by Brian Nyaude
3
Two hours passed after the incident with the spooky wormhole. I had rested enough to finally start making my long journey to the neighboring country. Bearing the slight pain, I got up onto my feet and stretched my legs. Everyone around me looked cheerful for their renowned freedom from slavery. They were dancing and talking optimistically with each other around a large bon fire. I took one glance at them and turned around to walk away.
“Where are you going friend?” the old man spoke to me. I hated being asked questions when I was in the middle of thinking; however, I felt that it was rude not to answer.
“Okaya,” I replied.
I felt him jump back like a scared cat.
“Okaya,” he yelled “Have you lost your mind boy?”
Boy! Now I was really irritated, those breathing techniques to control my anger were not really working in this situation. Maybe there was a reason why this old timer would snap and insult me after mentioning the country of Okaya. I felt obligated to hear his reason and why Okaya seemed to be a bad place to him. Bad decision on my part!
He started to explain his reason and it seemed like an eternity. He reminded me of my grandfather and his long lectures. Oh the humanity, those were the worst days of my early childhood summers. My focus returned back and I turned my gaze towards the old man. Thinking back, it would have been easier just to punch him when he insulted me the first time. Irritated, I did nothing, but listen and nod waiting for him to finish his futile reasoning. His words were not going to persuade me otherwise since my mind was already set on Okaya. Regardless of what he said or did I was going to there.
“Okay so Okaya is not paradise and maybe it might have a whole lot of bad people, but I still have to go,” I mumbled rudely.
He looked at me straight in the eye after breathing heavily for a few seconds. It was a stare down and I wasn’t going to yield and lose. I hated losing as much as I hated piranhas and water.
“You don’t get it do you?” he said sarcastically. “Somehow I saw your future and it’s not going to be pretty in the end.”
I didn’t really believe in destiny or all that other stuff. I believed in free will and choices.
“Sorry old man, but I’m going to Okaya regardless,” I responded with a confident voice.
I won the stare down and he yielded. He moved back and went to one of the guards lying on the floor unconscious. He picked up something and handed it to me.
“When the time comes you will know what to do,” he said going back to the others. “In the meantime stay with us over night and celebrate our freedom with a feast.”
He handed me a smoke canister and I put it my pocket. I trusted his words and I don’t know why though. That night we feasted hard and pretty much ate all the food left by the fleeing merchants. Strangely the remaining mist did not seem to affect us at all. There was a lot of food left surprisingly after the wormhole had destroyed most of the city. I don’t know how, but a majority of us captives had survived, a true wonder. The guards on the other hand, not so lucky, only a few of them remained. It honestly did not make any sense. What could have summoned such a deadly force of nature? The old man knew something about it and I figured it was time to ask him.
“Hey old man,” I said shaking him, he didn’t reply as he was busy eating.
He had no manners at all. And the way he ate made most of us lose our appetite. He went through eight bowls of artilos rice in a matter of seconds. I could’ve sworn he was choking, but I was wrong it was just small burps. Thankfully, I had filled up my stomach a minute ago, but just seeing him eat almost made me puke it out.
“Okay that’s enough Ken,” one of the men said going towards him. “You are going to make us throw up if you keep eating like that.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. But I’m glad I didn’t because of what happened next. As the man was going to take the chunk of meat away from the old man’s hand, he was lashed out by a strong fast wind and fell unconscious on the ground. Everyone fell silent, but then started laughing. I was confused about what had just happened, but it seemed like the old man had just kicked him. I was almost certain of that.
“He was a new guy,” a woman spoke. “He didn’t know that you should never get between Ken and his food.”
They were laughing hard, and I found this case hardly worth amusing. Their sense of humor was degrading. It seemed I had mixed up with another bunch of fools. Why was my luck so bad? They acted just like my father’s friends at an eating banquet. Eating with Rogueans was like being in a war zone. A simple thing like taking extra meat could upset the entire hall and create uncontrolled riots. It’s still a mystery how Rogue was still standing after everything that went on inside the country. After all the food was finished the older man or Ken as they called him finally relaxed and looked around. His belly looked like a balloon and to my amazement he could stand. He walked right over to the man he had kicked and apologized, I seriously doubted the man heard it though.
“So you had a question for me?” Ken said picking up the unconscious man and putting him next to the warm fire. I was frightened to ask stupid questions because it seemed he was one of those people with a very short fuse of a temper so that meant I had to pick my word wisely.
“Yes just one in particular. How did you know about that wormhole’s appearance?” I asked moving back a little away from him.
This man was unpredictable, he could hit me too if I wasn’t too careful. But he didn’t act hostile towards my question. I guess he was just a maniac when it came towards food. Perhaps spending too much time without eating could do that to a man. Ken sat down next to the fire and tempered with it a bit.
