Fragrance of the panther beckons and teases all five senses in the dark hole leading to the opening.
"What is that smell?" Kogna asked.
"Don't you hurry Kogna, you shall find out soon enough."
"None of this feels good Spooky."
"Nothing we can do to change that, Kogna."
"You lied to me spooky," Kogna said releasing his hold on me and cocking his gun to my head.
"Not before I slit your throat gun man. You saw what happened to the two men back at the house? That was my doing. Now you put that gun away, and leave this place, or follow us to your doom, either way you are doomed."
"You don't have to speak like that to him Ludy, he saved the life of you and your mate. Kogna, please put the gun away, and put your trust in me. I brought you here, and I found your loyalty sacred to me. Stay by my side and it will all turn out well you will see…".
Kogna put the gun away slowly in the holster and raised my arm on his shoulder once again, but I couldn't move anymore.
The pain was so unbearable.
"I can't move." I didn't know where we were heading.
"We have to keep moving Spooky, we are close, can you hear the clan, they awaits you. we are all depending on you now."
"sorry Ruby for all the pain, all the suffering I have caused you. This is too much to bare."
My injured knee was so swollen and heavy with clot of blood and pus. And the slag in my left collarbone seem to have gone berserk as the blood kept seeping through the bandage.
Kogna turned his back to me. "I will carry you on my back Spooky. Hop on."
"you don't understand. I can't move, I really can't move. I am dying. It all made sense." I laughed in tears. This is it. the poison is taking over.
"Stop this nonsense Spooky. You can't die, not here. Not now," Ruby spat and slapped me hard on the face.
She was crying now, as I sat on the floor, gasping for breath. My lungs seem to have this big holes that couldn't hold the air any more.
The spot on my breast where Ruby had bitten was now infested, and turned blue, when Kate on her phone light to inspect it.
"he had been poison," Kate said as she inspects the blue protruding veins that runs from my chest up to my neck, and down all the way to my waist line.
Ruby held unto me crying. Her agony added more pain to my threshing heart.
"no, Makilla. Don't you cry now, my love. I will come back," my sleering voice matched with my delirium.
"it is all my fault; I should never have bitten you. this means I am not the right one. I am not your mate Spooky."
"none sense Ruby. I don't care about this mate thing. All I know is I love you babe…".
"what the hell Spooky. Man, you can't go down like this. I will carry you on my back to the damn place. Ladies, help me carry the man."
I was so lost, I forgot my own name or were I was or the people I was with.
Only my ears seem to function well as the melodies filled my ears from a faraway place out in space from a distant past.
It was the sound from the panther grove. The maidens were singing. The symphony only drew closer and closer.
As I heard it the pain seem to vaporized. I heard Ruby humming to the melody. We were now among a crowd.
The scent of the panther so strong, the music so vibrant.
"lower him to the earth gently, let him heal. Let him heal! Ah, I give to you your king, to whom you swear your allegiance to from the very beginning.
He who defy his own people to give to you a new life. He who had chosen from among you a life mate to subvert the curse of the Makilla.
He, whose progeny brings forth your fore fathers. Kuga the first. The very incarnate of himself. long have you waited for him. Long have you search among the stars, heavens and the earth.
He lives amongst your now, will you dare deny him of his rightful place? who amongst you now will dare challenge his Majesty?" Nebulous said all this in his distinctive melodramatic tones.
The melodies from the maidens never stopped. I was floating in the air levitating to a distant land of my ancestors. I'm I dying? Is this what it means to die?
"Show us the toothless sign, oh misty one? Let us see the toothless sign…"
"yee! yee!yee!"
The voices echo all over the space.
"let him heal in this blessed soil, after which we shall re-converge here to witness the whole truth as it shall manifest itself," Nebulous declared confidently.
"why is he poison by the bite of his mate?" a voice queried.
"he is not even one of us," another added.
"No human can lead us!" a voice shouted and many follow suit.
"many of us are turning, never to return."
"We had enough of humans impersonating us!"
"is that not why we are cursed."
"He is your grandson? Is that why you want him on the throne?"
"Another weakling, just like you?"
"You have failed us!"
"we are doomed! if allow the house of Kuga to rule this great clan"
On and on the accusations mounted. But I couldn't say a word. My tongue felt full and heavy in my mouth as they covered me up in the soil, my head the only exposed part of my body.
I saw Ruby battling her agony. How much more can this woman endure. She seems to tell me something telepathically but we couldn't connect.
She needs someone stronger to protect and shield her from this cruel world and not a wimp like me.
She stood to face the crowd. "many of you know me from the house of Nka, my father. And many of you heard rumors pertaining to my birth…".
The crowd went silent. But Kate was saying, "no! no! ludy, you can't tell them. They don't have to know…"
"no, they have to know the evils of the man, who is the cause of all this…. They have to now the vile thing among the panther clan, that is infecting and killing our people.
That vile thing is my father, he is my grandfather and my great grandfather. Beside me stood my sister, who is also my mother, who is sister to her mother who born her….
This man is an animal. And I am his next victim. He has been able to cheat death, and live for so long among us in the generations of our ancestors down to us.
Lord Agna you know this. what about you lord Kanka? And you lord Pragna. You're all a shame to you clan. You're all scared of this one man.
The house of Kuga is the chosen house to lead us, but out fear you are siding with Nka
who claims to cleanse the blood of our kind with his seed of immortality, and thatvnot why we are cursed…?"
"and who will believe such a fairy tale my dear." Nka seem to have materialize out of thin air. Stuck in the soil, I fought to free myself from my delirium but I felt helpless.
"My dear daughter as you can all see, is perverted by the abhorrent human creature buried under this soil. She is not in her right mind and deserved to be put in chains for treatment. Guards! Take her away from here…"
"Any who dare lays a hand on me shall perish before I am taken anywhere" Ruby roared.
"Father please, you can't do this to her."
"Don't even open your foul mouth Kate. You've failed me and all that our family hold sacred".
"Ludy is not going anywhere father, I won't allow it to happen."
"what confidence you have now my dear, seize her as well." Nka said and inclined towards me but Kogna and Nebulous, stood akimbo, blocking his way with their guns drawn.
the Panther damsels turned and started to snarled wildly.
Kogna exchange a secret look with Nebulous as hell broke loose.