Oware never had a friend. Never had a parent. Never had a child. Never had a name.
And those were only a few of the many things that she never experienced.
In all honesty, that frigid, violent maze, was reminiscent of a prison. “Find your spot and stay out of other’s.” That’s all her so-called mother told her before leaving to go god knows where not long after she hatched. “Don’t anger me,” Was what those other ẹda warned her when affected by the curse.
Because they liked how being in control made them feel. Used it as an excuse to torment everything around them. Bugs, moles, eniyan hunters regardless of who attacked first, and each other. To kill their own brothers and sisters for fun. To rape them as that male ẹda did to her. All for the sake of feeding their self-sufficient bodies and their twisted egos.
At some point, after fighting amongst them to win their unwinnable approval, she had become bored of it all and simply let them do as they pleased.
For 41 never-ending years, Oware hadn’t known what it felt like to be fond of another being. To genuinely want to protect them, to feel protected by them. To greet someone when they came home and worry about them when they left. To see the good in them. It was just her, her designated wall and collections of bones, flowers and rocks.
Until the number of ẹda that returned to the centre of the maze every night drastically dwindled.
Until she was one of the only ones left and was forcefully and painfully impregnated for it.
Until she left her hiding and decided to see what the eniyans wanted.
Until now.
Abeni. This little thirteen-year-old eniyan. A white-haired girl with power beyond both their understanding showed Oware that the way she understood life was wrong. Showed her that the empty existence she had led, constantly being on edge from potential threats in the form of eniyans or even her own kind, affected by the curse on not, was a dull pain, a nightmare that she was too tired to try and escape from. After all, where else would she go?
Since she met the girl, since she saw her eyes filled with as much terror as there was determination, Oware had been interested in following her. Sure, the commands she had not been aware of affected her judgement. Made her feel like she had to. Like she was obliged to. But once that faded, all that was left was desperation.
Where was this little eniyan, with thin arms and no knowledge of what the real world was like, going? Why did she keep moving? Why wasn’t she scared? To the point that she was able to trust even an ẹda? Her natural predator. Oware had wanted to know. And yet, the longer she stayed with her, it wasn’t answers she gained, but more questions.
Which was fine. Unbeknownst to Abeni, Oware had long since decided to commit herself to this little girl. To follow her with her own children so that she never lost that determination, that drive and fulfiled whatever she wanted to. Because while Oware didn’t have much to live for, Abeni was full of life. And anyone in this creepy village would be able to see that if they weren’t so busy trying to use her for all she was worth.
Oware shook her head and looked down at the eggs settled in her tail, gritting her teeth. She was sat in the middle of the front room-kitchen with her back facing the hut’s door, battling with familiar and unfamiliar predatory urges. It wasn’t the first time that she felt the curse pulsing in her veins while she was here in this village. The first time she wanted to destroy everything and anything. But Abeni’s fierce mentality had rubbed off of her. The white-haired girl herself refused to succumb to it, even for a second. So, why should Oware?
That didn’t mean it was easy to control though.
The wooden door of their hut opened without so much as a knock, and for a short time, she panicked, thinking that today was the day she got caught and caused trouble for the girl who helped birth her children.
But then she turned around.
“Oware. Are you alright?” Abeni said, rushing to her side and then gently rubbed one of the three eggs tucked in her tail like some protective older sister. “Is something wrong?”
“No! Don’t ask dumb questions.”
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The white-haired girl, clearly used to this, smiled and raised her hands in surrender. Much less on edge than she had been when they first met. “Well, pardon my rudeness.”
“Shut it,” and Abeni laughed. Before her gaze turned serious as she sat crossed legged in front of Oware and told her all about the banquet. About the village chief’s speech. About the guard who died at the hand of an attendant and a foreigner from a supposed kingdom! Seriously, when would this girl’s life ever not be eventful?
“So, we need to leave this week on the day of the hunt and warn them. If most of the hunters won’t be here during the hunt, then we don’t have to worry about who they are and what their powers are. We just have to avoid them. Plus! We have all of these of places we can try to go to if we just bring the map. It’ll be fine!”
Well, this sounded like a conveniently good plan. For a more experienced bunch. “Will it? Abeni…you’ve really been shielded from how the real-world works. You’ve never known the horrors of living outside of a village have you?”
