š¼š¹ONCE UPON A GIRLš
āāļø
š„šSHE’S JINXED (CURSED)šš„
(Going to the jungle)
Ā©GIFT OKORIEāļø
šCHAPTER 6š
Marichuiy and I exchanged glances with Bathny.
She was right after all.
The Mexican man had an almost burned out cigarette in his right hand. He took a puff and blew out the smoke, he re-moved his modern cowboy hat and placed it on his che-st.
He looked up at us and then directly to Marichuiy.
“You Marichuiy yea?” He asked.
“Yes” Marichuiy answered with a little nervousness in her voice. She cleared her voice and strengthened up before asking.
“Did my mum sĀ£nd you, where is she, is she outside?”
“OK, first of all I do the questioning, u only talk when I ask you to, get it?” The man asked, Marichuiy glared at him for a while and then nodded. “And secondly, I don’t know where your mother is, as a matter of fact I was expecting you would tell me”
“But that box and the book, my mother left with them, how come they are here” she asked.
“I stole them” he replied nonchalantly.
“From where or from whom” marichuiy asked.
“From my brother’s lab” he replied, he dragged the chair from the makeup table and sat on it.
“I don’t un-derstand, what has your brother got to do with this and how did he get the book”
“Sit down, I wanna tell you a story” the man gestured for her to sit on the be-d, she did without taking her eyes off him.
“Uhm before you start telling your stupid story, can you let us go since you are alre-ady settling things with the witch you wanted.” Kira asked but the man ignored her as if she didn’t even speak. He just focused on Marichuiy.
“First, my name is Salvador and my brother’s name is Pedro. In the 17 century, there lived a great mountain called kuluvanda in the south side of mexico. this mountain was protected by four dragons and their dragon lords, they have a golden temple each which was made of gold and other precious stones. People c@mĀ£ from far and near to this temple to pray for riches and plead for gold. These temples were believed to answer their prayers and bless them With wealth and also supply them with enough gold. Everyone was happy. But one day the emperor of the kingdom where this mountain stood died, and it was believed that he was poisoned by his wife, as a punishment, the wife and son were burnt alive….”
“Oh my God” Kiwi g@sped and covered her mouth.
“But do you think she killed him?” Bathny asked curiously and I leaned closer cause I also wanted to know.
“You know what I think, I think she’s innocent and the person who killed him was his brother who took over the throne, but life is never fair, good people always die in a cruel way and thats why I chose to be bad cause bad people rule the world” he replied and win-ked at Kiwi and she shuddered in fear while he chuckled wickedly, he’s too cute to be this evil, I wonder what happened to him that made him this way.
“Well as I was saying before you interrupted, the king’s brother took over the throne, he bec@mĀ£ a tyrant king, Oppressed the people, siezed properties and turned the people to slaves, he closed the boarder and stĀ©pped tourists from entering the kingdom to pray at the dragon temples. Out of his de-sire to be the riche-st man in the world, he gave orders to the dragon lords to mine all the golds and diamonds in the dragon temple and sĀ£nd them to his treasure house, the dragon lords refused. He sort for dark powers of dark wizards from the west, these wizards killed three dragon lords and subdued the dragons to obey the emperor and do his bidden. All the golds were mined and sĀ£nt to the emperor’s treasure house. But when they got to the fourth dragon temple the king of dragons, it’s dragon and dragon lord were too powerful to be killed, and they also refused to be subdued or surrender, all the wizards joined f0rƧĀ£s and their power bec@mĀ£ more powerful, they fought with their might until they almost defeated the dragon and the dragon lord, but the dragon king refused to surrender, he would rather fight till its last breath than to allow the wizards to subdue him into torturing innocent people he had cattered for all these years. When he saw that his dragon lord was alre-ady too weak to fight, he protected him with his wings, and with his last strength and power, he destroyed the temple together with the emperor, the wizards and the emperor’s army, the only survivor was the dragon lord because he was covered by the dragon wings….”
“Even the dragon died?” I heard myself ask.
“Well it was recorded that he went into a de-ep sleep out of weakness and he’s been slee-ping for over 300 years, he might never wake up again or he might, I don’t care” Salvador concluded his story.
“OK, great be-d time story, now can we go home?” Kira asked.
