Magnifico

Naomi in the den of thieves

Owen wore back his hat and followed her into a secluded tent where things were stored. They came inside and she went around to inspect the areas to make sure that no one was around it. When she was thorough she came back again and hugged him.

“I didn’t believe I will ever see you again hun,” she said.

“Me too. I thought you would be dead. I am happy to see you too” Owen said happily as he holds her hand.

“What brought you here?” she asked.

“Well. I have come primarily to kill as many people as I can here” Owen said.

“What! Are you crazy or what?” she said as she releases Owen's grip.

“No, I am not.”

“Do you have a death wish? They will kill you if you make a reckless move and they may end up killing all the people in our village. Don’t think recklessly and consider what you are about to do thoroughly.”

“I don’t intend to use weapons to fight them. Of course, they will overpower me so I won’t consider that option. I want to poison them instead and I am looking for a way to do it” Owen said.

“Poison? How can you do that alone?” she asked?

“I don’t know. I just need to find a way I can do that.”

“But even if you succeed, they will know who did it or might suspect it is someone from the village who would do it. They will come for their heads and everyone will be murdered including you. How are you going to face that? Or do you want to put the lives of everyone down in the village in danger Owen?” she asked angrily.

“No, that’s not my intention. There are people helping us. They are nobles from the kingdom of Quinax and they wish to fight on our side. This is part of their plan and they want to weaken their forces before they come for the citizens of Phox. Besides even if they don’t happen to find out that someone from phox was here tonight, they will still come for us tomorrow” Owen said.

She was shocked and confused as well, she couldn’t help it but ask “Why will they come for you people tomorrow? Is there something you are not saying?” she asked.

“Yes,” he leaned backward. Taking a deep breath, he said “when those guys came to phox, somehow the bandits we’re notified about their arrival. They came for them to dispossess of their valuables and probably kill them too but there was a problem. They were all killed instead.”

“What! They were killed? Are those guys crazy or what?” she asked.

“No Naomi. In fact those guys are our liberators. We are getting you and lots of our people who are trapped here out soon. Please you need to believe in this struggle Naomi.”

“Alright. I will do that only In one condition” she said raising her right index finger.

“What condition is that?” Owen asked inquiringly.

“You promise you would leave now and leave the rest for me.”

“What?” he leaned forward and put his right on her shoulder. He continued “You will follow us now Naomi”

“No… I won’t.”

“Yes you will,” Owen said.

“Please shut up and listen to me. You said you wanted to poison these people. I will be the person that can do that without being detected. If you try to do it, you may be caught and you don’t want that to happen, believe me. So please Owen, give me the poison you have and let me finish the job for you. If we want our people liberated, I also want to be part of the change. Don’t worry about me, I will be fine” she said.

Owen brought down his hand from her shoulder. “okay if you insist then have it your way" He brought out the poison and gave it to her.

“Thank you, Owen. I will find a way to do what’s necessary. I will do it tomorrow.”

“Why tomorrow?” Owen asked.

“Most of them have gone to sleep. If I succeed in poisoning the ones awake, by tomorrow they will investigate the cause of their deaths and it may lead to me and even if it doesn’t get to me, I won’t be killing much of them. But if I wait till tomorrow when they will be taking their breakfast, lots of them would end up eating the poisoned food.”

“Brilliant. Well, have it your way. Just don’t disappoint us because our lives totally depend on you now dear” Owen begged.

“I won’t, I promise. Come here” she said as she leans forwards and Owen came closer too. They hugged each other and Owen pecked her forehead…

“I will need to go now. See you on the other side” Owen said.

“See you on the other side,” she said.

Owen quietly left the tent and walked back to the same road where he had come from. He successfully went through the ten men he had seen on his way coming but this time around they were seven while three has retired for the night.

Coming closer to where Sun and Jonas were hiding, they could see Owen walking majestically to they were. “He is coming back,” Jonas said while carefully kneeling beside a rock slightly raising only his head above it. Sun stood up and saw Owen approaching.

“You came back. How was it?” Jonas asked.

“Yes, I am back,” Owen said.

“You have not answered me. How was it? Have you done it?” Jonas asked again. Owen didn’t answer so Sun interfered.

“I think this is not the best place to talk about it. Let’s go back to where others are” Sun said. They all adhered to the instruction and went where Viruz and the other guy was. When they got there, Sun saw Viruz and the other guy still watching out and hiding.

“General!” Viruz said as he saw the General and others coming out from the range of carelessly spread...

“Hi!” Owen said as he waved to Viruz.

“Everybody is here right?” Sun asked.

“Yes we are all here,” Jonas said.

“Alright. Now Owen, how did it go? Did you get to do it?” Sun asked.

“No. I didn’t Sir.”

“What did you just say? Jonas asked angrily.

“You didn’t do it? I thought you said you can do it?” Sun asked as he managed to maintain his anger.

“Sir, I meant what I said. I wanted to but…”

“But what?” Jonas interrupted.

“Jonas, allow him to talk” Sun shunned Jonas.

