The Legend Of Karachuo 66 The Capture Of Apeleka

The shrine was located on the foot of the great Odindi hill about five hundred metres behind the chief's home. The shrine was a large circular piece of land with a radius of about three hundred meters. It was fenced with bricks. At the center was a huge altar.

Standing before the altar was Okwach Gumo, the clan's general seer with a large knife on his right hand. On top of the enormous altar were fifteen heads of immense bulls tied on all their four limbs. Their angry bellows never stopped filling the air as they struggled to free themselves.

Led by the tribe head, the people were singing songs of praise completely ignoring the amuck animals. Ochieng' was beside Apeleka and the tribe head. He was singing with all emotions. He had never seen such a huge number of people neither had he seen a seer making sacrifices to 'Were'.

"'Were', you are the G.o.d of our land. You levitate just above us. You bring us rains when we need. You give us food when we lack. You take away pain and suffering from us and ensure we are a happy people. Three days ago we were almost washed away by the storm of war and you saw us through..."

The seer started giving praises to 'Were'. He had barely started when an ear deafening roar echoed. Everyone lifted their heads and what they saw struck them by panic. Into the center of the shrine, an occult creature was flying at a breathtaking speed. Its mouth was wide open exposing long sharp cuspids.

Everyone started running pell-mell with dread. Their wails and screams resounded. Being many, there was no way the people could leave the shrine easily using just the one and only entrance and exit. The tribe head was trying to guide them out but his efforts seemed otiose. Many fell and died because of being stepped on by others. Some men climbed the walls of the fence.

Aaah!

One man's loud scream stopped the people. They turned to have a look only to see the creature garbage down a man's flesh deliciously, its mouth covered with blood. All the people were scared to the core and evacuated the shrine at their top speeds.

After a minute, only the tribe head, Okwach Gumo, Okoth Ang'wen, Nyangini and Ochieng' were left in the shrine looking at the creature bitterly. The man being eaten was already dead so he could not be rescued.

Ochieng' could not bare watching the scene. Even though back in the forbidden land he had seen the lions eat other animals the same way, it was before he knew his roles as an Ordainer. Furthermore, they were not feeding on humans. He did not know much currently but what he was sure about was the fact that Ordainers had to be altruistic, magnanimous and courageous.

He reached for a sword in its sheath where he normally kept it but never found it. He wanted to give curses when a three foot long sword appeared from nowhere in his right hand. The sword was glowing in red and yellow. The heat it gave off made it appear more like fire than a sword. Ochieng' was taken aback a little when felt how comfortable he was with the sword. He dashed towards the creature in rage.

While he was running to terminate the mysterious creature, the latter lifted its head and was frightened to see someone coming at it with a 'burning sword '

"The Apotheosis Sword. He is the Ordainer!"

The creature exclaimed with eyes widened in fear and turned to flee. It was however too late. Ochieng' arrived before it in a timely manner before slicing it into two. The two parts dropped, darkening the ground with dark blood. Ochieng' heaved a long sigh before shaking his head a little apprehensively.

"What was that?"

Okoth asked fearfully after a long silence. They had gone to stand next to Ochieng' after the creature died.

"I have no idea," answered the tribe head, "but from the books I have read in the palace, I guess it must be an aerial monster from the dark world. It is fortunate we had an Ordainer with us, we could have died in the hands of this creature."

When he finished, everyone turned their heads towards Ochieng', their looks were respectful. This young man had just saved their lives.

"Tribe head, this was just a two meter tall creature, could it kill everyone that was here?" Nyangini asked.

"It is said that their size should not make humans underestimate them. Their digestion power is extremely high and can eat more than a hundred people within an hour but still be hungry, it can also expand to swallow more than ten people at the same time. Where it comes from I don't know but it is stated in that book that only Ordainers can kill them."

The tribe head's explanation left the others breathing heavily. They turned their heads towards Ochieng' again with mixed emotions.

Just when they thought everything had been settled, they heard a kerfuffle from the chief's home. They headed there forthwith.

When they reached, they found almost everyone mourning. Anyango and Sankale were convulsing on the ground with white froth gushing out of their mouths. Their eyes were pale. They were surrounded by a few women who were busy performing their treatment procedures on them. They were without question medicine women in Odindi clan, who were specially there to take care of the chief's family.

Ochieng' was about to ask what was happening when he heard his father's voice. He was reciting a threnody on Apeleka, his son's girlfriend. It is then that Ochieng' searched for her with his eyes but his efforts proved bootless. He fell on his knees and covered his face. He started crying like a child feeling some pain.

This was the first human he came to know ever since he left his home when he was eight years old. She had been so close to him that the bond between them had become extremely hard to break. He loved her as much as he loved his own life. She had become his everything and life without her was miserable.

"Rise up son and stop crying."

He felt a soft dab on his shoulder followed by a gentle voice above him. When he lifted his head, he was met with his father's face that was covered with tears.

"Wh...what happened father?" He asked still crying uncontrollably.

"She was taken away by another creature that looked like the one you saw eating Okwanyo Sing in the shrine." The father answered with a shaking voice.

"Nooo!"

Ochieng' roared and rose up in fury. His face crimsoned and eyes reddened, he looked like an angry buffalo especially with tears welling out of his eyes. The veins on his temples bulged looking like small snakes on his head. His breathing became heavy and he started trembling violently. It was clear he was infuriated.

"And where is Jakony?" Even his voice had changed. It was deeper, it was like it was coming from an abyss inducing fear on those who heard it.

The sad dad stopped crying when he saw his son change. He was now vigilant. It is not wrong to say that he was trying really hard to control the urge to run away.

"Are you talking about that bird? When it saw the creature trying to capture Apeleka, it enlarged and tried to rescue her. The creature ended up enlarging as well and devouring the bird. It then took her away."

When he talked about that incident, Ong'am could not help but shudder. What he had seen had given him the shock of his life.

Ochieng' had cried for over ten minutes and when he heard that Jakony had died, he could not cry anymore. He decided to think of a way of rescuing his girl, now that he was aware she could be alive somewhere else. With this thought, he cooled down a little bit leaving his father breathe in relief but when he saw the people still mourning, he felt that his girl had really died and therefore stopped them.

"Enough!" He yowled, "Why are you people crying? Is it because Apeleka is dead? If that is the case then I ask you to stop because she is not. You saw how the other creature greedily feasted on Okwanyo. It is clear if it wanted to eat Apeleka up it could have done so. Since it did not claim her life, it had reasons for doing so. After burying Okwanyo honorably and making sure the clan is safe, I am going to find her. Let us have a little rest and bury our brother and the others at sunset in the clan's cemetery"

What Ochieng' said received the approval of many because it made a lot of sense. His mother Anyango and Sankale had woken up and when they heard him, they breathed in relief though the panic on their faces never disappeared.

Normally, people were buried in their own homes but when they were that many and not related, they would be buried in the clan's cemetery. As for those whose bodies were missing like Okwanyo Sing, a banana bole would be buried instead to represent the body.

One by one, the people left the chief's compound until only those related to the chief, the two seers, the tribe head and Oyamo Oyamo who insisted on not leaving Ochieng's side remained in the compound.

They had willingly heeded to Ochieng' because he was an Ordainer. Furthermore he was in a berserk mode and that gave him the power to make any human loyal to him though he did not know this.