CONQUEST

ADERA

The Adera was one of the most feared creatures that resided within the great forest of the ancestors, it was considered an apex predator and few warriors who had seen it had lived to tell the tale, unlike typical predators, the Adera was capable of complex thoughts and this made it an even more fearsome hunter, it mostly hunted in the night because of the color of it's fur, it allowed it to blend with the darkness very well and it's would kill it's prey before the prey could discover it, if the adera was a magnificent hunter during the day, it was an unstoppable one at night,the ten of them didn't expect to see the Adera here, although they knew they had entered it's territory, they thought they were safe since the Adera was mostly a night hunter, it was actually very strange for it to be hunting them whilst the sun was still up but now that it was here, they had to fight, they looked towards Tolani with gratitude, if it wasn't for him, perharps one or two of them would have died before they noticed what was going on, everyone immediately readied themselves for a tough fight as they all brought out their weapons.

Tolani took one look at the creature and immediately determined this was an extinct creature or maybe it's evolved into the black jaguar of the modern world, everything about it looked like a black jaguar except for some minor details, the size of it's body was bigger reaching the size of an adult horse, it limbs were longer and it's jaw was longer as well, aside from those, everything else was jaguar like, Tolani immediately began regretting not bringing a weapon along for this trip, he had thought it would be a simple trip but now the appearance of this creature had complicated things, his eyes looked towards the spear stuck into the creature's thighs and he immediately made that spear his objective

One of the warriors present fired an arrow from his bow to the Adera but it missed as the Adera nimbly dodged, it then sprinted heading straight for Tolano while ignoring the pain of the spear in its thigh, in its eyes, if its weren't for this particular human, he would have been able to achieve its objective and hunted at least two of the humans here, it was naturally angry over seeing its plans disrupted, Tolani saw the Adera heading towards him and immediately dodged as the Adera pounced towards him, immediately he dodged, Gbolahan appeared out of nowhere and swung the club in his hand and hit the body of the Adera sending it tumbling on the floor, half of the spear in its thigh was also broken as it was sent flying but the remaining half remained firmly stuck in place, it's couldn't fight with all it's strength presently as it's injury prevented it from doing so, immediately they saw the Adera being flung far away, five of the warriors immediately rushed forward and stabbed towards it, it managed to dodge four out of the five weapons but one of the swords managed to leave a ghastly wound behind as it bled profusely, the Adera was a creature that was used to hunting in the dark, in order words it was a stealthy creature, the reason it's earned it's monicker as one of the kings of the forest was it ability to kill before the individual even realizes what was happening, in order words, it didn't fight in frontal assaults to often and the spear Tolani had thrown further decreased the amount of strength it could use, the Adera roared as it's eyes turned red and bloodshot, it immediately looked at Gbolahan and that warrior that had slashed it with intense killing intent but before it could move, a stabbing pain was transmitted throughout it's body as it felt someone ripping out the spear that had been stuck in its body, Tolani immediately evaded the swipe of the creature's claws upon successfully removing the spear, large amounts of blood began to flow out of the wound, even if they didn't attack it any longer, it was doomed to die of excessive blood loss, just as Tolani was focusing on the creature, his ears immediately picked up on a sound coming from  a fair distance from them, he looked at the Adera and then at the direction he heard the sound with surprise on his face, the Adera saw the direction Tolani was looking at and immediately became enraged, it used all it's remaining strength to run towards Tolani and swiped it's claws at him, Tolani managed to dodge a fatal blow but because he had been distracted, the claws still managed to reach him and cut through his chest, the wound was deep but it wasn't life threatening, seeing the Adera so close to him, Tolani gritted his teeth and plunged the half spear straight into the head of the creature, the Adera could see thd spear aiming for it's life but it was too weak too dodge, the spear stabbed into the head of the Adera and came out of it jaw, the eyes of the Adera immediately became lifeless and hollow and it's body slumped down on the floor. Tolani checked the wound on his chest and it was bleeding quite badly, although it wasn't deep enough to be life threatening, if he loses too much blood, he would die and there was still something else he had to see, immediately he tied his leather clothes around his chest as a way to stop the blood from coming out, the pain was immense but he gritted his teeth and endured it and started walking in the direction he had heard the sound coming from earlier. The ten people that came with Tolani were still dazed, they actually did it, they managed to hunt one of the kings of the forest, their excitement was palpable but they immediately returned to their senses when they saw Tolani was walking in a certain direction, at this moment, the prejudice they all had against the young chief had dissapeared completely, strength was always respected and they knew the person that contributed the most to this hunt was the young chief, someone immediately ran to Tolani's side and said "young chief, you are wounded, we need to return to the village." But Tolani ignored him, not that he didn't want to but the pain he felt in his  chest stopped him from doing so, righg now all of his attention was focused on getting to his destination,the man saw that Tolani was unwilling to return yet and so, he raised one of Tolani's arms and kept it around his neck as a way to help him, Gbolahan also rushed forward and kept the other arm around his own neck, Tolani then smiled at them with an expression of gratitude, two more people followed them while the others stayed behind to guard the corpse of the beast or else it would be taken by another wild animal. With the support of Gbolahan and the other warrior, Tolani reached his destination, it was a large tree that had a hole beneath it, the hole was made as a result of the roots of the tree not covering every aspect of the tree, as they got closer, the sound of whining could be heard which was the same sound Tolani had heard earlier, the two men that followed behind them went into the hole and came out with two kitten like looking creatures except this were the size of a fully grown wombat, everyone around immediately got an answer to a question that had been bothering them, the Adera unusual act of hunting during the day, it must have been hunting in order to feed it's children, one of the baby Adera was completely black in colour just like its mother had been but the other one was different, it's fur was white without the slightest hint of black anywhere, even it's nose was slightly pink instead of white, Tolani immediately knew the white one must have albinism, one of the two men holding the baby creature immediately said "We should kill them, they would become trouble if they are allowed to grow." And the others nodded their head agreeing to his words but it was at this moment Tolani spoke up "No, bring it to the villag..." before he could finish his sentence, he immediately lost consciousness, he had lost too much blood.

