₦airaland Forum

Next update coming soon

The man glanced at the wall clock and found out that it was only two minutes left for him to get the work done. Without any delay the man began to pierce the patients with the pointed object in a way an extremely aggressive stabber would do when using a knife to achieve his goal. The victims remained stiff and still even after he had performed the treatment on them. Just when everyone was sweating in hopelessness, two boys rushed in immediately to spread another bad news, bearing Ted in their hands. “Sir, Henry has killed one more student. We saw him dead at Henry’s door.” “Drop him on the floor, the doctors will take care of him,” said the dean exasperatedly, having lost hope on the twenty lifeless victims. All of a sudden, the victims began to rise up one after the other: Sussie sneezed and rose up. Willie coughed and got up too; so did Matthew, who thumped up with a smile. Like a sleeping beauty woke Jane, yawning, and Collins was up too, laughing loudly, but when Mary woke, she was hiccupping while Hannah was belching… None of the patients was left without performing one reflex action or the other. Professor Wilson said, “You see, I told you. It’s only the combination of laughing gas and Hydrogen Sulphide with Ammonia and a little quantity of Hydrogen Peroxide and Hydrogen Chloride gas plus Methane and lots more that can cause this reflex actions.” As the Professor ended his prolix and unproved illustrations, the people around him cheered him up with a round of applause. Some hefty ones shouldered him in a sudden manner, regarding him as a celebrity. “Doctor of all Doctors!” they chanted, inflating the pride of the dean, who instantly began to blow his trumpet. “Yeah, I’m a Professor. My title’s more than that of a doctor,” he said. Journalists rallied round the Professor. His deed was broadcast in the media to the world. Titles of several forms were made to appear on newspapers and magazines. “The Professor who saved twenty.” “Professor genius has done it again.” “The CCUL Professor became the best medical doctor in the world.” “The dean is the dean indeed.” Ted was pushed aside during the hurly-burly, only to be attended to after falling into a coma.

Mavchamp:
2013...

Okay.

Mavchamp:
Yeah sure...
I even know about ur recent get together...

Oh, that's good. Which set are you?

dlawsamesq:
you are the bomb. keep rolling in the updates

Thanks

dlawsamesq:
sammyhoe,I suspect u skipped some episodes. Please check the updates. I dey gbadun you.

Thanks I've detected the errors and corrected them.

Mavchamp:
So this story is back
I was ur ardent follower and ebiag.com that year

This story was just caught short

But there is ability in disability was completed though..

And also lemme end by saying
AMMSSSA - KNOWLEDGE IS LIGHT



*winks

Are you an ex-student of AMMSSSA?

dlawsamesq:
sammyhoe,I suspect u skipped some episodes. Please check the updates. I dey gbadun you.

Where exactly should I check?

Morning meal is ready

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JOURNEY TO NILE RIVER

The twenty patients were lain on trolleys and pushed away for a dump in the morgue. Their remains had been wrapped up in white cloths and their nostrils stuck with pieces of cotton wool. Sympathizers had almost wept their eyes out. Many students, whose friends or lovers were involved in the incident, had begun a serious hunt for Henry. They were going to exterminate his life too.
Professor Wilson hurried to the hospital and met the Doctor in annoyance.
“Doctor Clifford, I said these people ain’t dead.”
“Sir, I waited till the time you gave me. They’re but bunch of corpses now.” The irritated dean held up his gold wristwatch toward the Doctor and spoke into his face, “Take a look, fifteen minutes left. I said after twenty-three hours…see, fifteen more minutes left, but you’re not a bit patient.” Professor Wilson was panicking as he was getting prepared to leave the Doctor.
“You’ll regret your action,” he turned back and said to the Doctor who was looking at him in awe.
Professor Wilson had been to Henry’s room five times since Henry’s departure, to check if he was around. He had done these secretly making sure no one was around before inserting the ‘abstract key of magic’ into the keyhole. He was now confused and losing hope, being aware that no one had ever reached Selemis Cave and returned alive in the past. He could recall how he had made the move himself too when he was twenty-five, but was not left with the memory of where he reached before forfeiting the journey then. The only thing he could remember sharing with the magic folk then was that he got to a place called the Island of Forgetfulness, but since he was not able to share a single memory of what happened in the said Island they passed him for a liar. He was almost punished by the renowned leader of the planet then if not for the pleas that was raised by the citizens on his behalf.
The dean doubled his pace to get to Henry’s place once more, realizing that the absence of the boys again would mean a dash to the slim hope he had.
The people at the door were making a lot of bangs at it with their weapons. Many were using mallets of different sizes, while some were bludgeoning the door. Everyone had improvised in other to make sure the goal of breaking into the room was carried out. They were of the belief that the dean deliberately hid Henry inside the place because they had spied on the Professor all the time he was stealthily ducking to the door to get it opened. Since they never saw a key with him those times, they resorted to the belief that Henry had been opening the door for the man from the interior.
“Henry must die too!” they chorused as they dauded hard at the door, their noses covered up with some thick nosepieces.

