"A package for you my lord… should I open it?" a sweating guard asked the Master of Balkass.
"No, put it in the furnace, let it burn," Nka replied, staring ahead blankly at the crowd of sweating trim muscular men fighting for their lives with their bare hands down below in the pit. Like a Roman emperor, he held the very breath every man on this island breathe.
He owned Balkass and everything in it by the might of his conquest and power. And so is the island of Galmian, where he intends to settle his family once and for all, although it's the most dangerous place to recide because of the other life forces outside the walls. Some called them demons, others refer to them as jinns.
Nka didn't care the hoof about what they're, except that in their lands will his fortress be the safest. He had taken two of their kind and nurture them into his domain as his prodigy, and they have serve him well with their uncanny abilities.
Nka enjoyed himself immensely watching the combat in the pit. He loved men who could killed with their bare hands. Weaponry is secondary.
Nka love the fact that he remains old school throughout the ages, ancient even.
Oh, he missed the old days of glory and honor. He is the shaman of his clan. They don't know that.Perhaps, they never will. He can see a man and behold his entire linage lay before his eyes.
'haha, if only they knew how long he had lived cheating death all these ages. haha' he grinned in amusement.
"You knew what is in that package brought you?" a lady's voice echoed from behind him, distinctly Kate's.
"It's the severed head of Agna and Pragna. Two Panther lords down. He is coming for all five of us. Haha," Nka replied in a snigger, wondering when Kate had come to Balkass.
" So Lord Kanka is still alive?"
"The hybrid didn't kill him, he locked him up.
Nebulous is shrewd, he could have taken the shot but he didn't. Kanka is the most powerful among the lords after me, maybe even more powerful, but nimble enough to always down play his power. Perhaps that's why Nebulous didn't shoot the man. He maybe a precious bargaining cookie against me if things escalate," Nka replied flatly, a taunt lingering in his last sentence.
"And if they unite their forces, it will be hard to defeat them, you mean?" Kate said the unspoken word.
Nka didn't reply to Kate. Instead, he studied Sky as he took out two men with the agility of a vampire, except his power has nothing to do with him being a vamp.
For a human, Sky hard quick reflexes. And his time on the ships, combating and delving deeper into martial arts only highten this skills.
Kate came to sat beside Nka, passing him a glass of red wine.
"It's too early for that, my dear. Ruby and the baby, how are they doing?"
"They are holding up fine."
"Is there something you are not telling me?" Nka enquired sensing the sharp whip of Kate tongue when she replied to his first question.
"There is nothing to tell." Kate insisted.
"There is always something to tell…" Nka pressed.
"If you already know why do you ask?"
"To know whether we are still together in this. This days you've given me lots of ground to doubt you, my love", Nka said infectously in a grin.
"You love no one, old man," kate replied none committantly.
"Can we at least pretend to like each other," he said and added, "this is our imaginary daughter and granddaughter we are talking about." He laughed.
"I can't any more, Nka…. the past is catching up to us. The child is special, the baby gave me the creeps. I cant tell what she will become when she grows up, but whatever she is, it is powerful. She will be a hindrance in our way some day maybe.."
"The father is my problem, he is getting stronger and stronger. killing the two panther lords, severed their heads and send it to me as gifts is quite something, huh. He knows where I am."
"But he is mortal," Kate replied coolly.
"Yes, a mortal with an incomprehensible power. A power he doesn't understand."
"What are you not telling me, Nka. What power does he has except being a hybrid Alpha?"
"Being the Alpha of the clan is power enough but there is more…."
"What do you mean?" Kate asked innocently.
"I can't tell for now, its shady." Nka said and spread out the folded map he had before him.
"look here in the map, can you see that?".
"what?"
"look closely, open the Pandora, can you see the movement in the Island of kong?"
Kate took the map into her hands and studied it closely, "he is with someone, and they are following a trail… to the ocean."
"I like your vivid apparition, Kate. Now make sure that trail never lead him to any of our Islands, mislead lead him into the kaleidoscopic vortex of Aljamian. If we are lucky he will never find his way back," Nka suggested seriously and added;
"The man was poison through the blood of Nora, but he was able to recover and heal his damaged organs within hours without contact with the healing soil. The man surprises me every time, Kate. I can't afford to play with him any longer."
