“Who are you?’’ Binta asked, her voice squeaky, which sounded kind of silly since he already introduced himself as their father. The man seem to think the same because his chuckle like thunder booms shook the room.

“You look like Aina my first daughter whom my wife Oshun bore for me. She was always mischievous. Alas she perished in the great fire. The corners of his mouth seem to curl downwards in regret as he said this, then a smirk spread over his face so fast Omotola thought she must have imagined it been sad a second ago.

“So the pampered 5th generation finally had the liver to step out of their comfort shells, I was beginning to think you were too daft to think for yourselves’’. His jabs stung but they wisely held their tongues but Babybaby who was still learning to keep her mouth shut, stood up for them.

“No we’re not! She fired back “Look who managed to get himself locked in a cage, who’s the daft one now.’’ they held breaths in alarm as the man observed Babybaby his head tilted slightly, he then threw back his head and laughed.

“yes a child with my spirit, I always wanted my words to be the last to be heard, then settle scores with my axe when I’m short of words to throw back at my adversary."

“What are you?’’ Shettima asked this time around, I know you did not lead us here simply to remind you of how you used to do and behave, we came cos we have questions and I think we’ve got to quit beating about the bush like we’re gathered for tea.’’ His bravado seems to fade fast as the man turned his attention on him.

“Mind reader this one” he said, “I used to use charms like that to single out treacherous thoughts from nobles in my court, alas i see the men in white finally succeeded in winning despite all my efforts.

Brute strength this one, his searching eyes now focused on Obiora, the latter glared back, the resemblance between them was uncanny. “strength is not everything, I finally learnt it here.’’

The lofty Obeche tree once wrest it's might against that of the howling gale and is uprooted, the Bamboo reed instead swayed with the wind and is preserved."

He sighed suddenly looking very tired.

“Six children, numbered in six, the number five and six, my sacred number. “you all possess the powers I fanatically acquired in my youth, all vain to no avail for they aided me not from this captivity till I am spent and when I finally hope again, i see myself before me in different bodies, my vanity intact as the day I awakened, be gone children and hope this place treats you better than it did me.”

“That is why we’re here.’’ Orchid said “one of us is in grave danger and soon the rest of us will follow. “We just want answers; we want our freedom as you wanted yours, you called us here for a reason, undermining us like the institute could cost you your one chance, you know what we don’t, at least we’re out here and you’re not, we have questions give us answers.”

He rose to his full height; the children consciously took a step back as a pair of burning wings rose at his back, sizzling as flames dropped on the cage floor.

“How many times have you read and heard stories about supernatural beings, deities and demons, spirits that dwelled under the land and sea, these stories you beheld in awe and fascination yet your apt minds rebuffed it, calling it tales by moonlight, entertaining but unbelieving. Science has always been the shield of man, behind which he finds all creation as logical as the inventions he made, yet behind this shield of unbelief he fashioned out inventions that during my time would be referred to as a thing of the supernatural.

For man called his ancestors uncivilized and a heathen, surely what would they have done in a world much wilder, unpredictable and dangerous than the one you see now, for then, man do not settle down to ponder and think when he had his family to feed and clan to protect and so from his mind, believing Eledunmare the creator of all things simply too great to comprehend.

Too enormous to bother himself with human affairs, so he creates entities of himself, aspects with capacities to reflect some of his manifestations, acting as intermediaries between mankind and his divinity. The erratic behavior of nature and the supernatural, the belief that there is a force behind each entity, we are of that force.’’

“I am Shango, the African aspect of lightning and thunder, the name given to storms, fire and earth shakes, the thin line between chaos and order, Jakuta the stone hurler, whose strength cuts both ways; once I was human, then I was deified but now I am a slave of science, ask your questions for time is short."

“They said we were created in the labs, how can you be our father as you claimed?” Omotola finally found her voice, for the first time since they entered the room.

“Yes I am and so to every being in this accursed place that is not human. In the first sixty years of my captivity, I slumbered and they mistook my body for a well preserved long dead fossil, or some alien creature or whatever their science mind could come up with, for once they finally managed to get something that could pierce my skin, taboos were practiced on my blood samples and used on animals but my body healed faster than they could cut it and my blood festered and was useless as soon as it leaves the confines of this chamber, they could not do much with it and I fed on their frustration for years.’’

“When they finally found out I was some slumbering deity, they then worked tirelessly for another ten years before they could awaken me for they stumbled upon and translated the writings of some long dead priest of mine, with the right incantations, blood sacrifices, a forbidden ritual and a bucketful of my taboos to contain me, these accursed bastards awakened me.

The cowards fled from my divine presence but when they knew my cage would hold, they came back like vermin to commit abominations on me.’’

“How do we come to be different from the rest of the generations? Omotola asked.

“When a child has eaten his fill, he goes around seeking trouble, they wanted more for their mortality shames them, their so called science could not provide that, so they seek out the supernatural they always rebuffed.’’

“When they began their experiments on me, I changed my form to frustrate them, a foolishness on my part as I morphed into my sacred animals, a ram, then a turtle, a cockerel, finally a hawk till my powers began to desert me, I managed to change back to my humane form but it was not enough to make the wings go away, I brought about my downfall as my mind game backfired, for the wings which are not an extension of my body became my weakness and the blood they drew from it did not spoil, then my DNA as they called it was merged with that of mortal women and so you were born, demi gods! The rewards of their persistence and perseverance, the humans never gave up, I give them that.’’

“Do you know our mothers?’’ Shettima asked.

Shango chuckled.

“Alas you give little and want much, they once tried to bring a woman in to me, she went mad with fear as soon as she beheld my divinity, screaming like one possessed by Ewele the weeping daemon, they never tried to bring a woman hereafter that, your mothers never saw me child nor i them.’’

“But you knew about us’’ Binta said.

“Yes, for I was curious when I heard the beating of your little hearts in their wombs, yours was unlike the beatings of a normal human’s so I visited their sub consciousness I believed some of them knew who I was and whose child they carry, but the first of your siblings too big and violent killed their mothers from within, the first set of mothers died, but the white coats always learned from their mistakes, made some adjustments and yours lived.”

Time was short yet they had so many questions to ask, and Shango answered all with the patience only gods would have.

Then suddenly, the alarms started screeching, they turned to flee the room but at the door stood a very angry looking doctor Mugabe, the sneer on his face made him looked almost demon like, behind him a squad of heavily armored Askaris armed to the teeth, and the new upgraded combat drones the children saw at the test chamber.

“Well well, he croaked, ‘’I see the subjects have reunited with their father."