Every morning Abeni took delight in the satisfaction that came from cleaning herself.

It wasn’t like she was the most well-groomed person, but the sensation of scrubbing suds onto her body and occasionally through her hair. The feeling of the rough bristles of her toothbrush between her teeth. And the feeling of oil coating her skin. They were all refreshing activities that cleared her mind as she reflected on the previous evening.

Last night, after asking Oware to trust her, the female ẹda decided to entrust her with her own truth. Telling her that honestly, compared to Abeni, she was the one who might lead them down an awful path. That she had developed the instinctual urge to…attack her own children, and should she ever be hit by the curse, she suspected that she’d do just that to them and worse.

“I’m scared of my own hands,” Oware had said, shaking in front of her eggs.

It was obvious from her tone of voice that this was the last thing Oware wanted to do before they left. She didn’t feel comfortable travelling outside of their stone hut and into the jaws of the real world without dealing with this issue. So, Abeni decided to help her. Why would she not?

While they soon found that Abeni’s mind abilities couldn’t stop those urges from occurring, she could command Oware to not attack her children if she was there when those urges reared its’ ugly head. But should Abeni not be there, the white-haired girl suggested that they use the method Baba used with her when she was younger. Creating a cue. The moment that Oware spotted her veins standing unnaturally on edge and the curse pulsing through them, she would remain still, take deep breaths, and count to ten. After that, just like Abeni, she should be able to control herself.

Abeni put on a matching shirt and shorts with adire navy and pink patterns as she recalled the female ẹda thank her. Saying how relieved she felt and even wondering if that’s why her mother left her...only to decide that she didn’t care. That, despite her initial reservations, Oware was ready to leave with Abeni and asked if there was anything that Abeni needed to get off of her chest before they left too.

And all the white-haired girl could answer with was, all that’s on her mind now was...practice. The juniors in this village and outside of it had hunted together, fought together, so they needed to too. They needed to practice how they’d fight their enemies so that they could all survive Abeni’s now complete ‘battle plan’ as Oware dubbed it. Otherwise, they’d lose the upper hand of knowledge that they currently had.

OK, Abeni thought making her way out of the bathroom with a matchstick in her hand which she used to relight the few torches in her stone hut that died in the night. It was time for breakfast.

Abeni walked into the front room-kitchen, greeting her friend who laid on the floor in her normal form with her eggs right beside her and heading to the table on the other end of the room. Right where Abeni kept some mole meat and greens she bought from the market recently. That’s what she’d cook. In the silence, Abeni grabbed a few unseasoned cashew nuts with her free hand on her way to the fireplace stove with a small smile on her face as she chewed. Belatedly wondering why Oware barely responded to her.

“You hungry? I’ve got mole meat~” Abeni grinned, happier now that they had a proper plan of action, settling down on the floor with a pot that she filled with water from her drinkable water bucket, spices and a bowl with the meat and vegetables. She wasn’t a talented chef, but she was good enough to prepare, boil and season food by now.

“Hm,” but Oware didn’t say much which was unlike herself. She just kept staring at her children. Was...was this about yesterday?

Abeni maneuvered to sit on her side so she could watch the still cool water and Oware in one easy turn of the head. Asking something that had been on her mind for a moment. “...Do you know what sex they’re going to be born as?”

The female ẹda’s face blanked at the sudden question. “Are you saying you can’t just tell? Don’t tell me after all this time…you’re actually lacking up there?”

“I’ll end you.” Abeni said, narrowing her eyes in a joking manner.

“That would complicate your battle plan,” Oware reminded her, sending an amused look back.

She was right. Their plan didn’t account for that. No, the plan was much simpler.

In order to escape this city and the village chief, they would leave during the hunt to the ẹda maze six days from today. Assuming that the village’ forces would be significantly depleted on that day, they should be able to safely escape the village unharmed and go to the nearest and safest eniyan place first. Said Village. All while Oware stayed hidden in a bag with her eggs for a risky fifteen minutes at a time.

“Rest assured, when the time comes for me to launch my attacks, they will serve as my shields.”

There, Abeni would tell the eniyans what the village chief was planning and everything she knew about Aajiz Village. Then after settling for a moment and making a home there, they would visit the settlement and even the mafia to warn them about the same thing. That way, not only would she make good relations with them, but they would be better prepared for when Aajiz village ended up attacking them.

