The villagers did not joke with their gods, especially Dejun.
He was the chief, the wise one. And the deadliest... They depicted him with two faces: that of a lion and a tortoise. His torso was that a black mamba.
They preferred the first two personas and appealed to them. To keep the last at bay, they kept his laws, revered the sacred redwood and brokered no ill-speaking of the great, three-dimensional one. They offered sacrifices if they suspected any transgression.
Foline came from the city to visit her grandmother. The poor woman was shaking with a cold.
Foline went to a nearby bush and fetched firewood. When the villagers smelt the redwood burning. They knew what had to be done. It was not a conversation. Else, mambas would invade the community and wipe them out.
They set the building on fire and kept watch. No one escaped.
The next morning, there was a wail from the palace. The king was dead...bitten by a snake. The first man to want to respond met a poised mamba waiting at the threshold for him.
It was the same in all households in the land.
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