Ophidia

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE ( Naxis was it? )

    Mupo tried his best to escape but it was no use anymore. His antics did cause them to be two days

late. Nonetheless they still arrived. As they started to approach the cave of serpents, the huntress

started to become more and more relieved.

    Mupo had never been to the cave,but he had seen drawings of it in numerous books and pictures.

Even though he'd seen multiple paintings, there weren't nearly as beautiful as the actual thing.

It was so beautiful that for a split second, Mupo forgot about being captured and tied up and just

admired it. It's rocks were a mixture of grey and white. It had a stream of water flowing along a

portion of it's rocks starting from the top of the mountain to the bottom, swirling around it like a

constrictor wrapped around it's prey. The vegetation consisted of trees, shrubs and flowers. Oddly

enough, all the flower petals and tree leaves where the colour white. The wildlife only consisted of

birds and mountain crawlers.

    Near the very top of the mountain, was a big and wide ledge and standing on that ledge was a

cave. Mupo then saw a man seated on a rock near the entrance to a cave. It was hard to see from

where he was but all he could make out was a man in armour but he couldn't name the material he had

a bronze sword in his hand and a helmet that covered whole face except his eyes.

    "Who is that?" Mupo asked the huntress.

    "That is the man who hired me to capture you." She said.

    "Naxis huh? " he thought. "I wonder what he wants with me." The boat had finally reached closer

and he could clearly see Naxis. Mupo had never met him and his policy was to never judge a book by

its cover but even he had to admit that he didn't look very friendly. When he got closer he saw some

scratches on his armor and he gave off a weird gloomy type of energy.

The huntress disembarked from the boat and shook his hand." Do you have what I asked for?" He

asked the huntress. She then crossed her arms.

    "First give me what I asked for and I'll give you what you want." She gave him this fierce look as if

to say she meant business and she wasn't going to tolerate any kind of nonsense. Naxis then looked at

her and laughed.

    "A deal is a deal." He then snapped his fingers and a bunch of hawks came flying from a behind

him. With a little boy being carried by them. The boy was brought above them and He snapped his

fingers again and they released the boy from their grasp. As soon as that happened the huntress

jumped up and caught the boy in her hands. "I told you I'm a man of my word....now it's time for you

to keep your end of the deal."

    "He's tied up in that boat. He's all yours."

    "Thank you. He is healthy right?" Mupo then looked at the hawks to try and escape but they had

flown out of hearing range for him to call them. The huntress embraced the boy, left with him in her

hands and walked down the mountain.

Naxis stood up and if they were standing side by side he would have bested Mupo by 6 inches.

    "Njoka! What a pleasure to finally meet you."

    "The pleasure is all yours." He quipped. Naxis then laughed.

    "I see this title has had no effect on your sense of humour."

    "What do you want with me?" The Njoka asked him.

    "To make things right. To make things as they are supposed to be."

    "What does that mean?" Mupo asked in complete confusion.

    "You'll see.... first I need you to get the poison fruit for me."

    "No."

    "If you do it I won't have to use force."

    "Why would I give something that dangerous to you." Naxis then pulled him out of the boat and

dragged him to the rock where he was seated on when Mupo first saw him. He then sat him down

properly and said.

    "I am giving you one more warning.....just agree to enter the cave and retrieve the fruit and It'll be

easier on your part." Mupo gritted his teeth.

    "There's no way in Ophidia that that is going to happen." Naxis sighed

    "If only you weren't so stubborn." He removed a dagger from his pocket it was the dagger that

Jackandi used to kill the chiefs and immediately Mupo saw it, it looked very familiar to him, but he

couldn't remember where he saw it from.

Naxis stabbed him in the left thigh and he screamed in pain. The orb on the hilt then started to

become empty. The smoke that lingered inside had disappeared. Naxis set Mupo free after he did

that.

    Mupo then started holding his thigh, where Naxis had stabbed him, he was screaming in agony as

he was thrashing his head around and rolling around on the ground. He was in so much pain that he

stopped screaming and just continued thrashing.

The pain spread to the rest of his body and he started screaming again. The amount of pain that

he felt doubled. It finally reached his head and he couldn't take the pain anymore he was ready to kill

himself to stop the pain, he would do anything to stop it. "Make....it....stop!" He tried to speak but the

pain overwhelmed him.

    After a few minutes of suffering, the pain finally stopped and he felt like nothing had just

happened to him. "Now Njoka, go and get the fruit." Mupo then got up and started walking towards the

cave without second thoughts. He tried resisting but his body wouldn't let him. "You're more stubborn

than I expect.....I said go and bring me the fruit right now." He then walked faster yet still reluctantly.

"Why...can't....I stop my body from doing this?.....what's happening to me?" He then continued

unwillingly moving and then he entered the cave.