The Lear Library

Another brief little piece… I was experimenting with trying to integrate existing mythology into my writing, and it ended up taking the form of a short piece of superhero fiction. Influenced heavily by the ideas in Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. I am very malleable when it comes to his work.

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… In that long-ago time, child, there were no stories on Earth for anyone to tell. The sky-god, Nyame, kept all stories to himself, up high in the sky, and locked away in a wooden box.

The womans long, spindly legs held her aloft in the rafters of the cieling. She was dressed all in dark grey leather, with flashes of white streaking across her flanks. Her face was covered with a skull-like helmet, two stylised fangs painted down under blacked-out eyes. Perched where she was she seemed to be a thing from terrible nightmare, from the ancient legends that spoke of beasts walking as men. Her limbs were splayed out wide, holding her aloft by means of two support beams. One, she had wrapped all around with her fingers and held on tightly. The other, she had hooked her feet over and around the wood, keeping her safely aloft and horizontal. Her black eyes gave away nothing as they watched the young man move beneath her.

The young man had a family, and they sat around the table, talking in soft voices. The mother had kind, blue eyes that moved from one of her young, blonde-haired children to another as she talked. The father was quiet and portly, sitting heavily in his chair as if exhausted. The two children were quiet and attentive, sharp young eyes moving about the room quickly. And there was the young man. He talked in a hushed, earnest voice that conveyed a wealth of devotion and passion.

Child, when the powerful sky-god saw a thin, spidery, old man crawling up to his throne, he laughed at him, “What makes you think that you, of all creatures, can pay the price I ask for my stories?”
The man, Kwaku, only wanted to know, “What is the price of the stories?”
“My stories have a great price, four fearsome, elusive creatures: Onini, the python that swallows men whole; Osebo, the leopard with teeth like spears; Mmoboro, the hornets that swarm and sting; and Mmoatia, the fairy who is never seen. Bring these to me.”

The young man’s voice peaked suddenly as he turned to the head of the table, pointing a finger at the father. And the nightmare woman descended on a silvery thread as thin as air.

The table resounded with a thud as the woman landed, splayed still on all fours. The family screamed. The young man stumbled back in surprise, the father fell backwards in his ricketty old chair and it smashed into pieces. The children yelled shrilly as they looked at the deep, dark eyes and the flashing white fangs. And then the spindly woman moved, springing over the shrieking mother and her kind eyes. A long arm came around in a complicated circle, fingers curling into the young man’s jacket and away again before her foot came up and pushed him backwards. She assumed a graceful pose, silent and watching the young man.

The man reached to his jacket, and found he was missing what had allowed him the family’s attention before. The Hechler and Koch was dangling from between the nightmare woman’s fingers, and then suddenly discarded. The young man drew a blade and lurched forwards, determined to exorcise this creature in front of him.

He bound the python to the branch with the string-creeper and wound it over and over – nwenene! nwenene! nwenene! – until he came to the head. Then the spiderman said to Onini, “Fool, I will now take you to the sky-god.”

The young man was bound tight, a bright tablecloth bound around his arms and legs. The table was bare then, aside from the plates and glasses that had been on it; looking untouched.
The nightmare woman stood from her work and handed the father a telephone. Then she untied the mother, and left.

Three blocks and fifteen minutes away, Incursa stretched out her long limbs and sank into a crouch in a secluded place.
“Kweku Anansi… King of Stories, see what I have done.”
Anansi he spun a web around the snake to carry him back through the clouds to the sky kingdom.
On seeing the gigantic snake, Nyame merely said, “There remains what still remains.”