The Giant's hall was cold and silent. Nobody could say a thing or mutter a word due to sadness. The enormous beasts at the door just roamed, encircling their long, reptilian bodies to find a way in. With more hunger, yet, more patience.

Asa looked at the golden ring in her hand. It was just like yesterday, she remembered Iya Aduke. The woman who raised her like her very own. A woman of courage and strength. Even though she was blind and criticized for being a childless witch, that didn't bring her down. Asa closed her eyes and heard the voice of Iya Aduke calling to her.

'Aduke...my child.' She'd always called her Aduke as her middle name. Even though her family died just after her birth, Asa heard stories and held up to them because they were real. And those stories made her who she was. A fighter. For truth and freedom.

A survivor.

Asa held the ring tight in her hand while she let the tears flow freely down her cheeks. Atata too was heartbroken. It looked as if the gods were against him. The look on his face carried a question... Why?
Todun secretly smiled, as if watching them in sadness fueled him up. Atata woke up from his thought abruptly and checked himself. Something felt amiss. Checking the brown leather bag in his hands, he felt the emptiness and quickly checked inside.

"It's missing!" He jerked off the ground at once. "It's missing!" Nobody could understand him.

"Who took it?"

"I think the twin golden eggs are missing!" Sanmi muttered in puzzlement.

The old chief smirked at Asa while she noticed something strange in his eyes. He looked proud, all of a sudden.

"Where is your naked friend?" She raised an eyebrow.

The chief looked around innocently as if he had no clue.

"Grrrrrr! Gggrrrrr!" The sound came up again.

The roar from the lying beasts showed that they were up to something. The naked man was already in front of the Ninki Nanka. As their leader raised to him, the naked man trembled like a baby chick who had spent the night under an icy storm.

Shade quickly climbed the chair to check the window. As she stretched her sight, she saw the naked man's butt. He faced the beasts with a bag in hand.

"Who the heck told him to get out there? What is he doing alone out there?" She stormed.

Todun squeezed his mouth like something sour was in it and burst into a jittery laugh.

"What have you done, traitor? Who the heck are you, huh?" Shade jumped down the chair and pushed Todun on the chest. "It's your doing, right?"

"Take your hands off me, miss! You're not to boss me around!" He snapped at her.

Pissed, Shade balled her fist and gave him a hard blow. It smatched against his rectangular jaw while he rubbed his fingers against his jawline. Shade is a quiet lady but doesn't accept any form of immorality. As if the people that had died weren't enough.

"Hahahaha!" Todun neighed like a horse. Instead of pain, he cried out into laughter. He choked on the joy that filled his greedy eyes.

"You bastard! Who are you? An evil spirit?" The chief trumped and struck down his standing nose.

Todun fell and stood up, with blood dripping from one nostril.

"Maybe." He proclaimed proudly with no regret in his teary eyes.

"I'm serious here, jerk! You've killed us all!" Sanmi grabbed him by the top of his agbada.

The naked man's trembling hands raised the bag and the leader of the Ninki Nanka grabbed him with its mouth.

It placed it on the floor and held the bag from beneath. Todun climbed the chair to see for himself. His brown broken teeth fitted his bold face but he was the least charming man in the room.

Two round potatoes dropped out of the bag and the naked man's eyes widened in bewilderment.

"No... " He cried but he was too late. Too bad, he didn't check before bringing it. The Ninki Nanka looked at themselves and froze as well. He had tricked them. About to run, the leader grabbed him with both limbs and held him tight till his bones burst out of his skin like fresh tomatoes.

"Hahahaha!"

Todun laughed out loud as he watched him die. His laughter sounded like a horse, neighing yet, he sounded tipsy.

"What if he's gone? I planned it! I wanted him out of our midst because he's a weakling! Yes, you heard me!" He said smugly. "A we-ak-ling!"

"And what are you? The bravest?" Shade rolled her eyes at him with boiling anger. How foolish! He'd played them all.

