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I took my bow, arrow and Nchapu, and strapped the arrow quiver to my waist. I was ready for the expedition, ready to get The Ancestral Arrow, cut down everything that would stand in my way, and finally destroy Ógù, my flesh and blood.

Ekwe, my wife, pleaded with me not to go, that she couldn’t bear losing yet another member of her family — and being the love of her life, too. She cried and threw herself to the ground, her body gathering the sticky dirt of the coastal soil, when she saw how resolute I was.

I can’t listen to her now. I told myself. The lasting peace in my town is more important than my life. Better to die in this quest than to see my entire family die.

Ekemma had the heart of a lioness. Unlike her mother, she didn’t try to stop me from going. I had expected her to have a dream before this deadly mission, so that I would know my fate, but she was mute like a sculptural piece. I knew that if she had any, she would’ve narrated it right away. I had come to respect her and value her dreams, her opinions.

Or, did Ekemma’s wish to see Ógù die make her silent? Did she actually have a dream last night? I wanted to ask her if she had any, but my masculine ego made me change my mind. Asking her meant that I didn’t trust my strength anymore, that I entrusted my destiny in the hands of a young girl, instead of the hands of the gods.

I turned towards the entrance to my compound, looking up at the sky. The sun was beginning to dip into the horizon, and I must be on my way now before darkness enveloped my courage.

I cast a final glance at my wife and my pregnant daughter. Ekemma’s stomach had protruded so much that of looked as if she would give birth to an entire village.

Then, breathing in strength and exhaling courage, I walked briskly out of my compound, Ekwe’s sudden cry carrying with it a dirgeful foreboding.

★★★

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