Ose stream was indeed filled to the brim by a mass of humanity from different places. Some were returning from Nkwo market square, some from farms and a good number of youths from Uga village and environs had converged to have a noon swim in the Ose stream that very afternoon. It was while they were seated under the shed of an oil bean tree, eating their cake that Ojiofor sighted Obilo. He was a young man of war, and of giant status known among the people of Nkwerre and others who were worried and terrified about the sophistication of Nkwerre in war execution in recent times. He was feared even among war veterans who had encountered his father, Anyim, so many times, especially during the Eshi wars and Oguno War.
Nobody takes away victory from his warriors in any war he was leading. And there was also something no one could take away from Obilo. That thing was his humility outside the war fronts. He represented the face of calamity against his foes during wartime. No one could pick any drop of smile from his face during the preparation and execution of any war. However, outside war and its fury, even a blind man could count all the white teeth in the mouth of the infectious Obilo. It was a beaming trait of his late beautiful mother who hailed from Uga.
In Uga, Obilo was known by the name of his grandfather, Ochemba, the father of Olaugo, his mother. Ochemba was the highest ranking seer in the whole of the Igbos of the North during his time. He was said to have reincarnated Obilo, his grandson, while he was still alive. For this, he consciously made sure that he never met Obilo in real life while he was still alive. He died on Eke Ukwu market day, just eight days after the birth of Obilo. People said he came back full prepared in Obilo, with his invincibility powers and now as a warrior.
Among Ndi Ikpa, Obilo was known as Otumba Nwa Ajaka- Otumba, the son of a man with Albinism, even among people who had not seen him but only heard about his war exploits and status. A mention of his name was indeed a threat during peace time among the neighboring villages. His paternal grandfather, Ajaka, was born with albinism in Umuokwaraoha kindred in Ndikpa Village. Ajaka's mother, Akuba, lost her husband, Egwim, when she was pregnant with Ajaka. Egwim was the elder brother to Ihentuga, who was the father of Uruma, who begot Ojiofor. Ojiofor's birth name was Anochiam. He was fondly called Ojiofor, a title name, because of his position as the head of Umuokwaraoha kindred. Whosoever was the head of Umuokwaraoha kindred automatically becomes the Ojiofor of the entire Ndi Ikpa. It was a hereditary position among Igbos, for the most senior family in the land.
These cousins had met on this stream of Uga with lots of pretenses to offer each other. It was the dialect of Ndi Ikpa spoken by Anochiam that gave Obilo the impression that Anochiam hailed from Ndi Ikpa, a place that chose to be blind when Ihentuga sent his elder brother, Egwim's widow, Akuba, away just one month after giving birth to Ajaka, who at that very moment had been well recognized as a child with albinism. A skin type they had never seen or heard about in the history of their Obigbo family. In fact, in the whole of Ndi Ikpa village, it was in the Okorocha family that such a feature usually occurred.
In the history of Ndi Ikpa village, the Obigbos were the first cousins to the Okorochas, and they still maintained that bond till date, which forbade intermarriages between the two families. That they saw as taboos. They were all descendants of Okwaraoha, who was the first man that migrated from Dunuora village to settle in Amaide country. It was a general belief that Okwaraoha was the first that settled and named the village Ndi Ikpa after it was given out to him and his group. It was a versed land graced with beautiful flora and fauna. As the gods may have decided, these two great cousins had met themselves here, on the bank of the Ose stream, in Uga. One was indeed enmeshed in the boiling rage of revenge right from birth, which had been rekindled now in Uga by mere observation of dialect. And the other, with the sense of history, could only wish history became a present reality so he could turn everything around and sanctify as much as human ever could, to redeem his life.
Obilo had shown a few front teeth to one of his Nnaochies- men from his maternal home, right inside the water from where he sighted Otika approaching the stream from the hilly track road with Anochiam, also known as Ojiofor. He respectfully walked up to them to greet Otika, who had grown fond of him ever since he discovered that he was Ochemba that reincarnated back. Obilo's mother, Olaugo, was niece to Otika from the Umudei family in Uga. ''Nnaochie, I greet you'' Obilo said as he lowered his head, bending his legs to greet Otika. ''Nwanwa m, zue oto. O ga abara gi. Zue oto nwa m. I biara umerenne gi- Stand up, my grandchild. It will profit you. You visited your maternal home?'' Otika asked as they exchanged pleasantries, while Anochiam's heart was thrown miles away with shocks, having known it was indeed Otumba Nwa Ajaka he was indeed meeting face to face in Uga, for the very first time. But he used the creative pretenses of elders to nurse his manliness, to create an impression that he had just met a stranger for the first time.
This was the first meeting between Otika and Obilo since after the funeral ceremony of Otika's mother, Ugbonwanyi. It was supposed to be a time to talk about family, ties, some adventures, and a time to get some warm advice from one of Obilo's maternal uncles, but it did appear that the Ndi Ikpa dialect of Anochiam had ruined the mood as long as Obilo's state of mind was concerned.
Although it was the first time for Anochiam to meet Obilo, face to face, the descriptive pictures over the years he got about him did not lie. He managed, albeit avoiding direct eye contact with him, to look at Obilo's forehead. He immediately started envisioning spears, arrows and bars in the hands of the already dead Anyim, staring in his face. Anochiam gathered little guts in him to excuse them. ''Please, umu ibe- our people, let me get some water to drink. I am thirsty'' he said, and walked down into the water while all his ear lopes remained openly unsettled even in the middle of a busy running stream.