Ted landed in Henry’s room.
“Wow!” said Ted. “Twelve minutes left, I’ve got to hurry.” He opened the door and hastily stepped out.
Bang! Bang! sounded hammers of different makings on Ted’s head as he came out of the room. He fell flat but the dean had just arrived the spot.
“What are you doing here?” he yelled at the hoodlums who were already precipitated with fear and astonishment as they bent their necks, gawping at the wrong chap on the floor, whom they had brought down.
“We thought it was Henry,” they said, but the angry dean shouted, “Get lost!” and instantly they fleeted away, leaving the dean alone to continue the rubbernecking.
“Foolish ones!” abused the dean as he bent quickly over Ted who had managed to stay conscious, head swollen and sweating out blood.
“Ted! Ted! Where’s Henry?”
“Egypt,” Ted managed a whisper.
“Where’s the flower? Did you get it?” For a reply Ted slowly inserted his hand into his pocket. The man was not patient enough for the boy to bring it out. He violently snaffled the thing from Ted’s pocket and fled, saying, “Get better.”
It was conspicuous that Professor Wilson had cared less for the boy who was gasping for life on the bare floor the way he had just acted. The care he had showed for the flower more than the human on the verge of death could be justified by the fact that it is better for one person to die for twenty; but for twenty to die for one it would be illogical. But Ted must have had it this way (if at all he was still conscious); twenty pauper can die for someone of affluence. It happened in some countries where political thugs were used to fight the cause of a political mogul, who would want to assume a political position by force, but some of them got murdered, not waiting to see if the cause they fought for came to reality eventually.
The Professor was soon back there to give the cure. He took no preventive caution to make sure blood transfusion was avoided since he was making use of a single syringe.
“You novices, will you watch and see how I’ll cure them?” he said to the medical practitioners who were headed by Doctor Clifford. Some students were watching too. They looked at the man, stupefied.

Good day peeps

Rising swiftly while the old sage was chasing after Henry and Ted, the Power Guard disappeared from the Island of Forgetfulness. He lamented as he stormed his fairly large salon. The room was well furnished, having a huge lounger which had always been the relaxation seat for the man. It was on that particular seat Kent Robins landed on his arrival to his home.
“No ear must hear this, that I died by the hands of kids. Something must be done! Something must be done!”
Kent Robins was ill at ease, wanting to do something. With tears flowing down his cheek he began to scribble something into a piece of paper, gazing at the clock from time to time, trying to beat the time. At last he said, “That’s settled. The magichood must not know the truth. They must believe in a lie.” Then the thirst for revenge overwhelmed him.
“But it’s not possible now,” he whispered sorrowfully, believing that his strength would not tarry long enough for him to retaliate. He lifted his head again to look at the time. It was only three minutes left for him to expire.
Pacing about aimlessly in the room, having placed the letter in a conspicuous place, the man suddenly said, “Yes, Harrison will do it for me. He must avenge my death.” As if crawling would be faster, instead of walking, the man crawled swiftly toward his mirror and set his eyes on it yelling Harrison’s name. Harrison appeared in it.
“Harrison!” he called out. “I’m dead already. My death must be a mystery to humankind.”
“How? How did you die?” asked Harrison in disbelief.
“It must be a mystery to you also.” As a result of the grief Harrison read from the man’s face he believed him.
“Get my wand from them!”
“From who?” asked Harrison, who never understood what he meant.
“Ted and Hen—” He was not able to finish pronouncing Henry when his mirror exploded. He collapsed and passed away. Harrison said, “Trust me,” beating his chest, but the man seemed not to have heard his allegiance, since his corpse was already absent-minded.

