The sound of a heartbeat drumming at a steady pace into her alarmed ears
warm hard flesh in contact with her lukewarm soft skin.
An alien smell in the cool morning air, the silent night music replaced by that of day.
As though to be sure it's not a dream, Dreeda pop one eye open, "What on earth…" she murmured and sat up on top of Jhanka.
The next thing she saw made her shiver in panic as the uncontrolled shrill escaped her mouth, causing the black savages in masquerades surrounding them with spears to back off in response, widening the circle they had had form around the couple.
Jhanka woke up slowly, although the frighten shriek from the woman is piercing and deafening.
He sat up cuddling Dreeda like a baby on his laps. Dreeda placed her head on his chest, aftershocks still rippling through her body. Her hysteric seems not to subside though. Only few can stand the Npunga in their war armor.
Jhanka didn't pay any attention to the Npunga warriors surrounding them, he did be expecting them, he was not scared of them or what they will do to him, but the way they frighten Dreeda made him so angry.
He run his hands through Dreeda's hair, crooning and soothing, reassuring her of his presence and sworn protection. Dreeda calmed down but kept her eyes closed, not wanting to look up.
Now Jhanka shifted his full attention to the coffee brown naked savages in breechcloths.
standing in a combative stance.
These men are not here to kill him, in fact; most them are scared of him…. they knew who he is, and they remembered how he fights in battle, no savage can stand that…. most of them were wearing their masquerades. Now he understands why Dreeda got so frighten when she first set eyes on them.
"Ghandaa; where are you? don't you hide now coward, come out and face the prey, or has the predator now become prey? Oh! Filthy bastard of Npunga do not hide now show your face, tell your men the truth about your enmity towards me; tell them about the battle of Wagara where I got you right under my sword but speared your life…tell them why you hate me so" Jhanka spoke in plain Cygon dialect.
The Npunga warriors have their dark eyes zoom in on Dreeda, mouths gawking in sheer amazement. Part of the circle of men parted and gave way to a tall huge bulk of a man with a prominent belly, his thick bald head reflecting the faint morning sunlight like a mirror, in between his two small poky red eyes without lashes molded a large flat nose barely touching his thick dark lips. His ears were so small; you could barely see any, the man wreak of death and terror, a package his prowess thrive.
He walked into the circle and stood right in front of Dreeda and Jhanka, fixating his eyes on Dreeda in pure fascination, "wonders do exist in the world" he beamed in his heart. Jhanka whispered to Dreeda "hold yourself together, we are in the hands of the enemy now, but do remember they will not do you no harm as long as I am alive.
Ghandaa signaled to some of his men to come and take the woman from Jhanka. Jhanka didn't fight back, he simply let go of Dreeda. The men put Dreeda on a comfortable makeshift gun carriage and carry her up, each man holding one edge. Some of them came closer and robbed their hands on Dreedas skin to be sure it's no coated with a white coloring but realized her complexion is quite natural.
Ghandaa looked down at Jhanka and kick him hard in the face, "you! swine, I have more important plans for you at Npunga, for that I shall be patient, ah! Slow pain inflects on the enemy taste the sweetest, and time is all I have, oh! Accursed prince, thou will prefer the flames of the hellish cave to what I have to offer" Ghandaa said in a wicked smile, his sinister tiny dull eyes locking gazes with Jhanka as he signaled different set of his men to seize the him. The men hesitated before lifting Jhanka from the ground, helping him to stand up. Jhanka wiped his bleeding nose quietly and they started their journey towards Npunga.
Left on to Ghandaa; he would have killed the man right there by the river, but that will be dangerous for his ambition of becoming king. Bondaa came and spilled the beans right in front of everyone. Had the man communicated to only him, he will have find a way to eliminate him and come and finish off Jhanka…. And since Jhanka was already a dead man, who will bother looking for him.
But things have become so complicated, his own men admire the crown prince of Zanka, a man with the reputation of uniting the four tribes of Cygon, something even his predecessors couldn't do, not even Tygon. And the only way to kill the man will be to defeat him in a fixed hand to hand battle he can never win, after which he will send him to his grave. But, before all that he had to torture, and drain from him all power, les he still dies a reigning hero.
Dreeda begun to relax her tense muscles on the way to Npunga; she was grateful she is not walking because she couldn't, she felt bruised all over, her swollen feet dangling at the edge of the gun carriage. Jhanka was close by, surrounded by the Npunga warriors in all direction, assegai ready to attack in case he makes any unexpected move. So many was their number, Dreeda couldn't tell how many.
Jhanka stood tall among them; his look serene and distant, his well refine features a sharp contrast to the dishevel plumb features of the slime Npunga scum, with face painted in grotesque disarray of voodoo cartoonish features. Are they even human? Dreeda wondered, she had read about savage tribes in Africa, but nothing as bizarre as this, extra ordinary is the summery of her whole experience.
They were passing through thick dark forests, caves and under groves, crossing streams and rivers running through valleys as they climb and descend hills and mountains. There were Few settlements here and there, and the grey sky turned gloomy shielding all traces of the sun rays so that one couldn't guess the time of the day.
Dreeda drifted between wakefulness and sleep, the air gave off a foreboding feeling of judgement day as the sound of drums mixed bizarre symphony of sounds field the thick air, hooting and whaling, cry of distress and misery, laughing; hysterical laughing and howling, the cry of babies and children, cry of women in labor copulated with the cry of ecstasy. Dreeda fixated her gaze in the gloomy sky seeking solace, scared to take a look around, for she is certain they have entered a vast settlement of some sort.
The smell of roasted flesh filled the air, the stench of blood and rotten flesh so strong; smoke emanating from different directions, as the hawks and vultures fly in the sky looking down predatory, scavenging for the next meal.
Dreeda looked around curiously for the first time and wish she hadn't, as naked men and women carrying children in hand come out from holes in the mountains enclosing the path on both sides, at the far end a distance away from the were piles of human skulls and bones, children using some of the jaw bones as swords to spar playfully, oh no; she must be dreaming, she will wake up on her bed back at home in Europe.