Tales Of Akhona - Chapter 1 1. Gugulethu

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Constant explosions erupted in the peaceful and rural village of amaThixo. It was probably almost midnight now and various huts have caught fire as the residents perished with it.

People were running and shouting. “Mama! Mama!” a five-year old girl has been separated with the mother as the commotion increased. “Andisiwe!” a woman cried out from a distance as she tries to reunite with her child.

She tries to run back towards the sound of her daughter’s cry. She later finds the child who was too terrified as she froze.

“Andisiwe!” the woman heaves a sigh of relief as she runs to embrace her child.

The girl seeing the mother, runs towards her too.

Slice!

Fresh blood sprayed in the air. The woman crashed loud to the ground with her eyes wide open. The child screams loud seeing the mother die in front of her. How horrific it was for a child to witness the death of her mother with her eyes.

The killer shifted his gaze towards the girl. His eyes were bloodshot, covered with blood, he looked like a demon. His expression showed that he enjoyed this. “I’ll let you join your mother soon.” He sneered as he pounced towards the girl.

As he was about to slice her open. Suddenly a very bright light shot towards him. As the bright light touched his body, it fried him without leaving bones. He turned to ashes and dropped.

A man quickly appeared before the girl and took her away.

“Papa.” the child’s voice was filled with fear. “Don’t worry Andi, everything will be okay.” The man reassured the girl although as tears slowly rolled down his cheeks. He didn’t react in time before his wife was killed and he can’t forgive himself for it.

He brought her to where the surviving villagers were hiding.

“Gugulethu.” an aged man looked at the man that brought the girl. “Where’s Cebisa?” the aged man asked. He was referring to the man’s wife that just died.

“Pa Lifa, please take Andi and escape with the rest. I’ll go and look for her. I’ll join you all later.” Gugulethu lied as he felt it wasn’t the right time to say it.

“Papa, I’ll follow you.” a young boy around 10 years said as he stood beside the aged man. One could tell that he was super terrified.

“Akhona, just go with Pa Lifa. I’ll look for your mom and I’ll join you later. These people aren’t a match for me.” He tried to force a smile. He didn’t want to kill their will to survive.

Gugulethu nodded towards Pa Lifa as he ran back towards the village to see if there’s any survivors.

On his way, two burly men appeared before him to kill him but they immediately perished as the light ray that projected from his palm touched them.

High above the trees, two men hid in the dark as they observed the situation.

“I didn’t think a rural village like this would have an Ezine warrior amongst them.” One of the men said with a bit of surprise in his tone.

“It means that our guess was correct. The artifact must be here.” The other man’s eyes lit up.

“If this continues we’ll lose more men. End this now.” The other man commanded the first man.

“mhmm”. He disappeared from the tree and reappeared in front of Gugulethu.

“So fast.” Gugulethu paused as the young looking man appeared in front of him. He’ll probably be close to 30 years at most. He could sense that this person was not ordinary. He didn’t let his guard down at all, as he prepared to unleash his full strength.

“For someone in this rural village to be as strong as you are now. It’s quite impressive. So why don’t you cooperate and hand over the Khusela artifact in your village to me.” The young man had a calm expression on his face. it was hard to see through him.

Meanwhile, Gugulethu’s pupils constricted. The village indeed had a Khusela artifact that has been passed down to them from their ancestors. It is said that when it finds the right person, it would merge with the person and strengthen them beyond imagination. That’s why they held yearly festivals whereby the youths would be brought to the artifact to see if it would merge with them but it never happened ever since their ancestors started the ceremony. But in his occasion, instead of merging with him, it gave him imaginable strength. Why that happened, no one knew.

“You’ll have to kill me first.” Gugulethu snorted. The young man smirked as he heard his response. “With pleasure.” The young man pounced towards Gugulethu. Streaks of azure coloured lightning appeared on his body. He withdrew his 3-foot blade as he moved forward.

“Ezine warrior?” Gugulethu didn’t hesitate as black lines emerged from his arm as it formed into a spear in his hands. Azure coloured energy circled the spear as he headed to face the incoming enemy.