TIRED.
DRAINED.
My entire muscles quivered from the hard work-out as I held my practice weapons—two long thin swords—firmly before me, taking deep heaving breaths.
“Again,” Oniko commanded.
I bit back a groan of frustration, staring evilly at the devil, Iditan, who had been my only spar partner ever since I arrived on these mountains. Anytime she was not around for training Oniko took the time to make me practice magic, making me wonder why he didn’t allow me to spar against Ramatu and Chike. I look my body over again, surprised at how quickly the cuts that marred it a moment ago have healed. Even my cloth which was torn had reverted back to its former form.
Iditan stood leisurely before me, using one of the two long knives which was her own choice of weapons to pick her nails while I thought of my options. The spars were more of her beating me than me learning how to fight. Many times she would taunt me till I got angry and lost myself to anger and attack her, and she would strike hard and fast against me, drawing thin lines of blood all over my body.
I shifted a gaze at Chike and Ramatu also sparring some meters away, each of their moves flowing into one another and beautiful, unlike my clumsy moves.
“Toke,” Oniko growled softly. “As a witchlord fighting would come easier to you, the great mothers have blessed each one of you with the skill from birth. You just have to keep pushing yourself till you ignite your fighting spirit.”
If this was already easy then what does hard look like? I hope I never find that out. I sighed and gathered my strength to attack. Although I still don’t sense the elusive feeling Oniko spoke about, I am not about to give up and let Iditan have the last laugh. I lunged at her, hoping to catch her off guard, but Iditan moved smoothly, sidestepping my graceless attempt to attack. We quickly get into the rhythm, with Iditan directing the tone of the fight and mostly parrying every of my attacks.
A thought runs through my mind and I decided to try it out. I pretended to trip and stagger as I fought Iditan, flailing wide. A smile blossomed on her face as she moved to the side so I would fall to the floor. I followed her as she moved, fast, striking towards her left, and then her right as she tried to evade my attacks.
Gotcha! My sword drew against Iditan’s right arm and her gasp of pain made me smile. I looked up into her eyes in triumph and the smile on my face erases at the wicked scowl and ire I witnessed within those dark pupils.
“Cheap trick.” Iditan looked down her hand as the cut healed fast, sealing up. She straightened her stance, taking the spar seriously for the first time. “You’ve had your chances, now it is my turn to attack.”
The look on Iditan’s face dropped a seed of fear in my heart. Was she planning to kill me or something? I turned to Oniko beseechingly, hoping he will put a halt to the spar. Oniko just looked on without any emotion.
Iditan stalked forward like a feline towards its prey, and I found myself moving backwards. She suddenly leaped at me, moving faster than I expected, to appear before me in an instant. Her right hand came down towards my head with the knife within it gleaming sharply.
I moved quickly to the side, trying to copy her evasion tactics, but Iditan followed me closely, drawing the knife against my shoulder as we parted. I had barely let out a grunt of pain before she was back, pressing her attack in a fast flurry of strikes towards my head and neck. Her right and left hand flowing one into the other in a continuous strike.
She was really planning to kill me!
Iditan’s right leg suddenly appeared on my stomach in a roundhouse kick, drawing a gasp of pain from my lips as the force of her hit threw me off my feet to land in an ungainly sprawl. I breathe hard through my mouth, groaning as spikes of pain racked through me.
“This is not the time to sleep little princess. Or have you probably gotten so daft you think that’s your fluffy mattress?” Iditan mocked.
I closed my eyes in embarrassment as Oniko chuckled by the side.
“And now she is really sleeping,” Iditan added.
“Toke,” Oniko called.
“Oh let her sleep.”
I will kill that devil! I growled and opened my eyes, slowly pulling myself up from the floor. I reached for my sparring swords which had fallen off to the side and ran fast towards Iditan. She moved to the side as I arrived before her and kicked me on my buttocks, pushing me to fall face down. I stood up again, rushing her, only to repeat the process. This happened three more times before I stopped my blind rush, standing before Iditan and forcing myself to be calm.
