In Acaulii village, the Tax Day is very famous, but it's actually not because it's the day that taxes are being paid; instead, it is precisely because it is the day that the village chooses the next batch of students who can enrol in primary education. A very crucial step to a bright future.
The day usually has a festive feel to it because it was just the new year a few days ago. The children who are up to 5 years old will be taken by the village chief to the Umana Central Elementary School located in the nearest city, in the Umana Village. The place is called a city because compared to it, the Acaulii village is obviously way backwards. And in it, there are even houses taller than some of the mountains that surround the Acaulii village. The school was formed by the agglomeration of villages around the southern part of the Urphan Local Government Area.
There are 14 Local Government Areas in the Magna State, and Urphan LGA is one of the most remote parts of it. And the Acaulii Village is even more remote among them; it directly lives between desolate lands and the Urban areas. The villages around the Southern part of the Urphan LGA allied together to make a General primary school for their kids, approved by the Government. In fact, it is actually the other way round. The government is the main hand behind the public schools, and they use them to train talents for their future uses.
Every year, the villages get a quota of children they can bring to the school for education. And this year it was time to choose the children in Ascii Village, as well as time to collect taxes for the year. The Government taxes Villages yearly, so it was all done on the same day as the selection.
This year, the children who were qualified to be selected were clearly excited and had all come out to the village square in high spirits. Their parents were also by their sides, and everyone was just waiting for the village chief and his speech for the selections to kick off officially. Of course, not everyone was going to be selected, since the quota is limited for each village.
In a short while, the village chief arrived with his little daughter, who was dressed in a white cotton gown. The Village Chief seemed to be in a really good mood, as he was already beaming and greeting people just as he came. It didn't take long before he went to the centre and started talking to the group of people who had formed a circle around him with a big amount of space in the middle.
"I know many people have been looking forward to this day, and I am no exception. Today is the day we pay taxes, but most importantly, it's the day we send our children to school. Now, while it is not in our village that the school is stationed, it is not very far from our village, and who knows, one of the children here might become a leading figure in the future because we sent them to school."
As the village chief was still in the process of addressing the villagers, a party of three individuals was seen approaching the gathering from afar. It was an old man in a black dress, a grey slanted hat, and a long jacket, and two children: one female and one male. The female looked evidently older than the male, with the stature of a 5-6-year-old and a very beautiful countenance. The male child, on the other hand, was a little stranger. He had a skin that wasn't deep brown, unlike the people all around him. But he also wasn't fair like the female child; he was instead a little tanned and sparkly, like a treasure. His eyes were light green, and his hair and eyebrows were also faintly green, like sage.
....
"Today, let us push our children to their better futures. Today's event has officially started. And Happy New Year to all of you; may this year bring out more harvest than every other year."
He went to his seat after speaking.
"Before we start the event, I have a case to plead before the whole of the village elders."
Lydwa immediately lunged herself to the centre of the gathering.
[.....]
Some people were either surprised or repulsed, but one of the older men went ahead to ask her.
"Young lady, what are you doing?"
"Thank you, old Chief, for letting me speak."
Lady Lywa gestured to the old man, who looked at her strangely. The old man was the previous chief of the village before the current chief, Ollin Drax. Although he was no longer the chief of the village, the villagers still respected him a great deal, and he was one of the deciding figures of the village.
"I believe most people must have heard about what has been going on in our village lately. Our village is very small, and many matters are decided by the village chief alone without any council whatsoever to discuss with."
"Usually, when someone cannot raise their children, the person will take the child to the village chief, who'll register the child and announce to the village about the child for adoption by any interested party."
Everybody looked at her quietly as she narrated what she had to say.
"Two years ago, a certain old man who lives close to my compound adopted a young female child. We asked the chief about it because we had no idea that such a child existed here. He never gave a proper explanation for it and just told us to let it be that the old man might've adopted her from another village. We all know that was a lie, but because you Elders always supported him, we all soon let it be."
She took a slight breath and continued...
"Last year, or should I say, just a few years ago, I saw this same old man carrying a newborn child to his compound. I couldn't remember the village chief announcing recently that there was a newborn child to be adopted. So I went to the Chief's house to enquire but was instead brushed off by the chief with an excuse that the old man didn't adopt any child."
Apparently, the village chief is usually the one to announce a child that is in need of adoption. For instance, if something was to happen to the parents of a child, the chief will take them in and keep them until someone adopts them. If no one did, the child would grow up in the chief's home.
She wasn't finished yet, but Old Man Basse and crew had already arrived at the venue and were also listening to her.
"The strangest thing is that Nobody heard any cry coming out of the old man's yard. What kind of newborn child doesn't cry at all?"
"So I say, it's either the village has gotten into a secret dirty business with that old man, or it is just that old man, but the village chief is just turning a blind eye to it."
"If it helps to know, I wasn't the only one who went to ask the chief for an explanation, but all were eventually sent home with the same reply. I and plenty of other villagers think we need another village chief, as this one is not just incompetent, but he also seems suspicious."
The people looked at the village chief; some of the crowd was actually echoing the woman who just finished talking. The old man who spoke to Lady Lydwa earlier turned to the village chief,
"Chief Ollin, what do you think? don't you think we need an explanation here?"
However, before the village chief could stand to say anything, something else drew the attention of everyone there.
As they were standing at the rear, Ewan saw a male child who was around 4-5 years old in the children's section, trying to take a dump right there. After the meeting started, the children who were old enough to be selected were made to stay together at a separate section. He rushed out with as much speed as his tiny legs could muster and quickly closed the distance between them. Once he was close enough to the boy, he leaped up to a really surprising height and gracefully administered a scintillatingly loud knock on behalf of every adult who'd have scolded the child for taking a dump there.
The boy who was right at the point of pushing out the first wave felt a strange presence around him, and before he could look up to understand what it was, he heard a rather loud
Koi!
sound before he felt an overwhelming pain in the head as he let out a very loud scream, which attracted the attention of everybody.