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“The Boy Who Spoke to Shadows”

In the small, forgotten village of Obudu nestled between green hills and endless skies, lived a quiet boy named Tega. Tega was different. While other children played under the sun, he wandered into the forest alone, listening. Not to the birds or the rustle of trees—but to the shadows.

It started the day his father vanished into the storm.

Everyone said Chief Emeke had died when the thunder swallowed his boat whole. But Tega didn’t believe it. He remembered what his father always said:

“If you ever feel alone, talk to the shadows. Not all darkness is empty.”

So Tega did.

One evening, just before dusk, he sat under the giant Iroko tree where the shadows danced longest. Closing his eyes, he whispered, “Where is my father?”

The wind stilled. A low voice, neither man nor beast, replied from the dark, “He is trapped between here and the other side. Bound by a promise not kept.”

Tega’s heart pounded. “What promise?”

“Find the Mask of Dusk. Only then can the sun rise on his path again.”

And so began Tega’s quest.

He traveled beyond the village borders, into forgotten caves, speaking to echoes and shadows, decoding riddles left by time. Along the way, he discovered the mask, buried beneath a waterfall, protected by silence. He placed it over his face—and saw the world differently. Colors became whispers. Shadows became guides.

With their help, he found the place between worlds—a mirror lake where the living and the lost met. There, his father stood, silent but smiling.

“I broke a vow,” Chief Emeke said. “To protect the old ways. To guard the mask. I was taken before I could pass it on.”

Tega handed him the mask. “I found it. I believe in the old ways.”

A light broke through the lake’s surface. And as the waters shimmered, his father faded—but smiling still.

Back in Obudu, Tega returned a hero. Not because he found the mask—but because he brought belief back to a village that had forgotten how to listen to shadows.