Dear reader..
Please remember that so far we have been in the story of Alisha. A story being told to Kiya about an event that led to a murder and killings because of the same Horn now in Kiya's custody, an event witnessed by Alisha and her mother Aliya.
Some Non-English words to note:
Brahnyi = Shrine
Ritehkye = White Horn
Aeyi = Forest
.....
Goonlah watched as Chohu screamed and died in pain and without mercy he pulled off the talisman around Chohu's neck and put it around his own neck. Immediately he did so, an energy surged through him, the energy that comes with the talisman. The talisman may look like an ordinary necklace but in reality, it is a relic full of powers and also the only key to entering the Brahnyi of Ayrahku. Goonlah walked majestically to the cave where the Brahnyi is. His friends walked along with him, hailing him and calling him great names.
Meanwhile, the dead body of the Shaman Chohu laid still on the ground, the very place he was killed. While he laid, Aliya and her daughter sneaked out of the bushes they had been hiding for hours to check on the dead body of the Shaman Chohu.
[Alisha Sighs] "He is not moving Mom."
"Of cause, he is dead. He was brutally killed" Aliya said that while hot tears rolls out of her eyes.
"What do we do now?" Alisha asked her Mom.
"I think we should find a way out of here before those men comes back. If they could kill a Shaman then we would be meat pie" Aliya replied.
[Alisha nods in agreement] "Yea.. after getting so lucky hiding behind those bushes and after wetting my trousers two times which so embarrassing. We don't want to take any more chances."
The two women got up to find their way out of the forest, but just as they were about to take their first step away, a voice echoed in my minds.
"Why would you leave me here?" the voice asked.
Scared.. Aliya and Alisha halted, they turned to look at every direction trying to see who spoke to them but they saw no one.
[Voice Echoes] "Stop looking for me somewhere else, My body is laying right down here"
The women wanted to scream out of fear but then they remembered that the murderer and his friends were not far off. So they had to swallow their screams, they had to be brave to deal with the situation right before them. Cold sweat broke out of their foreheads, because they were sure the man was killed, how could he still talk when he is dead?
[Aliya.. In a shaky voice] "B-but you are dead. We saw you killed"
"Yes.. I let them believe so. But woe to the mortals that thinks they can kill me" the voice echoed.
Just then on the ground, Aliya and Alisha watched in total amazement as the body they saw laying still on the ground began to dry up very fast, and before anyone could blink an eye, the body dusted away and from the near by bushes, A strong, tall, gallant man appeared.
[Chohu Smiles] "Hello Strangers!"
"Oh.. my.. god! He is alive" Alisha shouted in awe.
"What the hell is going on here?" Aliya confidently asked.
[Chohu clears throat] "I know you witnessed me murdered but that was not me. [Sighs] I saw what was coming, the ambush on my path, and I decided to create an illusion of myself so strong that my enemies were fooled. I deliberately let them take the talisman, by so doing I sent them to their doom, for Goonlah has been corrupted and his greed for power will consume him. Just wait and see."
The moment the Shaman dropped the last word form his mouth, an ear breaking scream sprouted from a distance away. The scream came from the same direction that Goonlah and his men went after taking the talisman. The Shaman raised his head in awe, he smiled and said, "Aha... It has began."
...
Meanwhile some distance away, like a piece of trash thrown into a trashcan, a man flew out of the opening of a very large cave. He landed heavily on the ground. He groaned in pain, he gnashes the remaining teeth left in his mouth as blood flows out of his orifices. He tried to drag himself from the ground, to find somewhere to hide from the pure evil coming after him, an evil that he was once an ally of.
[In pains] "Ah.. Goonlah you son of the devil. You are a betrayer, we stood by you but you killed us all, it shall never be well with you, our ancestors will avenge us."
[Goonlah Laughs devilishly] "Oh my friend Chayi.. So you think that I would be a fool to trust you and those headless bodies laying there, the same people who joined hands with me to kill the Shaman of Ayrahku for this Weapon?"
[Chayi coughs] "We were a team bro.. you betrayed us, you are power drunk."
[Goonlah smirks] "Blah blah blah.. I am not your bro Chayi, I am Goonlah, the worthy son of Guriyah, the only man who is capable of taking by force the great battle Horn Ritehkye. I am your New Melimandu and you must bow to me you puny ant."
The pure killing intent oozing out of Goonlah terrified Chayi now more than ever. "This man spoke without an ounce of emotion. He is pure evil" he thought.
Goonlah slowly let himself to the ground, for all the while he was destroying his friends, he was levitating. He stood tall and great, more powerful than ever. Goonlah laid his hands on a sentient weapon, a weapon that can only be wielded by a warrior it chooses by itself. He held in his right hand the great Ritehkye, the ancient sentient cosmic weapon which was given to Ayrahku by the great Zodiac gods.
[Goonlah bragged] "Who is like you son of Guriyah, non in here and non out there can stand me. Not even the gods can face me, for I am the must powerful being in existence."
"Not quit" Chohu interrupted. "You are not the must powerful being, but soon you will learn."
[Surprise] "Chohu? I thought I killed you" Goonlah barked.
