The heir

• Long time ago, there lived a king in the village of ijero,the king is a very wicked king,he oppressed the poor by taking what belongs to the poor like their farmland,he had three wives and other concubines outside,if anyone go against the king or they reject the king's offer they will be punished for it. The king loved his smallest wife so much but three wives did not give birth to any child for the king ,they were all barren until one day the king decided to visit the greatest and most feared herbalist in their village because he was disturbed,he wanted to have an heir to throne. When he got to the herbalist shrine,the herbalist told him his wives were not able to conceive because of his wicked acts to the people,but he will be given a son according to the gods, because they decided to have mercy upon him,then the herbalist gave him some concoction to give to his three wives.

He collected the concoction and hurriedly went home,when he got home he summoned all his there wives and told them to take the concoction,the first wife was the one who drank it first,then passed it to the second wife,when the second wife drank her own she passed it to the third wife but as the third wife was about to drink it they intentionally hit the small Calabash off her hand and the concoction poured away,but because she wanted to have a baby too she licked the remaining with her hand and made sure she swallowed it, after a month they became pregnant, after 9 months the first wife gave birth to a baby girl but it was a still birth,the second wife also gave birth to a baby girl but it was also a still birth,so the king was afraid and at the same time furious with the herbalist he summoned him but the herbalist said he only told her the gods will give him a son and not there children,so because of that the king ordered the third wife to be put inside the hidden chamber and taken care of because of the wicked ones.

When the third wife was about to give birth,the other two queens gave the midwife money told her to dispose the third wife child if happens to be a boy ,when it was time the midwife did as the queens have said and proclaimed the third wife gave birth to a stone, everyone was surprised,how can the third queen give birth to a stone? The king was angry and gave an order to imprison the chief priest.

After 20 years,the king became sick and died,the chief priest was released. When everyone woke up in the king's palace in the morning they saw the king staff standing right in the middle of the compound and they tried removing it but no one could,including the chiefs in the palace,when the chief priest came he told them that only the king son can remove the staff from the ground. Everyone was amazed but the king had no son,how can you say it's only the king son that can remove the staff,they all thought it was a lie, after a week everyone in the palace couldn't remove the staff yet they called all the young guys in the village to come and try it if anyone can remove it but they all couldn't but there was one who wasn't even interested in the kingship, he only followed his friend there, but when his friend couldn't remove the staff he told the other guy to try it but he said he no that he wasn't interested until he was forced to do it and lo and behold he staff shook and made it's way out of the ground.

Everyone was amazed,how come the king had a son and no one knew about it,the guy ran home and told his father to explain things to him,how can he be the son of a farmer and still be the son of a king,his father then explained to him that about 20years ago he saw him the forest crying and decided to bring him home and took care of him as his son.

The midwife who has been struck by an unknown illness for about 10years now decided to confess when she heard about what happened in the palace and how the king's son came back,she confessed everything the queens made her do to the smallest queen,the queens were banished from the village and the third wife was grateful her son came back to her, and after about 2weeks the king's son was crowned the new king of ijero village.

Everyone was happy with his rule because he returned what belongs to the poor back to them and made everything easy for everyone in the land,he was a kind king and not wicked like his father and because of that all the villagers loved him and supported him during his reign.