"Maybe the old man is helping him with his herbs," Kate suggested.
"No herbs can perform such a feat. Nebulous is crafty, yes. But not even him can do something like that."
"You seemed terrified by the weakling," Kate laughed sensually and added, "how come Ruby always ends up with best choices."
"Your envy of your sister is your only vice my dear, and that's your ruin," Nka taunts in a snigger.
Kates eyes turned red, but she didn't reply. Her emotions towards Ruby are so inflexed and paradoxical she didn't know where one ends and the other begins.
She loved her to the point of irrationality. She envies her own love for her in monstrous ways. Its had always been Ruby, the most alluring, the most amicable, the most fearless.
She hate her love for her, appalls her longing for her. She feared her so much she will do everything to destroy her.
Yet there she was, as formidable as ever. Will she ever brake, will she ever give up? As innocent as a kitten she is still a wreaking dynamo.
" I understand your position my dear, trust me I do. With her, you've always been the shadow. You want her dead, yet you can't afford to lose her, with her gone you will be doom to your bestiality forever. This is your curse my dear…."
"Stop it! I shall here no more! But what do I do?" She queried absently, and started to shake.
"You shall do nothing, because you are not the only one ensnared to her, her aura, her majesty, her enchanting grace. She is the sun to my darkness, my star in the night sky… in my past lifes she had been the woman I ever loved, but destiny curse I, now I shall curse destiny," Nka said mysteriously, and stood up, his eyes turned dark as he walked passed kate.
She reached out to him in sobs, and he drew her into his arms.
"We both love and treasure her, hence our contempt for her, and what she loves most. It's convoluted above comprehension, and in our hands lays a tragedy we can't escape. The hybrid must not live…"
"Yes my lord, he must not live." Kate answered, trying not to let her tears stream down her face.
"You will go after him Kate, you are fierce, and I've taught you well, you are not only a pantheress, but a witch of the highest order among our clan. Ruby must never found out he is alive,"
"I have already poison his mind against Ruby. Kuga now sees her as the monster behind his misery, and so shall we turned her against him with all your powers. It's time my dear, go into your highest self. And if their paths ever cross, Let her be the one to kill the him, for she is the one that can easily perform the task."
"How do you come by all this about the man in so short a time, Nka."
"I know because I was there at the palace when he killed Agna and Pragna. Its him Kate, the nightmare, the nameless one. I had tried to kill him right there but he did turn sublime into the ether without a trail to follow, he simply black out. Our only advantage is that; he still doesn't know the extent of his power. I am able to shield that from him for now, but I don't know how long that's going to last. The man is a walking inferno without a detonator…."
Kate watched Nka with horror, "you don't mean…".
"It's him, Kate. Our mission is never to let him find that detonator," Nka said darkly, and walked into his dark chamber. There is work to do, so much work to do.
Kate pondered over what she did learned about the Alpha in just this few moments she shared with Nka. Lot's of things are now beginning to make sense. Hell, this changed everything.
Kuga is consistently transcending in his metamorphosis. And they now fear the unexpected from the man.
Kate sat back on the chair and folded the parchment. Tonight she would have a long one. She did excuse herself from Ruby and the baby, after having failed to steal the soul of the little one.
Thinking about it now drove her mad. Slash is the cause of that, and she needs his bloody liver. But in the presence of the man she could have performed the deed without him fathoming what had happened. Not even Ruby would have known.
The baby would have been perfectly alright until she comes of age.
The problem was Vialla herself. Like her mother and father, she has come with her own fire, and Kate had to act fast before the child comes of age.
For the time being, she sipped her wine, and entertained herself with the combating new aspiring panther recruitments from the ships in the pit.
The rise in humidity nearly made her vacate her seat to go inside, but she observes the trim bulky sakora man in white singlet with a bright smile staring at her while defeating opponent after opponent.
She blushed and looked away, but every time she turns her gaze back to the arena, he was still staring, while maneuvering his way skillfully among the men, making the gruesome fight seem effortless.
He was not even looking at the men attacking him from different angles.
He wanted her to know he was looking. "okay handsome, I see you…." she murmured and took her drink in one gulp, stood up and left the balcony overlooking the arena.
It's been a long while a man has that kind of effect on her, and definitely not a hairless one.