Abeni didn’t eat. She didn’t want to waste the precious time she had to learn more about this village’s secrets so she could strategise later eating. So, somehow, she ended up on the dance floor, where other empty-stomached eniyans – foreigners – crowded around the village chief. Asking him to join them.

“No, no. The chief will not be dancing. He will not waste his time on such a thing,” one of his male attendants said, but Abeni could tell from the awkwardness in the chief’s stance that...he couldn’t. He couldn’t dance, could he? How funny. She wanted to laugh in his face. She wanted to exploit it.

It didn’t matter, though, because people danced for him. Enjoying themselves with smiles on their faces as if the world wasn’t filled with deceit, power-abusers and beings more powerful than them. As if they could let their guard down knowing that there were hunters in the crowd while her senses paid attention to her surroundings. Always alert. Always listening.

Rightfully so, because after an hour or so of nothing, their peaceful dancing and nonsensical chatter was interrupted by a deep gut-wrenching scream. A man in a guard uniform with tightly wrapped white fabric around his body and a gravelly expression on his face. Veins looking as if they were about to burst out of his body.

It was the curse.

And when the guard turned his body around to face the crowd who had rushed away and looked at the village chief’s attendants, Abeni recognised him. That guard from the graveyard. The one who attacked them without notice.

Oh no, this wasn’t good! She couldn’t be seen by him, he could reveal so much. Not to mention that he was suffering from the effects of the curse and might attack her. She couldn’t be seen by him. Abeni shielded herself behind shoulders, feeling unable to go too far. But not stupid enough to stay directly in his line of sight.

“I’ll hurt you! I need to leave here! I need to leave!” He repeated, tearing up as his hands dripped with oil and he started creating small fire balls until the village chief, with fierce disgust in his features, waved to one of his male attendants. And a short sword…was rammed straight through this guard’s squishy mouth until it exited the other side of his skull faster than anyone could react. Making blood splatter everywhere on the dance floor, covering the floor underneath him in red as he breathed his last breath.

Just like that, he was gone...His choking sounds were loud to Abeni’s pulsing ears. Her suddenly sweaty palms. Her racing heartbeat. No. Calm down...Calm down. This was the first time she had ever seen someone...but it was fine. He wasn’t choking anymore…he was...dead. He was dead now, no longer suffering. Passed away. Stabbed through his impossibly soft insides just like her parents had been. Or like...she could be. No. This guard was the chief’s target, not her. Not her. She was still safe. They were still safe!

Abeni gripped the end of one of her white locks and...relaxed herself. She was safe. Better yet, she could’ve beaten that guard with a simple command and a defensive slash if needed. There was nothing to be afraid of. She was not helpless anymore.

“Don’t let that ruin our banquet,” the village chief said with a chilling smile before anyone could react. “Let us continue!”

So, the white-clothed attendant started cleaning up the area and the musicians resumed their singing, pressured by the chief’s words. But that was not her business. Abeni couldn’t just stand here and watch people dance after what just happened. She had to know more. She had the when, now all she needed to know was the who and where. She repeated to herself a few times to make her remember. And since she didn’t have any hope for talking with anyone from this village about the hunters it seemed that leaning about where might be a better choice.

As if timed perfectly, Abeni spotted a black and purple-clothed person beside her.

They shouldn’t stay there. Not for much longer. But where should they go? The supposed ‘friend’ Sa’id Village? Or the ‘neutral’ settlement? She knew little about either…but what better way to learn than by talking to a more reliable and unbiased source?

A foreign stranger.

“Hello,” Abeni started, getting his attention and trying to pretend she couldn’t see that guard’s head being pierced every time she blinked. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Like she mentioned, this man with a beige complexion was dressed in silk black and purple robes speaking Derin with an accent she had never heard before. He turned to look at her with a smile, but it wasn’t calculated like the chief’s and Caterina’s or full of arrogance like Uncle Ibrahim, it was more like how Oware looked at her in moments of vulnerability. Honest.

“It’s nice to meet you too, little lady. Might I say, that’s a lovely dress you have on,” he complimented.

“Thank you, sir,” Abeni nodded a thanks, still looking him over for signs of lying like darting eyes. But he seemed...friendly. He barely even took note of her bitten right ear as the other guests had obviously been doing. “I’m curious. What do you think of the banquet so far?”

“It’s nice…nothing like what we have under the dynasty—” he cut himself off as if worried she understood, but Abeni separated her thoughts from her face, smiling like how a thirteen girl should as her mind reeled, trying to revive her memories of the times she went looking for foreign board games with her mother.

One of the board games were called ‘Dynasty’ if she recalled correctly. It had Lords on the cover or something…and royalty. And royalty need a kingdom. Wait. There’s a kingdom near here? There wasn’t a kingdom on her parents’ map. She would know, she had memorised it.

“Hm?” The white-haired girl looked to him with what she hoped seemed like innocent curiosity.

He sighed in relief. “D-don’t worry. That is none of your concern.”

Abeni couldn’t help but ask. “I’m sorry, but who are you?”

“Me? I’m just a...traveller. I’ve come from a place quite far from here and I often go to villages like this one and settlements so I can to rest from my travels.”

To travel so far a distance alone, he would have to either have amazing connections or be at least a junior, if not a senior manipulator, right? If so, what type of abilities did he have? Why was he travelling? What was the kingdom like? Abeni wanted to ask this directly, but why would a young teenager want to know that? No, she had to keep up her front while still picking his brain.

“Do you miss your home then? I heard it’s dangerous outside of the village.”

He smiled and reached over to pat her white locks. She resisted the urge command him to stop. “No. Since I’ve been staying here, I’ve felt at home. This is the biggest and safest village for weeks, so, I don’t need to worry about food or the, what do Yoruba people say? Amon ẹda? It’s great!” Yoruba, huh? Not ‘creature’. Perhaps he was more knowledgeable than she thought.

“How do you know my language?” She asked, in Yoruba this time.

So, he responded in kind. “Because it’s my job to know.”

Abeni smiled and started prodding him in her native tongue for more information. About the other travellers and merchants who often came here for rest on their travels and where they were from. The other mazes he had been to and the regular hunts that her parents must have watched these villagers go on while staying home with her.

“I know…shit! They said there wasn’t gonna be even one ẹda left in the region after the hunt last week!” Her Baba had said on that fateful day.

Despite his pleasant attitude, he didn’t say much in terms of detail. Perhaps because of a fear of being overheard which she shared. It left Abeni with the thought that, contrary to what her parents taught her or even knew the world was much bigger than she thought. And while this village may be a ‘safe place’ compared to the ẹda mazes, she had limitless alternatives. Other villages, other settlements, other countries, kingdoms…and even…the overworld.

They had options. So instead of worrying about the where, when and who, what Abeni should be worrying about the most was the how. Because it didn’t matter where they went, which exact day they left or who they encountered on their way out. What mattered most was how Abeni could make it so that no matter what, she, Oware and Oware’s children escaped the chief’s clutched unscathed and warned the other eniyans of his plan. How could they survive this with healthy, happy and fulfilled smiles on their faces?

How?

Deep in thought, Abeni didn’t catch the sight of her uncle’s eyes on her filled with something one would read as realisation.

[Current Total Beings In ‘Abeni’s Army’ – 1]