Todun grabbed his head as if he was intoxicated. The old chief watched him in amazement. He never believed Todun would go so far as to trick any of them. Especially now. He wanted to go instead of his naked friend. That goodness he didn't.

"What's next? You, Mr. Chief! A brave man dies but once. A coward, many times! You all planned and excluded me. Now, let me plan a way out." He muttered.

Asa rolled her eyes at him as if he was a lunatic. Of course, he was. Out of ten, only 9 of them remain now.

"Grrrrrrr!"

The mythical beasts squeaked towards the hall and their roar echoed. Everyone looked up, scared if they'd decided to climb the hall or something. Their echo filled the sky and it looked as if something bigger was coming for them.

Todun gazed up and the ceiling creaked dusts on their bloody faces. Sammi climbed to the chair to check what was happening. The Ninki Nanka's leader looked around and saw the passage from which the naked man had passed. The idiot left the door open. The beasts alarmed others and they walked towards it.

"The door isn't locked. Now, the beasts are going to enter through the only secret passage we know. We're all going to die here!" Sanmi announced in fear.

Asa, who was still seated and welling up in sorrow, bit her lip to keep it from quivering. She felt sick already. Her cheeks burned and her eyes felt so heavy from the tears she had shed.
They've been fighting for hours! Maybe it's over...

Sanmi took a look again. He squinted his eyes to take a better view in the dimness of the night but saw nothing. The beautiful creatures were no longer there.

"They're already close!" He announced and jumped down. They're going to attack us in seconds! We should be ready!"

Atata who had cried all the water in his eyes stood up abruptly. Their grunts came from the basement and the cling of their moving chains was getting loud and louder. The Ninki Nanka was only 4, Banjoko succeeded in killing one before he died. And it has as well, disappeared.

"Grrrr!!! Gggrrrrr!!!"

Hearing their aggressive roar, Todun wiped off his head as if he was going crazy. Things weren't going according to plan. He has no plans now, or maybe this is something the naked man had planned for them all along.

"Oh no!" Todun explained and placed his hand on his head in confusion. Looking towards the basement door, one could see the flames pouring through.

"The best thing we can do now is to face these beasts! Once and for all. It's either we all die, or we succeed in killing this set! Only then can we get freedom? Only then can we leave this cursed land!" Shade encouraged.

"Asa! Are you with us or not?" Shade gnarled at her.

A single tear rolled down Asa's eyes. She didn't reply. She wasn't over with the loss of Ajoke and Iretiola.

"Asa! It's time now. This is our final chance to live a free and meaningful life! We can't succeed without you. We can't afford to lose you either so please! Grab your weapon and let's conquer this together!" She snarled.

"Asa!!!"

The beasts entered with full force. Their fierceness in the hall grew stronger and at once, she took out her sword and rushed towards them without any fear of being burnt or scratched. She swung her body to the Ninki Nanka and reached for it's back. With the boiling anger in her heart, she let out a loud cry and dug get sword into its back, tearing it apart. The mythical beast dropped and turned into dust right away.

Without stopping, she moved to the next. As if the creatures had plans, one of them roared to the other three and signaled that they pulled out the table. They did as instructed by their leader. The front doors flew open and other Ninki Nankas rushed in.

"Wait, I thought they were far? They shouldn't be here until 3 hours!" Shade hissed.

"I thought so too," Sanmi muttered the words and swallowed his breath.

There were five more, making eight giant beasts against the nine of them. The old albino man who was passing took off his invisible cloak and decided to fight. Asa's gaze caught him and she wondered who he was.

He folded his hand as if he was holding a cane and an invisible shining, blue rope appeared in his hands. He threw it to them and it held up their faces like reins to horses.

"A sorcerer?" Asa winced in surprise. "Where were you earlier on?"

"Call me Shindara! Ashindara!" He snapped and tightened his fist. Slowly, the veins started freezing with creaks, moving towards them. The Ninki Nanka, instead of neighing like horses, let out a terrifying roar.

