Lydia could not believe her eyes. Before her, were three creatures with ropes around their necks fastened to a tree. She recognised them at first sight. They had the head, front legs and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. These things were about the size of a full-grown horse. These were Griffins.
She immediately asked Derek, "Where did you get the Griffins from?" Derek was more surprised about her presence here than answering her. He could not understand why she decided to tag along.
The Griffins were from Bastet's temple. It was part of her collection. Griffins were rare creatures, at least in this world. Bastet had more than fifty of these guys just lazying around in their pen. Derek had come across them when exploring the runes of the temple.
This was what he had planned out for their transportation. The reason was simple. They could not use planes. Derek was afraid Bastet would be able to track them and
Along the way, introductions had already been made. Derek carried Aesir over one shoulder while Tiny carried Madeline and they followed the Monopod."Come along, just a little further. We are almost there." Old man vis urged as there went through a large area of vegetation so thick it appeared dark under daylight.After they passed through, Derek could not believe his eyes. This was not what he expected. When old man Elvis invited, he thought at most he was going to see a village of 20 to 30 monopods. But by the estimate of his sight, he could have sworn this was a village of at least several hundred. There were houses everywhere made from or within the trees. There were children playing all around, mothers cooking outside and even a group of Monopod men that hopped by carrying a live boar tied to a long stick. This was a thriving community.According to Lydia who was unsurprisingly the only one with a phone, they were somewhere aroun
Derek had his hands over their heads. He concentrated on using energy from his soul rune to push the dummy runes simultaneously into Aesir and Madeline. This was definitely not easy. If not for that he had been draining and refilling his soul rune for a while now when making the dummy soul runes, he would have not been proficient in controlling his soul rune energy. And to add to that, he was having assistance from Hayaa. Soul runes were the foundation of any writer. It was a sign of Destiny's acknowledgement as a ruler. Even a dummy soul rune although never created until now was being passed, the natural rules of the world would not allow it. Hayaa was using her authority as an Origin rune to blanket this atrocity. The rune that Derek had made on their foreheads glowed in a similar blue colour as the dummy runes that was being passed into them. Derek could feel it. Their souls. He could even feel the voices trying their h
The Central Mesis Humus as the name implies is a farming ground. But Humans were not the only kind of mortals being farmed here. In general, the lives of mortals serve as anima for Writers. But unlike humans that could only produce anima, some races had other usefulness. Like the Monopods, there had a value that other creatures did not.Items such as scrolls that held powerful runes or runes cast need some special ingredients to hold their power in place. The leg of a monopod was a special one. It had far more use than this, but using it as an ingredient for scrolls was a major one. Monopods have been hunted and used until they became an endangered species. More like Elephants or wild cats. A Writer of noble blood had inherited a small group of monopods from his father and had brought them to Earth, the Central farming ground. This was where he reared them.Old man Vis remembered how his people suffered. Their numbers were neve
Derek could not believe what he had just heard. This monopod's life had been terrible, one filled with fear and continuous pain. But that did not mean he should take out his frustrations on him. "What about my friends? What did you do to them?" "Oh! the two ladies are fine. I am just going to use them a bit differently. See, I know they are not Writers. They do not need to die like you." Derek felt a wave of relief wash through him. "But they are still friends of a Writer and nothing good can come out of that. They will become properties of the Grootslang. Same thing with the other two in the lab." Meanwhile... Beneath Old man Vis's huge tree, in a temporarily makeshift prison made of thick branches as bars, Lydia and Tiny lay with their backs against the wall and their hands tied with natural cottage ropes above their heads. Tiny opened her eyes. She could barely see around h
While Old man Vis had gone to take care of his guests, Derek was fed continually with water from a big bowl. The monopod feeding him the water could not believe his eyes. This guy had already finished about 12litres of water and he was not stopping. He had thought of just giving up about 6 litres of water ago but Derek had reminded him that Old man Vis said that he could have as much water as he needed. And so Derek consumed nearly 80litres of water before he stopped, feeling better and refreshed. He could also feel that Hayaa had woken up early from her nap because of the poison and was now helping him push it out through the wound old man Vis had made on his chest.If only old man Vis knew that Derek and water had moved from worse enemies to best friends, he definitely would not have let him come close to so much as moist from the air.The monopod looked on in surprise as the dying man that Old man Vis had said he should look after or kill
Tiny dodged to the side. This Fox man was fast, very fast. He would attack and run, never staying to give a second attack. He practically attacked with everything. Sometimes it would be his head, other times it would be his claws, but strangely enough, he never attacked with his legs. Tiny had taken note of this. This guy required his legs to be as close as possible to the ground so that he can maintain his speed advantage.She was using a halberd to fight. Seeing his next attack draw so near, she let him hit her again and again. Both times with his head and elbow. She held her abdomen with one hand and crunched low to the ground. The fox beast-man was enjoying himself. He came with his claws directed at the back of Tiny's neck but before he could make contact, he suddenly felt lighter. He was tumbling upside down in the air. While he tumbled in the air, he felt the cold touch of something on his neck and by the time he landed, his head was severed
"Who is Bishop Gbolan?" Derek asked. Farna saw that she had gotten Derek's attention and made effort to stop her shaky voice in other to explain.The Grootslang were not just a secret cult or organisation, they also considered themselves a church. Just like any organisation, there were rankings. From the lowest in rankings, there was: Member, Errand, colt, priest, Father, Bishop, ArcheBishop and lastly Pope. But even this was not an exact explanation of the hierarchy. As the saying went, "In any organisation, appointment was always better than rank." The organisation still had posts such as knights and their own ranking system that translated in its own form of power and authority.The post of Bishop of the region was left vacant because of lack of an appropriate person to man the position. One of the Father ranked was then appointed to temporarily occupy the position. He was known to be the strongest and most ruthless in the region. Even though it was cl
It was a painful and nervous wait these last few days, but it finally happened. Derek sat on the back of a Griffin and observed with binoculars the approach of flying objects in the distance. "This guy must really hate Writers for him to come with that much." Derek thought to himself.Far in the distance, there was a helicopter with two airships approaching at a steady pace. Just beneath them on the ground were people of different species. It was true that the most abundant species on earth were humans for the very obvious reason of producing anima the best. That did not mean that other creatures did not exist. Some of these guys, Derek had only read about in books.It was true that Bishop Gbolan had not brought out his all, but he had definitely his best. Besides, it was unwise to leave your home empty."They are coming!!!" Derek signalled Aesir and he blew into a horn.Bishop Gbolan sat in the heli