Ophidia

CHAPTER EIGHT (First assignment.)

    After falling down the waterfall, Jackandi's body drifted all the way to the cyto river and washed

up on it's bank in the Skalia forest. He was unconscious for few minutes but he managed to wake up.

When he woke up, all he wanted to do was sleep, but he needed to get moving. Because if there's one

thing the guards of Skalian prison are known for, it's their relentlessness. Just as he sat up, a guard

from the prison washed up right beside him.

    "Ahh",he screamed as he was really startled. When he poked the guard, he didn't flinch. He then

checked his pulse and confirmed that he was dead. He stood up, stretched and said. "You startled me

there", while his hand was placed on his chest. "I almost thought you were alive. Well I'm not going to

get much done if I continue talking to a corpse, so see ya."

    He started walking beside the river,following the direction in which he came in. His plan was to head

for Skalia and meet up with someone who goes by the name Naxis.

    Naxis was his employer and he promised him something in return if he completed all of his requests.

Jackandi was left with one more job and Naxis would hold up his end of the bargain. Naxis had been

paying him in gold, but when he completes his last task he'd be paid the thing that got him interested

in the job, in the first place.

    His job was, well they didn't call him scourge for nothing. As he was walking he started to recall

his first job. After he met Naxis, he asked him if he had what it takes to do the job. Jackandi said he'd

do anything for that payment.

    "I hope you are a man of your word Jackandi." He said.

    "Certainly! You have my undying respect and loyalty Naxis."

    "Very well, but I need to be sure of that. So your job is very simple."

    "Okay."

    "I simply want you to kill five chiefs from each tribe and one slitherane king, using this and only

this blade." He showed Jackandi a silver dagger that had some sort of tiny orb at it's hilt. The orb

had smoke lingering inside it, but Jackandi wasn't paying much attention to it.

    He was no stranger to murder but he only killed the people he thought deserved it. He wondered why

he'd want such a gruesome thing to happen. So he asked.

    "But why would you want me to do such a thing?"

    "I knew asking you was a mistake. I'll ask someone else to do it instead."

    "NO! I'll still do it I was just curious, that's all." Naxis gave him a suspicious look.

    "Do you want this?" He said pointing to a small pouch.

    "Yes I really really do."

    "Then you'll do as I say, without question. Do you understand?"

    "Yes I do and I will."

    "You start with the first one tomorrow." He then excused him and went to his home. Jackandi went

home as well. He lived about an hour's walk away from the main city. His house was in the Skalian

forest. It was a two roomed house, he didn't care much about how good it was. As long as he had

a place to sleep, a roof over his head and a full belly every night,he was okay. His house was also

underground because with all the bounty hunters and guards in Skalia he'd be caught If he wasn't

careful.

    He slept like a log till noon, when he woke up he realised that he was late. He was supposed wake up

in the morning so that if he walked, he'd reach by mid day.

No sooner did he realise than he started off. He didn't have a Zebra, because he had a phobia of

them. As soon as he got dressed, he took off. He was wearing a Cobra soldier uniform to blend in. He

was smaller than most of the soldiers so hiding for long wasn't much of a choice for him. Since he

was out of time, he grabbed a sword and bolted for the Skalian chief's palace. He was running so fast

that he could almost surpass a deer. He ran for about 20 minutes. Then he remembered that he left

the dagger on the bed. He rolled his eyes, ran home, retrieved the dagger and ran back. He ran even

faster this time, you'd think he'd be tired but he had a lot of energy. He ended up reaching the town

when it was almost dusk.

    "What did I come here to do again?" He asked himself. Then he starTed wonders around the town for

about half an hour.

    "That's a really nice dagger you've got there." Said someone he met in town.

    "Ohh yeah someone gave it to me for....." then his eyes widened and he dashed to the palace. The man

he met just looked utterly confused.

