March 4, 2015
March 6, 2015
Asafo Kuo: Chapter 1
Asafo Kuo: Chapter 1
by safohen
It was a dark and stormy Monday night in the city of Takoradi. A lightning bolt stuck a signboard next to a large building. Inscribed on the half charred board were the words," Asafoakyere Kwakyewaa's School for Girls'.
Inside it's darkened hallways, a tall, dark, uniformed girl dashed past a fire extinguisher, paused, rushed back and flung it at a taller figure behind her. Its red fingernails clawed through the canister, ripping it in half. It's red high heels clacked noisily as it pursued the girl.
Blood red eyes followed the girl as she reached a stairway and slid down the banister to the lowest step. The girl kept running until she reached a metal door. Above it, a sign read, "Cafeteria". She tugged at the door, but it did not budge. The tell tale clack of high heels against polished floors echoed across the hallway, then stopped.
The urban legend known as Madam High Heel, a strange woman who was said to kidnap children in the dead of the night, stood right behind her, it's lips drawn back, revealing rows of sharp teeth.
Suddenly, an akofena blade tore through her chest and sliced upwards, splitting her chest and head in half. The creature fell to the ground and behind it, stood a short, fair girl clad in the red battledress of the asafo, wielding a bloodsoaked akofena.
The uniformed girl dusted herself off. 'You were late, Fazia', she addressed the akofena wielder. 'It almost got me'.
'Sorry, Dufie' Fazia apologised. 'I wasn't expecting anything in high heels to run that fast'. She wiped the blood off her akodze. 'Now we just have to bury the damned thing'.
Thirty minutes later, Madam High Heel was six feet underground the school garden. There was a loud rustle of bushes behind them and three girls, also clad in asafo attire approached them.
'Did you get the abducted children back home, Besiwa?' Dufie asked the tallest, darkest one among them.
'Yes, shortly after you lured it away from its cave. They were a bit traumatised and I think one of them wet himself, but other than that they were fine.'
On Tuesday morning, the students filed into the school and classes were held as usual. At noon, when the students were on break, Dufie, Fazia, Besiwa and two other girls were gathered in a small, empty room. A notice on the door of the room read, 'Asafo Kuo nhyiamu (Asafo club meeting).
'Roll call', began Dufie.
'There are only five of us in this club, Dufie' yawned Fazia. 'It's not neccessary'.
'I'm the Supi (head of the asafo companies), Fazia, so what I say goes, and I say roll call"
'Fine' she surrendered.
'Fazia, Supi edzikyir (deputy supi)'
'Present'
'Besiwa, Asafoakyere (Female asafo captain)'
'Here'.
'Awo, Asafoakyere edzikyir'
'Here', replied a fair, muscular girl with tribal marks running across her cheeks.
'Asafo Nyamekye'
Silence
'Asafo Nyamekye, are you sleeping again?'
'I'm awake, I'm awake' mumbled a dark, lithe girl with a shaved head as she stretched.
'You're still working as a bouncer at the D club' aren't you?' Dufie sighed.
'As long as it pays the bills and helps me take care of my siblings'
Despite her delicate features, Nyamekye was one of the toughest people in her neighbourhood. She was considered an 'area mother' of sorts but as long as she only acted in self defense, the authorities were more than happy to let her be.
'Alright, Since we're all here, we've been given a new assignement.
'By who?'
'Edufa, president of the cooking club'
'What's the assignment, taste test the goop she she calls food?' joked Fazia.
'The way she cooks, I'm surprised she hasn't been impeached yet' added Besiwa.
'Ladies, please' said Dufie. 'If it was a taste test, you know I would have said no'.
'Definitely' they agreed.
Dufie turned serious, ' She said she was attacked by something in the darkest part of the forest behind the school'.
'There's a surprise' said Fazia drily.
'Did she describe the kakaamobi (monster)?' asked Nyamekye
'She said it sat on a low hanging branch and tried to grab her with talons on its foot. It had metal teeth, green hair and looked like a monkey.'
'How did she escape?'
'It actually grabbed her sleeve, so she tore it off and run. The others pursued her..?'
'There were others?'
'Roughly 15, she was too scared to take proper count. She stumbled into a shaft of light that fell through the foliage and they backed off. She then rushed back to the school.'
'What was she even doing there?" wondered Awo
'Searching for large snails to make snail soup. She said when we're done, we should collect at least 15 of them for her.'
'We do not get paid enough for this .' grumbled Besiwa.
