CHAPTER 7 - UNRELENTING PURSUIT

The sun beat down on the forest floor as Eruvwu, Eseoghen, and Egbo made their way towards the tallest palm tree. They all hunted separately; 'the harvest this year was bad, they all said in unison'. Either the monster they found was too strong for them to hunt or was too weak for them to break a sweat, so none of them could fortunately cross that threshold.

As they continued their journey, they found Ovie, one of Akpobor's friends. He usually looked unappealing and weak all the time, but now he seems to have matured with a sharp aura around him.

As they walked, they talked, and they laughed, their laughter filling the air. Eruvwu, with her quick wit and sharp tongue, kept the group entertained, while Eseoghene's strength made them push on even when they were tired. Egbo, with his sharp mind, led the way as Ovie told his tale of his escape from the forest while singing the songs of the tribe.

As this was going on, the children from the tribe all started grouping together for the journey to the palm tree.

While this was going on, a boy not too well known in the tribe called Miracle was running for his life. He had encountered two apes who had crossed a threshold. At first, they were just toying with him, throwing him around and catching him, but now they were using their sharp nails to draw markings all around his body.

When they weren't looking, he quickly took off. He ran with all he had, and even that wasn't enough. When the apes saw him escaping, they were enraged and started to pursue him. Although they hadn't crossed the threshold of speed, they were too fast for him to handle, and they were also in their natural habitat, so this made things easier for them.

While he was running, the apes kept catching up. One started throwing big rocks at him while the other threw branches at him like spears, until finally a branch impaled his arm. He was overwhelmed and shocked so much that he actually stopped running. When the apes saw him stop, they started grinning; they had finally caught their prey.

While the apes were up in the tree, Miracle was just standing there dumbfounded. This was the fifth time he had gotten injured in his life. Ever since he was young, the first time he joined the tribe to spar, he never wanted to do it again. The pain he felt while they were beating him up, he never wanted to feel it again. Since then, every other time he trained with the children of the tribes, he was absent or did nothing, which earned him scorn from his family, friends, and elders. "They won't just understand it," he said. He hated pain and anything that had to do with it.

His mind started going in another direction: "What if I am fast enough to avoid the pain? What if I am so fast they can't even catch me? How would they hurt me?" With that thought in his mind, something clicked inside of him. His heart rate quickly went up; it was so fast it felt like they were playing drums in his body; his blood circulation quickly spread all around his body, mostly his arms and legs; his senses heightened to a razor-sharp focus; and all these things happened in less than two seconds.

As the apes closed in grinning at the tree top, they had finally caught their prey. They suddenly stopped smiling and looked at miracle, his breathing quickening, his muscles tensed, and in an instant 'fwoosh' he was there no more. The apes searched for him and saw him running ahead and pursuing him. He was running at speeds of fifty metres every 2 seconds or less.

The world around him blurred as he ran faster than he thought was possible; every step propelled him faster, leaving the enemy behind. He felt the wind whipping past his face, and the pain in his arm faded into the background as he ran through the forest.

He was running at breakneck speed, that is, it was getting hard for even the apes to catch up to him, but he had two problems: the branch that impaled his arm was dripping blood, allowing the apes to know where he passed, and the arm that was impaled hurt very badly; he was starting to get slower. Secondly, he just crossed this threshold, so he doesn't even know how to control his powers, and he was running in a dangerous forest.

All that didn't matter to him; what was in his head was to run, run from pain, run so fast that it couldn't touch you.

After a minute of running miracle energy died out, he was exhausted, but he kept the speed of running fifty metres every two seconds for a minute straight. It's something to be praised for someone who just crossed the threshold minutes ago.

Bang bang

His heart literally stopped for a moment; the apes were still following him. "Why?" He thought.

The apes saw their prey sitting on the floor, gasping for air. They were not grinning anymore; they were frowning. It was a crown of shame for them to lose their prey in their clan. It was a rule enforced in the law of the clan of apes: they could get their status reduced and would be flogged in front of the whole tribe; they were elders, and if they got their status reduced, they'd be mere clan members, and the opposing faction wouldn't let them be. The only way to stop this was to bring the head of their prey because they couldn't lie to their clan leader.

This time they were serious; they used their strength. Both apes had crossed the threshold of strength and had been diligently training it. To them, uprooting a tree from the ground was a minor thing.

They uprooted the trees and started swinging them at a miracle, trying their very best to make sure they ended him.

Miracle, who saw all of this, was pale-faced; he had barely any energy left in him. How would he escape? As the trees came closer to him, he shouted in his mind.

"Nooooooooooooo"

"I must escape." As these words were said, other than the sound of the trees swinging at him, another sound was heard: a sizzling crackle was heard, and white smoke was coming out of the miracle's body. The trees that were swung at him missed their target; the miracle had just gone deeper into the threshold.