Prisoners of The Scroll by Akomeno Ibagere (find a book to read txt) 📕

"Jones, you won't believe who I just saw today"

"Who do you know in this village?" Jones answered with anger in his voice. 

He was in the middle of something important and then his brother had disrupted his attention.  He looked at him as panted like someone being chased by a mob.  Jones knew his brother was not into people.  So what was it that made him so excited.

"I met a very pretty girl in this village" James said "And she knew my name".  Jones looked at his brother and then Prince Tobi and Petura before they all burst into laughter.  James felt ashamed.  They didn't believe him.

"What is her name?" Petura asked

"Princess Kadura" James answered.

"This Kingdom does not have a princess.  Prince Tobi does not have a sister"

"What did I tell you?" Jones added

"But she introduced..."

"James just stop.  Stop all these your day dreaming" Jones cut him before he could go further. 

James looked at his brother, shook his head and walked to a corner to sit down.  He was not mad.  He knew what he saw.  His brother never believed anything he always told him.  James knew that he could see and witness things that others can't.  Most times, his friends and even his parents felt it was because of his love for comic books and adventure novels.  He was a big fan of the adventurer Jack Spine.  Nobody ever believed in his stories.

"You got a weird brother" Prince Tobi said

"He creeps me out sometimes with his absurd stories"

"Let's get down to business" Petura added.

Petura was the son of the village chief priest.  His father was next to the king in the village.  He was seen as the oracle of the gods.  According the tradition if the king dies when his heir was under twenty years it was the chief priest that would conduct the affairs of the kingdom until the heir comes of age.  Petura was the heir to his father's position.  He was older than Prince Tobi.  It was his duty to serve the prince as his father serves the king.  He never liked the idea of being under anyone.

Petura was two years older than Prince Tobi who was 17 years.  He was wiser and known to be very crafty by the villagers.  He had stumbled on a secret about a cave when he overheard his father speaking with the gods.  He had to carry out his own research.  He got his father drunk who spilled out certain information about the cave's location and how to access it.  The cave held something that would grant him access to certain powers that would make him a god.  With so much powers he would then kill his father and the king before installing himself as the ruler of the whole village.

Petura hated his father for using his 5 year old sister to appease the gods.  He had secretly followed his father who was accompanied by the king and chiefs to the forest where she was slaughtered and her blood used to cleanse the land.  He was just 10 when the act was done.  The next day, he was told that his sister was attacked by a mysterious beast.  That was 8 years ago.

According to his father, the cave was in a different realm and could only accessed by the presence of a prince and twin brothers who were the direct opposite of each another.  The condition was difficult.  He had the prince but where could he get twin brothers that were the opposite of each other?  He had been searching for a way for more than two years ever since he stumbled on the existence of such a cave.

Prince Tobi was a very friendly personality who attended one of the best schools in the country along with Petura.  They both attended the same school because Petura had to be by his side always.  He knew that someday he would become king but he would want to do it in his own way.  He was easy going.  One thing he hated was his father's style of administration.  To the prince, his father was of the old generation.  He never applied the use of technology.  Everything was done according to the way of his forefathers and what Petura's father says.

The prince had his own plans when his time comes.  He had promised himself to expose the kingdom to the outside world.  There was a large deposit of diamonds but yet their village had refused companies to come mine them.  The location of these diamonds remain hidden to the ordinary eyes according to Petura's father.  It was the treasures of the gods and not for the outside world, he would always say.

He had bought into the idea of exploring the cave in secret when Petura told him about it.  They had been making the plans together.  All was set except for the last ingredients.  The twin brothers who were direct opposite of each other in character.  Petura had told him about a cave full of diamonds.  His plan was to go there, carry as much as he could then sell it when he goes back to the city.  He would become so rich and then begin to change his community from the back seat.  He wouldn't want his father to know anything.  The first thing he planned to do was build a clinic for them.

They were so happy when Jones and his twin brother arrived the village with their parents.  It was during the introduction session with the king that Prince Tobi and Petura knew that this was the chance they needed.  James was kind of the shy person but not Jones who was full of smiles.  He was a social butterflY.  There was no need to waste time.  It was what they had waited for.

They had to tell Jones about the diamonds in a way to entice him and how they had made plans for a journey to the cave.  They told him that James must be a part of the crew when he insisted to go alone with them.

"No way, James would mess everything up" Jones argued.

"Let us go now" Petura said as he led the way.  Prince Tobi followed then James while Jones was at the back.  They all held torch lights irrespective of a full moon along with bright stars illuminating their way.  They all carried with them empty knapsack bags except James whose own bag were filled with two colored flares, a small jack knife, ropes , touch lights with batteries,2 dark goggles and some matches.

Jones had hinted his brother about a cave full of diamonds inside the jungle.  To James, it was too good to be true.  He knew that his brother was up to something dangerous.  James would have gone straight to his parents but he didn't.  He agreed only because he wanted to act as the safe switch to prevent Jones from getting into trouble.  He had always wanted to be in his life but Jones kept pushing him away.  He loved his brother so much.

As they continued into the forest with Petura leading the way, something strange followed them and James felt goose pimples on his arms.  He turned around to check if he could see anything.

"You want to go back?" Jones questioned

"No, it's nothing" James replied.

They continued to walk deep into the forest until they came to an open field.  James checked his watch and saw that it had stopped at 12:15 a.m.  They had walked more than 30 minutes and yet his watch was still displaying 12: 15 a.m.  Unknown to them they had already entered another realm.As they continued to walk, then they saw bright lights in the distance.  It was true.  It was only a large deposit of diamonds that could give out such amount of light in the night.

They ran towards the light until they came to the entrance of a brightly lit cave.  The whole environment was bright as if it was 12 noon.  James opened his bag and brought out the goggles.  He gave one to his brother and was about wearing the other one when Jones snatched it from him.

"What are you doing?" James asked

"You are not going in there with us" Jones replied 

He looked at his brother with scorn and gave the googles he forcefuly taken from James to Prince Tobi.  James was not going to watch his brother bully him anymore.  He was angry.  He went to Jones and punched him hard on his left jaw which sent him to the ground.  James could not believe his eyes.  He didn't know where the strength came from.  He had never felt this way before.  It was always Jones who had the upper hand whenever they fought.

Jones knew that something stronger than his brother's normal feeble punches had hit him hard.  Jones got up and rushed at James.  He was furious.  James grabbed him by his collar and lifted him from the ground that his two legs were dangling in the air.  Jones felt a pillow in his hands.  He then threw Jones down and he land on his butt with a thud. 

Jones remained on the ground writhing in pains.  He tried getting up but could not.  He was pained.  Prince Tobi and Petura ran to where he was and helped him up.  He was up but his legs were not steady.  He would have attacked again but this time he had to let go.  James was surprised too that his brother did not come at him again.

"I will deal with you when we get back" Jones said with a painful and sore voice. 

His eyes were red with hurt.  James grinned.  He has won this one.  He was glad that he has disgraced his brother in front of these two.  He would have preferred if it was in front of larger crowd.

"James, we need you to stay and watch while we go inside" Prince Tobi said calmly.  They were all scared of what he did do next.

"I didn't come this far to stay and be a watch dog" James protested

"Please, be our watch.  We will fill your bag for you" Petura continued "And you seem to be the strongest amongst us here"

James loved the thought of him being the strongest in this place.  He agreed to wait outside behind a big tree that was beside the entrance of the cave.  He emptied his bag and gave it to Prince Tobi as they all entered the cave.

James stood behind the big tree holding his jack knife when he heard some sound near him.  He became scared