“Sssshhhhhh” we all shushed her and she g@sped in shock. “Why are y’all acting so weird tonight?” She asked us but no one said anything to her.
Marichuiy turned back to Salvador and asked. “But what has this got to do with me or my mum or that book and the box that cursed me”.
“The dragon king has a law which states *Take Anything you want and ask for anything you nee-d BUT NEVER TAKE THE BOOK OF WISDOM AND THE BOX OF MAGIC, IF YOU BREAK THIS LAW, YOUR OFFSPRING SHALL BE CURSED WITH BADLUCK AND IF YOU FAIL TO RETURN THESE PEOPERTIES BEFORE HE/SHE CLOCKS 17, THE CURSE WILL BECOME PERMANENT” Salvador explained, Marichuiy g@sped and held her che-st.
“But how did my mum get them, the book and the box?” She asked.
“16 years ago, my brother and a bunch of his lab team went on search for this temple after re-ading about it in a libr@ry, I thought it was a stupid search, I mean how can someone believe some sh*t he saw in a libr@ry, I warned him not to go but he insisted, he asked me to come with him and his team but I refused cause I thought he was going crazy, he told me that if we go and search for gold and diamonds that we might still find some littering the floor of the temple and we will never be poor again but I refused, and thats because I didn’t believe the story, well he went for the search, found the mountain and the temples but c@mĀ£ back with nothing, instead he ended up in the hospital for 6 months and him and his team went for thera-py for two years, cowards” he blurted out.
“So you are saying that the story you told us is a true life story, the temple exists?” Michael asked.
“Of course it does, did you think I was telling you a be-dtime story?” He asked with a faked American accent.
“Yes” we all exclaimed except Kira who gro-an ed in anger, what’s her problem though?.
“Ok, so they found the temple…..” Marichuiy paced around with thinking expression. “But still how did my mum get the book” she asked and that was when I realized it.
“I think…” Bathny starts to say.
“Your mum was one of his team that went for the search” I finished her speech.
“OMG, its True” ru-by screamed out.
“So she took the book” Marichuiy mumbled to herself a little loudly cause I heard it.
“But didn’t your brother tell her about the law?” Kiwi asked Salvador, good question.
“I don’t know, I don’t care” he shrugged.
“Do you care about anything at all” Bathny asked him but he didn’t reply.
“But what if you didn’t open that box, would you have been cursed” Bathny asked Marichuiy.
“I don’t know” she replied.
“Whether you opened it or not, one way or another, you would still get cursed” Salvador stated.
“But dude there was really no nee-d to kidnap us, you could have just said ‘hey guys, what’s up, can we have a chat at my mansion?” Henry complained.
Salvador turned to him “hey guys, what’s up, can we have a chat at my mansion” he repeated.
“Well its too late now” he screamed at him while we all tried to surpress our laughter.
“there was a guy who gave my mum the book 3 years ago, she had the box but the man gave her the book, who was that man?” Marichuiy asked out of the blue.
“No, she took the both things from the temple, she tried to get rid of the book by burning it in my brother’s lab just because she couldn’t un-derstand anything in it. And that man was the dragon lord, I’m guessing the spirit of the dragon lured him to the book, he saved it and brou-ght it back to your mum and asked him to take it back to the temple” Salvador explained.
“So that was why she was begging him that day”
“But why couldn’t the dragon lord take the book and the box back to the temple with him” Bathny asked.
“He wanted to punish the offender.” Salvador replied.
“But wait, back up everyone, if this story was 300 years ago, how is it possible that the dragon lord is still alive?” Kiwi surprisingly asked.
“Ever since I got to know you, this is the smartest question you’ve ever asked” Henry said to her and she rolled her eyes at him.
“Sincerely speaking, I haven’t thought of that” Salvador said as he tĀ©uƧhed his beards.
“Maybe the dragon gave him immortality power before he fell asleep” ru-by stated.
“Or maybe he can’t die” Michael added.
“I’m gonna support this one that looks like a penguin” Salvador pointed at ru-by.
“Umh the name is ru-by” ru-by corrected but Salvador didn’t pay attention to him.
“Well, whether he is immortal or not, I don’t care…” Marichuiy blurted out. “And you sir, you said you didn’t believe this story at first, So why did you bring us here?” She asked Salvador.
