A short story
Episode one
"Are you sure I will hear the cry of a baby in this palace before I finally join my ancestors?"
the king called the Queen to his chambers and complained about the fact that the queen had not conceived since he was crowned the king of Umu.
The Queen did not have any words to say to him. She had already decided to leave everything to the gods and stop bothering herself.
After going through sleepless nights just for her plea to be heard by the gods, it was as if they had all decided to neglect her.
After moments of silence, she excused herself from the king’s presence and went back to her usual routine, which was crying herself to sleep every night and waking up with tears.
She knew he really needed a male child, but she was not concerned. She had asked the gods to provide her with any child at all, be it a boy or a girl.
It went on for another month, and King Ikenna saw that his wife might not even conceive.
He decided that he would give her until another three market days, and if everything still remained the same, then he would need to find a second wife.
If the condition remained the same, he would find a third one and even a fourth one until he was able to have a child of his own.
King Ikenna even informed the queen about his plan, and she could not blame him. She accepted to challenge Ala, the goddess of fruitfulness by offering sacrifices to her for three weeks.
If nothing still happened, she would assume she was not meant to have a child.
On the first day, she gathered some items like a white hen, kola, white chalk, and other items she could find. She journeyed to the great Ala stream, which was a bit far from the village.
She did not mind the fact that the road was hilly, and climbing to the stream would mean she would sacrifice her leg as they would get swōllen from straining themselves during the journey.
She climbed all the way to the village stream and dropped the items for the sacrifice there, it was said that if a person is bold enough to climb up the hill and make sacrifices to the great Ala, such a person will not just go home the same, but the villagers did not find the courage to climb up there, because climbing up required courage.
One of her most trusted maids called one day and asked, "My Queen, I have been hiding to see you climbing the hill to the stream of our great mother Ala.
Are you sure all the sacrifices you take there will work out? Well, let’s just see how it goes," she said. The Queen, being a peaceful person, did not let the maid's words affect her.
She believed in the will of the gods and smiled at her maid before continuing on her way.
The maid, perceiving the Queen's demeanor as a sign of concern, offered prayers for her requests to reach the gods.
The second day was no exception, the queen woke up with leg pains but did not bother, she had to carry out the sacrifice for three weeks and she was bent on making sure she did not miss a day for the sacrifice.
She got up early in the morning started preparing her items for the sacrifice, she made sure no one was in sight and then she took the items and hurriedly climbed the hill again this time, her legs were heavy and walking up there was a very difficult task.
It was just day two and the bones in her body had awoken to destruction but she did not mind, she started climbing stopping at interval to rest.
It was now a war between her body and spirit, as she remembered what she had hoped for, it gave her more strength to continue the journey, as she breath heavily while approaching the stream to offer her sacrifice.
Until the unexpected happened before her eyes.
Thessycute Ekene
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