Side story 1: Where did Babida the lumberjack go after killing the Monster of the forbidden mountain? (Read part 1)

Babida P.O.V

My name is Babida. I'm a thirty-two-year-old black man and my job is as a lumberjack.

At the age of seventeen, I killed the Monster of the forbidden mountain and became very famous among the people of the Batang empire, the most incredible and powerful land in Africa.

The Emperor at the time, His Majesty Batang IV, decorated me with the medal of the highest honor and merit after I brought to him on a silver platter the head of the villain, a giant bird ten meters high, five meters large for twenty thousand kilograms.

However, I obtained my victory over the Monster after I signed a redemptive pact with the ancestors while I was on the battlefield and in bad physical condition.

Indeed the beast had launched a powerful windy attack with his large wings and my comrades and I were sent flying high in the air.

We then landed hard on the ground and I was lucky to not pass away like the other imperial warriors and civilians like me who had heard and answered the call of the Emperor to defend the land against the evil creature.

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While I was writhing in pain, I implored our forefathers to heal me from my wounds so I could get up and defeat the Monster of the forbidden mountain.

I gave my word to the ancestors to lend them in exchange for their compassionate act, my plot of land for ten good years as I would leave the empire immediately after the end of the combat.

The divinities accepted my supplication and restored my body. I was now in the greatest shape of my life.

I rose and ran to pick up my Herculean steel axe from the ground and tossed it violently on the giant bird's leg that stumbled before I snatched the weapon from the injured limb and used it to slay the Monster's head.

My comrades and the people of the empire celebrated the death of the villain but for me, it was the end of my time in the land.

I went back to my late uncle's house, a wooden cabin in the south of the imperial city Ekule and I packed my belongings while sobbing.

But an agreement was an agreement. The ancestors had fulfilled their obligation, I had to execute mine, which was to quit my land and not come back before a decade while the forefathers harnessed my parcel.

With my luggage in hand, I looked at my childhood house and became even more emotional. My feet were very heavy, for I had second thoughts about staying but I knew that I would be struck with terrible consequences such as leprosy and epilepsy.

So I finally stepped outside and closed the door. I heaved my head and in front of me there was only one place where I could go and that was the neighboring land situated on the west border, the Batumba empire.