Chapter 81

"We don't know yet." Mr. Smith answered.

One of the men who had run to the edge to stare into the sea suddenly yelled. "Sir, it's twelve frigging whales!"

"A whale?" Mr. Dankworth asked in confusion. "Can whales do that? They aren't supposed to attack ships, are they?" He asked Mr. Smith.

But Mr. Smith wasn't listening to him, instead, his shocked eyes were fixed ahead of him in the waters. "Sir..." He whispered swallowing hard.

"What?!" Mr. Dankworth asked in irritation, turning to follow his gaze and his jaw dropped open. From afar, they saw a league of mermaids swimming towards the ship in rage. "Oh-my-God." The old man said in shock.

"They are coming for the girl, sir." Mr. Smith said, without taking his eyes off the approaching mass of destruction.

Suddenly, the mermaid attacked by shooting arrows at them and two men were taken off the ship, falling overboard.

"Kill them all!" Mr. Dankworth roared in trepidation. "Do not let them anywhere near this ship! KILL THEM ALL!" He ordered, backing away towards the cabin. "Captain! Start this goddamn ship and get us out of here!" He barked up at the captain.

"You heard the boss!" Mr. Smith yelled to his men, cocking his gun. "Kill them all!" He ordered and Vincent quickly crawled to a corner to hide.

Immediately, all the men cocked their guns, loaded them and moved to the edges of the ship and they began to fire at the mermaids, killing some and injuring most but the force of mermaids surged on even when the bullets downed some of them. Some of the men grabbed harpoon guns and began to aim at the mermaid's heads. Because the men had an advantaged spot, only a few were easily killed compared to the mermaids below. 

The whales rammed into the ship, rocking the ship again, making most of the men stagger or fall overboard to their awaiting deaths in the hands of the mermaids. While this was going on, Osun swam to the side of the ship and lifted herself with the water to peek through one of the windows of the lower deck and she was shocked to find Ewatomi in a glass containment that filled with water which had almost gone red from her bleeding.

"Ewatomi." Osun called, broken to see her granddaughter's state.

When Ewatomi heard her grandmother's voice, she rushed towards the window, bobbing in the water as she held the edge of the glass containment to keep herself easily afloat. "Mother." She called, pleased to see her grandmother.

"Oh child, what have they done to you?" Osun said in despair, seeing how seriously wounded she was. "How did they get you?"

Ewatomi hung her head and sadly answered, "Vincent's mentor betrayed us."

"The heart of men is desperately wicked, but not to worry, once you get your powers, your wounds will immediately heal themselves." Osun said and raising her trident to the sky, she called for Ewatomi's powers where she had locked it in a rare treasure like an hourglass. The hourglass broke in her kingdom and immediately shot through the water, heading to the sea with lightning speed to heed Osun's call. 

But when it came and shot through the ship and hit Ewatomi's body, engulfing her, it circulated for some seconds then suddenly shot out of her body as if it had been spat out. Surprised at what had happened, Osun ordered it again to go into Ewatomi's body but the powers were spat out again more forcefully this time. When Osun tried to force the powers back into Ewatomi the third time, the light refused to go anywhere near her.

"What's going on?" Osun asked no one in particular, perplexed.

Understanding what was going on, Ewatomi slowly lifted her head to look at her grandmother. "My body is rejecting it, mother. It is no longer compatible with my spirit." She revealed, realizing what was happening.

"But that's impossible! Such things have never happened before! What could be amiss? Ewatomi, I know that you blame me for everything that is happening to you right now, but if you do not accept these powers, you'll die. Your wounds will never heal and you'll bleed to death! Please, take the powers back! I'm sorry for all I've cost you. I love you so much that I can't lose you too like I lost your mother." Osun begged in tears. "You are our last hope..." She glanced back at the water around her and saw several dead bodies of mermaids floating on the surface or below the surface. "Please, you have to help us! We need you more than ever, Ewa."

