CHAPTER 4
GENOCIDE ON ANDRIL
It was a half-moon night in the kingdom of Aduka, the Province of Andril was quiet, her inhabitants had retired to their various homes praying to survive the Half-moon, it was a period that was lethal to every werewolf, it was another mistletoe these nights, and they usually lose their abilities till after midnight.
A progression of the royal warriors stormed the city in their horses and chariots numbering in their hundreds wielding weapons made from silver, the first Calvary pulled a large container with the aid of chariots, they held big pipes that were connected to the large container, and they spray its contents into the air.
Dying Screams from every corner, 'Mistletoes'. The King had commanded total extermination of the Andril tribesmen, and this was the only way they could win the war, a sudden attack on their enemy's weakest point.
The populace of Andril dropped dead one after the other as they inhaled the mistletoes in the atmosphere, to be sure that the plans were completely executed without mistakes, the warriors slashed and carved out the hearts of every corps they found using their silvery weapons because werewolves were supernatural beings and can only die when their heart is exhumed or stabbed with a silverware.
Daluo Aliozo, a chief Elder of Andril, a man in his early 60s though way younger than in his physical appearance than his age, shoved over to a bed where a young child lay breathing hard, blood trickling from his nose and ears, Daluo quickly pulled out the mask that covered his face and put it over the young child's face, the young child was Obikeh, he didn't understand what was going on, he stared in total confusion. He watched the tears that escaped his father's eyes.
"Papa are we going to die?" He asked in his childish but scared voice.
"Not at all Obikeh," Doluo said trying to draw breath, "we will be fine, we shall be completely fine" he stammered as he coughed out, he was beginning to feel the effect of the mistletoes without his mask.
"But you're dying, the mistletoe is killing you, it's killing everyone, mama is dead, everyone is dying!" He cried.
"Listen, my son, the king has ordered our execution, they thought we were the culprits committing genocides on other tribes," he coughed hard blood trickling from his nose.
"Obikeh you must run and hide, you are the only chance of survival of our true bloodline, you must go to your Odinya in Tygaria, tell her I sent you, serve her well, do you understand?". He included as he drew back, he had endured for a long time, he could not continue, his longs were now full and his breath had critically ceased, he fell to the ground wriggling in pain.
The sounds of Troops of warriors approaching the house began to draw nearer, Obikeh cried over his father and mother who lay motionless, he then stood up and huddled through the window, he was weak but thanks to the mask which his father had given him, it protected him from the effect of the mistletoe.
The warriors stormed into the house and found Daluo and his wife lying lifeless, a warrior jabbed his spear directly to their chests shattering and depleting their hearts, satisfied with their accomplishments they receded.
The warriors carried every corps they could find and stacked them in the village square and set them ablaze.
"Send a message to the king, tell him that I Ok'Agha Aduka have curbed the menace of the Andril people forever," Aduka spoke as he smirked wickedly, he knew he had wrought and unsalvageable sacrilege in the king's name.
*******
The King sat on his throne as his cabinet gathered, there was sadness in the room, and the king's face was cascaded in affliction, he sprang to his feet angrily and walked to Aduka who stood before him and slapped him several times across the face.
"How dare you?" the king spoke out in anger. "how could you do a terrible thing like that, why do you take laws into your hands?" he spat further and strode back to his seat and sat in wrath. He was devastated as the news of the genocide came to him, he never issued any orders, Aduka had acted on his own will, and he wanted to prove how worthy he was to rule as King better than his brother, he grinned angrily as the slap smacked him across the face, he could have attacked the king if he was in a position to do so publicly.
"I owe anyone no apology for my actions, I did what needed to be done, I stopped a daring threat, a threat that will not spare any of us if allowed to escalate," Aduka spoke firmly.
"You must be mad, ethnic cleansing was never the solution, there are other ways to solve this problem, you heartlessly murdered a whole tribe, our last wall of defence, who does that?"
"Oh, I see," Elder. Tora spoke up. "So in your quest to keep your last line of defence intact, you chose to endanger the rest of us? Pathetic!.
"Shut up before I order my guards to serve your head to your tribesmen" the king barked.
"I insist your Majesty" ELDER EKANA an elder representing the JABI province in the king's honourable cabinet spoke up his vexation. "Maybe you are truly weak as your brother insinuated earlier, it is stated that an elder cannot be at home and watch the goats deliver its child while being tied to a pole. ADUKA did the right thing, at least our fears are now over". He concluded.
