Indomil shivered as a cold breeze lapped around where they hid between the dunes. Night had settled in, the light offered by stars vibrant upon the wide sky was rendered almost obsolete by the shadows cast by the large dunes cresting around their hide out. They couldn't huddle together for warmth, unwilling to form a darker smudge within the dunes that would draw the eye of any Binorian Hunter roaming the desert at nighttime. And now the situation was more dire, instead of water within the stone cans they had the heads of Binorian Hunters. Proof of what they'd come across at the oasis so the Colony Chief, Thegir, would believe them.
None of them could sleep, if they were caught on a regular night they would be mutilated and tortured by the Binorian Hunters. But tonight if they were caught with severed Binorian heads, well, the thought of what would be done to them made Indomil's shiver more pronounced.
None of them could sleep, none of them could make a sound and then Ishar snored. The Kolotian whose hands were bound with rope before him was between Dagaa and Lupin. Everyone lay still, unwilling to believe what they'd just heard. Then Ishar snored again followed by loud bark of laughter.
"What the fuck?" Xelif whispered from beside her, she couldn't see his face but saw his dark outline propped on an elbow to view over her to where Ishar lay. Ishar laughed out loud in his sleep and all of them came to their feet.
"Shut him up!" Dagaa gave a harsh whisper.
Lupin moved to cover Ishar's mouth where he lay. "Aaah!" Lupin screamed. "He bit me!" He hopped up and down while shaking his wrist. "Fucker bit me!"
"Shush!" Dora intoned. "We must be silent." Her voice trembled and Indomil knew it wasn't from the cold.
"He's torn flesh off my finger!" Lupin complained with a curse. "Torn flesh with a single bite! It's bleeding badly!" Dora moved to his side and cajoled Lupin to give her his hand, in the darkness Indomil saw Dora examine Lupin's finger.
"It's bad." Dora said. "I think I can see the white gleam of bone." Ishar chuckled and rolled over, they gave him a wide berth. Taking several steps away. Lupin groaned with pain.
"Cut a piece of cloth to gag his mouth." Dagaa said when Ishar groaned and giggled in his sleep once more. Nobody moved to act. Dagaa muttered a curse beneath his breath, ripped a strand of his tattered shirt's cloth, making it even more tarnished and moved to tie said cloth around Ishar's mouth, across his cheeks to form a knot behind his head.
Ishar's eyes snapped open, they glowed amber as Dagaa leaned over him. Indomil gasped and took a step back. Ishar struck out his bound hands and placed his palms on Dagaa's chest, Dagaa froze over the strange Kolotian. A moment passed, one, two, three, then Dagaa fell backwards, back arching, feet kicking and let out an inhuman scream. Indomil had never heard such a scream before, she'd heard a scream of fright, of despair, of anguish, but never like the one Dagaa unleashed. It was raw and pronounced, it hurt her ears and sent her limbs trembling. It seemed to have the same effect on all those around her. The water seekers, led by Dagaa, crested around their leader who thrashed and screamed on the desert floor. All caution thrown to the wind.
"Grab him!" Indomil snapped herself free of her stupor, she moved and pounced on Dagaa, trying to hold him down and clap a hand over his mouth. He screamed through her fingers, chocked on his own saliva and still continued to scream as he choked . Xelif was beside her, pinning one of Dagaa's arms to the ground while Dora pinned her weight on his legs to stop them from kicking. Lupin stumbled over and forced the cloth Dagaa had torn and discarded into their leader's mouth, muffling his screams but putting no end to them.
"Please be silent!" Indomil begged. "Please, Dagaa." She ran her hand on his chest, abdomen, face. Looking for signs of an injury, signs of blood, there was none. He was unscathed yet his screams claimed otherwise. She touched the tears streaming down his face as she squeezed either side of his face. "Please, Dagaa, please, stop screaming! You'll draw them! They'll come and we'll all be dead!" Indomil begged but her plea fell on deaf ears. Dagaa's muffled screams sounded around the crest of dunes where they hid.
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"What do we do?" One of the water seekers asked. Indomil was too disoriented to know who. "They'll come!"
