CONQUEST

TO THE CAPITAL

It was almost two months since Folarin first started working on the carriage with Gboyega, Gbolahan and Gboyega's two sons, Durojaiye and Damola, this past months had been stressful for them all, the Carriage was much harder to create than Folarin had predicted, the part that gave them the most trouble was the wheel, the wheels used for transporting heavy loads using oxes were crude in nature, they were not shaped properly and some were not completely round in nature, they were more hexagonal shaped and still required humans to push in order for it to move effectively, to Folarin, the wheel was the same useless, he had to create a perfectly circular wheel in order for the carriage to move smoothly and effectively, Folarin had to create some new tools and teach Gboyega and the others how to use it in order to create the wheels, creating the chassis for the carriage was fairly easy, creating the body took some time as well as they had to create some parts separately before assembling it together, Folarin also made some beautiful African sculpture and equipped the carriage with them making it look incredibly flamboyant, the most tricky part was changing the color of the wood, for this Folarin had to gather a large amount of plant and teach the villagers how to create paint, in addition to the cotton production courtyard, there was now an additional paint creation courtyard, the villagers were fascinated with how they could change the natural color of something and therefore loved the paint, unlikr the clothes, Folarin immediately realeased the paint in the village market which generated some cowries for him, right now, the calabashes in the village were extreamly colorful as people artistic nature began to showcase themselves with the creation of the paint, right now it was still limited to the village but Folarin was sure it would spread to the nearby villages soon. Today would be the last day he worked on the carriage before it was officially finished.

"And done." Folarin said as he finished applying the last paint on the carriage, he stepped back and smiled as he admired the work he had spent two months making, the others were also stunned as they looked at the carriage, there was only two words to describe it, beautiful and tyrannical,the paint used to cover the body was red and a golden kind of yellow was used around the edges and to cover the carvings, the carvings around the body gave it a tyrannical feeling, inside the carriage, it was painted with yellow completely and the seats were filled with cotton and the covered and fitted with leather made from the hide of beasts making it extreamly comfortable and was also filled with cushions, this had given Gboyega the idea to make more leather seats like this as they were more comfortable than the benches he was used to making, the windows were created in the form of a wooden sliding window to be used for protection against the rain and also against attacks from arrows, as an emperor, the Alaffin of Oyo always had some kind of threat to his life, the wheels of the carriage were perfectly circular and really large, this made it so that the carriage would move smoothly without any hinderance, the seat of the driver was also made from as a leather and cotton, there was enough space for two people to sit and the seat was also covered by a large shade for protection against the sun and rain. Folarin felt a sense of accomplishment as he looked at thr carriage, after all he was the one that first created it in the empire, in the future when there were a lot of carriages on the street, people would attribute them to him as the founder, the same goes for the steel sword and the clothes and the many many things he was sure he was going to make in the future, after Folarin admired it for a long time, he said to Gbolahan who was by his side " Find me four horses, it's time to test it, all of our hardwork will be a waste if it doesn't work as intended and also fetch my father, tell him it's really important."

Few minutes later, Gbolahan came back with Adebowale following him, the two guards besides Adebowale were dragging two horses each as they walked in, Adebowale came and stood besides Folarin and looked at the carriage as he said "so this is what you have been working on this past few weeks that you be neglected your training, come on, show me what it does." Folarin smiled wryly as he heard his Father, ever since he got the Anduril and the shortsword from Baba Olu, he had tried to practice dual sword wielding and according to everyone in the village, the only dual sword wielder was his father and so he had stopped training with Femi and Tunji and instead started training with Adebowale and his dual sword wielding had improved significantly since he started, even Adebowale was startled by his son's quick progress but after remembering his son had been blessed by Obatala, he gradually grew used to it, of course it was thanks to the cube that Adebowale could progress so quickly, he was taking the simple moves he could execute presently from his father and gradually turning them into his own, as he kept exercising, the stronger his body grew and the more moves he could practice, the training sessions also allowed him to be closer to his father but as time passed, the creation of the carriage began to take more of his time thereby limiting the amount of time he used to train himself, if je trained for six hours before, it was now limited to three hours but Folarin still exercised his body every morning when he woke up and every evening before he slept, he looked at his father and said "Don't worry, once you see what this does, it will be worth it, i dare say no other gift will surpass ours at the Alaffin's birthday two months from now." Adebowale was startled, this strange looking contraption was actually a gift to the Alaffin, he was now extreamly curious about what the carriage was capable of.