Mythology: Hero’s Journey
Once upon there lived a king named Obugabe, he had a gorgeous daughter called Merlie. The oracle of Venus revealed to Obugabe that his daughter’s son would slay him and takeover the Kingdom. The king was highly disturbed and thought of a best way to stop it from happening. He arranged for his daughter to be kidnapped and put in solitary confinement in a secret dungeon below his vast castle. The dungeon lacked a door and had only one tiny window. Merlie stayed looked up till she reached puberty.
One day, a bright twilight shone through the small window and hit squarely on Merlie’s charred but beautiful face. Though her vision was limited by the bright light, she could see a on looking masculine figure from the outside of the window. As always, she began to yell, “Please let me out of here. I will be your servant.” The man replied in a deep voice, “Do not be afraid. My name is Osysus and I am here to take you with me to a wonderful place.”
Suddenly, a fault line began forming from the middle of the window running down to the floor. The rift grew larger enough to let Merlie through. At the command of the god, the frail girl suddenly found energy to pick herself up and walk out of the dungeon into the waiting arms of her savior. The two stealthily walked out the castle from the rear side and faded into the horizon.
Soon thereafter, word came to King Ogubage that Merlie had escaped from the dungeon. The king was furious and ordered a curfew upon the entire vast kingdom and gave instructions for Merlie to be searched for in all houses. Those hiding her were to be executed for the highest crime of treason. However, Merlie was no where to be found. King Ogubage became to a verge of a nervous breakdown.
Meanwhile, Merlie and Osysus lived in a large cave underneath the largest oldest baobab tree in mountainous regions of the vast kingdom. Every morning, Merlie climbed up the tree to get a vantage point to look the ongoing in the kingdom when Osysus was out hunting and gathering. A year after her escape from the dungeon, she gave birth to a babyboy whom Osysus named Nero. Nero grew up quite fast and sooner enough was accompanying his father to the forest on hunting expeditions. He grew into a strong young man with particular interest in legend stories told to him his mother.
One winter morning, Ogubage went out to find food and never made it back. Nero and Merlie were devastated to lose him but the young man stepped into his father’s shoes satisfactorily, fending for and protecting her mother. Barely a half a year after Ossysus had disappeared; their cover was blown when soldiers accidentally discovered their home. Nero and Merlie put up a spirited fight which resulted in Merlie being speared to death. Nero was made to carry his mother’s body all the way back to the king’s castle. Ogubane was remorseful to see his deceased daughter but furious that she had bore a child who a lookalike of himself. However, Ogubane chose to pretend with Nero and took him in as his grandchild while he (Ogubane) devised a secret plan to kill his apparent heir.
Nero made a routine of visiting the shrines every afternoon for prayers and offering gifts to the gods. Whilst at the shrine, he had frequent mysterious revelations from strange characters. “A sheep is dwelling in the den of the wolves,” a strange character told him on one afternoon. Nero could not make out at once the meaning behind that phrase, and he could not catch sleep for some three nights that followed. Finally, Nero decided to seek the interpretation from the old wizard of the kingdom. He learned from the wizard that his life was in danger at the castle for the king was scheming to murder him. The wizard gave Nero a small golden gourd informing him that it was for his protection against assaulters.
Meanwhile, King Ogubane arranged for Nero to fight against the champion of the kingdom during the Feast of New Moon. The reigning champion, Oduse, was given explicit instructions to play foul during the battle and kill Nero using a knife that he would conceal in his body armor. The day came and Nero entered the arena to face the feared Oduse. Nero had been walking around in company of his golden gourd that he had come to be nicknamed “the golden gourd boy”. He placed his gourd outside the arena.
At first, the duel between Oduse and Nero seemed to be even. The crowd expressed great support for Nero and booed Oduse vehemently, to the utter disgust of King Ogubane and his circle. It came a moment when Oduse the Champion overwhelmed Nero by knocking him to outside the fighting arena. Ordinarily, the battle would have ended at that juncture and Oduse declared winner of the duel. However, Oduse followed Nero outside the ring to execute orders of his king to slain his opponent. King Ogubane was on his feet beaming with joy. Nero caught sight of Oduse drawing his hidden knife the chest area of the body armor. He dragged himself on the floor to reach his guord by which he smacked Oduse’s head as the champion reached to stab him. Oduse lay on the ground motionless.
Ogubane was furious and lost himself – he draw his sword and ran towards Nero to finish him. Nero throw his gourd at the rushing king and hit square in the face, sending him to the ground. Ogubane lay dead on the ground; the crowd broke into frenzy lifting Nero in the air. Nero was later installed as king just as it had been predicted many years ago by the Oracle of Venus.