Dedicated to Profmaojo for following me on Twitter Nairaland


Ted said, “Henry, thirteen minutes left for you to become a murderer of twenty.”
“Huh—it’s true,” said Henry, bugging out his eyes in horror. Then a suggestion came to his brain, which seemed to make him appear as if he had just been relieved from the effect of the supposed inebriation. Henry suggested, “Why not let’s tear the map into two, so you can go with the part with the US and I’ll go with Egypt.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” concurred Ted. “Where have you kept the genius in you all this while?”
Without any further ado, the boys rend the paper in two. Just then Henry remembered and said in apprehension, “Ted, hope you’re with the Rose flower.”
“Yeah, here’s it,” said Ted, producing it from his pocket.
“Goodbye Ted,” Henry waved.
“Goodbye Henry, I’ll come help you in Egypt later, after the cure is complete,” said Ted and in a matter of second the two had disappeared, having clicked their respective destinations in the different pieces of the papers with them…
The citizens of Gyrus were known for possessing a particular odd ability; they could stay awake for an extra-time of five minutes after being declared dead scientifically. Such opportunity had often been utilized by some of them when dying, to do something unimaginable.

Welcome on board Profmaojo. I could remember you as one of my story readers in those days. Pls show face here sir.

The boys walked along towards a cave. They were soon in the first cave they had encountered. The interior was benighted, though outside the sun was still glimmering in great splendor, since it was still daytime. As soon as the boys got into the cave, the Power Guard’s wand with them beamed a great white light of its own accord, so that they could view clearly the dim interior of the cave. The mass of the light was so great that it was cracking the structure rapidly. Massive boulders began to pour down as a result of the dilapidation of the cave by the intensity of the collision of the beams with the wall of the cave. The heavy falling masses nearly fell on the boys’ heads.
“Let’s get out of here, fast,” advised Ted and they got out of there in a hurry, unhurt. Amazingly, the illumination from the wand died off as they got out of the cave. However, Ted said in anticipation, “We’ve got to control this light.”
“Let’s see how to do that when we get to the next cave,” Henry said and in a moment they were walking to another cave, since in the first they never saw any Rose flower. When they got to the next cave, the wand beamed no light since the interior of the cave was not dark like the first. It seemed that the Roses in there had provided the illumination. The fragrant flowers were dazzling and sparkling.
“Hooray!” said Ted as they saw the Rose flowers.
“Let’s start plucking,” said Ted as he hunched happily and Henry seconded gladly by saying, “Yeah, pluck as much as you want.”
“I’m already doing that,” said Ted with a handful of flowers, which he was holding close to his nose to draw in the sweet-smelling fragrance oozing out of them.
“Ted you know something? I’ll hang them around in my room and invite Cynthia. The flowers will attract her to me,” said Henry as he stood straight briskly to gesticulate, leaving the plucking at that moment to Ted alone.
Ted said, “I’ll make a garden and plant them there. Henry, I will quit my career and opt for medicine.”
“Why?” Henry asked.
“The Rose flowers—they’ll cure all diseases. In a short time I’ll be regarded as the best Medical Doctor in the world.” Henry was fascinated by Ted’s taking talks. Instantly he felt that he would do the same.
“Me too,’ said Henry as he bent over again to pluck the flowers. Just then Ted saw some winged creatures swarming across to them. They appeared like giant ants, but they possessed wings. Ted screamed, “Henry, look!” Henry's neck turned his face toward the direction Ted had pointed at in the cave then he shouted with a shrilled voice as he saw the ant-like things too. They were as big as Ted and Henry themselves.
“We’re dead,” said Ted, not remembering to pick up the Power Guard’s wand which they had inadvertently thrown on the floor earlier when they were about to start rooting out the flowers. Just then Henry remembered something:
“Ted, drop those roses; pick just one,” cried Henry.
“Why should I do that?”