“Thank you, Sir. When I went inside their camp, I saw my wife. She was alive and was healthy. I told her of our plans to poison those zombies. She told me she would do it instead and asked me to go while she takes care of the rest” Owen explained.

“You mean all this time you wasted, it was your wife you gave out our plans to execute?” Jonas tensely said.

“Owen. How are we supposed to trust your wife? Since she has been living comfortably with the bandits here, don’t you think she may have changed?” Sun asked.

“No Sir. I believe she wouldn’t do that. I trust she will do exactly what we want her to do”

“So how does she plan to do it?” Sun asked.

“She said she would try to poison them tomorrow maybe in the morning before they start coming to our village. She insisted that doing it tomorrow will get more people killed than doing it this night. When I was there, Lots of the bandits have gone to sleep so even if you are lucky and poison their drinks, you won’t kill much of them and that was why my wife said that tomorrow would be the best time to do it” Owen said.

“I hope she does as she says” Viruz added.

“Alright. I think we should start going back to the village and get ourselves prepared for the battle we are about to face. Our lives depend on your wife now and if she happens to fail, then all of us are doomed Owen” Sun said with a mean and slow tune.

“She won’t Sir. She won’t.”

“She better not” Jonas chipped in.

“Let’s go,” Sun said.

They all hurried it went to where they kept their horses, untied them, and rode back as fast as they could to the village. When they finally arrived at the tavern, it was locked from the inside and all the windows were closed. Sun knocked at the door several times before the door was opened for them to come in. When Sun came inside the tavern, he found out that there were twenty men inside the compartment instead of eleven. He wondered who they were and he was kind of anxious and felt uneasy with himself. Maintaining a steady face to avoid being suspected of anything by the new faces he saw, he quietly called out the old man.

“You guys are back,” the old man said smiling.

“Yes Sir, can I talk to you privately?"

“Of course.” He followed Sun to a corner in the room.

“ I think I am seeing new faces here. I wanted to know if they are for us or against us before I make a rash move. They were ten of them before we left but now there are ten more men. Please who are they?” Sun inquired gently looking at the men.

“Oh. We are in safe hands. They are also people that wish to fight on our side. We are gathering more men as fast as possible” the old man said.

“That’s nice. I am glad more people are turning up. We need more people because tomorrow may be b****y. I am sure that these guys will be here tomorrow and the battle they will bring won’t be an easy one” Sun said, now looking at the old man.

“I know. I am aware that it won’t be easy. It has never been and cocksure, tomorrow’s event won't be as easy too. By the way, I hope your plans worked out?”

“I am not sure yet. We are hoping it works”

“Hoping? What does that mean?”

“One of your acquaintances, Owen, said that his wife would do it for us” Sun brushed.

“Owen's wife? Naomi? She’s still alive?” the old man asked surprisingly with his Phox accent.

“According to him, she is still alive. But we should strategize ourselves in such a way that we can defend the village with a small number of men on our side. This should be our failsafe plan in case Owen's wife plan fails to ponder through”

"Okay, General. Thank you”

“Thank you? For what?” Sun asked.

“Thank you for offering to help us. Thank you for trying to bring back hope to our people. Thank you for reviving my spirit because I have already given up on myself and everyone. Even if this plan fails to pull through, always know that we are forever thankful to you for offering to help us”

“Be optimistic. It will pull through. I need to talk to these guys” Sun said and turned back and went back to where the other was. The old man followed suit and followed Sun immediately.

“Listen up everyone,” Sun says as he draws everyone’s attention. “for the new ones here, I welcome you all. I believe by now you should have been briefed on what we are doing. Tomorrow, the bandits will be coming to this place to avenge their brother's death. The future and safety of the people here won’t be certain. So I urge you all to muster whatever weapon you can get your hands on and get them here. We will be needing it. If we want to defeat these people then we need to be ruthless in our dealings. Two things will define tomorrow, which are: we either win or lose. Believe me, I don’t want to lose because losing means losing our lives too so let’s fight as our lives depend on it. Alright?”

“Aye Sir!” two persons in the room exclaimed.

“I didn’t hear that. You all need to be bold like a soldier. Alright?”

“Yes Sir!” everyone said jointly.

“Good. It is midnight already. I think we all need to rest. Everyone needs it. It’s been a long night” Sun said. Everyone started moving out from the tavern through the backdoor while the main entrance remained locked. The main entrance was avoided and no one was allowed to go through it apart from when Sun came in that night with the other men from the mountain. All the men that had been invited by the old man including Owen and the other male who helped them went out from the tavern through the backdoor except the old man, Sun, Jonas, and Viruz who stood behind.

“General, I think you would need to sleep. You need to be up and running tomorrow” Jonas said.

“Yes. That’s true General, you need to sleep more than everyone else” Viruz opined.

“I will but who is going to stand guard?” Sun asked.

“Leave that to me. I will stand guard here and watch out for intruders in case they decide to attack us tonight” The old man bodily said.

“I will help too,” Jonas said.

“Me too” Viruz added.

“Alright. I will go to bed now. See you all tomorrow.”