บท 70: Jade Eagle's Power
"There they come."
Ontoko said fearfully jumping from his bed. There were outlandish noises from outside. The others quickly came alive as well.
"So, this is how it feels to be a human, I will never change to that crazy animal again." Ratong had risen and was stretching and yawning lazily.
He had slept alongside Ochieng', Jade Eagle and Ontoko in the latter's 'manyatta'. No one had a good sleep since they were anxious. They did not know what was going to happen the next day.
"Marvel after we are done with this brother, we have a job to do." Jade Eagle tapped Ratong's back and walked out of the 'manyatta'. It turned out he had long woken up and was even done cleaning himself.
Ratong' gave a smile and aboard Ochieng' and Ontoko he cleaned himself up and together they matched out of Ontoko's 'manyatta'. As soon as the trio walked outside, they met what rendered them speechless.
In front of them stood an old woman with a young man donned in a jade colored skin hanging oddly on her right hand. Even with her wrinkles, the deep scowl between the woman's eyebrows was clearly visible. It was apparent she was here for no good.
"What do you want old woman?"
Ontoko took the initiative to ask. They recognized the fellow who was hanging unconsciously on the woman's hand. They knew he was Jade Eagle who was with them two or three minutes ago.
"What I want is simple, " the woman's course voice resounded, "I know the man beside you is an Ordainer. I give him up to noon to leave my clan or I kill this friend of yours."
Even before Ochieng' said a word, the woman had already gone away. He sighed deeply before turning to the other two,
"What do we do now? She has Jade Eagle and the tribe must be left safe from the sorcerer's spell. I guess she is the same person making puppets out of humans."
"You are an Ordainer and I believe you can do this. You can save your friend and the tribe as well..." Ontoko started trembling. He was just about to finish when he saw a group of women running at a breathtaking speed towards his home screaming at the top of their lungs.
"What is happening?" The stupefied Ratong' asked.
Before he received an answer, the group of more than ten women went past them revealing several bizarre creatures that were following behind them.
The creatures were humans but somehow, their heads were firmly held high and their mouths were widely opened exposing extremely sharp one inch eyeteeth. Their cranial orbits were dark and empty making their heads appear as skulls rather than real heads. If not for their intact noses and ears, one could think that they were skeletons walking in human clothes because they were thin as well. Their clothes were sodden with blood.
"There they come and judging from the fresh blood on their clothes and mouths, it seems they have done some killing this morning. We must do something." Ontoko trembled in fear.
The veins on Ochieng's forehead and temples popped out the moment he heard Ontoko. His red eyes was ceaselessly producing tears. His breathing was loud and heavy. His teeth were tightly clenched. He felt so angry that he could destroy everything that lay in his path. Not even an angry buffalo could be compared to him at the moment. The reason he was this angry was maybe because of the sorcerer or these creatures. Even the ever emotionless Ratong' had a change of expression.
Ochieng's hand wanted to reach for his sword but a three foot one suddenly appeared on his right hand. The sword was glowing in yellow and red giving him a very comfortable feeling. It was the Apotheosis Sword.
"Forgive me my countrymen."
Ochieng' cried out before pouncing on those creatures like a hungry tiger on a prey. He started severing the heads of the puppets while crying emotionally.
Maybe because he was unwilling to kill those he was supposed to protect, Ochieng's movement were rather slower than usual. He was an Ordainer and the moment he received the Supernal bracelet, his love for mankind had skyrocketed. Though these people were already dead, he felt a pang of pain on his chest. He reached a point where he could not kill anymore. He suddenly dropped on his knees.
One creature seized this opportunity and grabbed his shoulder. It groaned angrily before it opened its mouth widely. It was almost piercing Ochieng's flesh with its sharp cuspids when its neck was grabbed by powerful hands. Its neck produced a cracking sound the next second. It was then thrown away dead.
"Are you alright?"
Ratong' who had just saved Ochieng' asked worriedly.