“That was the instruction,” replied Henry who was being lifted quickly from the ground by the creatures, as if a hawk was picking up a chick. Ted had dropped the Roses instantly, holding on to a single one.
“I’ve dropped them Henry yet they’re still coming after me,” said Ted, gazing up to Henry.
Henry shouted, “Then use the wand!” Ted looked beside him and saw the wand on the floor. Henry had almost been taken far into the dim inner part of the cave then and Ted had almost been picked up too by those creatures.
Ted pointed the wand at the ones around him. They were exploded at once.
“I get them!” he screamed happily, but was jolted quickly by Henry’s cry of agony. Ted took few strides and pointed his wand to the creatures on Henry. They exploded too, leaving Henry to fall from a lofty height.
“Aaaaargh!” Henry screamed as he tumbled downward rapidly. He fell and landed on his belly. Ted was afraid that Henry was dead. He came nearer and said, “Henry, are you dead? Say yes or no.”
“If I’m dead how do you expect me to say yes?” Henry moaned as Ted attempted to pull him up. He managed to remain standing, his body aching. Just then Henry saw the Roses they had cast away taking roots again.
“Look Ted, the roses are taking root again!” Henry was stunned.
“It’s amazing!” remarked Ted as he gawped at them.
“But why did we forget that we should have plucked just one strand?”
“Maybe because we’ve passed through the Island of Forgetfulness,” Ted deduced a brilliant one.
“It’s true,” countenanced Henry with a grin, then he announced, “Mission one is fulfilled.”
Ted’s face was wrinkled in annoyance.
“I hope you’re not telling me there’s another mission to carry out from here.”
“Yeah, there is,” said Henry apprehensively. “The Nile River, where the diamond knife lies.”
“Hope you’re not asking me to follow you there ’cos I’m going back to campus right away,” said Ted sternly.
“Well… I’ve got to go myself then, else I’ll soon be dead.”
“Go,” said Ted with a smirk, which made Henry express a cheerless mood. Ted noticed Henry’s gloomy mood and said, “Why are you looking at me that way? I thought I told you in school that I’m not going to any second mission.”
“Yeah, you said that,’ said Henry lowering his head in blues, then he gave Ted a hug and whispered into his ear, “Thanks.”
“We’re friends, ain’t we? So… no thanks,” said Ted. “Henry, can’t we go back together?”
“Not with these hard beards and smelly body,” said Henry quickly ending the hug. “Let me not transfer the smell to you.”
“Don’t you worry, I said we are—” Ted paused as the east wind blew up his cloth to his face. “Humph! My cloth smells too,” Ted grimaced.
“That’s what I was saying.” Henry glanced at his watch and said, “Wow! It’s past six already; Ted, time to go.”
“What! Henry, fifteen minutes more the victims are dead.”
“Wonderful!” Henry yelled, remembering the victims again. “Ted you’ll go now and I’ll go to Egypt too for the knife,” Henry spoke and added as an afterthought, “But how?”
“With the map of course!”
“Where’s it?” asked Henry and Ted gave a shrug.
“I don’t know. All I remembered was that we touched Cyprus in it in your room then we got to the forest. Who knows whether the map had remained behind in Los Angeles?”
Hearing it, Henry’s heart almost stopped functioning.
“Ted where’s the map? Where’s the map?” he wept sore.
“I don’t know for God’s sake. Check your pocket, I’ll check mine too.” They did that very quickly. Ted said first, “It is not in here” bringing out the inside of his pocket. Henry was ashamed to speak, having felt the paper in his pocket with his hand. Just then he remembered when he tucked it into his pocket while in the Forest of Truth.
“I’m sorry it’s in here,” said Henry soberly, bringing out the crumpled map. “I guess it’s crumpled by the Lion fight.”
“You’d better be grateful it wasn’t torn to pieces. Give me the thing; it’s time to go back to Los Angeles.” Henry glanced at the map in his left hand and said, “No, let me get to Egypt with it first.”
“Stop the joke,” said Ted in annoyance. “If you go with it to Egypt how do I get to America then? It’s just fifteen minutes left now—for the twenty victims, else they’ll die.”
Henry replied foolishly, “Then we must fight it out.”
Ted replied too like a simpleton, “That’s the only option.”
As if they were still under the influence of the wine they took in the Island of Forgetfulness, the two began the wrestling instantly. They stopped suddenly after struggling for two minutes.

