The halo breed episode 81 – 82
THE HALO BREED
SEASON 5
HELL IN HADES
The Author
EPISODE 7
Sage and Warrior
Sena Kukah gasped for breath when he broke through the surface of the pool of water.
He turned slowly as he treaded the water, and he stopped moving when he saw a grim-faced man standing on the water with arms folded and his deep penetrating gaze fixed on the breed.
“So, you survived the tortures of the body, the cravings and dictates of lust!’ he said in his slow, deep voice.
“Sage,” Sena said weakly. “Isn’t it troubling to find you here? I remember you telling me there’s no way you could come to Hades if I took the portal of the king.”
“Hummph!” Prosper Freeman said and made an arc in the air with his right hand.
Sena’s body was projected from the lake in an arc, and he crashed not too gently on the grassy banks of the lake. He gro-ned with pain and turned to look at the Sage, but the man disappeared from the lake and appeared in front of the Halo Breed.
“Did you lie?” Sena asked.
“No, I lie not!” the Sage said, his voice sharp with displeasure. “You did well to survive! You’re now on the path to Hades, and so I was brought here to meet you. Who am I, a mere sage, to abandon the ways of the Spirits?”
Sena smiled and sat up.
“You seem happy to see me alive,” he said.
“Indeed, it is refreshing to see you still breathing! But your ways are still folly sometimes! You must begin to move like the Spirits intend you to, otherwise I’m afraid you will fall, like so many before you!”
“Advice appreciated!” Sena said and smiled again. “Now, to what ends were you sent to me?”
Prosper Freeman pointed, and Sena followed his pointing finger and saw a single tree in the distance.
“That’s the tree of the Spirits!” the Sage said. “Go hither! Eat, drink, and get dressed. And then, a golden door will be opened for you to pass on to the accursed land thereof. It is the Desolates! Remember, you can never cross the Desolates unless you walk with Tatita.”
Sena scowled.
“Tatita?” he asked, puzzled.
“Yes, indeed. She’s a maiden in,side the Desolates! Find her! You will perish if you do not find her because your sojourn in,side that accursed place is limited, and only she can lead you out! Also, the Spirits want you to know that the red haze has thickened in the Tenements, indicating that Lord Lastor might be planning your early demise to facilitate his early return to plunder Earth. Be vigilant, Breed of the Halos.”
“Now, sir, wait a minute!” Sena said and struggled to his feet, but the Sage of the Spirits disappeared just then, and Sena’s jaw tightened perceptively.
Sighing despondently, he began to walk towards the Tree of the Spirits.
***
There was a table and a chair under the tree, and on it was a basket of strange fruits. There were six fruits in the basket, all of them with different colorizations and shapes, but two of them were octagonal and grey.
Also, hanging on a low branch of the tree were clothes, and beneath them, a pair of black cloth boots.
Although he was ravenously hungry, Sena Kukah took his time to get dressed first and laced on the boots. He saw that a black hood with slits for eyes was beneath the cloths, and he almost left it because there was no way he was going to put that on his head; on second thought, he surmised that if it was not needed the Spirits would not have provided it, so he pushed it into one of the pockets.
He sat behind the desk and drew the basket nearer, then he picked up one of the grey fruits and bit into it. Water gushed into his mouth, and his eyes w¡dened with disbelief as he bit into it again and closed his eyes to savour the sweetness of the water that slid silkily down his throat.
He set it aside and picked a purple fruit, and it tasted exceedingly delicious, like the rice balls and peanut soup he had eaten at Densua and loved so much. Sena sat for a while munching on the fruit, and realized that even though he ate to his fill, he had only consumed a small patch of the fruit. He bit a piece of the water fruit to quench his craving for water, then he put the fruits in a small sack he found in one of the pockets of the trousers he was wearing.
Suddenly he heard a loud, ear-splitting sound behind him, the ground shook alarmingly. Sena spun around with a little trepidation and noticed that there was a black door on the banks of the lake.
It was shimmering, as if it was made of a hazy substance and would not remain available for long. He sprinted to the door and it swung. He rushed through, running in darkness, and then he emerged suddenly into the bleak Desolates!
***
It was a horrible valley.
On each side was an unending stretch rocky mountain, stretching into the white sky and far into the horizon for as far as his eyes could see. The rock on his left was black, and the one on his right was metallic blue.