"what fears? This is complete nonsense! Have you lots lost your sanities? When did you Elders of this lands forgo sound reasoning and chase after your fears, okay step up then and take the seat of the tribes you exterminated in this circle?" The King rebuked.
"Ehe ehe!" Elder Iruka of the AGASI province cleared his throat calling everyone's attention to himself. "Your majesty, there is one thing you must know, our people say that a stitch in time saves nine, your brother ADUKA acted like a man, he had nibbled this issue in the bud, hence we no longer have any fears towards these powerful beings".
"Arrant nonsense! Your senses have been upturned, my judgement, ADUKA you have by my declaration today sentenced to probation of 5 years in prison coupled with severe punishment, for no one spills innocent blood in my kingdom, under my watch and hope to go scot-free, not even you, my brother, NEVER!" he jabbed his OFO upon his hand rest consolidating his verdict forever.
ADUKA jolted and moved swiftly towards The king but stopped on his track, he knew it was treason and a felony if he attacked the king physically and it comes with more severe punishment. He robbed his head throwing down his princely crown. The warriors ceased him and dragged him away.
CHAPTER 5
DREAMWALKING
Little Olaedo lacked nothing, her life was the life of an angel, all she could afford to do by herself was sleep and wake up, all she wanted was brought to her at her command without delay, and the king made sure she was comfortable.
But as it is often said "Fate is but a defacer of man" most times, it turned out that the princess was the direct opposite of her father in many ways, she was arrogant, wicked, lazy and greedy, she would trample on people for little mistakes, she wouldn't take corrections from anyone and would let hell lose whenever she felt insulted, her life was a life of solitude, hunted every night in her dreams, she had no friends, she opted to stay by herself because she felt that everyone was scheming to hurt her, the terrible nightmares may have ruptured her mind, hallucination was also a greater part of her life, she perceived everyone as a daring enemy.
The princess sprang up from her bed in terror, peering into the dark haze that encircled her, she rescinded from two shady figures that had taken form from the mist, hovering and staring down at her in her sleep, the figures loomed aggressively, their eyes glittering like burning embers, they were shadowy and smoking, their mouth opened wide unleashing deafening screams through their protracted fangs that shattered the local crystals that shielded the princess. She freaked out, screamed and attacked her assailants viciously, what seemed to be a 'warriors wrath', she could still see them lurking in great darkness, they were beings of great evil, of dark clouds, they raged against her and she fought them back fiercely, she leapt out of her confines pouncing at one of the invading spirits, countering it's intangibility and smashed it upon the walls, she reached out for her work that lay nearby and swung it for a final strike, her hand ceased and couldn't move, she pulled hard and screamed, she struggled to get free to no avail, her body was restricted by what seemed to be the grip of 10 men, she cried out loud as the spirit pulled back from her unharmed.
"My dazzling Princess, put yourself together" she heard a voice that seemingly belonged to her father, she didn't want to fall for it because she was surrounded by darkness and the dark spirits that attacked her were still lurking in the corners, she fought harder to free herself but couldn't.
"Olaedo" the voice came stronger. "Calm down at once, you are safe with me now" this was her father's voice, she had no choice but to listen.
"Wake up now, wake up" the voice entreated, she finally succumbed to the voice and opened her eyes and to her utmost bafflement she found herself in her room being pulled back by her father, helpless Ebene was crawling on the ground away and helplessly from her, Iyocha, on the other hand, was scared to death, she couldn't even move, if not for the timely intervention of the king someone could have been murdered. She quickly threw down the knife she had in hand as she dictated the dread in the eyes of her maids, she had picked it up subconsciously from the tray with which the maidens came to serve her food, she regretted knowing that she had been hallucinating, she fell into her father's strong grip and wailed.
"you're safe now, you're fine my daughter" the king comforted her as he caress her tender hair.
"I am scared papa" she muttered, "I could have killed her" she blabbed further.
"But you didn't my love, did you? you'll be fine my dear" the king comforted her lovingly.
*******
Time flies the once little Princess had grown, she is quickly becoming a woman, at 17 years old princess was a lover of nature and landscapes, oftentimes she would sneak out of the castle to the outskirts of the kingdom to enjoy the view of the beautiful plains and forests and the stormy breeze and soothing essence they spawn, accompanied by two guards whom she would constantly threaten to blackmail if they refused to do her bidding, she had done some today and had come to see the eastside forest.
The forest was very beautiful transferring this nostalgic feeling down her spine. The guards watched her while she ran around and played with nature itself, she would scoot after butterflies and frogs, times like this were usually her best moments, because this activity helped her snap out of doldrums and depression.