Sanmi with his sword at hand tried to cut the fourth Ninki Nanka in front of him but it scratched him at once. A cloud of dust, oozed from his fall. The reptile seemed more powerful than the others. It was the leader of the mythical beasts. After the scratch, Sanmi fell to the ground and the last gunpowder in his hand rolled off his grip. Chief Ola, the only chief left in the room watched this happening. He crawled to where the barrels of wine were kept.

The Ninki Nanka moved to one of the slave girls. She tried stabbing it with her spare, but it slipped off her sweaty hands. She swallowed hard on her dried throat, facing the beast with courage.

The old chief groaned out in pain while he leaned against the barrels of wine to hide himself. He closed his eyes in frustration to catch his breath. It thrickened, he could nearly breath.  Then, something crawled in the bag under him. Chief Ola stood up immediately to check what it was. He opened the brown bag and saw that it was the two golden eggs. Watching the beast scratch the girl, down. The chief placed the eggs together at hand.

"Grrrr! Grrrrrrr!!"

The earth shook and the green fire sparkled around the golden eggs. The fighters dropped their weapon in weakness and groaned in pain. The rein which the old sorcerer was using to control the beasts, was cut immediately and the old man fell to his knees.

"Grrrr! Grrrrrrrr!!"

The beasts squeaked and hissed out the fire. The twin golden eggs gave them strength and power to attack. Chief Ola howled with laughter like a possessed spirit.

It affected him yet, he didn't stop. The Ninki Nankas attacked fiercely and everyone was too weak to even breathe.

Chief Ola cackled into an almost maniacal laughter and threw the eggs to the leader of the Ninki Nanka. It grabbed it with its claws and raised it in a howl. Others turned towards it while the eggs suddenly dropped. Todun was there himself to catch the eggs and he separated them from each other.

Immediately, the glow stopped and everyone was back to normal. The leader of the Ninki Nanka turned to him and swept him off his feet with its mane tail. Todun rolled over and groaned in pain, but he made sure he held the twin golden eggs at both sides, under his arms.

Asa grabbed her bow and fired an arrow at Chief Ola's chest. He was a traitor anyway, they should have killed him from the very start.
"Ahhh!" He jerked in pain and fell to the ground.

Then, she held her sword and faced the mythical beasts. Shindara threw a fierce kick at the animals and a sudden breeze struck them down. Determined to fight him, the Ninki Nanka stood up again. Shindara tightened his hand and the reins appeared, holding to their long necks tightly. He grunted aloud and they froze right away. He pulled the reins forward and their bodies like a statue broke into ice.

The last of the beast, which was the leader faced Asa. Looking at her feet, she saw the last gunpowder and grabbed it immediately. With fire burning around them, Asa fixed the cloth to her arrow. As if everything was slow-motioned, the beast bowed its head at her in calmness. It was so sudden, she couldn't stop. Asa fired it to the Ninki Nanka. Its glittering eyes were metallic lilac engulfed with resplendent gold sprinkled-wet sheen. It blew up it's disgusting black blood on their faces. At least, she conquered it. She felt wrong but stopped the negative feeling.

"Close the doors!" Asa instructed Shade and Todun that were still alive. They rushed to close the door when Asa's gaze met with Sanmi's dead body.

"Hhhh...Hmmmm." She heard another painful grin from behind and looked at who it was.

Chief Ola.

She fired another arrow into the chest and watched him struggle to live.

"Hmmm..." He looked up at her and had a demonic laugh. She stared at his bloodshot eyes and realized he'd lead others to her and see if she didn't kill him now, he'd come and attack her as a Fanpaya.

Asa fired another arrow at his chest, making three.

"Ahh!" He cried out in pain, again. But his grunts of effort pissed her off even more.

He closed his eyes and controlled his heightened breaths.

"Asa the brave! What do you think of yourself now? Huh? You want me to beg? I am a chief and the last indigene on this land. You want me to beg?" He laughed. "So you know, I killed your blind mother!"

Asa's bloodshot to her head while she watched him burst into unrestrained laughter. His black skin was shiny with blood and sweat on his wrinkled face.