Henry and Ted were scared, afraid that when the Lion returns it would still tear them apart again.
“Be at rest boys, why panicking? The Lion must have set his long-sighted eyes ahead of this Island to spot someone in the forest; I guess that was what he has gone after. It won’t hurt you.”
The boys doubted him still. In a short moment the Lion had appeared again. When it was close to them, they noticed something in his mouth, which was bleeding profusely. Taking a close look, they discovered it was a human. The Lion dropped the restless man on the sand and sat beside it, wagging its tail playfully again, as if it had forgotten that it was the one who had brought the bleeding human there. Turning the motionless man around, the boys gave a yell, “Power Guard!” It was the Gyrus Power Guard, Kent Robins. Surprisingly he spoke, but in a very low tone:
“Henry, T-Ted, you’re still alive! This Lion d-did not k-kill y-you!” he said as he spat out blood, “but it attacked me.”
“What are you here for?” the boys asked inquisitively but the man prevaricated.
“Truly I helped Harrison,” he confessed. “I—I gave him my w—wand at first, then I called him back when he was about to depart and gave him a fake second wand. But I told him the second was a fake,” the man paused to release a bloody cough again.
“The first I asked him to keep but the second I asked him to give anyone who m—may later want to come de—demanding for the wand; even if it was myself. Why I said it was because I knew Kim could come in my appearance to deceive Harrison, you know he was a mystery maker…”
The man groaned in pain.
“Kim came tr—truly in my appearance, demanding for the wand and Harrison gave him the fake.”
“Holy shit!” the boy yelled.
“So…you killed Kim!” said Henry, boiling in anger as he tramped cruelly on the Power Guard. The Power Guard was still holding on to his wand, which he had received back from Harrison.
“Stop it Henry!” said Ted pulling him, then he added, “Have you forgotten that he has not told us his mission here?”
“Oh, it’s true,” Henry’s eyelids flicked up, then the man confessed slowly, “I came after both of you to kill you, but—but this Lion stopped me.”
“You stopped yourself,” sounded the voice of the sage again, “This Lion is the Lion of Truth so it hates liars—like you. Probably, you what was in your mind when you got to the forest was the thought of the deceit to use in getting these innocent boys.” The Power Guard’s smeared head shook slightly in approval. He breathed heavily, almost dying. Just then the wand of the Power Guard attracted Henry and he said, “Hey Ted, look, his wand’s still with him. Let’s take it.” They snatched it quickly from him and impaled his body with it at once. The man fell dead. Just as they were fixing their smiling gazes at the wand that they had just acquired, they heard a pugnacious voice behind them:
“Why d’you do that?” fumed the sage in anger.
“He’s a bad man,” they replied.
“I’m the judge here. I told you I do not judge bad people; only murderers. I forgave him, so you should have done that too,” the man shouted. The boys shivered as they remembered the judgment for ‘Island Murderers’ which they had just become.
“But—sir if we left him alone, he’ll die all the same, ’cos he’s already wounded to a near-death state,” they gave excuses but the man refuted.
“It’s not true,” said the man. “If you’d left him alone, he would forget his sorrows and pains and he’d survive. You are Island Murderers—first Island Murderers—so you shall D-I-E!” the man roared critically at them.
“Please sir!” they yelled out their pleas. “We forgot that death was the punishment for murder here. Please!”
They persisted painstakingly in tendering their apologies but they all fell on deaf ears. The man approached the horrified boys fiercely and they moved backward in apprehension to avoid him.
“No apology!” he yelled suddenly. “Now you shall die!” As he spoke, he dramatically transformed himself into a very gargantuan Lion, twice as huge as the Lion of Truth, which was lackadaisical about the whole thing.
“Aargh!” the boys howled as they took to their heels. The speed of the Lion was enormous. It was almost going to grab them both at once when the Power Guard’s wand suddenly turned upward and lifted the boys off ground, away from the reach of the Lion. They landed gently in another land.
The wand of the Power Guard had a special ability; it was possessing discretion, knowing what to do at any given time. The boys landed safely in a rocky environment.
“Where’s this?” Ted asked.
“It must be Selemis; it’s full of caves.”
“Hey, we’re short of time,” said Ted glancing at his wristwatch. “The patients will die in an hour.”
“Gush!” said Henry in exasperation.

