Dioha walked into the warehouse. He really had to get into the human settlements,with or without help. After his run in with El and Fae three days ago,he had searched high and low hoping to see them. Three days now and he was no close to finding them, Dioha decided he had to go it alone.
This warehouse was the pick up point where Ngamé immigrants were picked and put in large containers, then ferried across the ocean to a remote village whose boundary was the end of the Ngamé territory. This ocean flowed right from the Ngamé territory into the Human territory though its channels thinned down and branched into several smaller rivers. Using the seas to enter the Human settlements was very risky as oftentimes ships were blown to smithereens once in Human territory. No questions asked. Humans were very paranoid and unreasonable. They feared what they couldn't understand and hated what they couldn't control. Though general knowledge of the Ngamé race was shrouded in secrecy and mystery, humans and their governments had zero tolerance for strangers trying to enter their territory. This prompted the use of large containers where everyone would enter, and under the cloaking spell of a Scavenian, transported through this ocean to Orji river. Before getting to Orji river, the container would have passed the Ngamé Watchdog checkpoint. If the spell wasn't powerful enough, the Watchdogs would discover the Ngamé shipment and place everyone in it or connected to it, under arrest pending trial. Sometimes it was discovered, sometimes not. Of course after succeeding in going past the Watchdogs, one had to go past the Human border patrol. The humans weren't gifted but they relied on technology to scan and filter what came in. And this part of the journey was usually on foot,in the wilds.
Dioha was huddled some place in the dark container. A few torchlights flashed as their wielders tried to either find something, see who they were talking to, or just to drive away the darkness. Everyone spoke in hushed tones as if the rolling sea was also planning to condemn them.
This was the first part of the journey, the hardest part. Fooling Enforcers was hard enough, fooling an entire team of Ngamés with unique skills and trainings in the art of uncloaking, dispelling, and uncovering things was going to be even harder.
The ship sailed on for what must have been two days straight without a single stop. People ate what they'd brought with them into the container. There was a toilet in the container that dumped all the waste directly into the ocean. After two days, the oxygen in the container should have been exhausted but thanks to the ship's crew members who always opened the doors of the container at night. This not only supplied fresh air but it also gave the occupants a sense of time. Though no one was allowed outside the container even at night, the opening of the doors was something people began looking up to. Life rolled by slowly in the container, with everyone having little or nothing to say to anyone.
Dioha and Lanre were mostly quiet throughout the trip, each of them saying nothing so as not to make people suspect or think Dioha was mad. On his path, Dioha noticed Lanre was quieter and faint after the incident in the cave. Since the meditation in the cave, Dioha felt less and less of Lanre. Lanre spoke sparingly since then. Dioha wondered several times what could have happened to him. Since Dioha came out of the Nether Realm he'd tried asking Lanre what happened to him, but all he got was silence. Lanre only spoke when it seemed Dioha was in trouble and needed help. Now Dioha sat in the container, contemplating what next to do. He thought of going back, just head to the Watchers Council and protect her from there. At least Anu, Ogalé's brother, would keep her powers repressed for now. But Dioha knew he would be unable to stay without seeing her. He had to see her, let her gaze fall upon him. She most probably was missing him too, and being surrounded by humans made it all the more confusing and traumatic compared to the society she grew in before.
On the fifth day of voyaging, Dioha finally sensed the ship coming to a halt. There had been several short stops from day 3 up till that moment but those had been for checks by the Watchdogs. They checked from container to container, but of course they usually didn't check all the containers. It would have taken half a day to do that as there were over a hundred containers loaded on this ship. Most of the containers housed actual goods for trade while a few carried illegal materials like charmed items, potions and elixirs, crystal balls, and basically items that the Ngamés had temporarily imbued with power. These items would be passed on to merchants who sold in the black market. Their clients, humans who believed in magic, and Ngamés who had little or no power.
The container was lifted off the ship and unto a truck. There were over a dozen trucks at this new location. This was the final stop. From this point on, the journey was to continue on foot. The trucks after loading up the containers would travel into human territory via the main entrance, the toll gate. This would take a full day to get to. And on foot, two days would be the minimum to get to another part of the border. A part not heavily guarded and easy to slip through. This route and method was preferred to sitting still in the container and hoping to go through the toll gate. The gate was heavily guarded and humans had toys and gadgets for uncovering foul play. They used scanners and heat cartographers to check, and often recorded 100% successes with these techs hence why everyone had to drop at some place, then circumvent the toll gate.
The immigrants were led by 7 guides into the woods. The total number of persons entering the woods was 84. Subtracting 12 guides would sum up the total number of immigrants trying to enter the human settlements. In the woods, nothing worthy of note happened. Till they got to the perimeter of the boundary, that is.
"Careful" some of the guides said almost simultaneously. Dioha noticed they began to be more reserved, eyes kept darting this way and that. And something else. They systematically thinned the line till everyone was almost walking in a straight line. Dioha felt something would go wrong.
'They should tell people why they have to move in a straight line. Attempting to control people's movement without giving them a reason is only going to make some want to break out all the more' Dioha thought. Just as the thought crossed Dioha's mind, a young boy of 17 stepped out of line. The few guards who were behind and saw him break formation couldn't shout and bring him to order. Ever since everyone got into the woods, communication was non existent. The humans had Sound and Motion detectors placed at strategic points. All these, of course within the perimeter. But the Ngamés couldn't tell how far the sound detector could pick up sounds, so to be on the safe side everyone kept quiet once in the woods.
One of the guides, a Scavenian, mimicked an eagle's call in a bid to get the boy's attention. The boy kept going without so much as a glance behind or sideways. The Scavenian decided to run to him. After a few seconds, the guide got to the boy, tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the line. The boy had an earpiece on him. All he blurted out loudly due to the music from his earpiece was, "What?!"
Just that one word, and a hell that would last several hours began.