TELESCOPES ABOVE THE CLOUDS (PREDATOR AND PREY)

Men, they will never stop amazing me with their disbelief. My name is Orunmila and if you should ask a Yoruba man who I am, he would ask you to ask the next Ifa priest you see. So that faithful afternoon the sun that glared across the dense forest that I peeped at was a real bother. Falade was there, at the lighter entrance of the forest. He was pointing to the dense undergrowth, just beneath a tall dongoyaro tree; “the lion shall appear from there,” he told them. They looked at where he pointed, it was barely lit, and the undergrowth only gets a fraction of the initial sunlight from above. Then beyond the thick denseness were further darkness, it wasn’t that dark further inward as the undergrowth fades, but see, nobody dared explored as falade mention of a lion scared everybody.
Falade was indeed a demi-god as we made him one, the skeptical minds of humans believe only a man born of a god can be a demi-god, but see; we can bestow a common man the power of a demi-god and he becomes one. I remember that meeting that we held at the god’s chamber at the beautiful rainbow cloud, I remember me and orunmila merging our powers to create a light, but it was not just a light but a visionary light. So we looked through our telescope and saw falade, he was sleeping in his room and we saw nothing short of his heart of good. We imagined that if he wields that power he would do nothing but help a whole lot of people out of their earthly mysteries. So that night, as he slept calmly in his room, we let the visionary light descend upon him, it impacted him, merged with his soul and behold; a new demi-god was born. He himself didn’t know except from then on, he had dreams that come true. So everyone saw him as some kind of shrink, and visions as you know are not always positive and when he had those negative visions and he let them be known.


Confused men thought he was their source of bad luck, like his imaginations somewhat created their reality. So even with his very good heart Falade began having enemies. They seemingly waited for the right moment to get at him. The three men though founding falade’s procurement to be ridiculous as the existence of any lion within that area ought to have been reported long ago. They yet couldn’t help it but want to see it through, so they waited patiently even though, the soon falade claimed was getting too long to be soon. The sign falade was waiting for was the fall of a huge brown leaf and the sign had already shown thirty minutes ago. In his dream the lion showed like just five minutes away from the falling of the huge leaf. However what he failed to realize is the fact that the time frame in a dream land is so disproportionate and is often graded with our own imagination. So, one minute in a dreamland could be actually more or less depending on how we assumed it was when we wake. The sky was getting a mild overcast and the resulting gloom was getting the waiting men on an edge.

They couldn’t see what I see as the lion was already nearby and as it showed its mane-laden face. It was pursuing a very big mole. The men, seeing the lion was actually surfacing screamed and took to their heels and the startled lion too dashed to the comforting gloom of the forest. Falade however stood his ground, he knew there would be no causalities, however he needed to show some of his village men  what dangers impends in the forest and that they needed to be careful when they venture into the forest. So after the day’s event, Falade receded home to enjoy the comfort of its serenity. The next day however he was awaken by the sound of the village square gong.

Falade rose grudgingly from his bed and headed straight to the village square, the village square gong was hardly sounded but when it was, important information was to be passed across to the village men. He found himself among some hundred men and he was quite indifferent from the others as his shabbily look adequately pointed to the fact that most off the men were actually woken by the sounded gong.

The village king, the old man with the golden crown; everybody respects him, especially as he serve his men heartily. However we the gods aren’t that pleased with him as he was of low beliefs. He ascended the village square’s VIP platform, a raised platform built by the village youths, out of the oak trees that filled the forests surrounding the village. He found the royal corner, where stood a fancy crane chair which he heaved on to face his village men.

“My people,’ his royal voice rattled, it was brought to my attention that a vicious animal now roam the forest of Igando. The animal we all call lion. Therefore I had arranged for a team of hunters that will help us hunt down this animal.” He swiveled his head left to, the sturdy Otun, he then signaled somewhat to him. The robust man simply signaled and of course the men he signaled too, understanding him perfectly walked out of the crowd to ascend the platform. “Here they are; he said pointing to the armed men standing in a line, facing the crowd. The men are all middle aged and Raji, the most skillful of the men was a respected hunter as he had hunted down several big animals in the past. Everybody cheered the men that stood in front of them except Falade, He blamed himself for risking the life of the lion. “Tomorrow, he continued. The team set out on the hunt. All they need from you are your good wishes. May they return safe and victorious.”

“Amen” the crowd echoed.

The king returned to his crane chair the team descended and the crowd dispersed. Minutes later Falade was back home, but see; this young man was very troubled. He was still bitter about the king’s decision. Obviously, our claim that he holds a heart of good is now what turns vivid to you. He exposed the existence of the lion only to safe his people, however he didn’t expect them to hunt down a lion that’s done nothing wrong yet.

That night, Falade dreamt again, he saw the lion being killed and then certain darkness, crawling upon the village. That scared him; the next day he was the first to knock on the king’s door. The man was on his throne, enjoying the company of his royal entertainer, he gave Falade a deserved audience, though personally he didn’t like Falade that much. He once thought and many more times; that what if one day, Falade approached his people and tell them about a dream that claim his reign would bring sorrows to his people eventually, what if?

“So Falade, what brings you to my palace this morning? You want to give a send off gift to the departing team?”

“No your highness, I actually come to warn you about the danger involved in this hunt, you see…………..”

“Oh! I understand your fear, but this team is quite capable. The men are up to the task.”

“No! I don’t mean that your highness, but rather that killing the lion will bring unexpected chaos into the land.”

“How do you mean?” the king inquired.

“Your highness, I had this dream that after your men killed the lion that a terrifying darkness took over our community.”

“A dream!  Falade haven’t you learned that not all dreams are vision, even if like we all know you actually does receive those visions; what if this one is purely your imagination?”

“This is no imagination your highness, I feel certain boisterousness when I get this visions. Your highness, you’ve got to trust me on this like you’ve always does.”

“I’m sorry Falade, but you’ve given me no adequate reason to want to call my team off. I see no way in which killing a lion would cause a chaos.”

I felt where I was, a certain jostle of my crimson cloud, now I realized I’ve almost forgotten that Oduduwa invited me to a feast. I smiled; my humble cloud is always there to remind me. So soon, I shall leave for the feast. Falade though sees some of these visions; however it is not in his power to seek the details. He only knows the little we want him to know. In as much as we’ll prefer a good time for our mortals and all, yet we must let destiny and fate have their stay.

Falade left the king’s palace utterly disappointed, if you’ve got good eyesight, you’ll see those worry gather on his face. Falade wished he could actually just find a way to reach out to the lion and warn him. However he didn’t know his greatest of worries was yet to come. He could hear drums, gongs and the villagers ‘songs as they send off the hunters. Not long after they left, he heard a knock on his door. “come in,” he said. Then three hefty strangers came in, they had bare chests and had linen-cotton underpants tapered by raffia leaves. The heftiest of the men, grabbed him like a little piece of log and flung him unto his muscle- laden shoulder another of the men held his kicking legs and then the third gagged his mouth very tightly and blindfolded him afterwards. The third man handed the second a tape with which they tied his leg and Falade was then carried off on the first’s shoulder.

My cloud trembled again I smiled at the events down below me; I’ll go for the feast now. When I return, you shall get the rest of the events.

To be continued…………………………………………………………………………………

Abd-hamid Abd-afeez (talesmen)