Chapter 2

Trembling in the cold water, he looked over his shoulder when he saw his paddle slowly floating towards him. There was a stain of shiny red blood on the spot where the hand had held it and he was certain that he had injured whatever was trapped on the net. Although he was really terrified, he tentatively looked over his canoe when he heard the creature still thrashing around in the river and making such big splashes.

Not really knowing what to do, Adigun quietly swam around his canoe towards the net, took the ends and tied it to his canoe. Fetching his paddle which was almost floating away from him, he heaved his drenched self back into the canoe and began to paddle slowly back to the bank of the river since whatever was in the net was quite heavy and getting it into his canoe had proved difficult. His catch gave a few splashes on their way to the bank of the river but didn't really put up much of a fight like before.

 It was as if the creature had gotten weak from its vain struggling and the dire quest for freedom. When Adigun finally reached the river bank, he jumped out of his canoe into the water, waded through it to the bank then dragged half of the canoe onto the sand so it wouldn't float away, though, the net was still submerged in the shallow water close to the bank. Wielding his paddle as a weapon in one hand after placing the lamp on the bank from the reach of the water, Adigun tentatively approached his net, ready to strike in case he was attacked.

When he drew closer to the net, he lowered the end of the paddle and gently nudged the creature and it kind of scurried away from him. He neared it and nudged with the paddle a second time, trying to figure out what it was, but the creature splashed and angrily thrashed in the water in irritation, and this time, much to Adigun's amazement, a great tail rose out of the water and smacked the surface before submerging into the water again.

Adigun could only gape in awe.

What was this? Hands and tail were equal to what? Or was this just a bad dream? Was this a nightmare? He asked himself but couldn't really figure out answers to his question. Pulling out a knife which he used in cutting fishes open, Adigun decided that whatever was in the net was definitely a taboo and killing it was the best option!

During his era, superstitions were strongly believed, and he believed that whatever he had brought to the bank could make the gods angry and cause them to inflict a plague upon the village if he let it live.

As he carefully drew closer to the floating creature again, he sunk on a knee, bracing himself to stab it when he heard gentle sobs which were muffled a bit by the water as if the creature knew what he was about to do. Confused, Adigun tilted his head to the side as if he had not heard right, but when he heard the soft whimpering and sobs again, he was almost certain that whatever was within his net was a woman.

He bent down a bit and squinted at the net, trying to see if he would see a face and that was when the creature sharply turned its head to look at him and he gasped when he saw an amber-coloured eye staring at him with so much fear in it. He couldn't see the other eye because a black mass of hair was covering it.

Terrified and confused about what witchery was going on and how come so many fish which certainly were hard to find were leaping into his boat just like that? He knew that mackerel was difficult to find in this river but how come they were so abundant?