Derek's chest heaved up and down, he could barely get enough oxygen into his lungs. He did not know how long it had been, but that sun had never left its centre position since he got here. His clothes were torn at different points showing bruises and cuts. From the side of his mouth, dried blood stains. His eyes felt a bit drowsy from the exhaustion, and if Hayaa did not keep motivating him to hold on, he might have decided to give up and lie on the ground already.He felt extremely thirsty to the extent that he was tempted to zip down and drink his urine, but obviously, his opponents won't let him. What made matters worse was not the fact that his opponents multiplied with every round, increasing the toughness, but that the sun seemed to be getting hotter and hotter. He had already sweat so much that he was sure his pores were afraid of the heat to allow any more salt and water out. His skin felt cakey and his tongue continually searched for wetness in his mouth, like a fish out of w
"You may step out of the tube now your highness." The man controlling the device advised as the capsule opened and Tiny stepped out of it. This was a capsule connected to a very wide network of collectors deep in the ocean floor. The collectors were made to absolve anima from the Mamiwata people over a long period of time. Now, that anima was being pumped into her body. This was already the sixth session since she got here.Tiny came down one step at a time, as she did, the steps beneath her feet creaked from the pressure. Because of the pressure of the anima in her body, she had put on a large amount of weight. Every step she took,l made her feel like she could break the ground beneath her. She had never felt so powerful and yet so powerless, her fate had already been sealed. Even if she escaped now, she would still not survive this much amount of anima. She was not a writer, just a temporary vessel for containing anima.She came down feeling like gravity had become foreign to her. T
"Wait! let me get this straight, Derek is challenging the Elder Rune of House Thembeka? And Mr Walter and Bastet went to help him?" Madeline asked, trying to catch her breath as she sent forth yet another projection of a Cerberus to attack Aesir."No! he is taking its test in order to tame the elder Rune. It only bows to whoever can pass its test. Secondly, Madam Bastet and Mr Walter cannot help him, this is something he has to do on his own. They are only there to supervise, to ensure no harm comes to him." Lydia corrected patiently. She watched the friendly spar between the two and gave pointers at different times to both of them."I have a question," Aesir swung his sword one more time at the neck of the beast that Madeline sent over, before turning to face Lydia. "So! let's assume something goes wrong, and Derek is in danger, can Mr Walter or Bastet fight against the Elder Rune?"Lydia raised a brow to Aesir, "Firstly, No! It's an Elder Rune, I don't think you understand how power
Derek kicked hard against the ground, he was already tired but even he could not understand where such an amount of vigour came from. It was probably because of his zeal to kill the people before him. He detested them to the core. Oh! yes, to the beating organ in his chest. Ellen ruined his life and killed his friends, and Aaron, Oh! Aaron-he took his Maria from him. This two, even if it was images of them on a piece of paper, it deserved to be burnt.He came close enough and raised the spear in his hand high in the air, as his legs acted as a spring that shot him up to the sky. He screamed at the top of his lungs, shouting out his hatred, his eyes glaring and shadowed with tears by their side. He did not even have the Golems behind them in his sight. The only thing on his mind was seeing how bouncy the heads of these two were once they hit the ground.His spear drew closer as he fell like a meteor, but suddenly, everything seemed to stop. No! that was not it. He could still see the e
"Endurance picks the most important, dreadful and emotionally unstable thing to you and presents it in a way only absolute conviction and willpower for your goals canhelp you pass its test. For Levinack, the test of strength was easy, he fought legendary creatures and showed his valour. What really touched his heart was when the lives of members of the Thembeka family were out against the lives of myself and your aunt Vowero." She waved her hand and the images changed, "We are Writers and are apathetic by nature, but are we? Are we truly apathetic or is it just what we choose to tell ourselves? For me, I don't believe so. I don't believe we do not feel. In fact, I believe we feel far more than any other species in the cosmos. And do you know why?" She asked,Derek shook his head in confusion. "We feel more because we have to. We get the opportunity to see and connect with millions of other lives and see their pain, and their happiness. In fact, we even feel them, and sometimes we hav
Derek waved the now broken sword in his hand one more time as the last and finally, Golem fell to the ground. He looked up to the sky, roaring loudly as if mad at the sun. Additionally, cuts and bruises had been added to his body, he was practically covered in them at this point. His dark skin was painted with dry cakey blood, but surprisingly, he still stood on his feet.As if the sun had acknowledged the victory or was scared by the fierce and screaming young man, it suddenly started to set. Derek saw this and smiled, it was apparent that the test was coming to an end. Derek looked to the building that was now before him, he walked towards it and those that he had just saved followed along.Derek stood before the two big wooden doors, on them was a symbol that was obviously that of the Elder Rune endurance. Derek pushed them open with less effort than he thought. the big doors opened up slowly with creeky noise that reminded Derek of those old houses from horror movies. For like a f
