The Ancient Beast (Adere's Mission)

Chapter 63

It began to rain outside and the king of Abah stood up and went to the window to look out from it. He stood there longer than the mother to Adere had expected but the woman did not want to call him back because she did not want that discussion concerning her son to continue. As she sat there she began to wonder what was on his mind, why he remained there and continued to look outside the window like someone that still needed to have a lot of things known to him. The king was actually having a lot on his mind as he looked over the window. At some point he stopped looking out and then turned to face the woman, "Do you know why I continue to look out through the window?" his question had nothing to make the woman answer him for there was no way she would know why he was looking out of the window if he did not tell her. So she kept seated there and glaring at him.

"I am going to tell you a story about myself, it will be necessary for you to understand this story because it is going to help us in making our decisions..It might look like we need something from it all but then it is better to tell you this story" the king went to her and retook his seat. After he had retaken his seat he kept looking at her and the woman got uncomfortable with his gaze upon her. The king noticed and then sniffed and looked up. He wanted to tell her that he was not always like that but situations of life turned him into a beast. He began by narrating to her exactly what happened the day before he was born just the same way his mother had narrated it to him.

On the night of his birth the baby had been in his mother's arms as both mother and child waited to have the father of the child to come and see his newly born baby boy, the prince of the the kingdom of Abah. The beast had struck and no one knew how that happened. Everyone who wanted to have something to do with the beast were torn apart and the king of Abah was heavily wounded. When the queen of Abah got the information of the death of her husband she could not believe it and she died instantly. It was the midwife who was there when the queen of Abah delivered the prince that was given the Instructions by the elders of the land of Abah to ensure that the baby boy remained taken good care of. This was not the family line of the current king of Abah Kingdom, infact the family line of the king of Abah Kingdom initially had nothing to do with the kingship of the land of Abah Kingdom but then it was not their fault that it happened, infact all they wanted to do was to enable the rest of the people to have their say. The then elders having decided that the king and his queen had died that it would be better to shift the kingship to another family. It was then decided that a lot will be casted to ascertain the family that would take on from where the late king of Abah stopped. That was how the family of the current king of Abah was chosen and then made a king. As he was chosen and made a king there was nothing else that remained, it meant that his son, the current king of Abah was to take on from where he would stop. And he did stop when death came and the current king of Abah became the new king. The day he was crowned the king it rained heavily and most people in the land were scared because it each time it began to rain that way it meant that a bad omen had set in. The king was most interested in his own image as it was then the rain would signify that he was nothing but a bad omen to the people of the land of Abah, atleast that was what most people in the land of Abah at that time thought. They did not want to associate themselves with a king whose day of coronation brought about a heavy rain. The heavy rain was feared when it came down because it disturbed the nightmare of the land of Abah kingdom. The very thing that did not go down well with them was the fact that each time it rained that way the beast would start it's invasion and whenever he invaded the land he would not leave until he had killed atleast five hundred people, most of them men. On that day as the rain fell if downed on them that something was going wrong somewhere. They did not know what else to do, infact they began to hurl insults on the the newly crowned king of Abah Kingdom, making him to understand that he was brining them nothing but bad luck.

As the king of Abah sat there before the mother to Adere he kept recalling what happened that day, the deaths that followed the heavy rain that fell on that day. He had barely received his crown as the king of Abah when suddenly the men and the women in the palace began to hear the screaming from afar..It was then brought to their notice that the ancient beast had attacked the people of the land of Abah. The king of Abah was so much enraged at this but he found a way to make his people believe in him once more as he suddenly began to address them; "People of the great land of Abah, I know how you feel now, I know the fear in your hearts because it is written all over your faces. I know but what I have refused to accept is that on the day that I am being made king of his great land I am made to have the attack from the beast be my welcoming note from the universe. I hate to think that on this wonderful day when I should be dancing with you all and celebrating my coronation with you all I am here under this heavy rain, under this heavy signal, talking about an ancient evil that has become the very reason I lost those so dear to me. I have decided to hate the name of that beast, a beast so old no one knows it's name. I am instead very much aware that fighting it is what we are left to do. There is nothing else that we can do about it, there is nothing else anyone can do about anything except to stand up for what is ours and fight for it, to stand up for our families, for our children, for our brothers, for our sisters, for our parents, for our friends. We have to make sure that all those that had died before now are not only going to remain dead but they will be in their graves thanking us for what we are going to end up making the fate of the ancient beast. I know quite alright that it might sound like there is nothing else anyone can do about the ancient beast but that is a lie from the pit of hell. There is always a solution to any problem and this one even though it has lasted for centuries is no exception. We will find a way to put it to rest and so it will come to an end"

One of the elders in the palace with tears in his eyes stepped forward like someone who had lost all hope and said to the newly crowned king of Abah Kingdom and then said, "It surprises me just how much we do not regard the ancient beast, it surprises me just how much our mind tells us that we are ready to make something out of it. Our ancestors and their ancestors before them could do nothing to the ancient beast, now suddenly we believe that we can have anything to do with the defeating of the ancient beast. I can not lie about this but if truth must be told I must admit that j am scared and I am not saying it to shame myself but to liberate myself. Fear is in every heart that stands here and in their faces this fear shows, in their hearts they are troubled and so what is the plan that we have to put up that our ancestors did not put up. We have to agree that we are finished today and that the beast is here to attack. Our prayer should not be that we defeat the beast but that the beast will not kill as much as it did the last time it visited, the last time that it paid us a visit. I am broken" The man cried. The king did not know what else to say but what else must he do? even though he was human just like them he was no longer ordinary human but a king whose state of emotion does not matter if he must address his people, to bring comfort and confidence to them. He remained standing there listening to the murmurings of the people who were in the palace. At a point he shouted that they should all keep calm and then like a person who already had a plan mapped out walked up to the platform which was tall enough to make it possible for all eyes to all on him. He remained standing there and then continued to address the people, "I hate to say it, infact I hate to be saying this but if I must continue to be saying it everyday, starting from the time I was grown enough to know what to say then so be it but I must not allow the fear of some of you to affect those who are not in fear already, I am not going to allow your fear to affect the confidence of others. This is what I am going to make sure of; that none of you will be allowed to go outside that gate but then I am going to go outside that gate, I am going to step out there to face that beast with the most capable men of this palace. Words must be sent to the army at the camp to get them ready to back us up Incase we are being overpowered by the angry beast. There is nothing much that I am going to say now except that most of you who are scared should go ahead and enter the palace vaults and remain hidden there until our return. I surely do not want to keep thinking about how it will go but what I am moved to do now is to accomplish what our ancestors or their ancestors before them were not able to accomplish and that is to have the Ancient Beast killed once and for all"

The king then stopped speaking and began to march towards the gate with over five hundred men who were well armed. The messengers had already been sent out and they were marching on their horses before they began to gallop towards the path that led to the camp, the camp of the soldiers of the land of Abah. Before the king could step out with his men there was a cry from the old men who had been there all their lives witnessing the attacks of the beast that it would be better for him and for them if the king could seek for the assistance of the Watchers of his father; at that time the watchers of Abah were called the watchers of the king.