Chapter Nine

“You good for nothing fools! How could you be here and let the prisoner escape!” Lord Arman screamed at the guards who were left to watch over Alves when he escaped. 

“We are very sorry. We were standing right here and all of a sudden, we lost consciousness. By the time we could know what was going on, the prisoner had already gone.” The guards pleaded. 

“You failed to do your duties and you shall pay with your lives. You shall die by hanging before night falls!”

*****

The hunt for Alves had become more intense after his unimaginable escape with the great wizard Arithayal. The reward for his capture was increased to a hundred and fifty thousand gold pieces, making the bounty hunters more aggressive. 

Jasper, a popular bounty hunter in the Eastlands moved around in the wilderness searching patiently to find the Bushika, he was a professional and his skills were praised among everyone. “What is that?” Jasper heard a sound, he stopped his movements and silently drew his sword as he looked around carefully with his deep dark eyes hoping to see who was there. 

“Jasper! The great hunter!” A voice came behind him, making him turn immediately. 

“Who are you?” Jasper's voice was unfriendly. 

The stranger approached Jasper looking up at him as he was way taller, muscular and intimidating. “My name is Pompey, I'm a bounty hunter like you. I'm huntin' Alves too" he said, a crooked grin revealing a row of uneven teeth.

Jasper eyed him with suspicion before nodding. "Yeah, the guy's got a hefty bounty on his head. I can see why everyone's crazy about capturing him."

Pompey chuckled, adjusting the straps of his worn leather gear. "Oh yeah. There are many people out there who can't wait to get their hands on him. The competition is really tough. So how about the idea of us joining forces? Two heads are better than one, they say. We can work better as a team. We get the boy, we get the reward and we split it."

Jasper raised an eyebrow, sizing up his potential ally. He was used to working alone, but he saw the sense in taking a teammate. "Sure, but we gotta agree on how we're gonna split the bounty. 50/50?"

Pompey scratched his scruffy beard, his eyes narrowing. "Nah, how about 50/60? I got more experience tracking."

Jasper scoffed, crossing her arms. "What did you say? I've been doing this for years. You can't come here telling me shit about having better tracking. You must be dreaming.” 

“You underestimate me so much don't you?” 

“I am Jasper the hunter! Everyone knows me. You should be honoured to be working with me, you heavy beard bastard!”

“You have anger issues? Ha ha!” Pompey flashed his uneven teeth again with a smile. 

“Hey beard guy. It's 50/50, or I'll go solo as always."

The two stared each other down. After a brief standoff, Pompey sighed. "Alright, alright. 50/50 it is. Let's not ruin a good partnership over a lousy ten percent."

Jasper smirked, extending a hand. "Deal."

Pompey shook his hand with a grin. "Now, let's go bag us a Bushika. We'll figure out how to spend that bounty later."

“Last news I heard, he escaped from Lord Arman Butshaf’s villa with his wizard friend.”

“And he's got some fresh girl with him too. A girl with a big posterior and succulent blossoms.” Pompey used his tongue to wet his lips. 

“There you go talking about a woman's appearance. Keep your mind fixed at the job and stop lusting over a girl you've only heard of.”

“If I capture the Bushika, I might let him go if that Nhevia girl is as beautiful as everyone is saying, ha ha…” Pompey played with his tongue around his lips again. 

“You horny pig!”

*****

Alves and Nhevia walked around in the bush getting dry wood to make a fire. They felt unsafe knowing well that there were people all over trying to get their hands at Alves. Arithayal the great wizard was back at his house ‘consportating’ a wizard term that involved wizards going unconscious for long hours after performing a powerful kind of magic. It helped to regain power. 

“So you're saying that Arithayal made himself invisible to everyone in the villa in order to free you?” Nhevia asked about the fifth time, thrilled to hear the amazing story behind the escape of Alves. 

“Yeah, I've never seen anything like that. You know, in the Westlands we hear alot about magic. But there are no wizards there.”

Nhevia watched Alves talking with a smile on his face. It was good to see him so happy to talk about something. 

“When you smile, right around your eyes, you look just like my father.” Nhevia didn't know how those words came out. 

“Wow, you're telling me your father didn't have a great smile? Cos mine isn't great.” He picked up a small stick and walked to put it in the basket Nhevia held. 

“I know what you're doing.” A smiling face, she had. 

“What?”

“You want me to tell you that you've got a good smile?” She laughed. 

“Ha ha Nhevia, sometimes I think you're too smart for my liking.” 

“Well, I like your smile.” She almost regretted saying that. 

“You're the first person to say that.” 

Nhevia looked at his white hair as he turned the other side to pick up a stick. “Hey Alves, I just wanted to say I am Uh…” She couldn't say it. 

“You're what?”

“I'm sorry for the Uh… For kissing you the other day.”

“Nhevia, it's…” He couldn't complete the statement after seeing his medallion glow red. “Hey, my medallion just glowed, red light.”

“Does that mean anything?”

“Everytime it glows red, there's always danger close by!”

Whooah…. They heard a powerful roar from a beast nearby making the trees shake and the ground vibrate. “Oh spirits, what's that? Alves.” Nhevia was scared. 

“Look, it's a beast!” 

From the forest trees emerged a nightmarish creature, a beast born of nightmares.

“Oh no, it's the biggest I've ever seen!” Nhevia exclaimed. 

The creature, with its menacing horns and crimson eyes, charged at them on four powerful legs. Scales covered its robust form and they served as an impenetrable armour, except for the neck where there was none. Its forked tongue hinted at a more sinister nature. The beast turned to Nhevia and lunged at her, its heavy jaws wide open, ready to strike her for its meal. 

“Nhevia!” Alves screamed as he sprang into action without hesitation. He pushed her out of harm's way, narrowly avoiding the beast's snapping jaws.

“You dirty beast! You wanna eat someone? Face me!” Alves dared then drew his sword with a confident look on his face. His last encounter with such a dangerous beast ended with him being paralysed. But he wasn't going to run from this one either. 

“Be careful!” Nhevia warned, her voice filled with genuine concern. 

“You flew here right? Let's see if you can have wings to fly again, ugly beast!” Alves talked to the creature as though it could understand him. Swift and determined, he targeted the beast's wings. With repeated and precise slashes, he cut out one of its wings, causing the creature to roar in pain. “Oh yeah? Let's see how you gonna fly again!”

Undeterred, Alves pressed on, expertly manoeuvring to cut the second wing. The creature that once appeared to be very deadly now staggered, weakened and vulnerable.

“Final touches!” He climbed at the creature’s back and stabbed its neck repeatedly with his sword, the blood splashing all over his face and the rest of his body. The cries finally ended signalling the death of the scary beast. 

“You did it! You killed it!” Nhevia rushed to embrace him. Her arms wrapped around him not minding the blood all over his body. “Don't worry I'm excited but I'm not going to kiss you this time.” She joked. 

“Are you always going to keep talking about that kissy thing?” Alves smiled as they slowly pulled away from each other. 

Alves looked into her eyes happily, not knowing that Jasper the bounty hunter and his partner Pompey were in the woods watching them silently. They'd waited patiently to see Alves fight the beast, and with the beast already dead, it was time to attack. 

“There he is, the Bushika with Nhevia.” Jasper whispered. 

“Oh yeah, he must be tired now after fighting that beast. It's time to attack.” Pompey was excited. 

“Let's go get him!”