Dybala11:
Where's the OP, update pls.

Coming soon

Uthman2senior:
Thank you so much
I have been following the story from Ebiag.
com...
A nice story it's
I can finally finish it here

Happy to have you back bro.

You can check my first music track out from this link, download and share to others. That's a big way to encourage me to keep doing stuffs. Thanks. http://www.soundlala.com/track_audio.php?id=1375

Dedicated to Uthman2Senior for sharing my previous post

The Lion had come to the man and lain on his lap. It was having fun. The man said, “He can do the same thing to you if you want him to. Just call him to your side.”
Ted made a sound to call the Lion and it came, but Henry was scared of it when the thought of how the Lion had injured his head suddenly came. He tried to touch the wound, but it had left him.
“Wonderful!” Henry yelled.
“What?” demanded the old man.
“My wound’s healed; no more pain.
Ted looked at Henry’s forehead and remarked, “Wow! Henry, no scar’s left!”
“That’s what forgetting your pains does to you,” said the man and grinned. “It’s a pity you’ll not remember to put all the lessons you’ve learnt here into practice. The only thing you’ll remember is ‘I came to this place’,” said the man pitifully.
“Are you sure, old sage?” they asked.
“Sure, as long as you both are concerned.”
“Why d’you say as long as we are concerned? Doesn’t the same rule apply to everyone?”
“A little difference—anyone who murders someone, here in this Island, will forever remember the scene of the murder, because the memory will not stop haunting him.”
The man could read the dreads of what he had just said on the boy’s faces, so he attempted to calm them down by saying, “Why worrying? Cheer up boys ’cos such a thing had never happened—no one had murdered anyone over here, including the Lion of Truth—I guess you still remembered how he released you when you got here.” They shook their heads in the affirmative, but their faces were still creased.
“C’mon boys, cheer up! No Island murderer can even go scot-free let alone having that memory haunting such, because I’ll punish such at once—death.”
“Really!” they uttered.
The Lion came to Henry to rest on him too, but Henry shrieked and shoved its arm away. The man laughed at such move and rose up.
“I’ll be right back. You can relax here and have fun with the Lion. You can ride on it like a horse if you want to, because nothing’s impossible.”
Ted was glad about such announcement. He sprang to his feet and jumped onto the back of the Lion. The Lion raced from one place to the other in the jungle. Henry was still scared of the fierce-looking Lion. The Lion was taking a circular path within the Island. As it came near Henry again, Ted shouted, “Henry, come with me, let’s ride on it.”
“The Lion is a trick,” declared Henry. “It will hurt us.”
“Henry, remember the sage’s word; forgive and forget,” Ted said, having fun on the Lion’s back. Henry soon joined him on in the ride. The speed at which the Lion was travelling was enormous. On the creature’s back, Henry was feeling that the Island of Forgetfulness was another Gyrus, or even a Gyrus on Earth, when he reasoned the speed at which the Lion was moving. Henry himself had deduced from the difference in speed of the creature while in the forest and while in the island, that what was weighing the Lion down in the Forest of Truth was the word ‘Truth’ itself. Now that it was in the ‘Island of Forgetfulness’, it had forgotten the bitterness of truth.
“The truth is indeed bitter,” Henry had felt. For many hours, they persisted in the fun at the expense of the mission to Selemis; but the Lion suddenly became fierce and roared angrily as it set its face toward the Forest of Truth and increased its celerity, heading for the forest again, now in a straight course.
“Ted, hope this Lion’s not taking us back there to kill us!” Henry said in fright.
“That’s what I’m—” Before Ted could end his word the Lion had begun to gallop with great propensity as it was forging ahead still.
“We’ve got to jump!” they screamed in terror. In a short moment, Henry had jumped off the Lion’s back, having had lots of experiences in the past on how to jump down from a fast moving thing. Ted was not skilled at jumping, so he was scared. By a stroke of luck Ted jumped too, from the Lion’s back and landed with a heavy thud just right inside the water that was demarcating the Forest of Truth and the Island of Forgetfulness.
Henry, who had earlier landed on the dry ground, rushed impulsively towards the shallow water where his friend had just landed. He was intending to help Ted out of the muddy pond.
Afraid that Ted had been hurt, Henry said fast, “Ted, are you okay?”
“I—I’m not; but my bone is broken,” said Ted in pain.
“Sorry Ted,” Henry said, pulling him up. “I’m just lucky I wasn’t hurt like you,” Henry declared as they trudged out of the water.
As they got back to land again, now bedraggled, Ted said, “The old sage has lied to us that the Lion doesn’t hurt in this land.”
“You hurt yourself,” sounded a still voice beside Ted. It was the sage again. “The Lion’s innocent,” he added.
“It’s a lie,” they impugned.
“You shouldn’t have jumped from his back?” said the old man.
“Why? The Lion was taking us back to the forest to kill us!”
“You got it wrong. It was going back there, quite alright, but you two should have held tight to him. Why d’you think he has got such a bushy mane? If you stick to the back of the Lion of Truth it won’t hurt you.”
Henry felt that he had heard, “If you stick to the truth, you won’t get hurt”, so he tried to link it up with one of Grandwala’s proverbs. Henry soon came up with the thought that the man must be right, remembering how telling the truth in Gyrus had set him free earlier, in Gyrus, according to Grandwala’s prediction.
“Even back there?” said Ted pointing towards the forest.
“Since you’re on its back, no harm,” said the old man with no single wrinkle.