"There's nothing I can do." Ewatomi pulled back away from the edge and sunk into the big glass of water. "I'm sorry, mother, I can't help." She said in despair, wrapping her arms around herself and turning her back to her grandmother. Suddenly, she heard Osun give a sharp cry of pain. Swiftly turning around and rushing to back towards the window, he realized that Osun had been shot on the collar bone by one of the men who had snuck up on her from above and Osun had fallen into the sea with a splash, her trident falling from her hand and sinking faster.

 "MOTHERRRR!!!" Ewatomi yelled and began to splash around in the tub, trying to look into the sea and that was when she saw a lot of dead mermaids while others that were injured were being quickly taken away to safety by some of the mermaids. The battle was fierce and all Ewatomi could hear was the explosion of grenades in the water, the ceaseless sound of gunshots, the sound of harpoons wheezing through the water and the agonizing screams of the mermaid which almost frowned the yelling of the men above.

Knowing that she had to act fast if she was going to save her grandmother and other mermaids, she began to pace the length of the tub, thinking of what to do even though she was still in pain. Suddenly, a name came to her head- JESUS. Why didn't she think of him all this time? She remembered in the bible that God had promised to call those who called him father, his children and Exodus 14:14 stated that 'The Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace.' 

Sighing deeply, she decided to do what she ought to have done a long time ago. She locked her fingers and held her closed palms in front of her, closed her eyes and said, "Jesus..." She swallowed hard, hesitating as doubt threatened to overwhelm her. What if she was not worthy to be saved? All the same, she continued for the Jesus had said, 'Call on me and I'll answer you.'

"Dear Jesus..." Ewatomi began again. "May the heaven and Earth bear witness today that I have called on you. Father, I accept your son as my Lord and personal savior. I accept him into my life and he alone shall be my light and I'm surrendering myself into him, begging him to take control and manifest his mightiness to the sight of all who do not believe in him." Ewatomi was about to speak again when she felt a soft hand on her shoulder. Slowly opening her eyes, she was astonished to see a man in white blinding light in all his glory and it was the same man who had saved her from death when Kikelomo had attacked her.

"Jesus?" She asked, to be sure.

HE smiled at her. "The heavens rejoice for a new soul has been won. Tell me what you want, daughter, and I'll grant it."

Ewatomi's pains suddenly seized and slowly, the eight harpoons in her body slipped out of her body and sunk to the bottom of the tub while her wounds miraculously healed like nothing had happened to her. When Jesus saw the awe in her eyes, HE said, "There's nothing hard for my father to do. Your body rejected your powers because the father has found you a worthy vessel onto honor."

"I-" Ewatomi started to say when Jesus gently held up a finger.

"The father sees your heart...show his glory to all...you don't need to worry how to go about it, the Holy Spirit will lead you." HE said and slowly faded away. Immediately he was gone, Ewatomi felt a new power overwhelm her body that she couldn't control it. The power surged and swelled in her that it shattered the glass tub, filling the room with water. 

Her tail was transformed back into human legs and her body was arrayed with majestic clothes. The window of the ship suddenly broke open and Ewatomi shot through it and shot into the sky, commanding the water to push her higher than the ship and everyone paused attacking each other and slowly turned their heads to look at her in both awe and dread.

Then Ewatomi said aloud, that every mermaid and man could hear her. Jeremiah 31:35 says 'Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, And its waves roar (The Lord of hosts is His name)!"

"In Jeremiah 33:3, HE says: ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know!"

"And he says, at the mention of my name, all knees shall bow and all tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! Therefore, I announce that the Lord of Hosts is present here and he fights for those who will believe him!"

Suddenly, to the amazement of the mermaids, they gaped up in shock as the whales slowly rose out of the sea into the sky, casting huge shadows down over them all. 

"What-the-fuck!" Mr. Smith said in awe as he stood next to Mr. Dankworth, staring up at Ewatomi.

