CHAPTER FOUR
Normally, that would have been the end of the story time for that year, but Oduduwa had said that both Ijemili and Kukuru will both tell their stories after which he would tell his’. No one felt bored or even attempted to stand up to leave when Ijemili finished telling his story; it was as though years passed by and even our feelings were controlled magically. Kukuru cleared his throat and started out loudly as he patted his pet, which he usually called his brother, a rat. Like all other storytellers, he started with ‘a long time ago.’
‘I was born in a place called Karimaliki, but unlike all of you, I wasn’t born a man, I was born as a rat’ Kukuru said and the whole crowd was amazed.
‘Wow!’ we all exclaimed. We knew that this would be a different story from the ones we had ever listened to. ‘No wonder he is this short, no man born of a woman can ever be this short’ a voice whispered from behind me. ‘No wonder he calls that rat his brother, perhaps it’s truly his brother when he was a rat’ another said and the whole crowd became a little noisy because of the whispers from everyone.
‘I know you all will be shocked that is why I had told no one before now’ he continued and there was a sudden silence, everyone was eager to listen.
‘My mother died immediately after she gave birth to me. I was her thirtieth child, so I had no problem growing up because of my elder brothers and sisters; I had eighteen brothers and eleven sisters. Kakaso, my immediate elder brother is the one I hold’ he said and he rubbed Kakaso’s furs and it squeaked.
‘My clan was the strongest of all, very hardworking and that no doubt made us the richest clan of rats that ever existed before our time. I, just like all other of my brothers was a warrior, we fought for our land day and night against invaders; there was always an invader every day, whereas our sisters stay at home and cook the meals.
However, we were stronger than all other rat clans were, but we couldn’t stand our natural superior enemies, the cats’ clan, far north, twelve tunnels away from our clan. At first, when we were attacked, we were ready for war, we fought with our blood and might yet we could kill just three of the fifteen that came. Later we discovered the three we killed were female kittens who came to watch their fathers in wars, though we were ashamed of ourselves but that didn’t discourage us, we still fought harder until we discovered it did us no good, we were only getting wasted in the stomachs of the fat, raged, overfed cats. So we all surrendered to them and they gave us conditions before they could keep us alive. Every year after their first invasion into our clan, we paid tributes to them, even our god, Ratzo Kuli couldn’t save us from the cats; he too was a slave to the cats’ god. Bags of cereals, milk and two slaves were sent to them as tributes, which were the conditions we were given so that we all could stay alive. Although, it wasn’t a big deal sending the two slaves each year, we even felt they were being fair with that request, we could send over a hundred each year and still remain moderately populated and they knew that, but sending our brothers and as slaves was the problem. At first, the clan head selected two volunteer females to just give birth for the purpose of sending them on slavery, but it later got out of hand everyone was tired, no one wanted to work harder any more just to give all his efforts to the cats.
One night, we had a meeting, we all came sad, this wasn’t the Karimaliki rats we knew, and we were known as happy rats. Usually when we come for meetings, families bring drinks and they are shared amongst everyone but this time, no one even brought water for himself not to talk of for another person. We were all angry but I was angriest, ten of my brothers were killed during war and one three of my sisters have died as a result of being volunteers to giving birth to slaves for the cats’ clan. Moreover, worst of all, we heard they weren’t slaves there, they were food, their clan head eats two rats on every year end.
‘So what do we do now?’ our clan head asked after everyone had poured out their grief.
‘We can do nothing’ a voice shouted ‘we either continues succumb or all die, they made that clear when they came here and isn’t it so obvious we can’t overpower them?’
‘This is not the Karimaliki I knew’ another stood to say. ‘The Karimaliki I knew were known for strength and courage, they were known as people who happily deal with their fears, I don’t see that Karimaliki now’ he said and sat down back, I sat beside him and I saw his tail wagging like a rat that had just won a battle.
‘The question is what do we do?’ the clan head asked again, this time with emphasis. ‘I haven’t forgotten the threats neither have I forgotten who we were, if I had, I would have either asked who we were or what were the threats’
‘Then let's prepare better and then attack, but this time unexpectedly’ I shouted.
