Chapter 5

Adigun didn't know how true this myth was but he had to believe it somehow especially when there was a live half-human and half-fish conversing with him. "Why did you come back?" He asked now out of curiosity.

She swam closer into the shallow part, and this time, he could clearly see her body. Her human body was joined at the waist to her fish half and the end of her tail was broad. Her black hair was so full and long that it created a black floating mass around her body.

"You saved me...but I'm hurt...you struck me with your paddle..." She said and Adigun instantly felt guilty. He could see blood slowly seeping out of a cut in her temple and was being repeatedly washed away by the river.

"What can I do?" He asked.

"I can't return to my mother this way. She has a certain notion about humans. She believes you lot are cruel, greedy and ungrateful. If I return this way, she would be so enraged that she'll flood the village instantly." 

"Tell me what to do please..." Adigun pleaded. "The village cannot be made to suffer for my own folly."

"I'll tell you the herbs to use, but first, you have to take me to your hut."

"My hut? I can't, I've a wife! If she sees you, she'll raise an alarm."

"What do you do when you are not fishing?" Enitan asked.

"I hunt... I mostly set traps though and I have a small farm that barely yields anything useful because it's a swamp." He complained.

"Do you have a small resting hut on your farm?"

"Yes, I do."

"Take me there...once you treat me with the herbs, I'll be fine in four hours."

Adigun considered her request for a while, then staring down at her body again, he asked, "How do I carry you all the way to my farm? I mean, I could barely pull you with the boat, you are quite heavy."

"Do you have a clay pot nearby?" She asked and when he quickly ran off to fetch one that had been left on the bank by a fellow fisherman, he returned and showed it to her. "Fill it with water." She instructed and he obeyed. When he was done, he was surprised to see her shrink down to the size of a small fish. Knowing what to do, he dipped his hand into the water, scooped her up and put her into the clay pot of water.

"What do I do concerning my fish?" He asked in concern as he stared at his canoe. He couldn't leave such a bountiful catch unprotected.

"I'll transport them to your house before the first cock crows." She answered in a tiny voice.

Believing her, he took the lamp, held the small clay pot to his side and started the long walk to his farm. When he reached the small hut, he overturned the content of the clay pot inside it and Enitan slid on the floor, wriggled her body and flapped her tail. In a blink of an eye, she grew back to her normal size and heaved herself upon the traditional bed on the floor. After instructing him on what herbs to fetch, he went out into the cold night search of them.