The Chosen One | A Freewrite

Image source

Orji and Obini attended the same village school. While Orji hailed from Ama, Obini came from Udi, both villages are in the same autonomous community. The communities had everything in common and share the same values but only had different progenitors.

Drinking water was the only problem they had. They would have to travel several miles to get good and drinkable water. This problem had persisted and no solutions were tenable.

A legend had it that the only source of water that had existed in the region was the Oba river. It claimed it sources from a matriarch, Egondu who sacrificed her life, became a deity and turned into a flowing stream so that the people won't suffer thirst. The law that anyone with a sore in their legs should delve into the stream and ladies during their monthly flow shouldn't go near the river was severally broken, then the stream dried up, following the wrath of Egondu, the river deity. Since then, the people had suffered a lack of water.

Children from the village usually dedicated weekends for fetching and storing up water. So, Obini and Orji always had a place where they meet to fetch water together.

Obini has the best kind of heart in the village. She is kindhearted, respectful, and truthful.
One early morning Saturday morning, she was on her way to fetch the early morning water in the distant community, early morning water from the stream is the cleanest and good for drinking. As she walked almost half the road to the stream in a lonely bush part, she saw a shining white hunter's bag, this is quite different from what she had seen with hunter before.

Someone must have lost this bag.

Obini picked it up, it shined brighter in her hand that she contemplated dropping it to avoid unwanted danger. As she thought of her next line of action, a voice spoke from the woods

You are the lucky maiden. Do not be afraid. That bag in your hand is an emblem from the world of the ancestors of Udi. Take it back home, you will be told what next to do.

With feat written all over her, Obini ran back like an antelope chased by a hungry lion. When she arrived at her father's hamlet, breathing very heavily, the voice said to her:

Chosen one, take the staff in that bag, go to River Egondu and strike the river bed once.

No one else heard the voice except Obini. Like someone under the influence of remote control, she walked without walking to anyone to River Egondu, struck the river bed one, and water began to flow again. She walked back home without anyone knowing what had happened.

A group of hunters who were returning from an expedition noticed that water had started flowing at Egondu, forgetting their woes of not killing any game throughout the night, ran to the Obi's palace to give the good news.

On reaching the palace, the group met the chief priest relating a message from the gods to the king:

Seven virgins, seven large male cows, seven bags of cowries, and seven days of closure of the borders of Udi is all it will take to appease Egondu to start flowing.

Realizing the chief priest was giving very wrong information, supposedly from the gods, the hunters saw that the said river had already started flowing again and that the chief priest who is supposed to act as the mouthpiece of the gods had been acting in self-aggrandizement. They spoke in unison and said to the Obi,

Your majesty, River Egondu is already flowing. Perhaps the gods have seen our sufferings and have decided to be merciful.

With his mouth opened ajar, the questioned the chief priest of how he came about the list of items demanded by the gods when the river is already flowing.

In doubt, the chief priest ordered that the Obi-in-council and the hunters follows him to the river to attest to the authenticity of their claims.

Meanwhile, the voice had asked that Obini returns to the river and wait for further instruction. No one still knew in Udi that water has started flowing in Egondu. The procession from the Obi's palace met Obini, adorned in all-white attire, and seeing the flowing Egondu river, the voice spoke of ro the hearing of Obini,

Point your staff to and say to him, you hypocrite, your end has come

She pointed the staff to the chief priest and said the word:

You hypocrite, your end has come.

Immediately, a bright light shone on the chief priest and he turned into a stone.

The stone serves as the platform in which people wash their clothes at river Egondu till this day.