The Hood

Beyond the Earth.

Uncle Wise gets to the city square early that morning with his horse and blows the horn. The whole Hood heard the sound of the horn and they knew that Uncle Wise had something important to say. Everyone rushed to the city square within 20 mins.

Uncle wise;. Greetings Citizens.. Well, this won't be long but I have something important to tell you. Before I proceed, if you look around you, there's not much around us we can be proud of anymore. Everything has been destroyed. No gasoline , no electricity, no shops, no street lights. The reality we once lived is like fantasy to us. We don't have a city left to protect, but we have our kind to preserve. The gods have spoken to me and have shown me what's coming. A terrifying storm was heading towards the hood, "a storm?" [the crowd asked each other, and immediately dark clouds began to gather and everyone wondered what was going on]... this meeting might take us longer than expected, says uncle wise.

Immediately, dark clouds appeared and a great wind began to blow for a while, and the mermaid queen rose from the well dug by the citizens near the city square and stood on top of the water. A very beautiful and shiny face with strong guards by her side had half fish and half man features. [everyone was shocked at what they had seen before their eyes. They had never seen her before]

"I'm sorry for coming late. They usually say the late comers steal the show [giggles]. Well, I'm the queen, the goddess of the marine world. While we are all gathered at once, I would take the floor on behalf of your elder [clears throat]... legend has it that beneath your city lays a blue core so powerful that it has caused pain and left brutal memories in the land... During the war that we fought on your behalf, we noticed that the machines were so powerful. They had an energy that we couldn't quite figure out, but over the years, our spies have been in your desolate city to seek more information regarding that energy, and we realized that it is indeed a powerful source of energy, much greater than our energy source in our kingdom. We could have taken that crystal to our kingdom if we had full details about it, but because we needed to protect you, we defeated every machine just for you to find life and that was our priority. Our kingdom's ore that emits energy is slowly losing its energy and very soon marine life will be extinct and, since you owe us we plead not by demand but by your kind mercies, kind citizens... I believe you would understand, and we could have done the same thing for you-you know.[smiles]

uncle wise: that is what we wanted to discuss today.. we were in the middle of the meeting before you came and that was the concerned matter. will be meeting again after 2 days and you will hear from us and our conclusion..

goddess: very well, we shall meet after 2 days then. As they say, don't bite the hand that has once saved you.. because that same hand can... you finish the sentence for me elder. [she then disappears back into the water]

Uncle Wise: well, you have heard everything from them, they want the blue from us

random person from the crowd: well why don't we give them the core then?

[Kisha joins Uncle Wise on the exalted area made of metal.]

Kisha: The blue core mixed with the divine nature of the mermaids can create an energy conducive for the mermaids but not for humankind and life on the surface. We will be extinct 20 minutes later if the blue core is inserted into their transmitter. They can't have the blue core.

Uncle wise: she's right. If they have the blue core, this earth is history. They are to divine.

another random person from the crowd: so what do we do next?

Kisha: we look for a solution to help them, I guess.

Uncle Wise: the Blue core is the only option we have on this earth. They tried all the minerals from the earth but they are only efficient on land and not under water.

[everybody begins to worry and starts mummering in between]

Uncle Wise: these creatures will fight to get the blue core from us, they would do anything to preserve their lineage.

Kisha: So should we. [Furiouse]

A random person from the crowd: the 7 Gang, will know what to do. They are the force of the hood!

Kisha: their leader is dead [everyone in shock]

[What do we do? everyone exclaims]

Uncle Wise: that will be determined after they hear from us and we hear from them... but for now i want every man to consider the hood. Think about your families, what is the good way to protect them, to fight for them or stay home with them and hide while they die, or be brave and fight for them. We shall meet in two days' time when you hear the sound of the horn... [everyone heads back to their shacks with worry and fear]

as Kisha got off the stage.

A 16-year-old grabbed Kisha's hand. "You might want to see this" he said, and dragged Kisha to his shack.

Kisha: Woah, you built that? What's your name? [observing a machine]

"Kayan is my name" he said.

Kisha: how did you build this?

Kayan: My Dad was one of the engineers that built and programmed the robots 8 years ago. He and I worked on this project. It's a scanner. It can scan sea divers and release information about the sea diver's temperature range, oxygen level, heart rate, and energy expenditure.

Kisha: great! You are part of the team already.. [gives him a handshake]

[Kisha returns home]

Kisha and Pena discussed what they thought could be the future of the Hood if they didn't fight back that evening. They sat around the fire inside their fish container they had made to be their home until they went to bed.

[2 days later...]

The horn blows and everyone assembles, including the mermaids.

Uncle Wise: Well, we have considered the effects of handing the blue core to you. As we all know, life on the surface of the earth will be in danger, meaning it is a risk to give you the blue core. We can not have it given to you because of the danger.

goddess: well that's okay, I mean we tried to reach a mutual agreement didn't we? [smiles]... so we will just take it, by force, but it will pinch a little.

Mermen soldiers rose from the water, and immediately launched an attack on the hood. spears began to fly in the air and war broke out between the two... Uncle Wise quickly ran into hiding and Kisha began to fight back as much she could, joined by Blade and the 7 Gang. Kisha had never fought anyone this powerful before. She isolated one of the mermen and fought him for almost 10 minutes before she could defeat him. Many citizens of the hood lost their lives in the period of 40 minutes... after some time, the goddess held back her soldiers.

Goddess: [laughs] we can wipe you all in just 2 hours, you know. But I will give you some time to reconsider and you let me know, this was just my way of answering your decision. But when I return, I'm not going back empty handed to my kingdom. I will have the blue core with me. [disappears...]

Kisha stood and saw dead bodies lying everywhere. She looked beside her and she saw Pena, her friend, dead on the floor.

no! no! Not you Pena! Ashe kneels down and cries. Her only friends that knew how to deal with Kishas darkside and understood her very well. She left without saying good bye. Moments later, Kisha and Uncle Wise left the hood and went into the woodlands on horses and buried Pena outside the city. Kisha said her last emotional goodbye.

Later that evening, Kisha couldn't stop thinking about life before war broke out 7 years ago. She never saw her dad. She only grew up with her mom. She doesn't know what it means to be loved by a father. She cried the more as she lay in her bed and thought about how many kids would never see their parents after today's incident.

"I will kill that filthy goddess with my bear hands."

Then Kisha remembered the string of beads she hid inside her shoe. she rushed and got hold of it in her hands and began to roll the beads one by one. She then fell into a trance again and appeared in the same world she saw before that had strange creatures in it. She appeared inside a beautiful castle and she saw the princess getting dressed for her father's banquet in her room. The Princess knew that someone had entered her room without her concern and grabbed what looked like an ancient spear and walked towards the wall where Kisha was hiding. Before the princess could reach the wall, Kisha showed herself "I'm sorry to intrude. I come in peace". Then the princess put down her spear:

Princess: it's you again. I remember you.

Kisha: yes it is, this is a beautiful place... are you the queen?

Princess: I'm the princess, my father's eldest and only child. And where are you coming from?

Kisha: I'm from earth. My name is Kisha

Princess: you are lucky that bead is keeping you alive. Creatures like you are not designed for this world... [pierces her ear with a tiny claw which she puts on as an earing]

Kisha grabs hold of a vase in her hand. "This is really beautiful" she says... immediately the guards knock on the door " Her royal is needed by the king" [says a loud and terrifying voice]

Princess: I have to go now, so do you... [grabs her purse and leaves]

Kisha immediately returns with the vase she held from the prince's room back to her ship's container home.

Kisha: wait what? [as Kisha looks and observes the vase]