“What do you mean? I travelled with you,” The white-haired girl’s eyes narrowed.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t count. Without your abilities you would’ve...” Oware couldn’t say it. “I’m not saying that that guard who attacked us should have, but you have to acknowledge that you’re not normal. You don’t hate anyone. He…lost his family and refused to trust anyone after it. This is a more normal way to live. For Ẹda too. Ẹda see most eniyans as no more than insects who attack without being provoked and see other ẹda as a threat to their very existence. Should something precious be taken from them, they let loose on everything around them even without the curse worsening their trail of thought. But you...you seem to have the luxury to not hate a species, but the individuals. That’s dangerous. And it’s making you want to risk your life to warn everyone. Including the mafia too.”
Oware hadn’t disapproved of going to other eniyan villages or settlements, but she certainly didn’t approve of going to anywhere even more unsafe than that. She never wanted to warn other unknown eniyans, after all why risk their lives so that others could win some overarching fight? The underworld didn’t have time for such heroism. “Abeni…your parents were powerful, that much is obvious. They were strong and smart enough to hide the realities of the world from you so that not even your uncle told you how messed up it was until they were gone. But the curse, the other ẹda maze and even that mafia you heard about are just examples of why we can’t help everyone.”
Every move they made outside of this – harrowing but safe in its predictability – village could lead to Abeni’s death. And Oware didn’t think she would be able to handle that.
The female ẹda released her grip around her three eggs, carefully unclenching her tail so that she didn’t damage them. Familiar anxieties about losing their newfound companionship rears its ugly heads. After all this time, Oware knew how to navigate the underworld, but Abeni didn’t. This girl had to understand that she had no idea what things were really like. Because her parents prioritised her happiness at all costs over everything.
In the end, her bloody limbs would fold on themselves like other eniyans the ẹda liked to play with. Or, worse yet, another eniyan be the one to do it.
“I’m not going to lose a fight to just anyone, but you…you’re young. Yes, you’re smart. Frankly, you’re the strongest person I’ve ever met and if you’re this smart at 13, I can’t imagine what you’ll do at my age, but. Even if you can take down a senior manipulator like me, just one stab can kill you. That being said, are you sure you don’t want to just—?”
“Even so, we have to do this.”
For a moment, Oware was speechless. She didn’t know what to say to that.
“I don’t care what happens. We’ll figure it out. Like you said, you’re certainly not going down to just anyone and neither am I. I don’t want to die and I don’t want to be alone, and I know that at the first chance they can, uncle, the chief, Caterina, they’d love nothing more than to get rid of us both. The banquet taught me that. So, we have to leave. And if I’m going, I want to warn the other eniyans so they can be safe and can defeat the village chief together in my place. Who knows? Maybe we’ll be able to build a good relationship with people like the villagers or even the mafia like my parents did and they’ll let us both stay with them.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to figure another way out? Maybe command the chief…?”
But Abeni shook her head like she had already thought that through. Which she probably had. “It won’t work. It’s too fiddly. Whatever I command him to do will be too out of character, too noticeable. And I don’t know if they have anyone else who has abilities which can undo my commands. Maybe that’s why my parents told me to never reveal them, because I could expose myself and then be made powerless. You’re right, I don’t have physical power, but as long as I am faster than them, as long as I am just one step ahead of them, I can win. I’m sure of it,” just like how she beat Oware at Oware.
“I…”
Abeni stood up, reaching her hand out with a firm expression. There was no changing her mind, huh? She was just as stubborn as the village chief, at least from what Oware had seen. “Trust me…please,” the girl looked down at Oware’s eggs with an expression someone her age shouldn’t have been wearing, “I promise we’ll be able to beat them. We just have to act first.”
But for once, Oware could hear the hidden meaning. Something she had never fully understood. Oh, so that was how they would do it. Not by planning, no that was Abeni’s speciality. Not by brute forcing it, that was how Oware was used to doing it. But by doing something so incredibly simple that it was almost laughable.
By combining their talents and doing this together.
For as long as they could.
If that was the case, then there was one more thing Oware had to tell her.
[Current Total Beings In ‘Abeni’s Army’ – 2]