The Birth of the Pale Rider

Yinka the main protagonist of the story is atwelve year old boy who is a first year student inan exclusive private secondary school in Offa, asmall town in western Nigeria. He finds himselfinadvertently drawn into an alternate realm whenthree bullies forcefully remove him from theschool premises and carry him to an eerie forestbehind the school.After narrowly escaping death at the hands of abear like entity called an Eseku, he falls into awooden cave where he meets a talking turtlecalled Saworide who reveals to him that he is inthe Forbidden forest; a place which is theboundary between the earth realm (Ikole Aye) andthe spirit realm (Ikole Orun).Saworide sends him back to his world, but evenin the short minutes they spend together a bondis formed between them. He tells Yinka how hecan return to the Forbidden forest whenever hewants. When Yinka returns to the earth realm thereader is alerted to a series of cosmic eventstaking place in space. This is through radio andtelevision broadcasts going on in the backgroundwhen the principal characters in the book are intheir homes, driving in their cars or at work.These events become less random finallyclimaxing in a cataclysmic series of naturaldisasters which occur around the globe almostsimultaneously. One of such events happens overYinka's school and he is wrenched back into theforbidden forest with terrible wounds where he iseventually found by Saworide. Therein begin arace across strange worlds pursued by vengefulwitches and devilish creatures culminating in afrightening conclusion of loss, death, sharedhistory and fate