The floor of this ungodly valley was a broad brown, sandy terrain. A weird, hot wind had wh¡pped the sand and swirled with it so that the wh0le atmosphere was a mass of hot, floating dust.
Sena could barely breathe.
The hot dust stung his eyes and nose, and he knew he could not survive its horrors. He now knew why the black hoodie had been added to his apparel. Quickly, he pulled it off and jammed it down his neck, covering his nose and mouth, and now he could breathe easier.
The problem now were his eyes, but when he closed his eyes to slits and pulled the top of the mask a little down, it stopped the terrible dust from stinging his eyes and blinding him.
As he walked, wondering how he was going to find that Tatita in this swirling horror, it dawned on him that he could hear voices in the stormy sand to his left near the black rock surface, and he angled his steps towards the left.
When he was near enough, he stopped with surprise.
The rock surface was littered with well-spaced oval doorways, arranged like apartments with elaborate steps between them! Most of the doorways were lit, and he noticed that the rough, swirling dust stopped just short of the doorways, and never entered!
Voices were coming from behind the first door, and as Sena drew near, a strange figure emerged from within and glared at him. This entity was jet-black, his skin darker than coal! His arms and legs were triple-jointed. He was squat of height but powerfully-muscled, making him look like an ogre. His l-ips and eyes were bright-red, like blood, and his head was completely bald. His nose was like a piece of a square rock, and his ears were thin, long appendages on each side of his massive head, and they twitched constantly as he glared at Sena.
He was wearing a shiny red material around his loins, and the same material had been woven into a vest for his upper body.
“Hold it there, Traveller!” he said in a deep, rumbling voice. “No visitors allowed. You can find a Breaker to break a dome for you!”
Sena looked at this unfriendly citizen with cold eyes.
“I seek Tatita!” he said calmly. “Know where I can find her, perchance?”
The red eyes of the indigen blazed with sudden fury.
“Do I look like your stoogie?” he asked darkly. “Move along, Traveller!”
SEASON 5
HELL IN HADES
The Author
EPISODE 8
Seeking Tatita
The Halo Breed 5, Episode 8 is now running…
Sena looked up and contemplated climbing the steps and going up the surface of the rock, but he gave it up immediately the idea was formed.
There were too many doorways up there, and the rock surface was too broad. If most of these citizens were as belligerent as this one was, then he could spend a lifetime roaming that rock surface looking for Tatita.
He continued walking along, meeting one wild citizen after the other and no friendly ones. He wondered how they lived, what they ate, and how they survived. Above all, he wondered who these beings were.
Then, after walking quickly along the black rock, he suddenly came upon a group of the citizens. They were mostly younger than the ones he had seen so far, and they looked weaker, and unhealthy.
They were grouped at the base of one of the black rocks where there were no doorways, and they were sitting with their backs pressed to the rock and their arms around their knees. The red materials they were wearing were tattered and barely gave them warmth. There was despair on their faces, and hunger too.
Sena did not have to be told that these were the homeless and abandoned, a group of indigens that could be found in his own universe. Without hesitation, he brought out the sack he had kept the fruit-foods in. He took out the grey fruits that gave water.
The eyes of the hungry citizens shone with desperation when he brought out the fruits. Obviously, they knew what they were. They suddenly grouped around him, jostling, begging, crying, holding out their hands desperately.
“Please, Traveller, have mercy!” they scre-med. “Quench our hunger, we beseech you!”
“Alright, alright!” Sena said and raised his hand. “Form groups of two. Quickly. Now!”
It was difficult at first, but he held up the fruits until it dawned on them that he would not budge from his position.
Reluctantly, under the instruction of one of them, a seeming leader they referred to as Skali, they formed groups of three, and he counted about twenty groups. He squatted, spread the sack, and began to break up the fruit-foods on it, ending up with forty pieces. He did likewise to the grey water-fruits, then he told them to come forward. Each received a piece of water-fruit and fruit-food.
They sat down against the wall again and ate ravenously, but the wonder fruits were enough for each of them, for a little bite filled the mouth, just as Sena had experienced.
“Why are you outside?” he asked the one called Skali.
He looked sadly at him.
“Our Guardians died, and others took over our doors. The breakers charge fruit-foods before they can break a door for us, and we can’t get fruit-foods. The Tigansis too are wild.”
“Slow down,” Sena said calmly. “Break doors? What does that mean?”