Walter and Baster watched as Derek manifested from the space created by the origin Of Rune. His body was peppered by scars, wounds and dark dried blood. They both rose from their comfortable sits, Baster wanted to immediately check on him, but Walter held her back. His eyes had caught something of particular interest. Derek's hand held something tightly in it. From it flowed a green hue that flowed all through his arm to the rest of his body, wiping away any and all injuries inflicted on him from the test. Every thing healed up and Derek's body resumed it's flawless look, except of course for old scars that he got before the test.Derek stood up slowly, one step at a time, and when he stood to his feet, he used a hand to clear up the strands of dreadlocks leaking unto his face, revealing his eyes that for a slight second also gave a gree hue.Baster smiled, she turned to Walter, "I told you he would win. Don't forget our bet." She walked to help Derek as he was exhausted and appeared
"Hey, boy!" Tano called to Aesir in a very loud an intimidating tone that immediately stole Aesir's attention, "How about a sparing partner?" As he said this, Gina immediately rushed forward, her foot kicking against the ground, leaping into the air like a cheetah on its prey. Her hoodie fell to the ground with her assent into the air.Aesir was still in question about what was going on when the first thing he say was blue eyes, very glossy blue eyes. And then, his attention was drawn to her silk blonde hair that danced in the air like waves on a pool of water when a stone was cast in it. And then, every other cut or curve that created the structuring of her face. And lastly, his eyes then rested on her pouting lips, he couldn't help but imagine how beautiful she would look if she only but smiled a little.Suddenly, his adventurous thoughts were distracted by the sight of the gleaming edge of a blade in his face. The hair on his skin standing in instinctive alert of the forebearing d
"Welcome Madeline, we have been waiting for you!" A voice whispered and she turned about to the sound of the voice.There stood a very tall slim woman. She had on a white crop top that revealed her very slim waist leadingdown to her white blouse. She had a pair of glasses on, and she smiled sweetly to Madeline."Where I'm I!?...And who are you!?" Madeline asked."Follow me! I'll explain" she said, gesturing to Madeline a path that opened up in front of them.Madeline frowned and at first did not want to, but still followed behind the woman taking gentle steps.Through a yellow path in-between trees that surprisingly had both carrots and cabbages growing on them, to a hut on a hill side. Madeline followed, while her eyes examed her environment with nothing but wonder and surprise.At the small hut, the woman entered, and then she gestured for Madeline to follow. Although she did not want to, she had no choice and followed.Madeline thought that her sense of reality was warped because
Aesir willed and his sword acted as an assist as it went straight for the bird's other wing.*Caw!*The eagle screamed in pain. Manila ran straight for it. And mounting it's back, she delivered a crushing blow to its neck.*Caw!* It screamed again. However, she did not stop for a bit and after the fourth blow, the eagle passed out. Derek and Aesir stared at her in surprise as she slowly stood from the eagle's back. She made fierce eye contact with Derek and then looked away. Aesir turned to Derek with a brow up, and Derek raised his hands in surrender, "what I'm innocent. I swear!" "Of course you are." Aesir smiled and walked away.Manila began work immediately. The plan was to use the bird as a distraction for the scorpions so that they could pass.The best way to do this would be for them to make sure that the beast could no longer pick up flight.Manila was unsurprisingly skilled at this. She cut out the feathers of the beast.Aesir and Derek also joined her and helped. Soon eno
"Exactly! So if you can't solve them, why bother about them? Yet, before you lies a problem that deserves you immediate attention which you can or at least try solving. But you are too concerned with the rabbits in the wild to realize that you should first deal with the one on your plate." Priestess Ada adviced.She smiled and walked away, "Don't forget, listen as a passerby and it will flow naturally." Madeline watched the back of the old lady leaving as the words she had just spoken played again and again in her head. She sat crossed leg once more as she continually told herself to let go. Her eyes closed tightly and suddenly the thoughts as expected came once more.This time around, she decided not to quiet it or silence it. Rather she let it flow naturally.At first she couldn't help but be swept up in the thoughts and the different scenarios they played. Some even ended in tragedy. And this made her ache in worry. This was a disadvantage of over active thinks. A disadvantage t