“I wanted to Use you to get to your mother, so that she could take me there but now you are completely useless to me since you don’t know where your mother is, I don’t know if I can kill you now or…”
“What!” Kira, Michael, Henry and ru-by exclaimed.
“But why do you so much want to go there, you never cared?” I asked him.
“Because I want gold, a lot of gold” he screamed.
“But sir you are alre-ady rich” Kiwi mumbled with her cute tiny voice.
“Oh, sweetheart, you are so adorable…..” Salvador said as he ca-ressed Kiwi’s cheek, I felt like killing him, how dare he. “Maybe when you grow up, you will realize that being rich is never enough” he stated and tapped her.
“Never tĀ©uƧh her again” I warned him and he shrugged.
“I thought you were a good guy” Bathny asked.
“Didn’t you hear when I said I chose to be bad or did it skip your memories?” He fired at us. He turned back to Maricbuiy and asked. “Now how are we gonna find your mum so that we can kill two birds with one stone, you get free from the curse while I get the golds”
“If I knew how to find her, would I be asking you?” Marichuiy asked back.
“But wait, you said you stole the book from Your brother’s lab….?” I asked Salvador.
“Yes, why” he asked.
“And Chuiy you said your mum took the book when she left?” I asked her but she twisted her brows at me.
“I’m sorry chuiy?, did you just call me chuiy?” She asked with an amused smile.
“Just answer the question” I smiled back.
“Yes she did” she replied.
“And if Salvador saw the map in his brother’s lab, that means…..”
“My mother was in the lab” she completed my thought.
“Great, see we are ma-king progress, the Earlie we find her, the better for us all, I’m gonna call my brother and ask him” Salvador stated, he stretched out his hand, one of the guards gave him a phone, he typed on it and them placed it his on his l@p.
“Hello” a de-ep voice of a man spoke from the receiver.
“Pedro, been a while brother” he greeted.
“Urgh, plea-se not you again, why are you calling me?” Pedro asked him in a little bit of anger. Seems like they are not in good terms.
“I just want to ask you one thing, plea-se there’s a woman who was in your team that time you went for that temple search 16 years ago, you probably still know her”
“Only one woman went there with us, why do you ask, have you been admiring her?” Pedro asked, I tried not to laugh while Marichuiy surpressed her anger.
“What! No!, what’s her name”
“Clara, why are you asking Salvador, I don’t trust you” Pedro complained.
“Chill brother, i mean no harm, have you seen her in the past 3 years?”
“Well, she c@mĀ£ here about 2 years ago asking for the map of Kuluvanda, she had taken something she shouldn’t have taken and she wanted to return it, I gave her the map but I didn’t want to go with her, going back there is suicide mission, we ba-rely survived the last one, she should carry her cross” Pedro explained, I saw tears roll down Marichuiy’s cheeks, I went to her and held her to my che-st why she sobs.
“How long does it take to get there?” Salvador asked.
Pedro was quiet for a while before speaking up. “Salvador what are you up to, why do you suddenly care about that temple?”
“Just tell me”
“Well, it took us a week to get to the temple, and that because we were many and well equipped for jungle travel, we were a team and we always look out for each other, but for two people like Clara and her husband, it might take 3 weeks especially when they don’t get along, they were fighting like cat and rat when they left my lab”
“Her husband” Marichuiy sprang up and sli-pped out of my hands. “Did he say her husband, as in my dad?” She asked.
“Maybe, or does your mother have another husband” Salvador replied.
“Who’s that?” Pedro asked.
“No one you should know, Pedro is there a way we can get a copy of that map?”
“Say plea-se” Pedro instructed.
“That will never happen” Salvador stated with pride.
“OK, have a nice day”
“Just say plea-se” we all screamed at him.
“Fine, plea-se Pedro”
“Good, I’ll sĀ£nd it to your mail”
“Excellent” Salvador said and hung up.
“But wait, it’s been two years, how come your parents are not yet back?” Kira finally asked like a normal human being.
“And how come they left the book and the box in the lab?” Bathny added.
“We will find out when we see them, br@ce up and get re-ady kids, we are going to the jungle…..” Pedro announced.
“Whaaaaat” we all exclaimed.
TBC…