“They use special cutters, Traveller,” Skali said and stood up, then he pointed to the black wall and showed Sena a faint oval outline on the surface of the rock. “See this shape? If they cut through, a little deep, it breaks, and reveals the door behind, where there’s comfort and safety. Without the tools, we can’t break through. But we need fruit-foods to pay the Breakers.”
“So, if you break through this outline, the door behind becomes your home?”
“Yes, Traveller, forever!” Skali said.
“And the fruit-foods? Where do you find them?”
Skali pointed across the dust mist.
“Over there, on Red Rock. But that’s where the wild Tigansis live! They would kill you if they get you! When the weather turns, many of us go there to try and pluck foods, and many are killed by the Tigansis.”
“Alright,” Sena said and stood up. “I’m looking for Tatita,” he said clearly. “You know where I can find her?”
The young ones suddenly began speaking in wild voices, their expressions holding weariness and sudden caginess. Skali faced Sena with a worried frown on his black face.
“Why do you want Tatita, Traveller?” he asked suspiciously. “We’re glad you gave us food. But we don’t want Tatita to be hurt!”
“I need her to help me get out of the Desolates,” Sena said. “I was told she knows a way out, only her. And I don’t mean her any harm.”
Skali pointed a finger at Sena, and it was only then that he realized they had only three fingers on each hand, but they were huge and powerful fingers.
“If you hurt Tatita, Skali hurts you back badly!” he said in a voice he hoped was tough.
“Sure, Skali,” Sena said. “I mean her no harm!”
Skali retreated with his group, and they conferred for some minutes, then he came back to Sena.
“Alright,” Skali said. “Tatita is good. She was helping a lot of Traveller’s that came through, freely. But Hangit, he is very greedy, so he captured Tatita and her brother, and sent her to his door, up there! Now, before Tatita helps any Traveller, Hangit takes a sack of fruit-foods from them. If you want her to help you, then you must go to Red Rock, gather fruit-food and bring it to Hangit. But most Travellers die because…”
When his voice trailed off, Sena nodded grimly.
“The Tigansis kill them.”
Skali nodded miserably.
“Now that makes sense,” Sena said as he looked up the surface of the black wall. “So, Hangit is up there, holding Tatita and her brother up there.”
“Yes, the doorways up there are the most precious. They’re extremely difficult to cut, you see. Down here, it is easier, but up there, it is very hærd. The Breakers spend many long moon turns over there, so only those who have a lot of fruit-foods are able to break doors at the top. But, the doorways are bigger, cooler, and contain more chambers, even storerooms with fruit-foods.”
Sena turned and began to walk up the crude steps that led up the surface of the Black Wall.
“Hey, Traveller!” Skali scre-med with terror. “What are you doing? Where are you going?”
“Come along,” Sena said without pausing. “I want to see Hangit, and I want to break a doorway up there, and I want you guys to stay with me.”
“Break a door?” Skali shouted. “With what? Your bare hands?”
Sena held up a fist.
“My fist.”
“You’re crazy, Traveller!” Skali scre-med. “Hangit will kill you! You can’t even scratch the wall if you have cutters! It takes skill, toil, expertise! Please, don’t do this! It is folly, stupidity!”
“That’s why you’ll remain down there forever, Rock-Boy!” Sena said.
As he continued to climb, Skali spoke rapidly to his friends, and suddenly they began to climb up the wall after Sena. Their excited and yet scared voices followed the warrior of the Spirits.
***
Lord Lastor hovered in space, and his eyes were filled with great fury as he stared at the roaring inferno beneath him, then looked up at the oval-shaped bubble of cloud to his right where Sena was climbing the rock face with a host of young Desolate infants behind him.
“He walks the Desolates, in search of the Accursed Damsel of the Spirits. Their alliance, according to the Old Scrolls, will be an unholy one, a dent in our existence. It should not happen!”
Behind him was a collection of fierce and horrible demonic minions, huffing and puffing with vile intent.
“Then he must be stopped!” said a hunch-backed terror of a demon whose mouth and nostrils emitted fire as it spoke. It had five arm-like limbs on each side of its huge, hair-covered body.
“And the honour now falls on you, Plunder!” Lord Lastor said grimly. “Go on, my cherished friend. Meet him in the Desolates, and lay him to waste!”
The demon called Plunder bellowed, and as raw fire burned out of its mouth and nostrils, a fireball portal opened behind him, and he was s-cked out and hurled towards the Desolates!
Tbc