Henry and Ted stretched their bodies and rose slowly, yawning.
“Where are we?”asked Ted.
“I don’t know,” said Henry. “Maybe in the land of the dead,” he added when he saw a hairy figure approaching, white all over. They were scared.
“Henry, we’d better run,” advised Ted, but the figure, which was now very close, gestured to them to remain. The figure came closer yet the boys were still scared. It was the old man who had given them wine the day before.
“Who are you and where are we?” they questioned the man whose disposition seemed freindly.
“You are in the Island of Forgetfulness. I’m the sage who gave you wine yesterday.”
“Oh, that’s true,” they remembered.
“Old sage, what have we come here to do?” asked Henry.
“Nothing, it’s just the passageway to Selemis, where you’re heading to.
“For what?” they queried.
“To get the Rose flower,” said the man.
“Oh, that’s true,” they remembered again. As they looked toward the forest, they saw the Lion that had earlier chased them to the Island running to the Island again with full speed.
“Look! The Lion!” Henry cried out. His heart palpitated for fear. “It’s coming for us.”
“Never mind Henry,” said Ted. “I’ll chase it away again.”
The old man laughed at Ted’s threat and said, “Don’t you go near the innocent Lion. It’s not possible for you to chase it away.”
“But I did,” said Ted and Henry corroborated his claim.
“You’re wrong young men. The Lion went away of its accord, because he had forgotten the reason he was chasing you then—just as you’ve been forgetting things, so did the Lion too.” The old man slowly nodded his head looking blankly at them as if his mind was somewhere else.
“Why was he chasing us at first?” Henry asked.
“For food of course,” Ted said but the man debunked the idea.
“You’re wrong. That forest is the Forest of Truth. The Lion had been commissioned to keep watch over the forest. He is called the Lion of truth. He detests liars. He sees into your heart if you tell a lie in the Forest of Truth or if you are just about to do so. He will tear such a one to pieces, but never feeds on the corpse.”
“But we’re not liars, are we?”
“Well, I won’t say precisely who was about to tell a lie between you two, since you are lucky already that you’ve escaped from its grips.”
Ted looked at Henry and said, “Maybe it’s him.” He pointed to Henry.
The man smiled. “Why d’you say so?”
“Because it was him the Lion caught.”
“You’re wrong,” said the man. “You’re the liar, because here again you’ve just told a lie against your friend.” The man was serious but he was not angry.
Ted felt that he could be wiser than the old man, so he said, “Then the Lion should have torn me apart even now if truly I’ve just told a lie.” Ted pointed to the Lion, which was then seated calmly on the sand.
The man laughed and said, “He can not remember his duty here. Maybe you both should take a walk to the forest again and see what becomes of you. I can assure you, no one will recognize your skeleton.” Then he said again, “Young boy, do you know something?”
“No sir,” they said. The man got up, beat his body to get rid of the dust on it and said, “For decades none had made the Journey to Selemis Cave.” The boys sprang up immediately, about to run from the man, because of what he had just said. However, Henry managed to ask, “Are you saying that you’ll kill us right here?”