"What has he done to Dagaa!" Another intoned. Moving to where Ishar lay, asleep once more and as oblivious to the perils of the night as a blind man is to color. The water seeker moved with the intent to harm but Phesoj, small and feeble Phesoj, came between Ishar and the water seeker and earned a punch in the face, all panic and anger directed towards him. Phesoj sprawled onto the sand, got up and charged his assailant. They tumbled to the ground, thrashing and flinging fists with answering grunts.
Turmoil erupted. Dora was crying, a fight had broken out. Lupin was cursing in pain and waving his injured hand as if willing to shake free the pain and blood. Questions were being asked by those who were confused while others stood rooted to the ground like oasis trees, too terrified to act or talk or think. All the while Dagaa screamed with Indomil on top of him, trying to hold the cloth to his mouth. Xelif was saying something to her, but Indomil couldn't register his words, not with the blood pumping through her ears and making her face hot.
Xelif tagged at her shoulder and finally managed to get her attention. "We have to shut him up!"
Indomil suddenly knew what had to be done. She got off Dagaa, rushed to where the stone cans lay with dismembered heads in them. She gripped one, raised it over her head and rushed to where Dagaa lay thrashing against the combined constraints of Xelif and Dora. Then, without thinking, without holding back, she brought the stone can down with all her strength onto Dagaa's face. She felt more than heard the crunch of cartilage breaking and Dagaa abruptly went still. And with his stillness came the end to the screams, and the fighting between Phesoj and the water seeker that Indomil could now identify as Ollyper met an end when Phesoj got knocked out cold. Silence once more enveloped them and it seemed all held a breath, hoping against all odds that all that had transpired within the crest of tall sand dunes, had gone unnoticed.
They all felt despair's clutches grip at their throats and squeeze all life from them as above them, on the crest of each sand dune around them, figures appeared carrying bright torches that illuminated their pale skins. Close to two dozen Binorian hunters surrounded their hide out and Indomil knew the end when it looked her in the face. She felt the weakness climb from the soles of her feet, up her legs, causing her knees to knock and her hands to grow numb. She let go of the stone can and heard it thump to the ground, the two heads contained within it rolling out to flank her feet. Silence was all they'd wanted and now they had it and all it offered was the chance to hear the loud beating of their own hearts while faced with the certainty that they will soon beat no more.
In his sleep. Ishar giggled.
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Hey. I am so sorry for not posting chapters this past couple of days. I'm from Kenya and I don't know if you know this but we're currently trying to overthrow our government who have been corrupt since forever and are also trying to enforce new tax laws that would have killed us all for their own benefit. Our country is divided along tribal lines and the politicians use this to their advantage but unbeknownst to them, the Gen Z and Millenials don't give a fuck about tribe. I mean, we grew up watching Lord of the Rings and the Avengers, we have a superhero complex not tribal based mindsets. We hate tyranny and we gathered and fought back. It's been a rough couple of weeks, with mobilizing in the streets of our capital city and protesting (Please look up #REJECTFFINANCEBILL2024 on any social site. This is proof of what's going on) So the government shut down all data network services in the country to prevent the youth from mobilizing because we were using social media to rally, and the internet network has only just recently returned. It has been dangerous, there were flying bullets and everything. I saw a guy's head get blown off and trust me, seeing it in real life is way different from reading about it. Like, the writers often talk about grey or dark tissue matter in the brain. It's actually mostly white and pinkish. There's no way they can tax sanitary pads to almost twice their normal price just so a politician can buy a watch worth a million dollars. That's promoting Sanitary poverty! Our women will suffer! A guy was shot and killed several paces from me, and in that moment I felt an otherworldly fear and for some reason, I thought about you guys. Incase I die you can check out the rest of my chapters on Patreon. Chapters 30 to 37 is some of the best writing I've ever done. You'd fall in love with Kaza. The protests are still going on and we're not going to back down! I might die and I need to let you guys know about the Madness Series, at whatever time afforded to me by God, I shall use to post chapters. Also, Kenyans are really cool, know how horses are a major part of fantasy novels? Well, here's a video of a protestor who made away with a Police horse:
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMrMVHLU5/
Imagine charging into battle while holding a sword at that speed! Hell, I gotta steal a horse next time. It's just stirups and reins right? What's the worst that can happen? LoL