THE LAST KEEPER-Chapter 75: END OF BOOK ONE

BOOK ONE OF THIS SERIES HAD COME TO AN END.

I want to thank anyone who has stuck with this book till the end. As I move to book two I want y’all to know I appreciate your support.

I think this was the best way to end book one and start book two.

SEE YOU BETWEEN THE PAGES

BOOK TWO:

PROLOGUE: UP NORTH 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"They just keep coming no matter how many of them we kill. It has been two years since I came back here. We are clearly missing something." Togo said lying back on the raised stone platform.

"It’s not like you have a wife Togo, and this is only your field mission." Lemba said, groaning. They had all been on duty as watchers for the entire day and night but there was no movement.

"Perhaps we finally scared them off. What do you think?" Togo pushed the leg of the man who was lying on his belly between the rocks watching the landscape before them.

"you two shut up before i throw you down the cliff and feed you to the Lanka dogs." the man said, keeping his attention far ahead. He had not moved an inch since they started their watch.

"Hey Salka, are you not tired of watching? There is no one out there." Togo snickered, not making a point to move or shut up.

"You should become a captain, Salka, you are too competent to be a junior warrior like us." Lemba added. The two laughed mockingly. They had all graduated from the war college two years earlier and they stuck together on this

"You two should shut up, I see movements." Salka said and the two men scrambled to his side looking ahead and focused on a spot Salka was looking at.

"I think I see it too. In that tree. It’s like someone is hiding between the leaves damn it." Lemba said. "It’s good that you were watching, young man." He continued as if he wasn’t the shortest man in the group and only a month older than Salka and Togo.

"Should I send a signal?" Togo asked, squinting again. The leaves were moving violently. It was almost as if the person in the tree suddenly wanted to be found.

"Are you stupid? We have been waiting here for days and now you want to ruin all the progress." Salka ground his teeth. He had always wondered how the two beside him managed to graduate from war college let alone war academy. They said they did it to get status and marry two wives and he was starting to believe them. How can one go so far for marriage, Salka did not understand. Couldn’t one just court a woman without status?

"I think the captain to be is right, Togo. Use your head." Lemba said in a mocking tone and it took Salka all he could not to throw him down the rocks.

They were at the edge of Tagayia, where it touched Lanka’s feet. Lanka was a warring state and Tagayia was too prideful to submit. They had been fighting for ages for ages and sometimes salka could not understand why they could not stop. Even so the villages at the edge of Tagayia and Lanka suffered the most. When two bulls fight it’s the grass that gets hurt.

The reason that Salka and his team were on watch however was not because there was war between tagayia and Lanka at this time but because intel had been sent to the capital city of the north war headquarters that people in the far north villages of tagayia so close to Lanka were disappearing without a trace. The only explanation was that Lanka was taking them but the reason was not yet.

The team of a hundred men sent north had been situated on watcher duties across all outlets of Tagayia to Lanka. They had been watching for days and none of the watching squads had reported any movement. It was as if the Lankanians had known of their arrivals and stopped their actions which was totally impossible. Lankanians thrived on warfare and they were the only state who still dared to challenge in war so many times a year. Could there be a person working for Lanka inside the Tagayia war headquarters? Salka could not believe so. what could Lanka possibly offer a general or commander of tagayia that tagayia could not offer.

"I’ll go down and check. If I don’t come back in less than an hour get help." salka suggested. Lemba and Togo looked at him as if he had grown another head.

"That is a stupid move kid. we were told to watch and not engage," Lemba whisper yelled in urgency as if lowering his voice could help tame his friend.

"If you call me a kid again you will be the first I engage with. Now stop acting clingy. If we wait till we report for backup the lead will be gone by then." Salka said, standing to his full height. Before any of the two could protest he jumped down the rock. He jumped from rock to rock as he went down before disappearing into the woods. The sun was high up in the sky and he did not even care to hide his movements. All he cared about was to reach the sport before the lead disappeared. He had not graduated the best top in his class in combat just to lie around and wait when he could take action.

He moved through the woods quickly. The northern terrain right before Lanka was so mountainous with tall woods. It was perfect for hiding and easy to die if you did not know the terrain well. salka however did not believe in dying unless a whole squad of veterans was put on him. Even before he graduated war college he was already better than most junior instructors and ahead of many senior instructors. Now that he had been in the field for two years as a junior, not even a seasoned senior instructor was a match against him.

He was only still a junior because one had to serve as a junior for a minimum of two years and a senior for a minimum of five years. Even so, Salka planned to change that order. He was a beast of war and no one could debate that. Having been born in a clan where everyone was genetically gifted, being good was not good enough because everyone was already good. He only wished to be excellent and for that even being genetically strong he still worked twice as hard.

he broke through to the sport where he had seen the leaves move and it was silent as if it had been the wind. salka knew there had not been wind because of how hot it had been. They had been cooking up on the rocks with no sign of wind. His instincts had never been wrong and it seemed like the shaking was a signal for someone. for who exactly he did not know. he just needed a trail to follow. He looked around to see if he had missed anything but he sure it was the place.

The person had chosen the strongest tree to shake and it might have been nothing but it was the only lead they had for days.

He circled the area for a while before he finally heard movement. He barely missed him. a small boy looking to be between eight to eleven. The kid was first and just when salka saw him he took off.

"Stop there!" he said, pulling an arrow from his quiver but decided against it. Kids could sometimes be used to spy during war, but killing a child in cold blood without asking a question was just murder not justice. He cursed and moved quickly to follow the kid. The kid was small but he was first. it was like he was melting through the woods then he finally disappeared.

"Hey kid, wait up I’m just trying to talk!" he yelled, chasing after him. He almost caught up with the child but he suddenly disappeared. Salka cursed his fate and looked around for a bit but the child was gone as if he melted into the very ground itself. After minutes of searching and sweeping the area around him, Salka finally gave up. Just when he was about to turn around and leave he had two pairs of footsteps. He wheeled around quickly. His teammates just then tumbled out of the woods looking out of breath.

"Finally we caught up." Togo said, hunched forward taking heavy breaths. How could a junior warrior be out of breath after running for such a short period of time?

"What are you two doing here?’" Salka exclaimed. "I thought I told you to report back to camp and ask for backup.

"Well, leaving a comrade for death is punishable by losing a limb and I’m not trying to lose my chance to marry two beautiful wives." Lemba debated and salka shut his eyes to keep himself from the greatest sin of a warrior creed. Killing a comrade was punishable by death or else he could have killed Togo and Lemba long ago.

"Now that we are a team again, let’s go and report together. Did you find anything?" Lemba ignored Salkas’s clear burning wrath.

"A kid." salka groaned before leading the way. It must have been his wishful thinking that the two incompetents could act on his instructions.

’I found a kid and then lost him. How shameful.’ Was however all salka could think about. ’I should have killed it’ he seethed on the inside