Chapter Four. HIDEOUT
1430 Words
BOOK ONE
CHAPTER FOUR
HIDEOUT
They'd stopped running. Their chasers were no longer on their tail. Something had happened behind them and they knew that help had come. The question was; what in the world had helped them?
Normally they would have concluded that the gods had planned it out for them but how did they escape the Reingart Highland troop?
"Ijaya". Olet, his mother reached out for him.
"Are you alright?" , her hands going over his cheek.
"I saw the beam fire passed your face". The side of his face was red with burns.
"It only hurts a little Mother", he said trying to get her calm as her motherly instinct was taking her to the state of sentimental judgements on what he should and shouldn't do which Ijaya was in no mood for.
"I'll be fine", he told her. He let go of her grip and walked to his Uncle. "Uncle?" His uncle gave his attention taking it away from the forest, "You saw it too?", he asked.
"Of course", Bassam had also noticed the fighters had disappeared giving queer shouts.
"Can someone explain what is going on?", Udne was still not in line with what was going on around her. She had been crouched up front earlier but she walked to her secret keeping family.
"Who were those men chasing us and why?"
Bassam looked at Olet, who gave him the go ahead to explain to the child.
"You were not to know this, not until you become of age" , Bassam started.
"Know what? You're getting me confused Uncle. Mother?", She turned to her mother. Maybe her uncle was not in the right place to explain it to her.
"Listen to your uncle child", her mother told her. She turned back to her uncle. "You're not a Highlander Udne", he told her. She looked at him as though he had announced the death of her favourite pet snail. "We're Nogreans." He said.
"Nogreans?", she asked not knowing what that meant.
"I thought as much."
The voice was came from up ahead. Immediately Bassam took out his Light blade as did Ijaya. Olet grabbed her daughter and hid her behind herself.
"I'm not going to hurt you", The owner of the voice walked down the bulrushes holding his hands up. His clothing looked nomadic with coverings everywhere exempting his eyes and nose. A little bit of his hands were showing out.
"I'm just like you" , he said.
"What?", Ijaya questioned.
The stranger rolled off his roughly made turban and gestured to a marking left of his neck.
A Nogrean Rune.
"I'm a Nogrean"
Bassam and his family looked at him and just stared as though his words were one they could have only heard in a dream.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The witch had seen better signs but the one she had seen this night; the night of the Queen's Banquet had a lot of wonders to it. She had felt an awkward aura. The night had been long for everyone. The news spread like wildfire. The last she had heard of the siting of Nogreans was five years ago and they'd killed the whole lot.
It was said to be the last of them and here they were again but this time the circumstances were a whole lot different.
Aunueno had never known Nogreans to fight back, never. She looked at the scribbled lines beneath her nose.
Adrinka Symbols.
Ancient signs and words that interpreted great attributes and the unseen.
"I need to get to Iyanifa", she stood up. Still full of strength for her age. Witches were rear at this time. Many had been taken out along with the Nogreans that had been massacred. She remembered it. Seventy five years ago it had been growing up in a Nogrean camp. She was not Nogrean though but the witches learnt their craft from them as they always have but they kept it from the Crown and it had been so until they were found out. She had been only Eight but she remembered it clearly.
"Ndele!", she called out,"Are you there?"
"Aunt?", a young female came in to the help of the white witch.
"Are you done?", she asked her apprentice.
"No Aunt", Aunueno gave her a look.
"It's not an easy spell Aunt", she complained. Aunueno gets her hands on a scroll and hands it over to the young Ndele.
"Here. Take this to Iyanifa."
"What is it?", Inquisitive, she looked at the scroll.
"It's an Adrinkan Crypt. It has a message Iyanifa needs to see". Ndele played around with it little.
"Go". Ndele walked out and leaves in a hurry. Aunueno came out of the shelter and stared into the vast night sky. "I fear chaos in the realm. Are the prophecies to come this way?"
Ndele vanishes in to the night and Aunueno stayed out leaving her head upwards as though waiting for an answer from the gods.
Silence remained.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"I'm a Nogrean?", Udne asked as they now followed the stranger who had helped them earlier.
"Yes. As we all", Bassam answered.
She couldn't believe she was a part of a powerful race. It was beyond her understanding, beyond her mind.
She walked along with them, moved her head up and looked at the stranger ahead of them.
"Why did you help us?", she questioned him. "And how did you know we were Nogreans?".
He kept silent and just walked. He hadn't said a word since he'd told them he was a Nogrean and he was leading them to his camp where other Nogreans were to be as he had told them.
"Why do you keep silent?", he kept on asking.
"Udne stop", Ijaya held her now.
"If he doesn't want to answer us, then it's alright", he told his sister.
"Your questions will be answered soon enough", he finally said before they walked a while in absolute silence. Going deeper and deeper into the woods.
Not too long after, they stopped.
"Why have we stopped?", Bassam asked.
They were standing in front of a ledge in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. Deep in the Forests, many leagues from civilization.
"We're here", the stranger answered.
"Here where?", Udne looked around as did Ijaya. It was a dead end.
"Where did you bring us?", Bassam said as he walked forward and looked down at him as he was taller. The stranger not looking away put out his hand to Olet and asked, "Do you mind?"
She didn't understand.
"What your Rune gives?". Her eyes brightened as she looked at him. How had he seen her rune?
Now she understood but no one else did.
She walked passed them, pulled up her sleeve unveiling her Nogrean Rune; Conceal and Reveal.
She put her hand on the ledge and muttered some words. Her marking lit up and so did her eyes and with that, the ledge moved up ascending right above them, opening a path right in front of them.
"Joining me?", she looked at them as she walked in, followed by the stranger. The ledge closed immediately behind them after they had safely gotten to the other side.
The light that had welcomed them as they got through the other side of the Ledge's opening was nearly blinding leading to a waterfall not too far from them. The stranger walked to the edge of the rocks and smiled at them. He rolled his turban up again and packed it up in the bag he had been carrying. He looked and threw it down below the waterfall. They rushed and looked down the fall wondering where he threw his bag to. And they saw it, a hideout that was beyond the falls. What no one could have imagined. A Nogrean camp hidden from the rest of the world. No race ever able to reach them.
They could only marvel.
"Now", the stranger got their attention as they looked back at him.
" We jump", he said.
"Jump?"
Not completely finishing his words he dived into the rush of the fall. Splashing heavily as he hit the waters below. He was out of site. They wondered how deep He had gone.
He swam out a bit and finally brought his head out to the surface.
"Your turn", He shouted
The look on Udne's face was explicit and filled with happiness she had only felt back at Reinghart. She grabbed her brother who was apparently thinking the same as she was and together they dove through the pouring mass of water splashing beneath.
Written by: Shontan Daniel
Edited by: Fajobi Moyosola
- Writer