At 3:00 pm, whilst their colleagues went home to relax after their studies, the Asafo Kuo marched towards the adwe (monkey) kakaamobi. Three shafts of sunlight streamed down from the foliage above them whilst around them were the sounds of indistinct chattering.
Dufie and the others walked warily, their akodze (weapons) at the ready. Suddenly Dufie felt more than saw a flash of metal talons claw her right shoulder.
She rolled to her left, drawing her bow and two arrows from her quiver and shot the creature at her right, one into each eye before it had time to react. The dead creature struck the dirt and the forest became very still. Suddenly the forest shook with loud hooting as 16 of them dropped down from the branches and ambled towards them.
The five of them stood, back to back and let off their arrows and struck 10 of them down. The others stopped dead in their tracks and began to climb back up.
'Ha, Besiwa laughed, 'we showed them'.
Something heavy struck her right shoulder, sending ripples of pain through her body. She pulled it out and was stunned to see a wooden stake covered in blood. Her blood
'Raise your ekyem' Besiwa roared.
They raised their ekyem as several wooden stakes was aimed their way. After thirty minutes, the barrage ceased.
'After them' yelled Besiwa as they headed for the trees and climbed upwards after them. Besiwa climbed like she had never climbed before, narrowly avoiding sharpened stakes flung at her from above.
She struck her attackers with arrows to their heads. She caught one of the stakes and flung it at one of the creatures that lunged at her from behind. She paused and struck another one at a tree next to her. One of them dropped down in front of her and seized her by the neck.
She struck it in the chest with the pointed end of her bow, felling it. She struck down three of them that still climbed above her, and realising she was out of arrows, unhooked her spear from her back and struck the last one on the tree with it.
She seized the spear from it's body as it fell, along with several of its kind that slammed into the forest floor. On a branch, Dufie slashed through three of them that surrounded her with an afena. To her left, Fazia slashed one from head to toe with an akofena and watched coldly as both halves fell in different directions.
Awo stabbed six of them repeatedly and slashed their heads off with her machetes. Nyamekye stabbed one in the chest with her ekumapraban (long handled axe), stuck her right hand in the opening and ripped it apart.
At 5:00 pm, all the bodies were buried six foot underground, beneath the leafy forest floor. A pair of eyes watched her from the shadows. Eyes with slits in the middle. A forked tongue slithered out of the figure's mouth.
Besiwa paused, sensing it's killing intent and spun around, akodze at the ready. Suddenly it was gone as quickly as it came. She combed the bushes for an extra hour but there was no sign of the creature.
Inside it's darkened hallways, a tall, dark, uniformed girl dashed past a fire extinguisher, paused, rushed back and flung it at a taller figure behind her. Its red fingernails clawed through the canister, ripping it in half. It's red high heels clacked noisily as it pursued the girl.
Blood red eyes followed the girl as she reached a stairway and slid down the banister to the lowest step. The girl kept running until she reached a metal door. Above it, a sign read, "Cafeteria". She tugged at the door, but it did not budge. The tell tale clack of high heels against polished floors echoed across the hallway, then stopped.
The urban legend known as Madam High Heel, a strange woman who was said to kidnap children in the dead of the night, stood right behind her, it's lips drawn back, revealing rows of sharp teeth.
Suddenly, an akofena blade tore through her chest and sliced upwards, splitting her chest and head in half. The creature fell to the ground and behind it, stood a short, fair girl clad in the red battledress of the asafo, wielding a bloodsoaked akofena.
The uniformed girl dusted herself off. 'You were late, Fazia', she addressed the akofena wielder. 'It almost got me'.
'Sorry, Dufie' Fazia apologised. 'I wasn't expecting anything in high heels to run that fast'. She wiped the blood off her akodze. 'Now we just have to bury the damned thing'.
Thirty minutes later, Madam High Heel was six feet underground the school garden. There was a loud rustle of bushes behind them and three girls, also clad in asafo attire approached them.
'Did you get the abducted children back home, Besiwa?' Dufie asked the tallest, darkest one among them.
'Yes, shortly after you lured it away from its cave. They were a bit traumatised and I think one of them wet himself, but other than that they were fine.'
On Tuesday morning, the students filed into the school and classes were held as usual. At noon, when the students were on break, Dufie, Fazia, Besiwa and two other girls were gathered in a small, empty room. A notice on the door of the room read, 'Asafo Kuo nhyiamu (Asafo club meeting).
'Roll call', began Dufie.
'There are only five of us in this club, Dufie' yawned Fazia. 'It's not neccessary'.
'I'm the Supi (head of the asafo companies), Fazia, so what I say goes, and I say roll call"
'Fine' she surrendered.
