Folktails✔️

20•

F O L K T A I L S
•Upper hand•
His eyes dimmed then blinked open over and over again. It was almost like a pattern linked in place by his exhausted and beat down body.

The mud floor was warm and right to his tired bones, beckoning on his limbs to sag and melt into the hearth. What plan was he thinking of again? He wasn't so sure anymore. All that was clear to him was the simple fact that he needed to rest. Yes, he would rest now, then think later.

In the darkness that enveloped him, he could see her face sweet with a smile that parted her full, rosy lips. Even in the mirage he espied, her lips appeared to be soft. He knew they were. He had once kissed them and now, all he wanted to do was taste them again. He craved the comfort they had given him and he hungered for another experience of the delirium they drove him to the edge of.

Want. Need. Desire. Ikenna was not sure which it was. Maybe it was all three that he felt. His whole being broke and crumpled, suffering from the utmost exigency and desideratum of her.

He was desperate to be with her again so that he found himself pushing off into his world of fantasy where she was still by his side.

"A good evening to you Maduka." He was pulled back from the reverie he had so frantically lost himself.

"You..." recognition filled him at the view of the man standing in front of him and his eyes narrowed into slits.

"You remember me."

"How could I not?" Ikenna curled his lip in utter contempt. Even though the face of his new guest had never truly been one of great importance to him, it was also not one he could easily blur out of the slates of his mind especially after taking into consideration the many times they had been caught in an altercation.

"Good." He grinned in a manner Ikenna thought to be senseless.

"Master!" Ochukwu yelled from the rear of the room where he had been having a discussion with Arinze.

"Ochukwu, my man. I see you have been doing what I told you to."

"Yes master Amobi. I have news for you as soon as you have time to spare for your servant."

"So do I, my Lord." Arinze stepped forward with a placid expression that masked whatever his true emotions were.

"Smile Arinze. Are you not happy to see your master?"

"I am. I am very joyed to have set my unworthy eyes on my master today." His smile was forced and faked.

"Good boy." He said and Ikenna snorted quietly at his attitude that seemed to be soaring at a great altitude. The chief guard of Nwakaozo was all he was, yet he had featured himself in a tiredly and equally boring play which portrayed him in the likeness of a god. "How have you fared Maduka?"

Since when were they on a last name basis? Ikenna pondered on the new adjustment with an unpleasant look on his face. "What do you want from me?"

"I can see you still harbour a grudge against me for the times I stopped you from seeing your former, sweet love. She was quite a beauty, truly." He grinned widely while Ikenna growled angrily.

"I have had better things to do than to hold grudges or hate a man like you. I am fully aware that you were only doing your job according to the orders you were given. Although I am sure, you enjoyed every bit of it."

"You speak the truth." His vexing smile stretched even wider. "I did enjoy watching the brokenness on your face when I intercepted most of your meetings. It brought joy to my heart each and every time. Since the lady had chosen to reject my love for her, I figured out it would do just right to make sure she could not love the man she desired freely."

"You bastard!" Ikenna yelled, then hurled even more insulting words at him till his well of curses had gone dry.

"You can curse all you want Maduka, but I have the upper hand here." His mud-caked foot pressed Ikenna's head to the ground as he struggled to sit up from his laying position. "And it is only going to stay this way. So, it will benefit you greatly in this situation you have found yourself  to let bygones be bygones."

"I will let bygones be what I wish it to be." Ikenna grunted as his face was smushed into the ground even more, and repeatedly. Now, the pounding in his head was back again.

"That will be your cup of tea Maduka. I enjoy breaking the stubborn ones, do I not?" His eyes flickered to his associates who seemed to be enjoying another one of his planned scenes play out.

"Yes you do master Amobi." Ochukwu said agreeably, his fairly large head bobbing up and down on his tiny neck.

"You are the greatest of all master." Arinze bowed and even though it was overly difficult, Ikenna mustered the strength he had left to wind his eyes clockwise in absolute disgust.

At first, Chief Nkeji and Nwakaozo had been the few people he detested with a burning passion. Now, however, Amobi and his henchmen had succeeded in recruiting themselves on his not-too-long hate list.

"I am aware of that." He beamed for the hundredth time since he had sauntered majestically into the room. Ikenna wondered why he suddenly seemed to radiate a certain air of prominence.

Even though a great while had passed by as Amobi taunted him with his sour words, Nwakaozo's name had not been mentioned in any form or manner.
If one also considered the way he was respected by the other guards, it could be concluded that they were under him and not the chief.

Was he then still acquiescent to Nwakaozo? And if in the negative, who now was he duteous to?

"Who do you serve under?"

"Why do you see a need to know?" Amobi leaned down to him, all traces of a smile wiped from his face.

"I will keep that information to myself." Ikenna forced life to his voice as he strained underneath the foot that had him pinned by the neck. "So answer my question."

"Well, if you desire to know that much, then I will oblige you. I, Amobi, works for no man. All I have with Nwakaozo–that evil fool–is a facade in order for me to gain what I desire. Now, it is my turn to ask." His voice took on a menacing tone as he snapped his fingers at Ochukwu who rushed forward so quickly that he was in danger of tripping over himself.

"Yes my master."

"Put him on a the wooden stool, then get me my blade. You know which I refer to, do you not?"

"To the finest details my liege." Ikenna noted with plentiful apprehension that even the king was not addressed with such superfluous greetings. He then surmised that the guards were being threatened by Amobi. There had to be something he held against them that forced them to be totally subject to his power.

"Ugh." He grunted in pain as he was pulled up and on a coarse surfaced chair that could be taken for a meat-drying board if he chose to view it so.

"Here is your blade master." The crude metal was dropped gingerly in Amobi's palm.

"So, Maduka tell me, why do you work for Nwakaozo?" A line was gingerly carved down his arm.
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