(They reach the stream. As OGUNWUMI bends to fill her pot, the bushes rustle violently. BABA JIDE pops his head out, looking disheveled.)
BABA JIDE: (Whispering loudly) Run, little birds! The hawks are not in the sky today; they are on the ground!
OGUNWEMI: (Screaming) Agh! Baba Jide! You old goat, you nearly made me drop my mirror!
BABA JIDE: The mirror shows your face, girl, but it doesn't show the man standing behind you! (He points a shaking finger, then ducks back into the undergrowth and scurries away).
OGUNSHOLA: (Sneering) Ignore him. He's had too much fermented sap.
(Suddenly, TWO STRANGERS step out from behind an ancient Iroko tree. They are not spirits; they are men with hungry eyes and jagged blades.)
STRANGER 1: Look at this, brother. We came looking for firewood, and we found three pieces of gold.
OGUNWEMI: (Trembling but trying to remain haughty) Do you know who we are? We are the daughters of Ogunlana! If you touch us, the iron in your hands will turn against you!
STRANGER 2: (Cackling) Iron doesn't care whose blood it drinks. And today, we are very thirsty.
OGUNWUMI: (Stepping in front of her sisters) Take the jewelry. Take the brass mirror. Just let us pass.
STRANGER 1: (Pushing OGUNWUMI aside with a heavy blow) The little soot-girl speaks? Move! We want the ones who think they are too beautiful for the earth.
(The men lunges forward. A struggle ensues. OGUNWUMI is knocked unconscious against a stone. The screams of OGUNSHOLA and OGUNWEMI echo through the forest, then suddenly cut into muffled sobs and the tearing of fabric.)
(Time skip: One hour later. The forest is silent. OGUNWUMI wakes up, her head bleeding. She sees her two sisters huddled under the Iroko tree. Their fine clothes are torn; their pride is gone. They look broken, staring into the dirt.)
OGUNWUMI: (Rushing to them) Shola? Wemi? Are you... are you alive?
OGUNSHOLA: (Voice cold and hollow) We are alive. But we are dead.
OGUNWEMI: (Sobbing) If Father finds out... if the village knows... no man will ever look at us. We will be outcasts. We will be the soiled ones.
OGUNSHOLA: (Grabbing OGUNWUMI'S arm so hard it bruises) Listen to me, you little brat. You will tell no one. We fell. We were chased by a leopard. That is the story.
OGUNWUMI: But you are hurt! You need the herbalist!
OGUNSHOLA: (Hissing) If you speak a word of this, I will kill you myself before the shame does. We will hide this. We will wash our cloths in the dark. We will remain the Beauties of Ilé-Irin.
OGUNWUMI: (Looking at them with pity and horror) You would build a palace on a foundation of lies?
OGUNSHOLA: It is better to live a lie in a palace than to live the truth in a gutter. Now, help us up. We must get home before the torches are lit.
(As they limp away, the wind howls. From the shadows, the glowing eyes of AJAKA watch them pass. He does not move to help. He simply watches, his face a mask of divine stone.)