The halo breed episode 65

THE HALO BREED
SEASON 4
RAGE
EPISODE 16
Kharisa came awake slowly and stretched out on the comfortable bed she was lying on. Her hands roamed, but touched nothing, and that was when she opened her eyes and realized she was alone in the tent.
She sat up with a little muted cry and wondered where the prince was. Feeling strangely anxious for no obvious reason, she stood up quickly and rushed to the entrance.
The people were all gathered near the edge of the great pool, and she found that quite unusual. She pulled her dress closer around her and began to ran lithely across the field, an epitome of grace and beauty.
“Ah, the sleepy head joins us,” said Ayoba the Butcher.
They all turned to look at her with various expressions on their faces, and Kharisa found herself feeling acutely uncomfortable under their intense scrutiny. Her eyes w¡dened with a mixture of disbelief and unaccustomed pain when she saw that Sena was dressed in his dark clothes and his axe was lying across his back.
Her father was also dressed in the coarse clothing and wearing a scabbard around his wa-ist with his sword in,side. There was a raft ready, and it was evident that they were going to row across the lake to the other side.
She moved through the bodies, oblivious to their stares, and faced Sena with pain in her eyes, deliberately avoiding the coldness on her father’s face.
“You’re leaving?” she asked quietly.
“My destiny calls now, Risa,” he said without expression.
“You were leaving without telling me?” she asked, again with a modic-m of pain in her voice.
“You slumbering,” he replied. “No need to wake you up.”
“But you can’t do that!” Kharisa said, almost stamping her foot. “You had to say goodbye, to let me know you were leaving!”
He looked puzzled.
“Why is that so?” he asked, his voice almost cold.
“You spend the night with her, my son,” Sarai said carefully and with a smile. “We all know that. That means there’s an understanding between you.”
“Spent the night?” Sena asked. “Indeed, we spent the dawn together. But she did not even allow me to do to her what I wanted to do to her.”
“Oh, Spirits be praised!” Kobby Obeng said suddenly, his face showing his relief. “We all thought differently.”
Kharisa looked at her father with disappointment.
“You should know me better, Father,” she said calmly.
Obed, standing beside his father, also smiled.
“Yes, I kept telling him you wouldn’t do it like that, without the respect that goes with it,” he said proudly. “Glad you remained chaste, sister.”
“So what now?” Kharisa asked as she gazed into the handsome face of the breed.
“I go to do what I am supposed to do, to liberate Densua, and then all of you will return.”
“And how long is that going to take, please?” she asked, horrified by the beating pain in her heart at the prospect of not seeing him.
“That I do not know,” Sena said levelly. “But, as soon as it is done, I’ll be back to take all of you home.”
Not quite understanding her own impulses, she raised her right hand and put it flat against his chest.
“I will wait for you, for as long as it takes, Sena.”
He knew something was expected from him, but he did not know what. His mind was already moving ahead, and he was not a man who placed emphasis on sentiments. He simply put an arm around her wa-ist, drew her closer, and k-ssed her lightly.
He released her and turned towards the raft.
There was still an electrified silence by that show of intimacy, and it was finally broken by Kobby Obeng putting his hands on his daughter’s shoulders and embracing her warmly.
“I will be back too, my dear,” he said in a mischievous voice, and this broke the ice and made them all laugh a little. Kharisa put her arms around her father and hugged him tightly.
“May the Spirits keep you safe, father,” she said tearfully.
Kobby shook hands with the others, and briefly hugged his son.
“Keep your sister safe, my boy,” he said softly. “I do not know if I will return from this, but I aim to make your mother’s spirit proud of me once more, and help to liberate our dear Densua again.”
“May the Spirits protect you, until we meet once more, my father!”
Finally, Kobby stepped on the raft and took the long pole and began to row them across. The people waved to them and prayed for them.
Kharisa watched them going, and she wondered at the sudden urge that assailed her, the urge to step into the water and race after them, to hold Sena, and prevent him from leaving her.
Where from this alien feeling? Why was her heart bothered so, and empty as if that prince had taken it with him. How could such strong feelings be possible for a man she barely knew, a handsome prince she had known for such a short period, just a day?