"This is unbelievable! Bring her down before she kills us all! I'm not leaving here without her, even if it means that I've to take her dead body with me! Bring her down now!" Mr. Dankworth ordered his men who were dazzled by the sight of the whales floating in the air above them. As they cocked their guns, aimed up to shoot at Ewatomi, Ewatomi forcefully drop her arms and all the whales began to drop.

 The mermaids, dove underwater and quickly fled for safety and some of the men tossed their guns away and leaped overboard, including Vincent; but the others who were unlucky were caught as a whale massively fell on the ship, plunging it with such force into the sea and sinking it.

Realizing that all was lost, the bishop who had been watching from the port, turned to flee but was snatched by Adunni and yanked into the water before he could escape and dragged towards the depth of the sea by one of his legs while he struggled, desperately trying to swim away as he screamed in water, filling his lungs with water. The rest of the Mermaids seized the opportunity and defeated the rest of the men who did not sink with the ship.

When everything was done and the mermaids prevailed, the powers left Ewatomi and she lost consciousness and started to plummet down to the sea. Osun shot out of the water and caught her midair and using the water to propel herself to land, she emerged out of the water and gently laid Ewatomi on the port. 

By this time, most of the Mermaids had already surrounded them and Vincent scrambled out of the water on the port and rushed to Ewatomi. When Ewatomi slowly came to and blinked her eyes open and she sat up to stare at the mermaids that had surrounded her. 

"We didn't need the four elements after all." The Cuban Queen said. "How did you do that? It was you up there quite alright but it was as if someone was speaking through you... Show us whom you called the Lord of Hosts. Can he protect us forever if we believe in him? Will he accept us this way?" She skeptically asked as she glanced down at her tail.

"In Jeremiah 32:27, God said, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; which means, he'll accept you as long as you accept him and he doesn't discriminate that you are only half-human."

"Then teach us to know him... I've heard of his son." The Queen of Egypt said. "But I never believed in him until now."

"Yes, we are forever grateful to him." The Queen of Spain said. "Even though we have lost a lot of sisters and daughters in this bloody battle, we owe him our lives for saving the rest of us. We are all ready to accept whoever he is for he has proven himself Superior to all beings."

Ewatomi simply nodded. "Turn around." 

When the mermaids obeyed, they were shocked to find the dead bodies of the mermaids floating to the surface of the water and they were coming back to life and they gasped in awe as they rushed to embrace those who had just been resurrected from the dead. Every single mermaid who had injuries was healed and they marveled at these miracles. Even Vincent was speechless when his thumb was replaced like it was never severed.

                                                                                       ★★★

Kikelomo and her friends were delivered and converted to Christianity. Even the King and Queen gave their lives to Christ.

Ireti joined her husband in his church and gave her life to Christ.

Vincent left priesthood and began his own church in the village. He married Ewatomi and they were wedded by the parish priest.

Gideon married Ifede and moved back to the East.

Paul was delivered and he forsook his sin, remained in the church and served God wholeheartedly.

Ronke, Fisayo and Abisola moved on with their lives, got married and settled down.

Oh well, this might sound ridiculous but nothing is impossible with God or for him to do. All mermaids gave their lives to Christ and were baptized.

Vincent held services for Osun and her maidens at the stream on Sundays. They would sit on rocks while he told them about God, his son and everything in the scriptures.

Osun retracted her curse on the village concerning the yearly rains to mark her daughter- Enitan's death. She reconciled with Oyediran, made Vincent officially wed them then, oh well, mama had another child, but a son this time.

Osun and the other Queens used their powers to please God more than for themselves or over the people they ruled.

Bishop Joseph was never seen again and Vincent made Babatunde and Oyediran his new mentors. He learned to speak the dialect so that he could reach out to more people and make them give up their idols and come to Christ.

                                                                               ~The End~

                                                                     TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!

                                                                        © Angela E. Okoduwa