A Stealthy Advance

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OUR fleet of war boats cruised along the river course without any aquatic inhibition. The air was cool and soothing to the skin, and the sun, because it was almost dusk, was receding into the horizon. No egret nor other other river birds were seen fluttering their wings as usual and clucking noisily as they dipped their long beaks into the river for fish. It was obvious that Okirikiri, the god of the river, was in consonance with our plan to launch our counter assault stealthily.

We had our reasons. One, from my experience in the past, people that fight with aggressiveness only end up leaving massive destruction in their wake, but losing the war in the end. This is because aggressiveness hardly does not give the fighter, who harbours it, the time to think, strategize and study his opponent’s move. This flaw makes him vulnerable to defeat, while his opponent, who controls his emotion, has the upper hand.

Two, invading our enemy’s territory with tumultuousness would alert them and give them room to be on guard, and, possibly, harm our little girls who were still in captivity. And that would undermine our major mission.

We went to this war with seven boats, signifying the number of villages in our small town. Twelve men each rode in one boat, armed with their bows, arrows, Nchapu, and their combat skills.

I rode in the same boat with Ofo. Ógù rode in a different boat because he now avoided Ofo. I didn’t want their unhealthy differences to affect my emotion, especially at a crucial time like this. A warrior is supposed to wear a different personality at the moments of war, so that emotions will not affect his courage and spirit.

After we disembarked from our boats, I had told my men, we would all take positions. The first group to make a headway was those I trained in the art of spying an enemy land. If they returned with the information that the land was porous, the group trained in rescuing captives stealthily would embark on intelligence mission. Once they came back with our girls all freed, they would take the girls home while the rest of us would, then, proceed to draw the blood of all living things in Setuo and appease the spirits of our slain boys.

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