"I am brother, thank you." Ochieng' nodded as he was helped up by Ratong'.
"This is not good brother. The more you let them live the more people will die. Unless you want others to be like them, you must destroy them." Ratong' advised.
"I cannot help it brother. I also want to destroy them but it seems I am unable to. I really don't know what to do." Ochieng' cried.
It may seem long but it had only taken about ten seconds for Ratong' to save Ochieng' and have a little talk with him. Ratong' wanted to continue persuading this brother of his when he heard Ontoko's anxious voice,
"They are increasing in number. We are soon going to be helpless before them. Ochieng', I know you have some feelings for them but right now they are no longer human beings but puppets made to destroy humans. The longer you take the more they kill. As an Ordainer you cannot afford to be distracted in your course."
What Ontoko said seemed to have enlightened Ochieng'. The latter stood up once more and viciously killed the puppets. With every swing of his glowing sword those creatures fell. Ratong' also took Ochieng's usual sword and was angrily destroying these creatures. It took only fifteen minutes to destroy them. Being strong, they did not feel exhausted at all after finishing. In fact, they were beaming with energy.
"This is just a handful, there are several of them out there. What do we do?" Ontoko asked.
Out of nowhere, something appeared in the space above them. It was something that looked like a large sheet of paper and had an appearance like that of water. The three were trying to comprehend what that sheet could be when a familiar fellow appeared on that sheet.
"It's her" Ratong' called out.
"I told you to leave my clan but you ended up destroying my toys. It was out of kindness that I gave you that chance but since my gesture is not appreciated, there is no need of holding back!"
The furious voice of the old woman who had just appeared resounded. Immediately she finished speaking, she was seen grabbing a young man clad in jade colored skin by the neck. In a jiffy, she took a dagger and sent it through the young man's forehead. When making his last kicks, the man turned into a jade feathered bird. The bird flew up in the sky tearing the air at a lightning speed leaving behind it's feathers that beautified wherever it left.
The bird disappeared in the sky before appearing as an extremely large bird. The dagger that was formerly in its head was now tightly held on its sharp claws. The old woman stared at it with mouth agape, fear apparent in her eyes. It hollowed loudly making the sheet shake intensity before it was tone into several pieces and dissipating altogether.
Ochieng' and the other two were left looking at each other thunderstruck. The women who had struggled to fit Ontoko's 'manyatta' had walked out and were staring above astonishingly.
Boom!
The sound of an explosion reverberated. Ochieng' and the others turned their heads to the direction of the explosion. It was over six hundred meters away but they could see clouds of dust rising combined with blood mist clearly.
"Look! These monsters are changing!"
One woman's voice echoed. Everyone turned their heads to the corpses and just like the woman had said, they were changing. The so called vacuous bravos were changing to their original human forms. Within a second, all of them were normal human beings but dead ones.
A large bird then appeared above them roaring, "Brother Ochieng' and Ratong, let us go."
It was Jade Eagle. It was the jadefeathered eagle Ochieng' and Ratong' knew. It had no mark on it and it was like it had never been hurt at all. The two were still hesitating when the bird descended urging them to climb its back. It flew away with the confused two as soon as they were on its back.
"A bird can talk"
Those who were left behind were still shocked at what they had seen. It took a long time for them to recover. Ontoko shook his head helplessly looking at the direction the bird flew to. He then gave a satisfactory smile before walking into his 'manyatta' as the others dispersed not forgetting about what they saw today.
Not far away from here, a group of Sobu people were packed together under a large tree in the Sobu sub tribe's shrine. From their quick breaths, its was clear they had run for a long distance to get there and were too exhausted to move. It was over three hundred of them and they were trembling in fear. A few meters from where they were, a pack of those lifeless humans was moving at a slower pace.
When the lifeless humans were just thirty meters away from them, they dropped en bloc and changed into normal human corpses.
"What is happening?" The three hundred and so people were tongue tied.
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