“I just knew, you could call it a hunch,” he responded.
Hunch! I doubted that if it was hunch. Then how come I couldn’t do it too?
“My one guess is that it was Katarina Fox,” he said looking me in the eye. “That evil woman is up to no good again. Something tells me she is in Okaya.”
Katarina Fox! I didn’t like the sound of that. As a member of the Rainku, rumors said she was the most ruthless and sinister. Her trident could control time and space, a truly frightening power indeed. With a power like that, the world was in grave danger of being destroyed if she felt like it. Okaya now seemed like a very bad idea. I knew that going there would spell grave danger for me; however, I had to go. Clearly, there was something wrong with Tye’s head. Why did he pick Okaya of all countries in the world?
“Take a deep breath,” I inhaled slowly to control my thoughts.
I had to overcome my cowardice for the sake of my friends and meet them in Okaya. Pondering about the uncertainty wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I heard the night creatures screech and realized it was past midnight. It was time to sleep, Okaya was a two days travel by foot and I had to get some rest. I said good night to everyone and fell asleep. It felt good to close my eyes finally because they had been irritating me all day.
4
“Riyo,” a whispering voice called from within the shadows, I found myself in darkness with nothing to see.
Great gold! What is that? Something started to glow up in front of me. It was a well with water pouring inside. I was bedazzled at first, but then I walked towards it. Honestly, I was scared to say the least since I had no idea what I was going to find. I peeked inside the well and to my amazement there a golden sphere inside the water. Extending my right arm inside, I tried to reach for it; however, it was too far inside the well. Somehow, I was pulled in by an unknown force and fell deep into the well. I held my breath for a couple of seconds, but then realized I could breathe inside by accident. Another weird dream, I was really getting tired of them. It was rather very spacious and the water ever warm. My ideal type of bathing water if I ever decided to take a bath. As a child, I had a traumatic experience with water and piranhas and it was something I didn’t like to talk about. Trust me!
The glowing sphere got closer the more I
sunk deep into the well. Looking closely, it was engraved in with diamonds and was somehow smaller up close. I reached my hand and grabbed to examining it closely. There were words engraved near the middle.
It said, “courage is power.”
Not exactly what I was expecting and I didn’t understand what that all meant. After all, I was never good at deciphering hidden messages. The glowing sphere moved out of my hand on its own and entered my right hand containing the gauntlet. My eyes widened as I panicked a little. I didn’t expect this to happen again, but why not. It was probably not the last bizarre thing to happen to me for another month, let alone a day. That being said, I felt different somehow. Like my body had been given new life and strength. The feeling was exciting and at the same time scary. I slowly raised my arm up as I felt a tingle from where the gauntlet had sunk. The two tattoos of guns moved away from each other and a black circle appeared in the middle. Seriously! If I gained more tattoos on my hand I was going to chop it off with any hesitation.
“Now what,” I sighed as I felt something move in the water.
Strange, the well became cloudy and dark. I quickly swum out of it while I could still see the light above me and got out. Oddly enough, my clothes were not wet. Normally, I would panic, but not this time. This time I was calmer for some reason. Supernatural events were happening around me and if I tried to explain them my mind would shatter definitely. Everything faded suddenly and I woke up. It wasn’t real as I had suspected, just another dream. All the captives had left and there were no remaining people except for me. It was dawn in the morning and the citizens of Rigudaya were approaching from ten miles away. I don’t know how I saw that, but I did. I could not remain here when they came. Slaves had no rights when they were captured and thankfully for me I had not been branded yet. Right next to me was a black horse. It had been saddled and tied well to a broken post. I had to thank Ken and others one day if I ever saw them. They had saved me two days’ worth of walking. Quickly I got on and rode the horse out of Rigudaya swiftly making haste for Okaya. The horse sped through vast forest along the eastern road, without any delay.
The sky was blue and the sun shined ever brighter. I kept thinking about what I had seen in my previous dream.
“Courage is power?”
