly ran out of the bushes, scaring them.
“I’m sorry I heard someone scream, so I came to help.”
Noticing the basket containing green leaves held by the young maiden, Asa asked, “Are those herbs?”
“Yes.” Pointing to the groaning Asabi, she adds, “I’m from a family of healers. I can help”.
Receiving a nod from Asa, she approached them. Swiftly, she swung into action, inspecting Asabi’s injury and picking out some selected herbs from her basket. “I am Ebun,” She smiled at Asabi. “This is going to hurt more than a little, but I promise after the first pain, you’ll be relieved.”
She squeezed the selected herbs together until they became soft and then applied them to Asabi’s leg. The moment the herbs touched Asabi’s legs, she fainted.
“What have you done to my friend?” Asa drew out her sword, ready to avenge what she thinks is the death of her friend.
“Calm down. She’ll be awake any moment from now. It’s just —”
They turned, hearing Asabi sneeze.
Asa runs over to Asabi. “Asabi, you’re alive.”
“It’ll take more than a hunter’s trap to kill this hunter here” She winced in pain as Asa wrapped her in a tight hug.
***
Realising the maidens had nowhere to stay until Asabi recovered, Ebun brought them to her hut, which she shared with her grandmother. The lead—as Asabi had taken to calling the metal given to them by the diviner—was still for some days, so the maiden gladly stayed with Ebun and her grandmother.
They became friends with Ebun and told her about their quest and the possible danger they might encounter as they proceeded. Ebun offered to be part of the quest so she could treat anyone who got injured. At that moment, the Lead in their middle moved as they spoke, pointing them towards the south.
At the break of dawn the next day, they set out with the blessing of Ebun’s grandmother.
Following the direction of the Lead, they reached Ilase by evening as it wasn’t very far from Iledi; they met Arike, a witty trickster. Arike was an orphan, raised independently, and her only means of survival were theft and trickery. She tricked people into playing games in which she knew the outcome even before it started. Then, she makes them pay a price, which she doesn’t reveal until the game ends. In trying to ease her tension, Asa became a victim in Arike’s games. Arike requested five croweries from Asa as her price, but Asa had neither croweries nor valuables to pay Arike. So she offers a strange payment—a chance to be part of the quest and the sisterhood.
At first, Arike laughed, thinking Asa was trying to pull a trick on her, but after some convincing from the girls, she decided to join the quest.
“I’ll be part of your family,” She said coolly.
She took the girl to her makeshift hut, where they spent the night.
The next day following the Lead, the maidens arrived at Ilefa, where they met an ongoing festival. They saw the crowd bowing to a figure —whose identity they couldn’t make out, covered from head to toe in white as the figure walked past them. Curious, the maidens asked some villagers nearby, who explained to them that the figure commanding such great respect was none other than a diviner named Ayan. Ayan was a young maiden just like them but was born with divine powers and had lived in the shrine all her life.
As though sensing the girls’ curiosity, Ayan signalled to her messengers to bring the maidens to her. The maidens are left stunned when she calls them by name and tells them she has been expecting them. They went to the shrine with Ayan, and there she revealed to them their quest had been revealed to her way before they even began the quest. However, she tells them —
“If the artefact of found none of you can hold with your bare hands lest you take upon yourself the curse placed by the great Efa.”
“What about those who stole the artefact? And how will we return the artefact if we can’t touch it?”Ada asked.
Ayan’s lips curled in a smile. “Oh… those ones. They don’t realise it, but the curse is at work within them already.” The maidens shivered as she said. Her eyes seemed frozen as she said those words. “But not to worry. I have the blessings of my foremother Efa to hold the artefact, and you maiden, the blessing of your forefathers.”
At first light, the descendants of the Five moved according to the direction the Lead moved and arrived at the southern jungles. In the dense foliage of the jungle, they encountered their first major challenge — a turbulent river.
“How do we cross over the dark water?” Edun asked. Looking at the water dubiously.
Asa withdrew her spear from the bank of the river and rose. “I just checked with my sword. The water is deep. This is just the bank, and my spear was almost covered. It will drown us if we step into it.”
“Where is Arike?” Asabi asked, noticing her absence.
