Chapter 34

Babatunde swallowed hard and turned his head to look at his wife who gave him a subtle nod to go ahead. Turning his head back to the king, he replied, "Yes, Kabiyesi."

Immediately he said so, there were exclamations and murmurings from the crowd and the chiefs. Ireti noticed how the little princess, Kikelemo, was staring at Ewatomi and it made her a bit uncomfortable with the intense look of hatred in the child's eyes.

The king silenced the murmurings by lifting his irukere, then he asked again. "Is it true that she can also crawl?"

Babatunde heaved a deep sigh now. "It is also true, Kabiyesi." He answered.

There was another round of exclamations and even more murmurings this time. After the king quieted them again, he asked, "What kind of baby crawls on the first day it is born? I think something is not right here. Ireti, you have been barren for fourteen years, haven't you?"

"Yes, Kabiyesi." Ireti replied.

"How come you got such a child? Are you sure this child is not from the white God? Because this is the very first time a thing like this is happening."

"Kabiyesi, I'm very certain that this child was given to me by Osun. I agree that she's a peculiar child but I also believe that she'll be a source of joy to the inhabitants of this village."

"I see..." The king shook his irukere as he turned to look at his chiefs. "Oloyes (chiefs), you have heard her, what do you think? Do not forget the history we have with Osun. Do not forget how she slaughtered our firstborns, destroyed our houses, flooded our farms and how she also murdered my grandfather and sent my great grandmother into hiding." 

"We can't forget such a history, Kabiyesi but we also not be quick to forget that Osun is still our goddess and she has blessed us with good catches in her river for more than two hundred years now just as our ancestors have said." Otun said.

"Shioor!" Said one of the chiefs. "Is it not the same Osun that still pours down the heaven on us as a remembrance of her daughter's death? Why should we accept one of her own now? This must be another trap to unleash her wrath on us."

"Well, I don't think so." Said the third chief. "We might have our superstitions about any Ige child but if this child will bless our farms and rivers, why not let her stay?"

"Abi." Otun concurred. "Besides, we can't render a woman who has waited so long childless all because of all the peculiar situations surrounding the child's birth.

"Very well then." Kabiyesi said and turned to his wife. "Olori, do you have anything to say?"

"Let me see the child." The Queen said, stretching open hands towards Ireti.

When Ireti hesitated because Ewatomi suddenly clung to the front of her blouse with her small hand, Babatunde secretly gestured with his eyes, urging his wife to hand the baby to the queen. Reluctantly, Ireti got on her knees, rose to her feet, approached the Queen and placed Ewatomi in the Queen's arms but when the baby still refused to let the front of her blouse go, Ireti pried her little hand away and straightened up before reluctantly returning to sit down beside her husband.

"She's very beautiful." Said the Queen, smiling as she admired Ewatomi. Immediately after she complimented Ewatomi, Kikelomo rose from between her mother's feet and turned to peer into the face of the baby. "What's her name?" The Queen asked Ireti now.

Ireti adjusted the shoulder of her blouse and replied, "Ewatomi."

"Wonderful! It's a name befitting of such beauty." The Queen said and Kikelomo shot up small angry eyes at her mother with a pout. "Kabiyesi, I think the child should be allowed to stay in the village. She looks pretty harmless. She's just a baby." Suddenly she flinched and gasped when Ewatomi began to wail aloud in her arms. When she tried to find out the reason for the baby's discomfort, she realized much to her surprise that Kikelomo had the side of the baby's stomach in a painful pinching hold and was slowly twisting the tender flesh.

"Stop that!" The Queen quietly scolded her daughter but the princess only increased the pressure of her pinch. Unable to get her stubborn daughter to stop, the Queen quickly said to Ireti since the baby obviously wouldn't stop crying. "Ireti, please come carry her and pet her. She must be hungry." She managed to say and Ireti got up and rushed to carry the baby and that was when Kikelomo released her hold on the baby's flesh. Strapping Ewatomi to her back after petting her, Ireti and her husband were soon allowed to return home after receiving a few gifts from the King and Queen and profusely thanking them.

                                                                                 ★★★

Somewhere in the Caribbeans in another continent...

A Caribbean mermaid who had been chased from the high seas swam tiredly towards the rocky coast of an island then slowly maneuvered her way through the jutting rocks in the sea and soon found her way into a cave, partially filled with seawater. She was injured and she had a trembling hand placed to the side of her waist where there was a big gash. 

The gash kept leaking blood and the helpless and frightened mermaid tried to control the bleeding by pressing her hand hard against the spot but the blood only continued to flow through her webbed fingers. Gasping, she turned her head to look back towards the entrance of the cave when she heard the voices of her pursuers, and she knew that it was only a matter of time until they flooded into the cave on foot to capture her since it would be difficult for their speedboats to come through. 

She felt faint from the loss of blood she was going through, but she knew that she had to stay strong if she was to survive this moment and possibly escape from her pursuers. She was in great distress and she kept glancing around, desperately trying to find the perfect place to hide or escape through. 

There were just so many rocks and several pools of seawater in the cave. She leaped into several, trying to find her way out to the open sea but she only met dead ends, and even if she found a crack or passage at bottom of the pool where the seawater flowed into the cave, it was just too narrow for her to squeeze herself through to get back to the freedom and safety of the sea. 

She began to panic now as her anxiety worsened. She could hear the voices and footsteps of the men as they splashed in the water that led into the cave. They were coming for her and she had to quickly find a way out. She wouldn't be in this mess right now if she hadn't gone to the shore to see her charming human lover as usual. 

When she had reached the shore where they usually secretly met, she was surprised when she had seen no sign of him, but as she waited for him to arrive, someone who had been lurking in the trees had fired a harpoon at her. She had been fast to avoid it but not fast enough to dodge the sharp pointed edge of the harpoon that injured her side. 

As roguish men whom she had never seen before leaped out from their hiding places and rushed towards her, screaming in terrifying voices, her heart began to beat fast because she couldn't quite phantom who the men were and why they were after her. Some of them were wielding a big, strong net while the others were armed with harpoon guns. 

Realizing that she was about to be ambushed, she had instantly dived into the sea for safety, swimming away as fast as she could and forgetting all about her human islander lover. But much to her dismay, the men had come prepared and they had chased her into the open seas in speedboats, repeatedly firing their harpoon guns at her and skillfully preventing her from swimming deep into the sea by using scuba drivers who swam almost as fast as she could with the aid of an underwater scooter which easily propelled them through the water. 

Trying to avoid being captured, she had dodged and even zigzagged with the deadly harpoons missing her only by a hair's breadth, but now, she had become so exhausted from all the swimming that she had quickly swam into this cave hoping to lose the men, but from the look of things, it seemed they knew where she had entered and had cornered her like a sitting duck.

Just as she despairingly waited for her fate by hiding behind a rock with her heart pounding in her chest, she paused when the cave suddenly grew quiet, save for the sound of dripping water from the roof of the cave into the pools. She listened keenly and discovered that the voices and footsteps of the men had ceased now. Were they gone? She wondered. Perhaps, they were too scared to enter the cave and had given up on the chase. As she began to relax, she gasped when she suddenly heard a familiar voice call her name from the mouth of the cave.

"Landa!"