BEFORE THE ASSIGNMENT

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PART 1: ERA BEFORE THE MOW (Mask Of Witness) CHAPTER 1 BEFORE THE ASSIGNMENT “KILL HIM! …… strike him now!” shouted one of the giants to his colleagues as three of them intensify their hot chase after this soldier of the kingdom of Mondrass. The sound of the heavy poundings of their heartbeats and their strong breaths reverberate along, as they draw very close to the unrelenting soldier. Each of the 10 feet giants have single eyes on their foreheads, and they each weigh almost the size of a buffalo. More than their fierce appearances, their blood-thirsty moans as they pound after their prey would be enough to melt the heart of any warrior. He suddenly slips and falls to the ground. The quick, merciless strike of a spear hits the ground, as it narrowly misses his head, raising a cloud of dust all over his face. His exceptional speed saves him by a breath, as he immediately rolls over on his back and sprints back to his feet. His giant pursuer clasps both long arms very fast hoping to finally grasp the soldier without fail, but staggers; then steadies himself. “Aaaarrgh!”, the third giant behind grinds in regrets for the narrow escape of the soldier. But without wasting a second, they all pounce back and continue to pursue the soldier. THESE ARE the giants that form the undefeated armies of Lord Dregg. With them he has dealt heavy blows to every kingdom where he ever stepped foot on. Not one has survived his onslaught. He reveled in his sinister ambition to conquer the world and establish himself as the ultimate master of darkness. His vision being to recreate a planet of obscurity and abnormality, where darkness supplanted light, and every rule of Nature gave way to insidious practices such as the rearing of babies for food like chickens. And so far so good, with almost every kingdom of the universe already fallen unto him through the might of his single-eyed giants backed by his supreme sorcery, Lord Dregg had begun mapping out plans to harmonize his gains around the world. But not until he got to the little kingdom of Mondrass, there he met with his first and only true resistance, King Zein. Together with the unwavering support of his die-hard followership, king Zein and the people of Mondrass became the only dent in the glory of Lord Dregg; for they would never cave in, neither would they accept the rule of darkness over their land. King Zein therefore became pitched as the arch enemy of the evil lord. Mondrass became the "hard nut to be cracked,” and as long as Dregg was concerned, neither Mondrass nor anywhere else on the planet for that matter, would ever know peace, until that "hard nut, was cracked.” IN THE BEGINING (14000 Years Earlier) “Oouuuch!” screeched the aching woman, “oouuch!” Her loud groans, together with her life, drain away slowly, and slowly as her pains reach unfathomable peak. “Quick, bring me the ‘healing ring’,” the hoarse voice of the male physician attending to her cries out in desperation. The healing ring was a special ring believed to attract special favors to preserve the life of a sick person whenever their situations got out of control. It was normally inserted in the fore-finger of the person in distress as a last resort. The healing ring is handed over to the physician by a woman standing nearby, and he urgently inserts it into the woman’s fore-finger. She is literally battling for her life at this moment. “Oouuuuch!” the poor woman draws another long, painful groan of agony. With her every groan, all the helpless people in that little hut feel a shrill shiver run down their spines. She’s been a nice lady in the community. All her neighbors have therefore gathered around her in this distressing moment. “She must not die,” they pray silently. “WHERE’S THE child?” asked an elderly man who had been called in from the neighborhood to come and help, “I want to see it.” “There!” another woman answered, pointing to a newborn baby boy on a mattress, wrapped in a piece of linen cloth. The old man reaches to touch the baby. “Do not tough it!” yelled the father of the baby, standing there in tears beside his dying wife. Some of the people standing by, already made quick dashes towards the door out of fear. “What? ….Why that?” asked the confused, elderly man, shocked by the reactions he just witnessed. There is silence and rumblings of the people in the background. “I really don’t get this,” the elderly man insisted for an explanation, in a worried tone. “Look!,…..over there!” the native physician attending to the woman said, pointing to a strand of fleshy piece neatly kept in a dish. “He bit his mother’s intestine.” “What do you mean?” asked the old man, with a frown and a raised eyebrow. “He came out with his mother’s intestine in his teeth,” repeated the physician. “How does a newborn have a set of teeth?” The already shivering elderly man took two steps backwards without uttering a word. Then he turns as fast as he could and ran out of the hut. His behavior frightened a few other people who also fled out of the house; especially when they saw the piece of flesh with which the baby was said to have come out when he was born. News about the woman soon spread rapidly all over the village because she had been popular for her pregnancy which she had carried for nearly two years without putting to birth. It had been a big concern to everyone, and even the village priest had once warned the family to keep a special eye on that baby whenever it would be born. When her labor therefore eventually began eight hours ago, the news spread all over the community and everyone sent her their best wishes. But unfortunately, after the eight long hours of her labor, exactly at a moment when there was an eclipse of the sun, the baby came out; but not just like that. For it came out with part of the mother’s flesh which they say is her intestine, bitten and cut out with its teeth. The mother has therefore been battling for her life since she delivered the baby. And sadly, her situation appears to only be deteriorating now. Meanwhile, the baby has now been identified to be the evil seed that was long prophesied about, many years before. Ancient Prophecy THERE HAD long been an ancient prophecy in the ancestry of the village, that a child born at the time of an eclipse of the sun shall someday arise from within the community to be an evil seed. It is therefore evident that today, that evil seed has arrived. The priest of the village was soon called upon and when he came, he observed the baby and then performed some rites. “It is an evil seed from our ancestors that has come to visit us,” he explained after having monitored the baby very closely. “That it was born at the exact time of the eclipse is a sign that this child will cast a shadow upon the earth.” “What shall we do to stop this plague before it consumes us all?” the crowds that were gathered, including the baby’s father plead. “We have to name it and send it back as soon as possible to the outer darkness from where it came. But when sending him away, we must send him with some flesh also, which he had already begun to eat from the womb.” The priest explained. The community therefore requested for the needful to be done quickly before the baby got used to light and refused to go back to where it belonged. So they took the baby by night having wrapped it in a black garment, and brought it to the border of the town. Then they slaughtered a chicken for it there. “What shall be his name?” the priest asked his father, who is still shedding tears profusely. “He bit my wife, perhaps it is a dragon child,” the father said in a shaky tone. “We do hereby name you, baby Drag,” the priest said, “and now we send you back to the darkness from whence you came. Accept also our sacrifice and come back here no more.” Then the priest and the villagers cast the baby with its little chicken into the outer darkness hoping that the memory of pain and anguish which it brought to their village this day would be buried with the darkness forever. As for that unlucky mother of the baby, and of whatever became of her after that bitter agony, nobody knew, neither heard about it ever again in history: For it was not a story much to be told, in accordance with the beliefs of the community; in order to avoid a possible rebirthing of that seed, when it was being called by a story teller.
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