Obaluaye

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Sitting atop one of the higher terraces overlooking the Rookery is a strange, small hut--before you even reach the entrance, you are greeted with the scents of freshly ground herbs, the bitter aroma filling your nostrils.

You pad into the structure to see a dark wolf vigorously rolling a concotion into a paste using a smooth, round rock under one of his paws. It looks like hard and tedious work. Much like others in this place, he seems to not notice you initially--if he has, he certainly doesn't care. What's certainly more compelling is the family of raccoons staring at you from the ceiling above!

> "You must be the local herbalist. Just looking around...I'm the leader of another pack!"

Spoiler "So you are, otherwise you wouldn't think yourself important enough to bother me in the middle of my work. Bah! Just like Ogun. I'm Obaluaye, and unless you have anything wrong with you other than your manners, we have little to discuss," he sneers back derisively.

Oh, well! Unfortunately, this wolf is no more charming than a badger.

> "My apologies, then. But before I leave you be... are there supposed to be raccoons in here?"

SpoilerThe black wolf snorts incredulously, letting out a guttural, husky laugh before momentarily pausing his work.

"No, springwhelp! I just never noticed!" He's really laying the sarcasm on you thick. You feel less like a guest and more like a puppy being chided by its father!

> "Well, I'd be happy to help relieve you of that problem. I'm feeling pretty hungry."

Spoiler"They're very useful to me, and if I see you so much as salivate at one, I'll show you the great view of our mountains as I push you off of them." He motions his nose at a fellow wolf's skull sitting above his piles of herbs. "Ask the last 'traveller' who got hungry!"

> "Ah. Well, then. You must delight many a sick wolf in here."

Spoiler "Oh, I keep it nice and comfortable! If you're dying, that is. The last herbalist was too nice. Eshu talked him to death while pretending he had a cough," he quips dryly, returning to his furious salve-making.

It only takes a few moments of you silently watching this before he loses his temper again and snaps at you. "Now, off!" Obaluaye barks. "Unless you want to be my guinea pig for this new...concotion. Not allergic to henbane, are you?" He asks.

No thanks! You don't really feel like sticking around here much longer, lest you become poisoned! You politely decline before heading out of the hut and back to the relative pleasantry of the courtyard.

--

"First there was the earth in my mouth. It was there like a running stream, the July fever sweating the delirium of August, and the green buckling under the sun. The taste of sick dust ran in the currents of saliva which I heaved up and tried to picture when all the people would curse their own stinking guts and die. No. I am not wishing that everyone should die. Nor am I wishing that everyone should be still. Only I am squeezing out the steam in me." -Kef 21, Henry Dumas