"What's this place?"
Ja Lia muttered. Twas more of a statement than a question. He had been there before, some whiles ago. Okay! Probably some weeks or probably month back. That was where he had met Loe in the first place.
That same place had the Raven led him too. Since he didn't have the guts to return empty handed to the Emperor, thus had the persistence been supplanted. He either got the bird or remained a wanderer.
Though the fear of being killed immediately by the strange Emperor who surely had no regards for life, prevented him from manning up to go and tell the Emperor that he couldn't catch the bird.
"Okay, now! Raven, enough of the hide and seek. Come out already. I do not have the strength for this drama."
He said, standing few metres away from the door of the hut. The hut was in no good shape. But that wasn't really the point. The point was
The Palace. Kingdom of Havila. "Who's he?" The Monarch said standing up as the tattered man walked briskly towards the throne to lay his hands on Ja Lia who was being resrained by guards. Ja had wanted to run to the throne and hug the Emperor for safety. "Hold him back." The husky voice of the Emperor. A stern order. At that, two attendants ran towards the man to hold him back, but he was much more stronger than they were. He flung them away and kept on walking towards the throne. The more guards who went to restrain him, the easier he threw them off. What he kept muttering was the, "Where is Lailah?" Ja had no faintest idea where the bird was at that moment. One thing he was sure of was the fact that the bird didn't enter the palac
"Please ask him again, he sure doesn't know what he is doing." Ja's voice broke into confetti as tears swelled in his throat. He would be so glad if he was woken up and told that all was just a dream. Because that was all it seemed to him. He couldn't make a sane meaning out of it. He was tied to a pillar outside the palace. Two warriors were standing before him. He had been beaten to pulp firstly and one of the warriors with a spear in hand was wearing him out with an odd ogle. "I know deep down, you do not want to do this. I'm as helpless as you are." He paused. He was panting, there were shots of blood in the swells all around his face. There were tracks of blood all over his body too. The robe he was putting did less in holding the pain back. He continued, "Come to think of it." He was struggling
Few days later. The Kingdom of Ikpala. "How long more?" The lady's face flushed to match up the words. She was all bossy and meant the tone to be inflected too. She was dressed in a casual blue gown, with a little hit and bits of embroidery. Her eyes were elegant, illuminating the rage of her beauty. She was seated on the throne and by her side were two female guards. Or say, attendants. She seemed to have her own taste of governance. To some extent, she was audacious, but you could tell by her distinct ingenuity, that she always had quite the numbers of thing up her sleeves. Which were always hidden from those who were around her. She loved riding solo. "Just three more scrubs." The man by her feet muttered, his rough face folding into a sheet of frown. But he was wise enough t
Havila. "Whooshh!!" The signal sent by the clapping waves collided with the whooshing winds and all met on the lone hut. The hut beaten by the wiles of nature had all its wooden covering faded. But twas still very much intact. There was no loophole, even for a snake to crawl in. If there was anything as such by the shore. There was a wooden bench before the hut, few metres away from its creaking door. The fact that the door looked like what would fall at the slightest push, didn't give its content away. Surrounding the hut were several roots and leaves you couldn't be sure where they came from. A thought might toss to you the idea of the waves sweeping them by, but the position of the hut was very much far away from the wings of the waves. Only if the borders of the sea were broken would the waves swallow the hut up.&
Havila. "Go further to the right then take a turn." The old man in a wierd cloak said to him. He didn't care whether or not the man looked tattered or haggard. All that mattered to him was getting an information. He even forgot to say his gratitude to the man. That was prolly the third day and he was almost at the peak of his intentions. In no time he got to the end of that road and took a turn. There was no much in sight. Twas just a barren path which obviously was more throdden. There were trees with scanty leaves scattered by the right and left of the road. Up ahead of him, he could see some activities he couldn't discern and some sort of gate. He had asked the old man about the road which led to the palace. Well going by the instruction, he should be on the right course. B
The pit. Havila. "It should be of great benefit to you if you pay attention to what I'm about to say." The Emperor's voice was firm but you could that his face was a contradiction of his stare. He had been at odds with Jim all along though Tzu had been trying to set things right but Jim really didn't bite off the cake. "And why should we take after you or believe what you have to say?" Jim shot at the emperor. He was seated by Tzu while the Emperor was seated opposite them. They were seated on the floor in the pit. "You have no idea who you're talking to. If not for the odds, you should still be a cleaner by now." The chief seated by the Emperor hurled at Jim. The chief was opposite Jim. Jim felt like grabbing the nape of the chiefs and crashing it against the pit.  
An open space. A great feast. Havila. "How do we take out the guards?" Tzu asked looking through the three people. The emperor had been quiet since a while as usual while the chief did more of the comments. "The emperor holds an answer to that." The chief gave up his position. He obviously didn't have an answer to that. They were all following the instructions of the emperor. Whatever he said to them was the dough. Jim had been unusually quiet. The emperor had cast a spell on him. Not such spell that made a fool of someone. But such spell which would make him do whatever the emperor bade him. Tzu didn't have a contention with that. Having Jim charmed was even a ease of things for Tzu. Jim only stared at the three of them, picking each person at a time. The four of them ha
The feast. Havila. "It's quite a wonder that you thought you had it all planned but you forgot to watch your back." Aojen watched in surprise as his brother stood towering over him. He couldn't explain how it had all happened, but there was he was spitting blood and foaming, lying helplessly on the floor. He wished he could explain but he lost track of words. "What did you think of us in the first place? That we are dumb and do not know how to make a choice? That you were the only one blessed with power. It's a wonder how you could be so forgetful of what we were sent to do. Even if you would be mad, was it to the Emperor? The emperor we all held our lives to." The third warrior of the group preached. He had one of his feet on Aojen's face, squeezing his jaws with the hard sole of his sandal. "Brother... You too?"