30/09/2025
Chike, the Forgotten King
In a quiet village nestled between the hills and thick forests of Igbo land, a boy named Chike was born under mysterious circumstances. His parents died on the night of his birthâstruck by lightning while praying under a sacred tree. The villagers, frightened by what they called âthe curse of the gods,â cast Chike out. Raised by a wandering hermit on the outskirts of the village, he grew up in solitude, whispered about but never welcomed.
Despite his isolation, Chike developed unusual gifts. He could sense danger before it arrived. Animals obeyed him. Storms would pause above him, then pass without striking. The old hermit taught him ancient wisdom, the stories of forgotten ancestors, and how to listen to the voice of the earth itself.
Years passed, and the village fell into hardship. Crops withered. The sacred river dried up. And then, strange beasts began to stalk the night. The villagers, desperate and afraid, turned to their elders, but no solution came.
Then one night, Chike returned.
Now a young man, tall and quiet-eyed, he walked into the village square during a festival no one had the heart to celebrate. Many gaspedâsome spatâbut he did not speak in anger. Instead, he promised he could end the curse.
He journeyed alone into the forest, to the same sacred tree where his parents died. There, he confronted the truth: his parents had sacrificed themselves to seal an ancient evil beneath the land. But the seal was breaking, and only their bloodline could restore it.
Chike faced the ancient spirit in a battle of mind, will, and spirit. With the wisdom of his hermit mentor and the courage born of suffering, he triumphedânot by force, but by compassion, offering himself as a vessel of balance between the old gods and the new world.
When he returned, the river flowed again. Crops bloomed. The beasts vanished.
The villagers, humbled and repentant, crowned him Oba Chike the Redeemed, their kingânot just for saving them, but for forgiving them.
And Chike, once abandoned, became the ruler who united the broken spirit of his people with the power of forgotten truths.
