King Akaeze was a kind man first before he became king. When he was installed as King over Umudum, he became like a father to the whole community. Everyone went about their businesses with any hitch. The sons and daughters of the land were productive in business, marriage and otherwise.
The Queen, Adaike had never been pregnant since the king married her but two years after he was made king, she became pregnant. People said it was because of his good deeds that the ancestors decided to bless him with a child.
However, King Akaeze's only brother, Ekeocha, who was also a chief in the community, hated the king, his brother. He 2as envious of his success and decided to take a chance to murder him.
These two brothers were born by a hunter father who also taught them the trade. They grew up hunting likewise. As a king, he didn't like the idea that he should remain idle, sitting on the throne everyday. So he decided to go hunting once in a while.
When Ekeocha had studied his brother, the king's movement, he decided to follow him on one of his hunting sprees.
They had journeyed far into the forest without killing a game. For the first time, they decided to move eastwards to see if they could kill a game. As they negotiated into the eastern part of the forest, they saw a giant grasscutter and laid siege against it.
As king Akaeze pursued it from the right, Ekeocha followed from the left and they had their first kill after a long walk. While Akaeze was recovering from the pursuit, trying to grab from fresh air, Ekeocha struck him with his machete and he died at the spot.
Ekeocha left the grasscutter and his dead brother and ran to the village to announce wrongly that a wild beast had pounced on his brother the King, devouring him to death.
Umudum was thrown into a state of mourning and confusion.
Adaike fell into labour of child delivery on hearing the pathetic report. She delivered a baby boy but died afterwards. Ekeocha was monitoring everything happening at the moment to accomplish his evil intention.
He summoned the midwife who took the delivery process of Adaike. She knew that Ekeocha is a callous fellow and may be up to something cruel.
where is the child that was delivered by Adaike?
The midwife was not going to tell him where the child was.
The child did not survive the delivery process.
She replied Ekeocha.
Pretentiously, Ekeocha cried like he was mourning his dead brother, wife and child but his intention was to become King and that would be achieved soon.
It was a black day for the entire community. The people knew that good things don't last. They learned that the whole lineage of King was wiped off in one day.
Akaudo, the midwife who took the delivery of the child made arrangements with the late king's guard to take the child away to a far away land. The child had a royal birthmark under his right armpit, a means of identification for royalty in Umudum.
After the burial of the deceased king, Ekeocha was installed as the new king. He was very wicked. The people were made to pay taxes through their noses and he jailed whoever was not able to pay.
The poor people were taken into forced labour, working in the King's farm without pay.
It was a terrible period for the people of Umudum. The people remembered how they had enjoyed the reign of the demise king, Akaeze.
King Ekeocha was assisted by a six man council of chiefs who made decisions for the entire community. Because of his cruelty, he takes decisions unilaterally without discussing it with the council. He often made trade agreements that would affect the people for his selfish interest alone.
Whereas, as Udo, late King Akaeze's surviving son was growing up at Okongwu village under the watch of Ndu, his late father's loyal guard, he was trained to be a very honest, hardworking farmer. He was however belittled for his inability to fight like other young men at Okongwu.
………. To be continued
***First publication was done Here
:::Discord :::Whatsapp:::Telegram :::