The plan should work. So, now all they needed to do outside of packing was use some fighting strategies to practice, practice, practice what they’d do out there. What would dictate members of enemy species can actually do this together. Oware knows this too.

Abeni, who was sitting cross-legged next to the fire, put the meat and vegetables into the boiling water and lifted the pot to a higher position over the stove, speaking in a teasing tone. “You’re right, I’m so sorry, chief Oware.”

Oware jokingly puffed up her chest and rose to a proper sitting position, picking up all three eggs back with her tail. “Well, it’s good you are. Now, what did you want to practice?”

First things first. Abeni told her that they needed to go over their strengths and weaknesses. Oware nodded.

“OK, so. As of now, I can say six to nine simple sentence commands and I can recover my outer spiritual energy as fast as the average eniyan heartbeat rests. So maybe...20 minutes maximum. The rules of my ability are: the commands shouldn’t conflict with each other, my targets have to hear, understand, and interpret my commands and there is no known time limit to when my commands stop being in effect.”

Oware nodded again as Abeni continued to rattle off. Stirring the hot pot as she did so.

“I haven’t been able to test my commands on many people so I don’t know whether there is a separate effect when I use commands on multiple targets in quick succession. But I’m going to assume my commands work the same regardless of how fast I speak…Plus, I know that I get exhausted once I use up all of my outer spirit energy in one sitting and that if you or I are injured we have no specific way to heal ourselves. And my major weakness is my physical strength,” Abeni sighed, no matter how hard she had trained, she was only thirteen. “But apart from that, as long as I use certain phrases like ‘be at peace,’ ‘tell me what you know,’ ‘stop him or her’ which will force my enemies to turn on each other, I’ll be able to control the flow of any fight we’re in.”

“Wow.” Oware exclaimed with genuine awe in her voice. Eyebrow raised. “It’s just as I thought, you’ve really got an amazing ability and you’re already at a senior level. I wouldn’t want to get on your bad side and that’s saying something.”

“Well good for you, we’re on the same side, so.”

“Yup, lucky for me!”

Abeni felt warm at the relief in the other’s voice. “On the other hand, you can transform into a form five times bigger than me and into another form the size of my hand for a total of…?”

“Ten minutes. Well, actually, now it’s around fifteen. Just sparring with you helped me improve my stamina more than ever. I wish we could do it again...there’s not enough space in this place for my bigger form and without feeling the rush I get when I’m in danger, I don’t think it’ll work...but I know we can’t! It’s fine.”

Abeni closed her mouth and carefully added spices into the now simmering pot. It seemed Oware already knew what she was going to say about that.

“In your small form, you much quicker than me. In your…big form? We’ve got to come up with a better name for them at some point. Your muscles become stronger, you grow nails as long as short swords and you become incredibly quick, powerful…and creepy.”

“Hey, I heard that!”

Abeni turned with a sheepish smile. It was true, she didn’t want to lie. “Your major weakness is the time it takes you to recover, right? Your outer spirit energy replenishes in around an hour. And the curse…but I think you should be able to control it better now.”

“Hopefully.” Oware huffed.

Second on the list was knowing how to beat their enemies.

Abeni clapped her hands together. “Good. Good! Now I understand our abilities, I propose two strategies we can use.”

“Oh...what are they?” Oware asked, eyes almost shining in the morning torch lights with interest.

They were simple, really.

“Remember when I showed you how to play Oware?”

“Yeah,” the female ẹda blinked.

“Well, I just thought of two strategies we could use based on how I win that game,” she pulled out her hand and started listing them off. “Plan S is for stronger enemies. In plan S, I’ll take the lead. I’ll assess them, use my commands accordingly and then you can take out any escapees. But for weaker enemies, we’ll use plan W. In this case, you’ll charge them and I’ll support you by getting rid of any that get in your way. This way, we play to our strengths and they pay for their own weaknesses.”

She looked to Oware to check how she felt about it, and the impressed expression told her all she needed to know.

Though...“The only thing is, I don’t know how quickly we’ll be able to figure out their strength.”

But Oware was quick to reassure her. “Experience. Believe me when I say it comes naturally.”

Abeni nodded, finally cutting the heat, and plating their food. “Sure, I trust you on that.”

And now, all that was for them was…to practice.

Until the day of the hunt.

Until they left Aajiz Village for good.

Until they went on the journey of their lives...together.

[Current Total Beings In ‘Abeni’s Army’ – 2]