But who in Ndi Ikpa wouldn't be afraid of Obilo, who at the age of twelve was the chief arms bearer to Anyim, making bold steps in war footing? It was said that at age eight, he had successfully become a right-hand spy for the dreadful warriors of Nkwerre. His father died a few days after the war of Obowa with the Eboiri community after being advised by young Obilo to allow him executive the war, but he refused and rather said ''this will be the last of my rage of war against humans. I have done my best to protect the honor of this land that welcomed and protected their very own. With tears and weeping, their daughter returned home with a young child of barely two months. My father was born an Ayari-child with albinism, a few months after the death of his father, Egwim. His mother was accused of sleeping with a man, Odumodu, from the Okorocha family, where children with albinism were usually born. I have told you this before. Odumodu has always been a great friend of our family. He was the reincarnated Okwaraoha himself, who founded Ndi Ikpa.
''Odumodu was accused, humiliated and even when he asked to be given an iyi- oath, to swear that he had never slept with the wife of his friend, Ihentunga mobilized Ndi Ikpa to give him a chase out of the village. He was banished from his native village. He left with family and few who believed in his truth to settle at their maternal home in Uga.
''Be that as it may, son, I have this war to win once more for Nkwerre. I never wanted you to be a devoted warrior all through your life. I expected to have you grow, have a large family, expand and create a formidable army of humanity capable of our return to Ndi Ikpa. You have to overwhelm your enemies with numbers and expertise. In whatever you do, never let the Blacksmiths of Nkwerre be far from you. They are so wonderful that they can design instruments of war you merely had in your dream. You know they are that good.'' This story had survived in the heart of Obilo for many years, unchanged.
Anochiam was so uncomfortable when he could not hear what Otika and Obilo were discussing. He cunningly and quickly finished bathing, came out and sat closer to them on a tree trunk to eat his agbarati- a cake-like meal made from melon seeds, just so he could at least get useful information that might be of help to his worries and fears.
The need for the privacy of their tête-à -tête made them move a few feet away from him and this equally made him become more uncomfortable, worried as he felt concerned. He thought about ways to disrupt the conversation since he could not hear them. ''Please, let's eat agbarati'' he said. ''Gaa n' iru -go ahead'' in unison, Otika and Obilo replied. Did their response achieve the purpose for which Ojiofor invited them? For him, it smelt of more worries. ''All I know is I must get home alive today, none of my dreams these last four days has posed any threat to me'' he stuttered silently.
''He is from Ndi Ikpa, right?'' Obilo asked Otika. This question coming from Obilo chose to be louder only in the tingling ears of Ojiofor. And all his earlobes, like those of a rabbit, stood erect to hear the announcement of his death. History is a murderer too. On expecting a reply from Otika, he was a breathing dead man and only his ears were alive to hear first-hand how his fate was decided in the Ose stream that very afternoon. ''O, yes, he is the Ojiofor- the leader of Ndi Ikpa, a nice man and a very good friend. We visit home from time to time for divination'' Otika replied. ''Why was I even in haste to leave Ezemuo shrine today? Why did I choose to drink cold water? Must I even take a bath? Did I fall inside a toilet pit? Why, O' why? Why do I have to die at the hands of this beast in faraway Uga? Oh, my God.'' Ojiofor muttered.
He could forget every word of that very conversation, but not the title Ojiofor he infused describing who he was. Obilo was a young man who, until this very meeting, had not seen Anochiam for the first time. Anochiam could walk past Obilo without being detected or creating any interest in him, but there was a problem coming from attaching the Ojiofor title to his name. In Igbo, it was a hereditary title held only by one man from the first family. Otika had innocently, and ignorantly, too, betrayed his friend, to a beast named Obilo that hot afternoon.
Obilo had not had anything in common with Ndi Ikpa except when they met ordinarily in Afor-iro market square, for buying and selling. However, with a sense of history, he knew that his great-grandfather, Egwim, was the Akajiofor- the hand that holds staff of leadership, in Ndi Ikpa before they found themselves in Nkwerre. And as far as the culture and tradition of Igbos are concerned, it means any Akajiofor in Umuokwaraoha must have come up from an Ihentuga lineage, since his great-grandfather, Egwim, had only one known brother who was Ihentuga. Within a few seconds, these words had run through the brain of Anochiam and he was right.
Obilo suddenly excused Otika. ''Let me finish with my bath'' he said. ''It's okay, but don't forget our discussion, at least you own me a keg of Ukwu enu- palm wine'' Otika enthused. It was now the more Anochiam stayed in Uga the more he was consciously threatened. Above all the endangering happenstances, he felt threatened the more when he heard Otika make a request for palm wine from Obilo about something he never understood. ''It's like these men have concluded to eliminate me today'' he silently stuttered.
His fear was truly understandable because each time he tried to understand the subjects of their discussion they always made a subtle move to create a distance. ''I have no doubt some people had concluded my death today, ewu chi m, onye mbiambia ka m bukwanu na Uga. Chukwu ekwekwena- O, my God, I am a stranger in Uga. May God not allow them'' he kept talking to himself unheard by anybody around. With some guts, he mustered courage to talk, ''Otika, please, go and take your own bath and eat your agbarati so we may get home early enough. Nobody is at home to receive my palm wine from Udeozor, the palm-wine tapper. Eyidiya, my wife, went to their village for the sackcloth removal of their late father in Onicha'' he said. ''But you still have children at home to receive your palm-wine?' Otika questioned.
''Who? Don't you remember that all my children are ayari- born with albinism, except my daughter? She still traveled with her mother'' Ojiofor replied. ''Does it mean children born with albinism don't receive palm-wine from the tappers?' Otika asked. ''You want those children to miss their steps and break my kegs today? Honestly, I am so worried about my children. All of them were born with albinism. It is only Ada that is free. Yet the hair on her body shines like anyanwu- the sun'' Ojiofor said. ''Don't say what you don't know. It doesn't stop them from doing anything their peers are doing. Did you create anyone?'' Otika questioned him while going inside the stream to take his bath.