“May the Spirits bring you back, Sena,” she whispered. “This heart is beginning to beat for you.”
They left the raft at the other end, anchored it down by tying the hitching rope around a little tree, then they moved into the Pale Lands.
“Thank you, my Prince, for not dishonouring my daughter,” Kobby Obeng said to the handsome young man.
“And why are you thanking me?” Sena asked without expression. “If by dishonouring you’re referring to me using her jilanie, then you shouldn’t thank me.”
“Why is that, Your Majesty?” he asked. “And what is a jilanie?”
“Now, drop that majesty thing,” Sena said as he increased his gait. “It irks me. Secondly, I wanted to have pleasure of your daughter, but she did not want it. So, it is her you should thank, not me. I did not have honourable thoughts for her.”
Kobby stared at the young man with sudden confusion.
“Well, I guess you have a point there,” he said quietly. “But thank you too for not forcing your attentions on her. You could have, even when she said no. It takes a gentleman to do that.”
“She fled from me,” Sena said, looking irritably at Kobby. “If she had not fled, I would have forced myself on her. But I’ve learnt that is a bad thing.”
“A very bad thing,” Kobby said as he shook his head sadly. “But I’m referring to when she came back to your bed on her own volition, and stayed the rest of the dawn. You could have hurt her.”
“You have a point there,” the breed said.
And just then, before Kobby could answer, he heard the ominous cries suddenly.
“Kin-haw! Kin-haw! Cha Kin-haw!”
The Kinhaws!
Although quite lucid now, Kobby still retained that deep-rooted fear for these heinous entities.
“Sena!” he shouted suddenly. “We need to flee! It is the kinhaws! Their bodies can’t be hurt by blade! They’re vicious and can hurt you! Come, lets flee!”
“I flee from no one, and from nothing,” Sena said calmly.
Kobby, who had almost started running, came to a stop because the Kinhaws were blocking the path, and there were several of them emerging from the forest, their faces grim with wicked intentions.
“Oh, no!” Kobby whispered with horror. “These vile things would kill us!”
Sena held out his hand and the long-handled axe flew out of its scabbard across his back and landed in his hand.
And then Kobby Obeng noticed something amazing!
The axe was suddenly burning in the hand of the breed!
Its handle and the edge of the blade were suffused with bright amber fire with blue-steel tinges! And the boy’s eyes, that diamond ring around the irises, had now turned to rings of fire.
“Kin-haw! Kin-haw! Cha Kin-haw!” they screeched and came at Sena.
And the boy moved like a spirit!
Kobby Obeng had seen Gus Kukah fighting, and had accepted that no one would ever be as good a fighter as Gus, but what he was seeing was beyond any human’s ability.
Sena spun with the axe whistling, and struck the first Kinhaw right through his chest, and that vile thing burst into flames and broke into pieces, burnt black like charcoal.
The Kinhaws came to screeching halts and Kobby saw their heads spinning on their necks with sudden fear. They had known their metal-like bodies made them impervious to any weapon… and now one of them was lying in pieces.
Sena was still spinning, faster than the eye cloud follow, and the axe rammed into five Kinhaws. They burst into flames and dropped down into chunks of charred coal.
“Kuladeeee!” they began scre-ming. “Kuladeeee!”
And that was when they began to flee blindly into the trees.
That was when a man like Kobby or even Gus, would have allowed them to leave, but not Sena! Kobby saw him weaving through the trees like a spirit, his movements faster than the Kinhaws, mowing them down with savage arcs of his axe. Their scre-ms of pain and fear were deafening as Sena moved through them.
They stopped fleeing in one direction then, and took off in different directions, frenzied and scared, and Kobby Obeng began to laugh with mean happiness! These vile things had hurt him so much, and it was fun to see them so scared for once!
Sena now appeared to be on fire too as he stood in the midst of those evil trees and roared savagely!
He did not look human as Kobby saw him nestled in,side the forest. He was a blazing fire of wrath, of fury…
“Rage!” Kobby whispered with profound awe. “He is a living rage!”
Tbc