Derek could not help but look at them and observe them. These were not like the scorpions he knew from earth. For one, they produced webbings from their tail end. Also, there seemed to be very organized and particularly busy.Some of them were bigger, but those big ones were few. And from the looks of it, they monitored the activities of the smaller ones. These creatures were hard at work building it seemed."Scorpion colony! We will have to navigate round them." Manila spoke."Navigate?" Aesir asked, "how far are we talking of?"She pointed to the hill far in the distance. "That far? But that will take at least an extra day off our schedule." Derek added."Yeah! It will. But it will be far better than to have those things have our scent. Cause ones they do, they will follow us for a very long time." Manila advised."Hmmm. Is there no way to distract them?" Derek asked."Well, there are a couple of ways that could work. However, we don't even have the necessary materials to make tha
Madeline nodded her head in understanding to Chief Sasha's words."So what does this have to do with aura?" Madeline asked."Well! Every thing." She picked up another stone from the ground, "according to your definition of aura, then aura is this object in your hands. And has stated earlier, it weighs you down over time." Chief Sasha turned and threw the stone into the water, then she turned once more and slowly released her aura, "However, if you understand that all it is, is an extension of your body, then behold the weight is gone. After all, your hands have always been attached to the rest of your body and you don't hear them complaining."Those words suddenly stroke difference to Madeline. She felt like she was at a state where she wanted to understand. In fact, the enlightenment was just Infront of her, however, it was a yard bit out of reach.She even sat on the ground as she tried to think hard on Chief Sasha's words. However, for the first time in a while, her brain was una
"huh!?" Madeline could not believe what she was hearing."Don't worry! I am not as weak or fragile as you think. I am sure you noticed that we are a small tribe. Yet, we have survived for so long with terrible neighbors such as the Kaka tribe. Although we rarely bring out our full force, we are definitely not weak." Chief Sasha smirked a bit.Madeline nodded and then she commanded the Cerberus to attack. The beast used one of its paws and a heavy blow landed on the chief. *Bam* Some where within the carven, Priestess Ada was attending to a pregnant woman when she heard the boom of the attack. She raised her head and sighed, "So the the training has started."She pretended not to hear it and continue with the pregnant woman in front of her.....Meanwhile, Madeline was panicking. There was a lot of dust and it was difficult for her to see what had happened. As far as she was concerned,she had crushed the chief."Chief Sasha!" She called out in a low tone. Afraid that her eyes might m
A few hours later, Derek ,Aesir and Milan said their good byes as they started their journey to the Gaka tribe.However, before they did Priestess Ada had come to see Derek one more time."Please take care of yourself properly Repono. And if there is absolutely anything you need, do not hesitate to contact me. I maybe far from you, but some of the things I can do will very much amaze you."Once she said this, she touched behind his ear and Derek clearly felt another radio rune added to the one he already had.Radio runes were special but not ominipresent. One had to be within a certain range for it to be used.Derek knew that If she was giving him one, then it meant that she was sure of reaching him as far away as even the Gaka tribe.A sudden realization hit Derek. One that he had not thought of before. Priestess Ada was a Familiar. Which meant that she could also weave runes.He remembered his experience at the cave when he first came and the one that had happen during the fight aga
"And what might the main dish be?" Milan asked with raised brows. Chief Sasha did not exactly know how to have this talk with her daughter. But she knew that she had to. "Erm... Milan how old are you now?" "I am nineteen now!" Milan replied, "but in a couple of months, I'll be twenty." "Oh! That's nice. That's around the same age I was when I had you. Oh, how I remember it like it was only yesterday. That was the happiest day of my life. You were so little and so adorable. Your butt was not this big and chest this full then. It was all so..." "Mother!!!" Milan stopped her. Her cheeks had become red from embarrassment. "Just go straight to the point. Please!" Chief Sasha laughed a bit, "okay! I understand you are a big girl now." She sighed and then laughed some more. Apparently, she was still rolling down memory lane. "So tell me. What do you think about that Master Writer?" Chief Sasha asked. "Huh!?" This question had taken Milan off guard. "What do you mean mother?" "I mean
Meanwhile, back at the mountain that belonged to the Waka tribe, Derek sat crossed legged in a cave assigned to him. This cave was by far a better one than the one he had and his friends had been sharing on first arrival. Also it was decorated appropriately and it even had a bed in the middle made of several animal fur. Derek had already given out instruction that he would loved to be left alone for a while, if not the entrance to this place would have been crowded by people. With rumours of the tribe having a writer as a guest, every body wanted to meet him. Also, tales of his marvelous feat from the battle earlier in the day had reached their ears.He was as good as a god to them at this point. At the entrance of the cave already lay all sorts of gifts for him. However, Derek was not all that interested in playing messiah at the moment. He just had too much on his mind. Too much problems that needed his attention. One of which was the pressing matter that both his women were mis