‘That is the way of cowards, it’s like killing an ant while it sleeps’ the first voice shouted again. ‘These are not ants we are attacking; we attack cats, relatively giants to us’ I said. ‘We want to fight with giants, then let us act like giants, if not in body, then in mind’ he replied, that was when I knew he wasn’t totally a pessimist.
‘That’s true. We train to fight better, since we are dealing with a bigger opponent and our minds will we strengthen to be like giants, tomorrow, we shall begin’ the clan head said.
That night I slept smiling, it had been long I did that, my mind was for once at rest that soon, it will all be over. I slept and expected I will have sweet sleep with honey dreams, but it was a nightmare. I dreamt the whole town was invaded again, killing thousands and leaving several others hole-less, I woke up breathing heavily with my whole hairs wet in sweat, I looked around me, I knew something had happened, I went close and I discovered all other of my family members had being killed except me and Kakaso, I wept and wept for nights. Others too were killed; the cats had invaded our land in the middle of the night and did those havocs. They were cowards, they couldn’t attack when we were ready, why was it the night we had a meeting? Alternatively, could it be that they have a spy among us? I thought as I ran to the clan head’s hole.
‘My home have been set apart, it have been made ruins’ I cried as I hit heavily on him.
‘Even mine’ he said soberly and I turned just to discover he was weeping on his murdered wife before I got in.
‘I am sorry head, but we need to do something for ourselves since Ratzo kuli can’t help us’ I said and he nodded.
‘I will take you somewhere, far away, there we will find a solution, this time we won’t wait till another day; it might just be too late, we begin now’ he said and he took his bag and I followed behind him.
For days, we walked until we got to a hut, it was painted black and we hopped in unnoticed to the human herbalist family who sat there drinking liquefied herbs.
‘This charm here will make us change to dogs if we drink it, though it won’t last long but we would have defeated them by then’ he said in a proud tone and we both went outside and drank all of it. The transformation didn’t take much time, but we couldn’t be big dogs, we were small dogs but a little bigger than the cats. Immediately we ran down to the cats’ clan, I could see fear in their eyes as we ran in, I had never seen fear in anyone’s eye like that, they all ran except the scared warriors who stood to fight.
‘How do you feel being dealt with by your superiors?’ We yelled as we fought tirelessly and killed several of them, but as time went on, we got weak and had to run away to save our lives and to keep to time so that we wouldn’t change back to rats there. We felt a little bit fulfilled, but we wanted to do more. The next day, we ran back to the hut but we couldn’t find that charm, we had swallowed all the day before, we were sad, we felt we had failed but on our way out, we found another charm on the floor similar to the previous but a little bigger.
‘What is this one used for?’ I asked the clan head.
‘I don’t know, that which I know, I showed you’ he replied.
‘Let’s try it’
‘Some charms here are to kill or to inflict with madness or sicknesses
/> ‘Why would someone want to kill himself of inflict himself with madness or sickness?’ I asked ‘Nobody does evil to himself, humans are very wicked they come here to collect these charms to kill or inflict people who had offended them or someone they owe or are even just jealous of them’
‘And what of the dog charms?’ I asked.
‘They also change their enemies to animals, wait… this could be the retransformation charm’ he said and we both swallowed it, immediately we changed to humans but we were short because we were initially rats. We went back to the cats’ clan and made them pay for all they had done for us in time past. We were going back to spread the good news but we knew they would all run to their holes when they saw us coming, we waited there for days so we could transform back, but we didn’t. After some time we decided to go back like that, perhaps if we explained to them, they would understand. On our way going I saw Kakaso running towards us, but when he saw us, he tried to hide, after a long explanation, he believed us.
‘So why are you running and where are you running to?’ we asked him.
‘Giant invaders, they are neither cats nor dogs, they are just like you, but far bigger’ he said in trembling voices. We had just conquered a clan, what else would you expect? We were over confident, we were sure we were going to conquer the new giant invaders. But on reaching there, it was a different story, we were caught and tied and that was how I came to the land of Itutu Kilomin. The clan’s head was among the hundreds that was thrown in the sea on our way coming, he too died.’ Kukuru stopped and he used his palm to wipe his tears, and he came down from the rock soberly.
My whole body still felt strange and I turned to Jemimah who was rubbing her palms together to produce heat.
‘Nice story’ I said and she nodded with a smile.