"Hahaha! Hahahaha!" He crackled out like a chicken while his demonic laugh filled the main hall.

A bittered look clouded in Asa's eyes.

"I want you dead!" Her breath thickened." You ingrate fool! You killed Iya Aduke after all!"

'Whizzzz!'

She swiftly fired two arrows at him and he died. Asa's lips pressed together in defeat and her teeth gnawed in regret. A solemn tear rolled down her lowered eyes, realizing Chief Ola's betrayal. "Come on now, the northerners are here." Shade whispered, pulling Asa's arm.

Asa watched his hand drop in the cold embrace of death before she closed the doors. The main building started burning while Todun realized that another entrance was open. He locked it immediately while the crew climbed the top of the giant's building. Some steps lead downstairs through the back of it, leading outside the walls of Ilé Ife.

It was at this time, they caught the night casts away the cloak of dawn. Asa, Shade, Ashindara, Todun, and Atata stopped to watch the gentleness of the early morning. Somehow, it gave relief that new hope was coming. And everyone could return to their homes.

Although the sky was a little dim with no signs of the sun or the moon, a blurry vision of a ship riding towards the land gave a settled feeling that it was the northerners. The calm ocean gave me a gentle feeling like yesterday never happened. Or an hour ago was just illusional. The five of them sat by the rocks on the sea shore awaiting either another fight or freedom because nobody. Not even one person would volunteer him or herself to be sold as a slave to the northerners.

Todun squared beside Asa while she held onto her sword and bow. Her skin was still stained in the black blood of the last Ninki Nanka she killed.

"This belongs to you," Todun muttered, handing her the golden ring that fell from her hand a while ago.

He could tell by her dry smile and Redd, swollen eyes that something was bothering her. But she collected it.

Asa looked gloomy while Shade sat by her side.

"The bag!" Atata grunted aloud in ancient Yoruba and a brittle smile formed on Todun's face.

"I kept this for you, small man." He handed him the brown leather bag with one of the twin eggs. And handed the other to Asa.

Atata held onto it, as tight as he could.

Looking upon the calm weather, Asa couldn't help but wonder. "How long do you say those Ninki Nankas would get here?"

"In less than an hour. Probably, an hour."

"What about this ship."

"Twenty minutes. Thirty at most. It's almost here."

"You use Eldritch magic?" Asa asked the strange old man in Black clothes.

"Yes, I'm all about blood magic, pact magic, death magic and curses."

"So who are you?"

"I'm Ashindara, the sorcerer of Ilé Ife. I've been chained up in the giant's hall dungeon for warning the king against some of his allies so, they took my sight and locked me up as long as I was in chains, I couldn't use my magic so... I waited."

"Why didn't we see you all this while?"

"Oh, this is my magic cloak. He showed them. It's made of dragon-hide and scales harvested over centuries. Magic that were the sun of a full coven's effort were infused into it and the cost forms a connection to the draconic afterlife as a result. Power radiates from it. An intoxicating power that calls forth and begs you to don the Mantle of dragons. Anyway, I got this from my forefathers and it protects."

"That's good then." A sincere smile spread on Asa's lips.

"I saw what you did earlier." A curious smile spread on his slip lips.

"What?"

A smile spread on his face, but he didn't explain. Asa just looked forward.

"When the northerners get here. We will beg them for a space to ride with them on their ship and if the gods will, we'll sail with them. I don't want to fight any more battles. Do you think the sun would rise?" Asa asked Shade.

"I don't know-"

"Grrrrrrr!!"

A thunderous growl grumbled from the back. Todun turned back to watch the view of the giant's hall one more time. The distant roar of terror showed that the army of Ninki Nanka was proceeding towards them.

Todun looked forward at the approaching ship. "But that looks like a very nice ship."

****

Author's Note;

Hello wonderful readers! What do you think of this story so far? It's 1/3 of the story in mind. It's been 2 weeks of updates and you've read 45 thousand words so far. So, I want to know your thoughts on it. Leave a comment below and don't forget to vote on this chapter. Thanks so much for reading. Have a blessed day ahead.