Chapter Three

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I began my journey East, clearly and purposefully avoiding going through the usual route.

I still had my guard up, even after I left Dudumikuk

No one was to be trusted not even myself, if a keen eye had been watching me all along in Dudumikuk it's sure to follow me in the silhouette.

I was sure of that.

I walked through the sea of sand punctuated by my falling on several occasions.

This fall I made.

Was an intended act, to not let my follower know I knew I was followed I did so to take a sneak peek at it, whatsoever its gender might be walking through the shadows gracefully and confidently.

I made a total of eight falls.

And in all falls, I came up with an analysis of who it was. It was not from Dudumikuk which was obvious from his height and his broadness which means he had been following me from Sicj.

Making sharp turns now and then once we had emerged into a wodlagu, a small rain forest usually located in the desert for two minutes before it disappeared to reappear in another location in four days. I in no time had my follower in front of me without his knowledge.

It was a Dankuma, a bounty Hunter.

He searched for me, and I thought of how I could kill it.

The foe before me was an exceptionally skilled fighter and killer too.

I on the other hand

Was only but a man in search of answers.

My heart raced like a thousand horses at once. I was nervous what was I to do?

I pondered while the man to kill me was searching for me. At that moment it hit me,

Ovriodum

The spell of immobility.

I hope I can still remember it by heart correctly.

I began nevertheless... uché avrego chimi...

Was it chimi? Or kimni?

.....

This was hard to figure out since there was no one here to remind me, or was it Wahsubi? I'll have to try all I told myself and began chanting.

Uché avrego chimi uguna bre farapitan

Nothing?

No wait, something... Something not good. The hunter had sensed it and was tracing it, I better act fast about it or...

Uché avrego kimni uguna bre farapitan

Nothing again?

I was compromised, the hunter had traced my location with ease and was running my way, blade raised high.

Quickly! I screamed at myself with adrenaline pumping and blood rushing in a frenzy through my body.

I began the chant.

Uché avrego wahsubi uguna bre farapitan

He stopped a few feet from where I stood. It worked.

The lightning tendrils traced again from arm to head throbbing severely.

With not much time on my side, I pulled a dagger from my bag and pierced it twice in his neck. His eyes bulge as he struggles to gain control but can't, all he can do is feel his on-blood rush until he drifts from this realm.

I fell to the ground tired.

Within a week my life has been threatened twice and I had survived both attacks.

I was a different Isbor.

---

Shock was in no place able to express how I felt about everything going on about me.

I tried juxtaposing my situation, but I still didn't get it.

The three-figure shadow, the Dankuma...

And my simple yet complicated self.

Yes! Complicated that was the word, my very existence had become a complication.

I sat under a tree and reminisced about it, soon after I did this, I was jolted back to my feet by the falling of the Bounty Hunter, what price was there on my head?

The spell lasted more than I thought, if not that the desert had disappeared into nothingness to reappear in four days, I would have been long gone and wouldn't have had to see the hunter turn blue and cold.

---

I had slept for days of half and three, must be the condition of this place all men avoided.

While I prepared for my departure from Wodlagu the forest of abandon, I looked at the dried-up skin of what used to be a man's.

He could have been someone's husband, father, son, brother... No, no I'm not going to suffer the distress of one who tried to have me for a price be it having me dead or alive.

Cula makaira chuoi kañ be valop. A saying by all that: All men will live to perish one day.

Mine could have been some days back or a couple more but I made a deal and the Dankuma and the three-shadow figure were taken in my stead. My face lit up with a smile as I looked at the blazing sun come into existence from nothing.

---

I had accepted who I was becoming, the roads ahead be it weary I dare not lose my strength.