Short Story: Mystery necklace

In the village of Sosu lived traders and farmers. They worked hard and lived in peace and harmony with one another.

One full moon, the chief’s only daughter suddenly fell ill. All the herbalists and magicians were consulted to heal her but they couldn’t. Even the village chief priest couldn’t heal her.

Out of frustration, the chief decided to travel with his advisors to a faraway land where the chief priest was very powerful.

Two of the advisors agreed to accompany him on the important journey to heal the sick girl. After several preparations, they set off.

On their way to the land, they faced many obstacles and challenges. They battled with beasts and dwarfs but they managed to conquer them all since they were all warriors.

When they finally reached the land, the chief and his advisors fell terribly sick. Due to the many impediments, they had faced on their way, they had to change their course a number of times so they were famished, dehydrated and very weak.

Fortunately, two men from the land saw them and took them in and the powerful chief priest was called to heal them.

After the chief priest had visited them, the three men felt much better and asked their host to assist them to make arrangements to visit the chief priest since that was why they had travelled that long distance.

When the chief priest heard that the foreigners wanted to see him, he decided to go to where they were, since they were still recuperating.

The chief and his advisors told the chief priest about the princess’s illness. As soon as they described what was wrong with the princess, the chief priest knew what to do.

Therefore, he informed the chief that he needed to go with them to heal the princess because it was an illness that could not be cured with herbs but the necklace around his neck.

When the chief and his elders heard this, they became fascinated by the powers in the necklace and so instead of asking the chief priest to go with them to their village to heal the princess, the chief and his advisors rather planned to steal the necklace that contained most of the powers the chief priest had.

One of his advisors cautioned him against stealing but the chief was adamant. The other advisor supported the idea and they arranged to steal the necklace.

Somehow, they were able to steal the necklace from the chief priest after giving him and the people accompanying them to Sosu, a drink laced with a substance that could make them sleep soundly for two days.

On their way back to Sosu, when the chief and his advisors stopped to rest for the night and continue their journey after dawn, he had a dream in which the chief priest was warning him to return the necklace or face the consequences of his actions.

The chief did not pay attention to the dream because they only had a few hours to get to their village. They were far too gone to turn back. When the chief reached his village, his daughter was on the verge of death. He quickly put the necklace around her neck, hoping for a miracle but unfortunately, the necklace tightened around the princess’s neck. It eventually strangled her.

While they were still mourning the death of the young princess there was an outbreak of diseases that caused a lot of people to die. The chief knew the cause of the calamity but there was nothing he could do.

He wished he had not taken the necklace but it was too late. Not long after that, the chief priest from the faraway land and his entourage centred the village to reclaim his necklace.

As soon as the chief saw the chief priest, the chief bowed, handed over the necklace to him, and pleaded with him to end the calamity. The chief priest didn’t want innocent people to die so he recited a few words and he immediately left the village with his people.

 The chief lost everything – first his daughter and then his stool for bowing to another person on the land he was chief.

Pearl Maame Araba Anyanful,

University Basic School,

Central Region.