What did that mean at all? It seemed it was no ordinary dream. And what was the golden sphere that had appeared from that mysterious well? All this meant something, but what exactly? Something in my gut told me I had stumbled upon a power far much greater than myself. I couldn’t take it off as it had sunk on my hand permanently. My body seemed happier by this as it seemed to resonate with new a life force. The horse which I named “Tom” to help me through my loneliness seemed to be spooking out a lot. Naming horses? I was really a forlorn man. Suddenly, I was feeling something too crawling within the shadows. I never got vibes this bad before, it felt like I could sense everything around me. I looked around and saw nothing following me. People avoided using this route in or out of the country because of its many great legends. They used to say anyone who went to Okaya through this road was never found again. It was true but to what extent? I could feel a killing intent in the air as I rode my horse to Okaya. Something or someone was following us, I had felt this strange presence since I left Rigudaya. Looking back I was surprised, two treasure dogs from before were right on my tail. They moved stealthy in the dark without making much of a sound in their wake. I thought I had lost them, but apparently I was wrong. Their presence masked the aura of whatever had been following us. It was good to see that they had not lost interest; however, their efforts would be futile because I was on a horse. Kicking Tom made him go faster, his speed was incredible and we were covering a lot of distance. But strangely the distance between me and the dogs seemed to dwindle. They were running even faster than before. Were they holding back their speed before? I felt inferior and down, even dogs didn’t feel like taking me seriously. That was enough! I grew tiresome of the relentless aggravation. A surge of anger burst inside me as I looked back and growled. They were becoming a nuisance indeed. Irrationally, I stopped Tom from running and got off his back. There was a sword near the saddle which I quickly unsheathed. It was long and thin. The blade was sharp and shiny, clearly a perfect weapon for striking down prey. Tom didn’t wait for me, he had sensed them coming and took off ahead.
“Come on companion,” I yelled to my horse. “You can’t’ leave me please.”
He stopped and looked at me once, I couldn’t read his thoughts but the expression on his face seemed to say, “so long buddy I’m not staying to be dog chow.”
With that one look, he turned around and ran at menacing speed forward. I hoped I would meet him up ahead, but for now I had unfinished business to attend to. The dogs finally stopped and started circling around me. It seemed they had picked up another buddy who surprised me from the back. It was another treasure dog most likely from Rigudaya. Its size was massive and the teeth ever menacing and long. The dogs seemed to be checking or sizing me out. I don’t know what kind training they had been given, but I could tell that this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. My legs felt sleepy and my back hurt from riding on the saddle all day. I knew this wasn’t the time to whine, but take action and strike. Grabbing the sword firmly, I readied myself for their attack. These weren’t normal dogs, the first dog attacked me while his pals waited not making a move. It seemed they were studying my movements before they could join in. Tilting on my hills, I swerved out of the way and placed all my weight into my left leg. The jaws of the first dog narrowly missed my neck by an inch. It wasn’t going to be easy for them to kill me. I had been trained as a child and knew all the six techniques accustomed to the warriors of Rogue. Father had prepared me well in case a situation beyond my control ever arose, I guess this was it. My defense still needed work, but against these mutts it was enough. After carefully circling around me one more time they all attacked. Their speed was far beyond that of a normal canine and in their eyes showed the intent to kill. Even if I gave them the gauntlet I doubted they would just take it and leave. My flesh seemed to be their next meal from the looks of it. They were one of the reasons why no one ever stole from the Rainku. Again, I felt another presence nearby and it vanished instantly. It was the same feeling I had felt before the treasure dogs had appeared. I was so eager to know who or what it was. Since my departure from Rigudaya, I had somehow acquired great sight and ability to sense things nearby. I could not explain how, it just happened instinctively. My one guess, it had something to do with that strange mist we had encountered before. In the nick of time, I spaced back to reality and realized I was still in a pickle. The dogs were acting odd and bizarre. They were also glowing a strange dark aura of blue in color. This had to be the work of a Rainku weapon. Without warning, one of the dogs grabbed a hold of my foot and didn’t let go. It was painful and my leg was going numb. In agony, I jabbed the dog in the head as hard as I can with the sword. There was no blood that appeared on it, instead it shined brightly and vanished. The other two dogs managed to grab hold of my arms and were pulling me in opposite direction. That was some team work, I congratulated them for finding a weakness in my stance, but this wasn’t good for me. They had me pinned good. My muscles were being stressed as they kept pulling as hard as they could.
“This is not good,” I said to myself.
I had a good run, it looked like this was the end. There was no way to get free. My life looked like it was being pulled away from me. I struggled to get free, but my arms wouldn’t budge. The presence I was feeling started to get closer and closer. I only saw a shadow in an instant and it vanished. One of the treasure dogs let go and vanished into blue light. With that opportunity, I used my free hand to strike down the other dog on its back.
As I took a breath of air I thought to myself “what just happened?”
I had been helped by someone, but whom? It seemed that someone had been following me and I owed them my life. My leg felt num
b, but at least the treasure dogs had completely gone for now.
With this as an act of war? The Rainku would not take the matter lightly. I had to go into hiding and what was a better place than Okaya.
“Ken told me you might need some help, but I didn’t think you would be this pathetic,” a voice said from the back. “Your defense is too weak.”