At first shilla didn't know where she was until her long morbid sleep faded into lucidity.
But the heavy pain at one part of her head kept her pressed to the cold wet ground in the dingy dark vacuum.
Only one eye managed to open. The other couldn't, and she didn't know whether it's the right or the left, for everything seem to turn upside down even in the darkness.
She heard a voice. A woman's voice. " help her sit her up. She is an honored guest. A juicy bait for the panther scum," Tiana spat with spite.
Shilla remembered the voice. They had fought in battle. She is the princess of the gorilla clan, from the house of king Kong. Although this people looked nothing like apes. But are a tall bunch.
And the height of this princess had been what saved her from the furoucity of Shilla on the day of the last gorilla battle.
"Give her some water. I want her throat wet enough to be able to speak" Tiana said, breaking her knuckles in the darkness. perhaps to scare the cat woman.
A guard brought water to the umoving lips of Shilla. She strained to command her lips move. The sting felt raw, it bite its way into her brain and skull. But she managed a few sips to wet her blocked gullet.
The water did its magic as it went down. A new life seeping into her, reminding her she is still alive.
"What a pleasure to have you here pantheress. There is no honor in this, I know, but I have to do this." Tiana said, and pressed hard on the injured part of Shilla's head, triggering a deafening bellow from her quivering mouth.
Shilla gasped for air, and pull at her bonded wrist. The handcuffs bite into her flesh, and she bury her self in the pain.
"that is for the blow to my father's head from the stone you casted. How did you manage a feat like that? from that distance? benefits for being a panther I guess. Okay, we will find about how best you can cook great feats under awakening pleasures I have in store for you….".
She got to to work on the same bloody spot on the side of Shilla's head once again and this time Shilla truly believe she wouldn't make back to consciousness, but the gorilla princess seem to know what she was doing.
After that much pain however, Shilla found the agony eased to a mild rythm. he overheated throbbing mind, becoming more alive.
"Oh, how I love this game. I know you're liking it. That is the intention. You should thank me for giving you this much ectasy. Now that you're fully awake, I will start with my questions...who is he? Where has he come from? Is he the hybrid, and the alpha panther in the traditions of your people?"
"The question should be; what is he doing on this islands?"
"no, I want to know what makes the man thick. He is already here, and intend to stay from the what I've seen,"Tiana replied curtly.
"Yes, he is the alpha. The first to taste the bite of the makilla… our Lord and deliverer," Shilla answered with a genuine pride Tiana found subtly disarming.
"You are all bonded to him….", Tiana asked animatedly as her mind, by it's own accord, defying her iron clad resolve never to remember the last battle ever again, travel back to that gloomy doomsday for her clan.
In battle, the man and his warrior maidens were moving in a unified whole in a shifting evolving technical stratagem, leaving devastating effect s as it's tentacles spreads abroad into the heart of the gorilla stronghold.
Even when they did broke into factions, mid way in the battle, they were still linked together in an invisible flexible chain.
The savagery was unlike anything she did ever seen, it had been so damn bloody. Men were eaten alive.
Tiana blocks the horror from her mind, as fear grip her presence of mind. She must find a way to handle the most dangerous man on this island.
"You know he is coming…." Shilla said icelly, with a forced bloody grinned.
"That's what I want him to do, you are the bait he would risk his life to have. I want him to come storming this place."
Tiana watched as Shilla cracked another stiffen grin.
"Oh, what is a puky look you have on your face, princess. I think you already know what you are dealing with? This man is not my mate. But he shall come. Like a thunder cloud, he shall come."
It was tiana turn to laugh a laugh that never settled on her belly, for the fear boiled like lava in her stomach.
This was the difficult part; but tiana has no option left, she has to make this decision once and for all, that's the only way she can save her people, perhaps save herself from Akilli.
Tiana feels another presence in the room. Shilla senses it too… it is an aura she knows so well growing up in the house of lord Agna among the five Panther lords.
After her human father have disserted her and her mother, and her mother turned, lord Agna was the closest thing to a guardian…..
But she knew she did fallen out when after the curse was subverted, she still stick with kuga.
Shilla had her hands bleeding behind her after she did free her hands but was still playing along in the darkness.
The young man drew himself closer to Shilla in the dark room and picked up a chair to sit beside Tiana.
"How have been Shilla?" The voice was raspy like always.
"How do you do brother?"
"I am not you brother." He hissed coolly.
"To me you've always been," Shilla said honestly.
"He killed father… they said he ate his heart, sitting on his bloody throne."
Tiana clutched at her mouth, trying not to puke, or remember scenes in the battle field she did pushed away from her mind.
They have to stop this monster who seem to relished the heart of strong willed men.
Prince Agna was still saying; "now you are the price for his actions! And I will use you to make him pay…."
Shilla wouldn't doubt that. Agna had always been cruel.
"She has lied to me that she is not his mate…." Tiana said.
"All of you are his mates, Shilla. You and your sisters, you bonded to him by blood," Agna added.
Shilla laughed; "trust me, the man care about no one. Not me, absolutely no one. He is a one man law." By now, Shilla had her hands freed from the cuffs.
"Then, I am glad. I will have you all to myself," Agna offered.
Tiana stood up and left the chamber. She had played her part. Prince agna is the only one she knew, who has the power to bring the hybrid down.
This way she could extricate herself from the scene, and watch how it will all unfold from here on. Allying her self with an evil to eliminate a much greater evil.
Shilla didn't like to never be left alone with this man, because he did try to rape her several times in the house of Agna when she lived there in her fifteens heading for her twenties.
Agna drew his chair closer, and run his sharp claws on her smooth jawline…. He lowed his heard to her ear level and whispered, while licking her ear loop;
"Don't worry my dear, Shilla. I will take good, care of you… I have always fantasied about us doing more than this," Agna cajoled.
Shilla clench away in revulsion. But Agna was getting too possessive. She didn't hesistate as she grab him by the back of the neck, drawing him closer to her and taking him by the ear.
Anga tried to break free but the fangs only sinked deeper, and he snarled, as his claws bite deed into the side of Shilla's belly right above the kidney.
By fortune, Shilla's right thumb finger found its way into Agna's eye.
Shilla pressed hard, and her thumb nail sink in deeper into the eyeball.
Tiana and the guards heard the shrills from Agna on the outside and they sped into the room. This time they lighted the room with lanterns hanging on the wall.
The two interlocking bodies had their fangs and claws buried in each other on several places, but Agna came out worse off, as the guards fasten the wrist of Shilla again.
She was exhausted from loss of blood, but no one showed up in the room again as the shackled her in chains this time.
It was only then she realized the extend of her predicament.