"Yish.. Goonlah you fool. You couldn't differentiate between illusion and reality and here I was thinking you are formidable, I overestimated you.. Yish"
[Goonlah sighs] "Well now that you've shown me your real self, how about I finish the job"
Goonlah raised his weapon up and from the horn gushes out powerful blue lightning, he threw the lightning which devours everything on it path upon Chohu but amazingly, Chohu simply absorbed the energy, gbrrrrr, the blue energy surges within Chohu, "Ah.. this energy feels so good. Thank you for feeding me with it Goonlah." When Goonlah saw that the Shaman was not affected by the lightening, instead was empowered, he bolted in great speed almost close to the speed of sound, Vroooom! Puff.. the Shaman bolted too, head to head against one another, their coalition caused a great wave of energy that stroke everything on it path. The beautiful delicate trees of 'Aeyi' the forest gave way, the grasses burned off, the ground quakes, the animals smothered away. Just one coalition between two powerful beings created a crater in the forest. In the same vein, Aliya and her daughter who witnessed this one great coalition didn't stay awake long enough to see what happened next. They laid side by side each other, like death people, with blue energy surging through their bodies. The same wave that stroke everything on it path, even trees and rocks and the ground, the same stroke them too but unlike any other thing, those two women were not vaporized.
....
A while later, five hikers gathered around two women laying on the ground unconscious. "What happened to them?" a hiker asked. "No one knows but I think they are just sleeping" another hiker responded. "They could have just rested right where we all settled to rest, why risk being here all alone just to sleep?" a third hiker asked. While they were contemplating, Alisha slowly opened her eyes. At first she thought she was death, but as her vision clears, she saw that she recognize the faces of the people standing over her. She quickly turned to check on her mother who still lays unconscious. "Mom?" Alisha called out. "Hmm!" Aliya answered before opening her eyes, she quickly stood up from the ground as if in a fight or flight mode, being an echo of the last thing in her memory.
"Mom calm down, we are good" Alisha shouted.
[Panting] "We are not death?" Aliya asked.
[Sighs] "No we are not, we are fine" Alisha replied.
"How is that possible?"
"I don't know Mom. Look, we are not in that strange forest again"
"Yea.. Strangely.. What the hell happened?" Aliya wondered.
"I don't know either, but all I know is that we are still alive and glory to God for that."
The other hikers standing there were confused by the strange behaviors of Alisha and her Mom. They wondered why the two women are asking themselves strange questions, as if they left for days. One of them kept calm, she listened keenly to Alisha and her mom and seem to realize something, so she decided to ask them, "Aliya and Alisha, for how long do you two think you were asleep?"
Alisha looked at the woman in awe, "Asleep?" she asked. "Yea asleep" the hiker answered.
[Alisha sighs] "We didn't sleep.. We left. We saw ourselves in a strange world, we were there for so many hours we even lost count."
The hikers looked at each other in amusement and bust into laughter. "Ok now I think you guys perhaps drank something heavy" a hiker said. "Or did you two by any chance smoked weed?" another hiker asked. "You two never left for even an hour, we only had the thirty minutes break we agreed on and then here we are ready to continue with our adventure into the forest." another hiker clarified.
Alisha and Aliya turned to look at each other in amazement. They were just told that everything that happened to them was only within thirty minutes. "Are you thinking what I am think Mom?"
"Yea" both of them chorused "Time dilation."
....
Back to present: Inside Alisha's Lodge.
Kiya stared at Alisha, not only with her eyes but with mouth and ears. She had never been stunned by a story like that.
"That experience was both horrible and awesome at the same time" Kiya commented.
[Alisha sighs] "Yea.. but am sad Mom left me without even enjoying her powers, may her soul rest in peace." she raised her head to look at Aliya's picture on the wall.
"Don't worry Alisha.. I believe Mama had find peace wherever she is"
[Alisha chuckles] "Mama?.. You know she wasn't old when she died. The powers kept her young but in return it ate her up from the inside."
The moment Alisha finished speaking, both of them felt like space in the room have shifted, the hairs on their bodies stood straight in utter fear, an aura too powerful for both of them to content just bridged into the room. Before any of them could think, something that look like a fire ring suddenly appeared in plane space in the room. At the first instance the fire ring was small but before their very eyes, the fire ring began to enlarge, it became big enough for a being a little taller than an average height human to pass through.
The aura still pressed in, It compulsion was too strong for Kiya and Alisha to resist, so their knees on their own began to bend to the ground in reverence. Their mouths seemed to be sealed, they could only use their eyes to try to communicate. While they are still struggling with their knees, a figure appeared within the fire ring. The figure seemed to have come from the other side of the fire ring, "That is a portal?" Kiya asked herself in her though. "Oh my god, its a portal" Alisha also thought.
The figure, tall and perfectly shaped slowly walked through the portal, and as her silhouette became clearer for Alisha and Kiya to see, they almost vomited their hearts out. Their eyes bulged out in a mixture of fear and surprise, oh no, they could never believe what their eyes are showing them. While the fire ring began to fade away , the figure which appears to be a stunning woman stands head tall above Kiya and Alisha. Seeing what her powerful and imposing aura is doing to the ladies, the woman figure decided to suppress her aura which allows Kiya and Alisha to raise their heads to look at the woman clearly.
[Both ladies Trembling] "Mom?" Alisha called out.
"Mrs. Aliya?" Kiya also called.