Nneka sat alone at the town hall, looking across the village. The evil forest loomed larger than life, filled with thick dark trees swaying to the soft movement of the wind.
She had only been to the evil forest once, and that had been as a child, when she had accidentally gotten in the middle of a sabotaged mission which her grandma had been part of.
Nneka's eyes tightened as the memories flooded back in, she shook her head immediately, dispelling the thoughts.
It had been a traumatizing experience...the evil forest and the taboos that filled that place...
At times, it made her wonder of just how much of the village she didn't know of.
The village was very quiet, a lot more quiet than it had been in decades. She faced the eastern part of the village, to the broken shrine where Obi was practicing alone.
She didn't have to worry about the Ncheta-Oji coming for him, the shrine was still a holy place and it was enchanted, unless she approved of it, no one could get in or out.
There was a knock on the door and the door was pushed open. Nneka stared out of the window for a while longer, then she turned around, facing the newcomer. Nneka stared up at her.
It was a girl, a young girl of about sixteen years of age. There was a stone elephant totem strapped to her waist, pointing to her descent of the Umu-Ala clan.
Nneka spoke, looking down to the pile of books on her desk. "Oma, what news do you bring this time?"
The young girl, Oma, bowed slightly, then she spoke. "The Agbaja village and the Akonauche has sent scouts into the outlands to keep watch and stay on the lookout for the Ncheta-Oji."
Nneka looked up at her. "Have there been any alignments from the villages?"
Oma shook her head. "No, for now, the villages are still quiet, taking minimal actions on their own, a kingdom-wide decision has not yet been reached."
Nneka nodded. "How is the age-grade training going?"
Oma continued. "They have completed their training and can take on missions now."
Nneka flipped through a book, looking at the records of some of the age-grades.
The six villages of the Igbo kingdom all had a similar system of administration. The villages were mostly built on the age-grades, an organisation of children and teenagers who were grouped and assigned tasks based on their age.
For example, those 5-8 years were mostly assigned tasks like building of roads, markets and buildings.
From nine to twelve, the difficulty of the tasks increased, they were assigned the role of minor scouts, infiltrating enemy lines and bringing back information.
From thirteen to sixteen, they were given C-rank missions and partook in small scale confrontations, fighting wars.
From 17 and older, they officially became warriors, fighting enemies and protecting the village from invasions.
Before Nneka could reply, the door creaked open and a messenger entered. The messenger bowed slightly before Nneka.
"Ezenwanyi. We have received news that the Agbaja village has sent delegates to our lands, they shall be arriving in two days." The messenger reiterated, staring at Nneka.
Nneka frowned, standing. "Delegates? What for?"
The villages only ever sent delegates when the situation was a very serious one, when they intended on having a lengthy discussion, and mostly for declarations of war, for matters like that, a messenger type beast couldn't be used as a large amount of information which could only be discussed had to be sent.
The messenger shook his head. "It has not yet been disclosed to us, Ezenwanyi."
Nneka sighed. "Let's forget about that for now, we have more important things to face."
***
In the ruined shrine, Obi sat cross-legged on the floor, meditating. Nneka's words rang in his head, Over and over.
He needed to feel the water, to establish a connection with it.
The water rippled, slowly rising and twirling into the air in front of him. Obi didn't open his eyes; he knew exactly where the water was. The connection was there.
He sighed, "Let it become my force."
The water suddenly solidified, turning into something sharp and spiky. It darted across the shrine, stabbing into different target points at the same time. Obi slowly opened his eyes, a wide grin spread across his face.
"Bull's Eye."