It was 6:00 p.m. and the weather was getting dark, but Zuru had not been able to get a catch from his gaming since the morning. He had almost wasted all his bullets while chasing little animals like squirrels, and in all these, there was not a single catch. It seems the bush and the animals had a meeting to frustrate him because he would see a grasscutter, and before he set his gun to shoot, the grasscutter has disappeared, hence wasting his bullets while shooting randomly in the direction of the animals.
"Once I get to the next palm tree and there's no sign of a catch, I'd end here for the day," he said as he checked his phone for time and he continued walking with his gun fixed in a good position to shoot at any slight sight of an animal.
Just a few steps away from the initial spot, he saw a very large footprint. He went down to examine it and check it thoroughly, but he couldn't figure out the animal with such large footprints.
"The only animal that has this size of footprint is an elephant, but elephants are not seen in such forests, so it can't be," he thought as he got up and decided to trail the footprint, with all readiness to aim as soon as the huge animal surfaces.
He kept following the trail, and the more he follows the trail, the more the trail keeps going. At this moment, he didn't have the intention to go back; he was so determined to know the type of animal with the footprint.
He got to a point where he could no longer see because the weather had gotten totally dark, he had no torchlight with him because he never thought he would be out in the bush for that long, but luckily for him, his small Nokia phone was with him, he brought it out and turned up the light, and he continued the trailing.
As he was trailing, he halted as soon as he heard a deep voice that sounded so close and far at thesame time, the voice didn't sound like that of a human, which made him more vigilant with his gun.
"Who are you? Are you a spirit? Come out!" He shouted as he kept rotating on the spot, waiting for the owner of the sound to come out so he can pull the trigger, but nothing came out.
The sound moaned again. He bent down and placed his ear on the ground to see if he could pick up the sound trail from the ground, but he still couldn't get any signal. He decided to continue following the footprint, but to his surprise, the footprint he had been following got disappeared with no trace. He became so surprised because he was sure that the footprint was there, and how it disappeared suddenly became a wonder to him. He began to flash his torchlight around, with the intention pointing at the spirit stalking him(he assumed a spirit was following him), lo and behold, he sighted a gigantic animal on the ground. He focused the light there as he stepped closer to it.
Immediately he noticed it's an elephant. The elephant roared because it noticed that something was coming closer to it, and this sound almost made Zuru release a shot, but he didn't.
He wanted to know what would make a whole elephant to be lying down instead of standing with its commanding stature. He got closer to see that the elephant's legs were caught on a trap
"Is this how God blesses? I've been away since morning without even a rabbit, but look at what God blessed me with." He muttered joyfully and took his position to aim at the elephant to render it lifeless, but another thought knocked his intentions down,
"Don't you think you were meant to save this elephant from death that's why you were still at the forest by his hour? Just check how you got directed to this spot. Also, if you kill it, how do you carry it to where your bike is? This thought humbled him, and it made him put his gun down.
He brought out his knife, moved to where the elephant's legs were trapped, he cut it, and released the elephant from the trap.
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Immediately, the elephant found its feet again, he rolled his tusk over him in appreciation and It vomited three shiny objects (the size of palm fruits.) Zuru became amazed and bent down to look at the shiny objects, and as he was looking, everywhere became completely silent. He raised his head up, and lo and behold, the elephant had disappeared. He became scared and picked up the three shiny objects and ran off. The marathon race was difficult for him because it was dark and there were no clear roads, but he managed to get to where his bike was parked, he ignited the engine, turned on the light, and raced off.
He got home around 9 p.m.; and he narrated his encounter to his people but none of them believed him. So they went to the chief priest of the village, he narrated his encounter to the him and the chiefpriest said the elephant is a mystery elephant sent to bless him with good fortune. He brought out the three shiny objects and they were tested to be diamonds which he sold off and be became a wealthy man.
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