“What? Scared of attacking now?” Iditan taunted.
I wisely kept quiet.
“Fine, I’ll attack.” Iditan shrugged and ran forward.
I held the hilt of the swords so tight my palms began to hurt, determined to hold my ground this time no matter what Iditan brought. Even if she killed me I would not take one step away from where I stood.
As Iditan arrived before me, the calm I felt was no longer forced, a feeling of tranquility and self assurance descended upon me. Iditan suddenly seemed sluggish as my right hand came up, blocking her sharp thrust. I moved into her next attack, catching her by surprise as I gave her a backhand slap.
Iditan reeled, holding unto her face. Darkness creeped upon her obsidian face, and she bared her teeth in ager, looking even more feral. She came back at me with a vengeance. Her speed increased but I hold my own, barely matching her up, speed for speed, strike for strike.
Fatigue forgotten, pain forgotten, I fought back like a wild beast, snarling in defiance. I finally lose my initial momentum and began to move backwards as Iditan pressed me harder. I tried to draw more strength to hold my own against her, but there is nothing left.
Iditan cut my left wrist making me drop the sword in the hand. She then thrust towards my chest.
Blinded by pain and rage, I brought up my right hand, angling the remaining lone sword in my hand to meet her attack. Suddenly Iditan was in the air, flying away from me. She morphed into an eagle in the air, soaring high for a moment before coming down and morphing back into her human form.
“You Cheat!” Iditan screamed, coming fast at me. The air whipped wildly around her, raising dust and leaves.
“That’s enough,” Oniko declared.
“She used Magic.”
Who, me? And then I felt it raging within me, my magic. I looked up at Oniko resolutely, waiting for him to condemn and chastise me for breaking the rule and using magic during the spar—even if a mistake—and felt the eyes of Chike and Ramatu who had stopped their spar to watch Iditan and I.
“Thank you Iditan, as you can see we have succeeded,” Oniko declared.
Iditan scoffed, staring death at me before shifting her gaze away. Succeeded in what? Making a fool of me? I passed a glance at the two of them. “That’s more like it. I knew you could do it.” Oniko came towards me. “You planned this?” I asked. He smiled warmly. “We are hard pressed for time and it will have taken us months to get you to where you just got to a few weeks.” I frowned, angry at being played around. The cuts on my body slowly began to heal, itching as my torn clothes also come together. “Now, all you need to do is try to replicate what you felt when you sparred with Iditan until you fully ignite your fighting spirit, and that can only come with more practice,” Oniko continued. “Everyone come together.” Oniko waved us towards the shade under the trees. “Wow! You should have seen yourself. You were so awesome.” Chike came up to my side, smiling wide. “I’m now scared at the thoughts of having a spar with
“HEY TOKE, ARE YOU OKAY?” Oniko’s voice brought me back to the present. I don’t know how long I zoned out from shock, and his voice caught me unawares. I groaned, nearly falling down as a painful spasm racked through me, but for Oniko who quickly caught me in his strong grasp. “It’s all good now,” Oniko muttered comfortingly. “I saw you move back there and you did really good.” More like you saw me run away from a battle more, a tiny voice retorted in my mind. Oniko brought me away from the scene of the carnage as the nighthawks led by the red matron cleared the area and burnt the bodies of the cursed ones and dead humans. “Wha— what’s going on?” I asked softly, raising my head as I sensed a wild surge of magic, a joint effort o
I stood against Ramatu, studying her stance. Rage filled every ounce of my body—rage against Kudaisi who had taken to ignoring me—surprisingly giving me a kind of clarity and strength as I focused it in my spars against others. Chike who I had beaten some minutes ago sat by the sides, laughing and gisting with the four nighthawks who recently joined us, Bashir, Kola, Irene, and Biola, Oniko’s son. “Start already,” Damola who had taken up our training since Oniko and Iditan had not been around for the past two nights declared. The duo had been leading the battle against the cursed ones which I heard was more intense recently. “Fight!” Irene added in her shrill voice. Ramatu would make no move if I didn’t make the first, that was her way of fighting, to hold her defense tight while others attacked and wait for her opportunity when she would strike a quick killing blow. Let’s get this done with. I threw everything to the wind and rushed her fast, letting my rage
