Ijó tí kìí ṣe ijó ẹni, ìwọ̀n là ńkó gbẹ̀du ẹ̀ lójúde ọba.

Be modest to indulge in a dance you are not adept at, in the king's presence.

Arts and literature were given a kind of backseat, thought to be less than politics or science. Things like self-expression and actualization seemed to be things that came hard to his people.

Further down this road, he knew Freedom Park was down the way. And suddenly, an idea hit him. He was looking for the Long Enduring in the tallest tree on the Lagos Island. Freedom Park had a lot of history attached to it and it was a park, there were definitely lots of trees there.

He didn't really have any other plans and something seemed to be drawing him there, the same way he had been drawn to Sango that day. He thought back and it felt like it happened years ago, even though it happened earlier in the week.

So, he decided he was going to the park. Luckily, nothing wanted to kill him there.

He patted the dagger in the waistband of his jeans to make sure it was still there.

Luck hadn't helped him so far.

He walked through the tall black gates and as the security guards searched him, he wondered to himself why they couldn't seem to see or even feel the dagger. It was right there, bulging against the underside of his shirt and yet, not a single cry of alarm was given. Maybe there was a magic spell attached to the dagger that made it imperceptible to everyone else.

After he was let in, he walked around a little, trusting his instincts to guide him. Freedom Park was a beautifully constructed place now that he thought about it.

He walked in and his eyes were immediately greeted by a beautiful scenery of shrubbery and statues made of some kind of black stone. He walked on the pathway that led to the main atrium of the whole place. He saw lots of people there and wasn't surprised, events being hosted here weren't uncommon since it was a truly beautiful place.

Odion steeled himself as much as he could, reminding himself of his task and searNdụng for the tree. As he walked through, he felt something odd, tingling through him. It was a cold feeling that he couldn't quite pin down and it reminded him that he wasn't safe. He looked behind him to make sure he wasn't being followed by yet another supernatural creature that wanted to kill him.

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After two hours of searNdụng, he finally decided that he needed a break as he sat down on one of the nearby wooden benches to think about what he was actually doing.

He was looking for the tallest tree in the area and though all the trees were around the same height, nothing seemed exceptional about them. He had found the tallest tree earlier but there was nothing special about it. Just another tree.

He was staring to get a dull ache in his stomach, what if the spirit had tricked him and now she was still deep in the market, laughing at him. "Silly Ndụld, what could a tree possibly bring him?"

He dismissed the thought with a wave of his hand, passers by looked at him in confusion but he didn't care, he was getting tired of this place anyway. He had read somewhere a long time ago of how the park was once a prison for the queen or something like that. He didn't know how but the air had a certain weight of it. He thought to himself that maybe sometimes, no matter how well you decorated something, the ugliness of the past still prevailed.

The past.

That thought seemed to send a light through his entire being, reminding him of something important that he'd missed. The spirit was old, her skin voice and everything else about her told him that much. She must have existed for a long time but when the age of gods had gone, she must have settled down in that niche, meaning that she probably hadn't been outside the marketplace in over a century.

In over a century, a lot can change, and trees can surely die. She had said to look for the tallest tree in the area from what she remembered, for all Odion knew, that tree could've died by now or...

Odion stood up quickly and went to the nearest park attendant clad in a red and black uniform , a short woman who was probably in her mid-twenties. Her round glasses framed her face almost perfectly and she greeted Odion with a warm smile.

"Hello, good afternoon, what can I help you with?" she said in a perky happy tone.

"Good afternoon, please where can I find the oldest tree in this park?" Odion answered.

She looked at him strangely the way any sane individual would if asked such but after a moment of thought, she replied. "Well, there was an Iroko tree planted a long time ago that's practically rotted by now. It's been here for ages, even before the times of the civil war. It's just over there, go forward and turn right and the book stalls." She pointed. Odion shouted a hurried 'thank you' as he hurried past all the people and went in the directions the woman gave him.

It didn't take him long to get to the tree and in a way, he felt it before he saw it. There was definitely something magical there. His body seemed to tingle and the dagger suddenly felt warmer. He turned around the corner and amidst the crowd of people, he saw the tree. And God, it was old.

It was a crooked thing that time had truly battered. Its roots were still large and its trunk was almost as wide as five of Odion's torsos. But they were so grey and aged, just looking at it made the Odion feel tired, like his energy was being drained. He craned his head upwards and marvelled at the trees empty barren appendages. They were long and spiky and as Odion walked forward, he could almost imagine this tree as it was before. Young and tall and strong.

Time kills everything in the end, he thought.