“You’ve not offended me, boy,” said the man grinning. “I’m the judge here. The only offence worth death as far as I’m concerned is murder.”
Ted said, “But we never murdered anyone, how come we were almost killed?”
“By whom?” asked the man promptly.
“By the Lion of Truth,” they said.
“Oh! Oh! Oh! boys, the Lion of Truth is the judge of that forest; that was the only judgment the Lion had chosen to give to liars—death. If any one escapes the forest to this Island as you’ve just done, then no harm will come to such, since the offence would have been forgotten. But murdering someone here’s the only thing worth death.”
The boys got the man clearly now. Then they were smiling again, forgetting to ask the man for the reason many never got to the Selemis Cave for many decades. However, the man called their attentions to it again:
“Listen carefully; almost everyone tells lies and makes lies on earth. This Lion had fed on most of them before they could escape to this Island. The few who had even managed to get here never still got to Selemis. Many do go back to where they were coming from without continuing their journeys.”
“Why?” the boys expressed shock.
“Any journey to Selemis has a deadline. They forgot to go further on reaching this Island, demanding more wine every minute. They drank to inebriation. They forgot everything about the Journey they were sent, only to remember it later. By then it would have been late.”
The man looked at them closely and said, “You both are unique. You were satisfied with the little wine I gave to you.”
Ted and Henry were happy for the man’s declaration, yet they never felt like going forward to Selemis Cave, perhaps they had forgotten the mission. The two hugged each other fondly, congratulating themselves for being unique. Being engrossed in the clinch they were not able to pay attention to the old man who had started talking again:
“Only one man on earth had made the mission to Selemis Cave unhurt. His name was Herbert Cook,” said the man, but the boys were not paying attention. All they were engrossed in was the feeling of joy that had now overwhelmed them. “Till today, no magician believed that any one had made it to Selemis Cave, but they know that Selemis does exists in Cyprus. You boys are not listening to me.”
“We’re listening,” they replied, being jolted out of their lingering euphoria by the light nudges the man gave them both.
“Well, that piece of information may not be useful to you because—”
“Why?”
“Because you will forget it, even if you heard it clearly here.”
“We won’t forget,” they assured.
The man was going to prove them wrong, so he said, “Okay, remind me now.” They began to click their blank skulls as they set their faces upward as if the sky was a chalkboard on which the answer had been written. They gave up eventually and said, “We didn’t pay attention. Can you tell us again, even now?”
“Forget it,” said the man. “You’ll only remember that I told you something, but you’ll not remember it until the statement comes to you again verbatim by some other people.” The boys scratched their heads in disappointment.

dlawsamesq:
Sammyho give us more........ We are not satisfy.

I'm coming...

Uthman2senior thanks for sharing my post. I will dedicate the next post to you.

Dybala11:
We're solidly behind you Mr OP.

Good to hear this.

Where are the readers?