“WHAT DO YOU THINK OF IDITAN?” Oniko asked. Everyone else had left the mountains save the two of us. I didn’t have to think much to give him an answer. “She is evil, and I think she hates me.” Oniko smiled. “Why do you think so?” “It’s glaring.” I shrugged. “Everybody around here knows this for a fact.” “Oh?” Oniko raised an eyebrow. There is a quirk of amusement on his lips. “So she loves every other person asides you? Or she is being cold to just you alone?” Love? Does Iditan even know what that is? But thinking on Oniko’s questions, Iditan was cold to everybody, making them take the extra effort to steer clear of her. But I still felt like she was always seeking me out. Oniko’s quirk of amusement widened seeing as I took time to respond. “She relates with you just the same as with others, and from what I’ve seen of her Iditan seem to like you although she might not know that yet.” I scoffed at the absurdity of
Before the end of the week, the whole school had known there was something wrong between Kudaisi and I. Ours had been a wild wind romance, fast, burning—a envy for all. Whispers and talks abounded as I walked through the corridor to the schoolyard for the compulsory Friday afternoon devotion, with students openly pointing at me. For most time I was dead towards them, walking without really seeing or hearing any of them, but for a reason I felt curious, drawing magic to heighten my hearing and listen in on a group of girls to my far left. “She has no shame. First Stephen and now Kudaisi, and they both dumped her after a few weeks,” one of the girls said. “I’ve never seen a girl so lucky and unlucky at the same time,” another added. “I heard she lied to Kudaisi that she was a virgin, and when he finally got down with her, he saw her for what she truly was.” “What? She is a real definition of a whore!” I nearly lost control hearing that.
I MOVED LIKE THE WIND, running so fast I was at the foot of the mountains and back to the starting point in a matter of seconds."Faster," Damola barked.I was not sure if she was talking to me or to the others who seemed to me to be moving like bicycle in a car race—the nighthawks in our team especially—but I put more effort, throwing all my frustration and negative emotions into my legs. I was in a race not only physically, but also a mental race to empty my mind.Damola had brought us for training away from the pressure of the mountains on the kilometers long field between the castle and the mountains, to test our speed for real life action against the cursed ones. The castle was still shut, as silent and as dreary as ever, but I have no time to throw questions about it and feed my curiosity like I would have done on a normal day.I reached the foot of the mountains yet again, still brimming with energy, and was returning back when a sharp
“So you are a witch,” Kudaisi murmured softly. “I always felt something about you was magical, I never knew how close to the mark I was.” He chuckled softly to himself.“So you are one of the cursed ones?” I fired back, my voice coming out flat and without the steel I hoped it would have.Kudaisi chuckled again. “They chose to call themselves chosens.”Ibrahim appeared before us like the wind, making me bite back my sharp retort. “Take.” I instinctively raised my hands and caught the bottle of water he threw to me. It was then I sensed the great pangs of thirst from my throat which had become parched from all the screaming.“Thanks.” I smiled at him.“Is there any other thing you need?”I shook my head. “I’m okay.”Ibrahim nodded, shifting a glance at Kudaisi. He turned back to me, holding my gaze. “If you would take my
“KUDAISI AND I ARE BACK TOGETHER.”“What?”“How could you ever accept that fool back?”“You must be kidding right?”My siblings exclaimed as we rode to school Monday morning. I had taken courage to tell them so they wouldn’t hear from others later on when people saw us together.“But we spoke about you getting over him just two days ago,” Taiwo added.I smiled at their reactions. “It’s alright—” I began.“It is not alright!” Shola fired back. “You had us really scared when you broke up, moping around like a vengeful spirit. I think it’s unhealthy you continue staying with him.”“I don’t know sis,” Kenny added, frowning as he shook his head.Their heated responses made me surprised and emotional at the same time, knowing it was out of their love for me. “We didn&rsqu