    He climbed on the rooftop of one of the buildings nearby. The building's rooftop was higher than the

main window of the palace. So he took a few steps back and jumped through the window of the palace.

When he landed two guards spotted him.

    The guards drew their swords and started to move towards Jackandi. They noticed that he was

wearing their old uniform and got even more suspicious.

    "Hey! You there stand up and show us your face." Jackandi stayed on the ground facing upwards.

    "Uhh give me some time to recuperate, my back still hurts. I didn't land very well."

    The guards walked closer and one kicked him in the shin." Owww! That hurt you!"

"Get up now." He said. Jackandi then gave the guards a kick each in the nuts. The guards held their

crotches and wailed in agony. Jackandi got up and knocked them out with the flat of his sword. He put

on the armour of the smaller guard, but it was still big on him. He had no choice anyway so he carried

on looking for the chief. He walked across the tower but he couldn't find him. In fact he couldn't find

anyone in the tower. He wondered until one guard came rushing towards him.

    "Hey come on you'll be late for the meeting."

    "Meeting?"

    "Yes it's today, come on let's go." He followed the guard to a room full of over hundred guards.

    "There's no way I'll kill him like this." He thought. "Think, think! "He looked around the room and the

chief was seated at a high table, eating his food he had a guard by his side and all the other guards

were quite far from him. "What if I fire an arrow at him." He then picked up a crossbow from one of

the weapons racks in the room. When he aimed, the dagger fell out of his pocket. "Ohh yeah that's

right, I'm supposed to use the dagger to kill him"

    He dropped the crossbow and picked up the dagger. He noticed that right beside the chief's table

was a window. He grabbed a chicken drumstick( because he was hungry) and snuck behind the table

with a jar of venom . So incase he got caught he'd pretend that he was serving venom to the chief,

surprisingly no one noticed him. His plan was going well, until on of the guard that Jackandi knocked

out earlier walked into the room. It was the guard whose uniform was stole

    "THERE'S AN INTRUDER IN OUR MIDST!" He yelled his lungs out. "HE'S WEARING MY UNIFORM."

The guards started panicking and grabbing their weapons.

    "s**t!" Jackandi exclaimed, when he was right behind the chief. The guard seated next to the chief

tried aiming his crossbow at Jackandi. Jackandi kicked the crossbow out of his hand and picked it up.

"I'm sorry about this fatty." Then he stabbed the king in the neck with the dagger, about six times. He

fired an arrow at the guard who told on him, but he missed.                                                                                         "Crap! I'll get you next time." The guard next to the chief tried tackling him him but Jackandi dodged him. Jackandi hit the floor as arrows were coming from every direction. When the guard got up he was skewered by one of the arrows. The guards moved closer and closer, Jackandi got up and jumped through the window. He was hit in the arm by an arrow while jumping. He landed on a banana stand but the arrows kept coming from through the window. He started crawling away from the stand, but he was still in pain from the landing. He saw a Zebra nearby, but there was no way he was getting on one. So he crawled for a bit,started

walking and started running. The guards then made it to the exit of the palace. Jackandi climbed onto

a high rooftop and laid flat. The guards when running all over town looking for him all night. When

they finally gave up, he slept on the rooftop. He figured he would just walk home in the morning. He

woke up and headed home the next morning. When he arrived he found Naxis at his doorstep.

"You did well Jackandi. I can count on you." He grabbed the dagger from his hand looked at it's hilt,

gave it back to him and started walking away." You bring this back to me when you finish your job. I

know you will do it, I admire your fearlessness."

    "Thank you....but how did you know....I haven't told you yet. " He threw a rolled up piece of paper in

front of him and walked away. Jackandi picked it up, on it was a painting that resembled him.

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE FOR THE MURDER OF CHIEF MUKWA . A REWARD OF 1 MILLION SCALES

WILL BE GIVEN.

    Jackandi just crunched up the paper, threw it away and went into his house to sleep.

He scoffed and kept walking to see Naxis.