“Over here” Following the sound of the voice, they see Arike above them on a tree.
“Why are you up there?” They all asked in unison.
Arike grinned. “I think I may have found a way, but it would require little work, sisters.”
At Arike’s direction, they fell a huge tree, which created a bridge and helped them cross the turbulent river unarmed.
Chapter 4: Adversaries
At the break of dawn, they set out, heading for the jungle called Kpako, famous for its warrior encampment. Kpako was a neutral training ground for young men determined to be warriors. Men from various lands came to Kpako to be trained in the art of war. Despite Kpako’s open-door policy, women, however, were not allowed passage.
So when these five brave women arrived at Kpako, it was no surprise when, right at the gate, the men challenged them and asked that they return.
“We can not return. The gods directed us here. Bring me before your leader,” Ayan challenged.
The men laughed at what they perceived to be the mischief of mere women.
“Who might you be, young lady, demanding to see me?”
The maidens all stood in awe as a man so tall and massive that it would be no mistake referring to him as a giant sword made his out of the crowd. The laughing ceased, and the men bowed respectfully, making way for him. “I am Deji Oba. Leader of Kpako. And Who might you be brave one?”
“I am Ayan. We are Descendants of The Great Five of Ilashe. The Five came to your dream last night. You’re to help us on our quest.”
The men who once mocked the ladies looked at them in awe as their great leader said, “Let them in. They are descendants of our founders and come in their name.”
Deji gathered the warriors and told them of the Five’s visit to his dream and their command to help the women on their mission. The Kpako warriors hosted the women, and at first light, twenty of them readily volunteered to aid the maidens on their quest.
The group of twenty-five at the direction of the Lead journeys on to the dreaded Yeyé River — a once flourishing river that became poisonous after the death of a goddess.
Hiding within the bushes, they see a large boat being loaded at the river bank.
“That Him. The one who sold us out,” Asa pointed to Onde among the crew. “What do we do? We’ll lose the artefact should that boat sail.”
“We need to proceed with caution. I’ll approach them with five of the warriors to ensure there’s no ambush in wait for us. We’ll request to search the boat should they attack. We feast” The Head warrior turned to Asa. “Join us”
Asa and the warriors approached the crew. They calmly requested to search the boat. Onde, seeing Asa—a familiar face—tried to persuade them that the boats were only filled with food crops.
“So, you now indulge in trading with the slavers, ” Asa said.
Onde, realising he had been discovered, ordered an attack on them. In the blink of an eye, a battle began. The warriors came out of hiding. And as was expected of warriors of Kpako, they fought with agility and precision. With each punch, strike and slash, they brought down the white man’s crew.
Onde —seeing the impending defeat of his cohorts, tries to flee with the boat, but Asa sees him and runs after him. With all the force in her, she lunges at Onde, knocking them to the ground. But Onde is quicker and has Asa pinned to the ground. He brings out a dagger about to stab her, but as he raises his hand, an arrow flies from nowhere, piercing straight into his hand. Onde yelps in pain, releasing Asa, who immediately has him pinned to the ground with a firm grip.
“We need a rope to tie that one” Asa looked up to see Ebun with a bow and arrow.
“You saved me” ” her voice laced with gratitude.
“You saved us all when you started this quest. The artefact had been found. It’s with Ayan”
Chapter 5: Peace Restored
The connected villages convened under the large branches of an old tree to make camp. The atmosphere was spirited as the people chanted an old war song honouring their ancestors.
The five maidens’ discovery of the artefact humbled everyone, reminding them of their shared history and the sacrifices of their ancestors, which they almost wanted in their disunity.
Asa, the group leader, addressed the villagers “We stand here not just as representatives of our diverse communities but as guardians of a shared legacy. The stolen artefact has been found. Let this be a reminder to all that Ilashe is protected by the gods and created by the gods. Nothing can break this bind.”
“Ajosopo!” The people shouted. (The Bind)
The celebration that ensued lasted for many days. At least peace returned in Ilashe.
***
What happened to Asa’s father? Some might ask this strange tale-teller. Well, let’s just say he enjoyed the celebration with his family.
And Onde?
Well, that fool got what Efa thought was right.