'Fazia, Supi edzikyir (deputy supi)'
'Present'
'Besiwa, Asafoakyere (Female asafo captain)'
'Here'.
'Awo, Asafoakyere edzikyir'
'Here', replied a fair, muscular girl with tribal marks running across her cheeks.
'Asafo Nyamekye'
Silence
'Asafo Nyamekye, are you sleeping again?'
'I'm awake, I'm awake' mumbled a dark, lithe girl with a shaved head as she stretched.
'You're still working as a bouncer at the D club' aren't you?' Dufie sighed.
'As long as it pays the bills and helps me take care of my siblings'
Despite her delicate features, Nyamekye was one of the toughest people in her neighbourhood. She was considered an 'area mother' of sorts but as long as she only acted in self defense, the authorities were more than happy to let her be.
'Alright, Since we're all here, we've been given a new assignement.
'By who?'
'Edufa, president of the cooking club'
'What's the assignment, taste test the goop she she calls food?' joked Fazia.
'The way she cooks, I'm surprised she hasn't been impeached yet' added Besiwa.
'Ladies, please' said Dufie. 'If it was a taste test, you know I would have said no'.
'Definitely' they agreed.
Dufie turned serious, ' She said she was attacked by something in the darkest part of the forest behind the school'.
'There's a surprise' said Fazia drily.
'Did she describe the kakaamobi (monster)?' asked Nyamekye
'She said it sat on a low hanging branch and tried to grab her with talons on its foot. It had metal teeth, green hair and looked like a monkey.'
'How did she escape?'
'It actually grabbed her sleeve, so she tore it off and run. The others pursued her..?'
'There were others?'
'Roughly 15, she was too scared to take proper count. She stumbled into a shaft of light that fell through the foliage and they backed off. She then rushed back to the school.'
'What was she even doing there?" wondered Awo
'Searching for large snails to make snail soup. She said when we're done, we should collect at least 15 of them for her.'
'We do not get paid enough for this .' grumbled Besiwa.
At 3:00 pm, whilst their colleagues went home to relax after their studies, the Asafo Kuo marched towards the adwe (monkey) kakaamobi. Three shafts of sunlight streamed down from the foliage above them whilst around them were the sounds of indistinct chattering.
Dufie and the others walked warily, their akodze (weapons) at the ready. Suddenly Dufie felt more than saw a flash of metal talons claw her right shoulder.
She rolled to her left, drawing her bow and two arrows from her quiver and shot the creature at her right, one into each eye before it had time to react. The dead creature struck the dirt and the forest became very still. Suddenly the forest shook with loud hooting as 16 of them dropped down from the branches and ambled towards them.
The five of them stood, back to back and let off their arrows and struck 10 of them down. The others stopped dead in their tracks and began to climb back up.
'Ha, Besiwa laughed, 'we showed them'.
Something heavy struck her right shoulder, sending ripples of pain through her body. She pulled it out and was stunned to see a wooden stake covered in blood. Her blood
'Raise your ekyem' Besiwa roared.
They raised their ekyem as several wooden stakes was aimed their way. After thirty minutes, the barrage ceased.
'After them' yelled Besiwa as they headed for the trees and climbed upwards after them. Besiwa climbed like she had never climbed before, narrowly avoiding sharpened stakes flung at her from above.
She struck her attackers with arrows to their heads. She caught one of the stakes and flung it at one of the creatures that lunged at her from behind. She paused and struck another one at a tree next to her. One of them dropped down in front of her and seized her by the neck.
She struck it in the chest with the pointed end of her bow, felling it. She struck down three of them that still climbed above her, and realising she was out of arrows, unhooked her spear from her back and struck the last one on the tree with it.
She seized the spear from it's body as it fell, along with several of its kind that slammed into the forest floor. On a branch, Dufie slashed through three of them that surrounded her with an afena. To her left, Fazia slashed one from head to toe with an akofena and watched coldly as both halves fell in different directions.
Awo stabbed six of them repeatedly and slashed their heads off with her machetes. Nyamekye stabbed one in the chest with her ekumapraban (long handled axe), stuck her right hand in the opening and ripped it apart.
At 5:00 pm, all the bodies were buried six foot underground, beneath the leafy forest floor. A pair of eyes watched her from the shadows. Eyes with slits in the middle. A forked tongue slithered out of the figure's mouth.
Besiwa paused, sensing it's killing intent and spun around, akodze at the ready. Suddenly it was gone as quickly as it came. She combed the bushes for an extra hour but there was no sign of the creature.
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