The Ancient Beast (Adere's Mission)

Chapter 54

Then the watchers had entered the city of Abah and had headed straight to the palace of the king of Abah to present before him the woman that gave birth to the one that they were seeking for. They had been discussing the plan all along and how they intended to take hostage Adere's mother and then find Adere and offer a hand of friendship and promise to bring back his mother for him thereby winning his heart to their own side. After that they would then go ahead and make sure that nothing stopped them from using him to tame or have the ancient beast of Abah kingdom killed once and for all. As they entered the city they did not want the people of Abah to recognize them because they were actually on a secret mission and exposing themselves and the one that they were holding hostage would jeopardize everything that they were working on. They headed straight to the palace and when they arrived the first thing that greeted them was the sad faces of those at the palace. They were sad because of the death of the one the king had wanted to marry. The watchers did not want to ask so many questions because they were not there when it all started and they did not want to have anything to do with it now. All they wanted was to have the king of Abah to examine what they had brought back and to see what they had done and then tell them which way forward from there.

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In the land of Agori, Aboro with Rira and some of the people of Zinu who survived the attack from the soldiers of the kingdom of Agori and the king of Agori with his army decided to go back to the land of Agori where the king of Agori had insisted that Aboro and the rest that were with him followed him to in order for him to determine what next he was going to be able to do. When they had gone there they began to understand that there was something about them that needed for them to articulate. They entered the land of Agori and the king of Agori allowed the army to stay at the camp while he and the rest headed straight to his palace. He as still with hundreds of soldiers whom he did not want to join the rest of the soldiers of the land of Agori at the camp. This did not stop Aboro from whispering to Rira, "The king of Agori is being careful" Rira did not want to respond instead she nodded and they continued to make their way into.the palace. When they had arrived they dismounted their horses and headed straight to the throne room of the king of Agori. When the king turned he said to his men "wait outside. I will go inside with only Aboro and the my officials. Every other person must wait outside here while we go inside. Is that understood?"

The rest nodded their heads but Rira was not comfortable with the arrangement. All she wanted to do was to follow Aboro inside in order to help him in what he must say to the king of Agori but having been stopped from following them to the inside she had nothing else to say except to wait. She waited outside while Aboro with the king of Agori went inside the palace building to talk. Having left them outside Rira went and sat down on a step, alone and full of thoughts. She knew that her people were hungry but there was nothing that she could be able to do for them at that time. He had nothing to say to them either for even she herself was hungry and did not know what to do with herself. She yawned and then her eyes caught something; an Agorian soldier standing a stone throw from her and he was eating some snacks. She looked at her for sometimes and the soldier's eyes caught hers. Before she could remove her eyes the soldier already saw that she was looking at him. He stood up and then walked up to her and standing before her he said, "Do you want some of this?"

Rira looked at him and said, "I would want some but truth be told what I want is that you give some to some of those old people that I came with. They are famished and they need something to eat. Please if you would not mind kindly give to them whatever it is that you would want to give to me and I will be so much okay. I do not mind not eating anything, I can starve" said Rira.

"Are these not the same people that you insisted you must provide for back there in the land of Zinu? I can see that you have so much love for your people. Your kind is rare and I am surprised. What if I can bring enough that can go around you and your people?"

"I do not know but if you are able to do that then I am the happiest person on Earth for me too I am hungry"

The soldier then went inside one of the tents outside the palace compound and then he came out bearing breads. He took them to the Zinu people and as Rira watched him distribute the breads to them she was filled with happiness. After he was done he took her own to her and said, "Here, you too need to eat something. You deserve to eat something okay, just take what you have got to take and let it be just like that. I would not want anything to be the reason you fell down here and stop breathing because of hunger. When the king of Agori and Aboro are done we can know the next line of action okay?" he left her seated there and returned to his duty post. It was after he had left her seated there that she remembered that she did not ask of his name which she felt she should have at least asked of him what his name was. He took a bit off the bread and felt his tongue dried up on it. She shook her head and thought to herself, "I can see that I can stay for days without food. What hunger can do to a person in times of war is terrible but I look up and I have hope that we will come out of this victorious"

Inside the throne room where Aboro was seated with the king of Agori the king of Agori spoke first.

"I would not mind calling you names because you have disgraced me enough. I thought you were a warlord little did I know that you were a coward. Does it mean that you have not decided to do what you must do in order to have your mind set towards our goal. I did not want to believe that I heard you clearly back there in the land of Zinu because to me you did not speak, yes, you did not speak for if you had spoken maybe i would have had the the impression that you spoke but all that I saw you and heard you do and say were things outside my agenda. Did you not know that I have many other things that scare me as a king, especially as a king in this land of Agori? Listen to me Aboro, I hate what I am seeing right now! this is not the man that I have always known, the man that I have always boasted about in the past. What do you think I will be able to tell my friends, my noble friends when they ask me of you? Did you not know that if you have decided to act this way what it will mean for our dear Kingdom? Do you not know that if you insist that you are not going to listen to what I am telling you now and retrace your steps back to whom we all knew you to be it will be disastrous to us all? Even cockroaches will be pointing fingers into my eyes without any atom of fear in them, is that what you want for us now? Listen Aboro you know that I hate jokes and jokes told to scare me gives me bad impression of the one telling that joke..What I need you to do for me now is to ensure that you say to me, "I did not mean any of the things that I said back there then I will be made to heave a sigh of relief and be assured that everything is in shape. Do you understand me or do you still want to keep making me want to shout at the loudest voice?"

The man Aboro did not know what to answer to the king..One thing was sure, he was not joking about anything and whatever he had said to the king in the past, in the land of Zinu before they left it was true and they came from his heart and he was not ready to say that whatever he said he did not mean, infact what he was prepared to do at this moment was not to beg to be forgiven for what he said but instead to make sure that the king of Agori saw reasons with him based on what he said to him back there in the land of Agori. The king who still could not believe his ears wanted to know what Aboro had to say to him again.

"Well, my king, I have heard all that you have said but the truth of the matter which will always be the truth is that I meant all the things that I said to you back there at the land of Zinu. If I did not mean the things I said there was no need for me to say them..You yourself already knows that what I am planning to do is to ensure that things worked out the way that they are supposed to work out. You yourself said that there are other threats that face us. Well, I am aware of this and I am quite aware too that all my life and all your life what we have been doing is solving problems. I do not want to be solving problems, that is not what I want and that is not what I intend to lure my people..Our people, the people of this world deserve better. I mean what stops us from fighting for peace and togetherness? Must we decide that we fight each other..The reason that you need me is not because you love me but because you want me to do the things that you desire; things that would only have positive effect on you and you alone. Well, it is not wrong for someone to look for what they need and what they want but for you to stand against me now on this issue shows that it shows selfishness on your own side. Please my king I know how it sounds, that I am the one, me of all people, standing before you and asking you for this help. I know that all your life you had never for once expected this but for this to happen, for me to become like this, suddenly become like this it Is not ordinary and I won't start to lie to you now; even I myself I am shocked at myself. All I want you to do for me is to listen to not just me but to the woman through whom the gods of this land humbled me. She is a Zinu and she is Rira by name. I have not found love with her Incase you think I found love with her and decided to change, no, I have not found love with her, instead what I have found with her is wisdom and that wisdom I believe the gods bestowed it upon her. What I have come to understand is that with wisdom there is nothing that we will not be able to achieve. I love her for that. If we demand for change I believe that if we give it a change it will happen. This change that we all need is already here. Let us embrace it with our full arms"