THE PAST
Soft music played as Nijahoeba looked at the man before him who was playing with the water on his bowl. Defining gravity, the water followed his finger movements, forming swirls and swirls before settling on the enamel bowl gently.
"A great plague has spread throughout the land. It is feasting on men as we speak." He began before looking at Nijahoeba. His bottle green eyes were intense, filled with death and power.
"What are you?" Nijahoeba asked, his voice low.
"What am I? what are you?" Captain Sulton asked, the water rising from the bowl to form the beast that Nijahoeba had transformed into.
The beast reached out its claw to a woman who looked like Arina. She touched the beast's hand and the beast then turned into Nijahoeba.
The water then dropped in the bowl.
Nijahoeba stuttered terribly.
"You are not one of the twelve." Captain Sulton spoke.
"And you are not a believer." Nijahoeba answered.
"How do you know that?"
Nijahoeba rose from the chair and roughened Captain Sulton. "What do you want from me!!" he yelled.
Captain Sulton began to laugh.
"Answer me!!" yelled Nijahoeba.
Captain Sulton removed Nijahoeba's hand from his coat and also rose to his feet.
"I WANT THE BEAST!" he demanded.
There was silence.
"You want the beast?" Nijahoeba asked, not believing what he had heard. A smile then slowly appeared on his face.
"Can you do that? Take it from me?"
"Yes, now what do you say?"
"Yes!! I will give it to you!" Nijahoeba concluded.
***
"You have to let her bless you," the old man said as he put his arm around young Arina.
"Why should I? I thought you were the one who told me to never believe anything she says." She asked,
"Yes, I did but...think about her power, what we can do with it? Imagine healing the whole world. Don't you want that?" the old man answered.
"A new GOD is coming Arina, when he arrives, I want to be amongst his army."
"New God?" she asked, looking at the old man in shock.
Arina peeled her eyes open and gasped for air. Nothing but darkness could be seen.
She looked around her and suddenly saw Nijahoeba standing behind the bared door.
"Sailor!" she whispered crawling towards him.
She held onto the bars. "Why are you still standing there? Come on, help me out as well!"
Nijahoeba did not say anything.
"Sailor! Captain Su..."
"...I am selling my beast." Nijahoeba spoke.
"Selling? What are you talking about?"
"Captain Sulton will take my beast. I can finally be a normal man."
Arina's face changed.
"He killed my grandfather! Do you know that?" she finally asked. "He ruined my life! You can't give the beast to him! No! he cannot be the New God!"
"I don't want to be a God! You are just like them all...don't you see? Men will never be liberated. Never!" argued Nijahoeba.
"I refuse to accept it! My grandfather..."
"...IS THE REASON I LOST MY FAMILY! He is amongst the crazy people who believed in the New God. Selfish people!" interrupted Nijahoeba.
"Rubbish!" snapped Arina. "You are just a coward! You are not man enough!"
"AND YOU ARE A SELFISH PERSON! Yada is no more because of you!"
There was silence.
Tears clouded Arina's eyes and she chocked on the words.
Nijahoeba then walked away, leaving Arina alone.
MEN OF THE WORLD
"Nijahoeba!" his mother yelled as sixteen-year-old Nijahoeba walked inside the small room.
He found his mother carrying a heavy basket and quickly took it from her pale and thin hands.
"Here, let me help you." He said with a smile. "You already have your hands full," while looking at his mother's pregnant belly.
She smiled softly. "This is nothing compared to the world I will carry once I am GOD.
Nijahoeba's face changed.
ONE WEEK LATER...
His eyes looked at the beasts that were drawn on each page. One beast caught his eyes, it was a black, thin beast with long hair and no face.
"Naamah, the Mistress of deception and illusions." Captain Sulton said.
"Naamah?" asked Nijahoeba, Captain Sultan nodded.
"You never want to run into that Upper being. She will drown you in sweet fantasies while she devours you slowly."
Memories of the night he had lost Odo returned. He shook them from his head and closed the book.
"About Arina, what will you do to her?" he asked Captain Sulton.
"Nothing for the moment."
"You killed her grandfather...why did you do it?"
A sigh escaped Captain Sulton's lips. "She told you already? Poor lass!"
He then poured some wine on his glass.
"It was a job. I was paid to get rid of him." He finally spoke.
"Reece was a plague in Yada. He and a few others were trying to overthrow the church. Believe me, I had been paid by his son to kill him."
Nijahoeba looked at him in disbelief
"I was an assassin before. I traveled the lands, killing people for money. That was my way until one night" A smile appeared on his face. "Who could have thought I would see an Upper being?!"
"You saw an Upper being?"
"Yes, the Lord of the seas himself. He felt my cries, he chose me...I don't know why but he chose me!" he concluded.
**
The approaching footsteps alerted Arina as she ran to the steel bars and held onto them.
Nijahoeba appeared, his long hair tied into a low ponytail. He carried a plate of food and a mug of water.
"Feeding me won't make me forgive you!" she spoke spitefully.
"Good day Arina," Nijahoeba said.
"How amusing! So this is? You are one of them now? A Sulton man?"
Nijahoeba handed her the food from the bars and she quickly took it.
"He killed Reece Burdett! My grandfather!" she said once more, gobbling the food.
"There's a large city ahead. We are going to stop at it for some refreshments. Please behave unless you want to stay in the ship."
A rude laughter escaped Arina's lips.
"Normal man? Is that what you want to be? A normal man doesn't save a believer from an angry GOD, they don't survive the clutches of a beast, they don't take care of women! Is that what you want to be? a power thirsty, ruthless and dangerous man? The sort that kill women and children?" she asked putting her plate and mug on the floor.
She then walked towards Nijahoeba. "You have saved me so many times. Odo...you did everything to save him...Nijahoeba, why do you want to lose all that?"
"I want a family...children...a wife! How can I have that with this thing in me? Huh?" he answered.
"Do you want to have a family that you won't even be able to protect from these savages who call themselves Upper beings?"
He couldn't answer.