The halo breed episode 60

THE HALO BREED
SEASON 4
RAGE
EPISODE 11
It had started like any other day for the survivors in the Root of Densua.
They had woken up one after the other, taken baths in the special allotted places for male and female, and then some had explored the beautiful landscape beyond the gigantic tree but away from the border of the Pale Lands.
As usual, Kharisa and Obed had crossed the great lake to the other side to feed their father. His wounds had healed and he had become very docile, taking food and water meekly from them, his tortured eyes always filled with great misery.
His children spent many hours a day with him, speaking to him, trying to bring his heated mind home, but he never uttered a word. There was a time Obed had asked about his mother, and then Kobby Obeng had roared with grief, fallen to the ground, and pounded the earth with his fists in sheer agony.
He had not wanted to be near them for the rest of the day, and so they had wisely steered clear of the topic of their mother, believing that something bad might have happened to her, and they had mourned that sweet mother of theirs through the ensuing days.
Their clothes were limited, but they had discovered that the broad leaves of the great tree became soft and strong like cloth when soaked in water for two days or more and dried, and so this had become their new material, used for crude clothes and tissues.
Pieces of the barks of the tree could also be used as pins because they could pierce and also bend through without breaking. Kharisa, whose hobby had been designing dresses, started using them and the materials to fashion pretty styles of clothing for both males and females.
Unfortunately, Kobby Obeng would neither bath, nor allow his clothes to be changed, and so he remained like that, lost in his little world.
That fateful afternoon, after Kobby Obeng had been fed, Kharisa, Obed, Sarai, Mavis, and a few others plucked the giant leaves of the tree and moved downstream of the great lake to soak them. It was the designated portion because the currents were mild and the depth not so high so that the leaves could be stacked and spaced on the lakebed safely.
They were chatting and laughing in a good-natured way when a beautiful young lady called Joana Mensah suddenly gasped and took hasty steps backwards. She had been a bit farther downstream, and as she came towards them, they saw the sudden fear reflected in the depths of her eyes.
“Miss J, what is it?” Mavis asked anxiously as she dropped the leaves she was holding and met the agitated young lady.
“The water over there!” Joana cried, pointing at the s₱0t behind her with mounting fear. “It… it was boiling and hot… and I think something was emerging from the lakebed!”
They were all a bit confused at first, and then their confusion turned to various levels of fear as indeed the lake began to boil downstream rather alarmingly!
It bubbled and spread, shooting up as if a giant oven had been lit under it. They could see rising steam, evident that the lake was hot at that portion.
“I think we should get out of the lake,” Mavis said in a voice that held a tinge of fear even though she was trying to be brave.
Then, just as they began to move out of the lake, there was a mighty roar and whooooooosh sound, and then a gigantic mirror emerged from the lake where it was boiling, and began to rise higher and higher!
They could see their reflections in the mirror at first as it rose higher, a magnificent oval-shaped mirror with a glittering diamond edge that shone so brightly that they could barely look at it. It reared higher, and they could see the reflection of the lake and the huge tree, and themselves.
High up on the other side of the lake, Kobby Obeng craned his neck and stared at the huge mirror, and his tortured face became even more cut up with acute pain as tears came to his eyes.
“Gush?” he whispered as his fevered brain tried to dredge up images that hurt his soul, images of Gus Kukah fleeing into the Pale Lands with arrows sticking into his body, arrows of deceit, shame and humiliation “Gushy?”
He struggled and sat up, and then he got to his feet and stood staring at that huge mirror.
The rest of the people had seen what had happened, and slowly they moved into the lake and approached that amazing mirror, their faces reflecting their confusion and wonder.
Perhaps, Sarai was braver than most of them as she took faltering steps towards that mirror, her heart pounding with sudden expectation as the image of the only man she had ever loved intruded savagely in her brain.
“Sarai, be careful, woman!” Mavis cried out the warning.
Sarai stopped in her tracks when the surface of the huge mirror went black suddenly, blotting out all sight and leaving just an inky, impenetrable darkness. As she lifted trembling fingers to her l-ips out of sheer disappointment, a tiny speck of white light appeared in the middle of all that blackness, and then it began to spread outward rapidly, chasing away the blackness, and then with a final deep surge, it opened up!
The people in the river gasped, some scre-med, some beat a hasty retreat, and some slipped and fell into the river when they saw the sight that met their eyes!
On the other side of the mirror was a huge green field, with some fences in the distance. There were a lot of strange people dressed in military-looking clothes!
There was a man holding a long staff and dressed in just a sort of decorated cloth around his shoulders and his wa-ist. With him were two dark-skinned women, one of them incredibly beautiful and wearing the most glorious dress Kharisa had ever seen. There was a little crown on her head, and as she gazed at them her eyes changed rapidly from white to blue to a lovely green, but when she saw Sarai staring at the man that appeared to be the king, the blue of her eyes changed into a terrible crimson tone!
Kharisa barely looked at her, though.
These people had human shapes, in a way, but they were strangely not human, at least not by standards she knew. But two of them were human indeed.
One was a tall, handsome, elderly man with golden robes and a bigger crown on his head, and yes, Kharisa knew him! This was indeed her own godfather Gus Kukah!
“Uncle!” Kharisa whispered with tears in her eyes.
She had thought him dead, but there he was, a mountain of a man, still so commanding and charismatic!
But, as powerful as he looked, the charisma that Gus Kukah exuded was somewhat paled by the young man standing beside him.
Kharisa looked at him the most!
He was young, perhaps around her own age, and he was dressed in severe black clothes and hoodie, with a shining axe slung across his back. His eyes picked out Kharisa, and she gasped softly at the diamond rings that seemed to glitter around his irises.
He was the most amazing species of manh-od she had ever seen, and she could not take her eyes off him!
She was a bit troubled by the grimness of his face as he stared at her, as if he detested her, as if he wanted to reach through and squash her to pulp!
Kharisa, used to admiring male eyes and attention, found this blatant animosity so detrimental that she gasped and tried desperately to wrench her eyes from his, but to no avail.
Sarai was weeping uncontrollably now as she raced towards the people on the other side.
“Gus, oh Gus, my love!” she wept and reached out blindly, but her hand could not go through the portal!
She took a step back, her face filled with horror as she looked at the handsome man just beyond her reach.
“Gus, my love, Gus!” she wept bitterly. “Come to me! I beg of you, my darling! Come to me!”
“Sarai!” Gus Kukah said in a broken voice, his face wretched with confusion as he took a step nearer the portal. “Oh, Sarai! Is that you?”
As the clear sound of his voice sounded over the Root of Densua, the almost-deranged Kobby Obeng broke into a ferocious ran with his arms spread wide.
“Gushy, Gushy, Gusssssssshyyyyyy!” he scre-med maniacally as he ran.
He bounded into the lake and raced blindly towards Gus Kukah, whose tortured eyes were on the now kneeling Sarai.
Kobby Obeng splattered into the lake and took great bounding leaps towards Gus.
“Guuuuuuuusssshyyyyyy!” he scre-med and leapt high into the air as he thought he could just sail through and hug his friend.
His body smashed into the barrier of the mirror!
There was a great sizzling and cackling sound, and then Kobby Obeng was hurled back violently with licks of electrical waves slamming through him!
He fell into the lake and began to twitch savagely in all directions, his arms and legs spread wide as his body shook furiously.
“Father!” Kharisa and Obed said in unison and ran to his side as his eyes bulged out dangerously as if they were popping right out of his head, and his body continued to vibrate and thrash rather alarmingly!
tbc