The guards Ojoko a dark and hefty man in his late 30s and Izuko a young brave guard were busy discussing and also relishing the appeasing atmospheric aura stemming from the forest. they failed to notice when the princess wandered off, a deafening scream pulled them back to their senses, they searched but couldn't find the princess, the scream resonated again, this voice unmistakably belonged to the princess, they dashed fiercely towards the noise, they busted into a beast that chased after the princess, the beast withdrew from them and pounced into a nearby thicket, the princess who had fallen and recoiled in panic was called alive again by Izuko.
"My princess?" Ojoko asked
"Dogs, they are after me. help me!"
"There's nothing to fear my princess, we are here to protect you". Izuko assured.
At Izuko's words a huge dog-like animal stormed out of the thicket and stared at them hungrily, it was a mighty Alpha wolf, the eastside forest was known to harbour dangerous beasts such as these wolves, The guards lost their composure at the sight of the beast, they began to panic.
"That's a wolf" screamed Izuko.
"And they do not hunt alone" Ojoko chipped in making their situation very obvious to the princess, She was lost in the whole scenario, the guards lifted their spears in preparation for an imminent attack.
"What does this mean?" the Princess queried as she trembled.
"It means We are being circled". Ojoko answered
The guards reached a non-verbal agreement, this was the point where their primary duty to protect the royal blood against all odds kicked in.
"My princess this way". Izuko directed her as they flee, Ojoko stood back to wade off the beast, the wolf stared calmly at them, it didn't bulge when Izuko and Olaedo made their move, it howled loudly calling together its pack, Ojoko's bravery was second to none, he stood his own against the invading beasts, he had been awarded many titles from his previous accomplishments, such as Ogbuagu, Ogbuenyi and other great titles. He was a skilled spear user trained by great warlords of the Azukah Kingdom. He attacked the beasts fearlessly...
Meanwhile, Izuko fled with the Princess to get her as far away as possible from the endearing beasts. They soon reached the foot of mount Kaborh but to their shock, they had run into the midst of more wolves, the pack had taken over that route, waiting hungrily for any intruder, it was too late and there was nothing Izuko could do except to defend the Princess with his life.
"Seems as if there is no escape for us today, I don't want to die" the princess cried out.
"I'll protect you, my princess, stay behind me" he spoke as he readied for battle.
The wolves prepared to attack as they studied Izuko's stance, trying to pinpoint a weakness or fear from him, Izuko didn't flinch nor panic, he held on firmly to his sword awaiting any of the beasts who would attack first.
Sudden a burning branch of a tree came from behind the wolves, as though a work of a sorcerer, the flaming tree approached them, its heat getting more intense, the wolves smelt the heat as it drew closer and ran for their dear lives. A young farm boy nearing his 18th year, OBIKEH laughed out loud and booed at the wolves in an adventurous victory.
"Ooh.. Bloodsuckers! bad news for you all today, there shall be no dinner".
He paraded himself valiantly, taking pride in his accomplishment, he then veered around to the people he just saved awaiting honours but was in disbelief when he recognised the Princess and her royal guard.
"My princess!" he blurted out excitedly, "What are you doing out here in the wild?" he asked.
"Uhmm... None of your business, farm boy". In truth, the princess never gave a deep thought about this strange farm boy, but there was something about him that usually seemed off, the glint in his eyes, his radial personality, she remembered what she saw back at the top of Mount Kaborh, it felt so real, though she believed that her hallucinations had greater control over what she perceived. though poor still he does not seem to be perturbed by it. He talks boldly without fear or shyness, his personality appeals to the princess though she would rather die than accept this fact.
"Hahaha, you recognised me, I guess you were destined to always get into trouble and here I am, destined to be the hero who would always come to your rescue, yoohoo!" Obikeh screamed in his youthful voice, a village myth and also a talkative most times, a farm boy who grew under the tutelage of his Odinya the famous dabbler folklorist while taking care of his father sheep's and farmlands after his death. His personality was somewhat questionable, his ability to reach the princess whenever she was in danger made it seem as though he stalked her, he does not care much about hierarchy and therefore sees and speaks to everyone in the same manner, including members of the royal house.
"you filthy thing, do not raise your hope of getting such a shot at saving me next time"
"I suggest we get out of her before these animals regroup and return to finish their hunt," the guard said in an attempt to end their arguments.
"You heard him"
"Alright, alright, my chakra of fear to the beasts still burns brightly, I'll guide you two out of this forest in no time". Obikeh led the way and They followed him through the mountain and into the city.