When he woke up, it was already dark and he found himself in his mother's hut, he immediately touched his chest to see his wounds had completely healed, there was nothing there except for a scar of three claw marks, he immediately stood up and went outside and immediately saw his father standing there, it seems like he had been waiting for quite some time, his father saw him and said "follow me." and then started walking in a certain direction, Tolani was feeling uneasy over his father's reaction, soon both of them were standing besides a cliff and looking at the stars in the sky, Adebowale then said "I brought you here as a child, you know, you were always so fascinated by the gods as a child that i always wondered if you would become a priest than a warrior unfortunately as a result of your Mother's excessive love for you, you became spoilt and didn't become any of those things,it was my fault as well, i should have stopped her before it was too late." Tolani kept silent as Adebowale kept talking, he could tell his Father was trying to tell him something, Adebowale continued "Ever since you came back from the dead, you've changed, so much that i even wonder if you are still my son sometimes." Tolani's heart immediately skipped a beat upon hearing that, Adebowale then looked at him and said "I know you have your secrets, i don't know what you saw in the land of the dead that made you change so much and i don't know how you got your mysterious power, i just want to know one thing, are you still my son." Tolani immediately became stunned upon hearing that, to be honest, he still had lingering feelings inside him for his past life, even if everyone called him Folarin, in his mind, his name was Tolani and nothing was going to change that but at this moment, he began to question himself, what was the use of holding onto a past life, he knew he wasn't going to return and that his life was here now so what was the point of holding on to the name Tolani,it served no purpose, he never realized it until his talk with his father now, somewhere deep inside him, he still hoped to return to the modern world but now, he was waking up to reality, he knew it wasn't possible anymore, he let out a sigh as he made a decision, he would completely let go of his past life, his past self and even the name Tolani, from now on this place was his home and nothing was going to change that, he wasn't Tolani anymore, he was Folarin, son of Oyinkansola and Adebowale Agboola and nothing was going to change that,he looked at his Father and said resolutely "Yes, i am your son, Folarin." Adebowale looked into the eyes of his son and smiled as he said "good, good, you made me proud today." Folarin then asked his fathed what he meant by "mysterious power", according to his father, he had been carried into the village by Gbolahan and he had already fainted, he was brought into his mother's tent and his father was about to order a guard to bring the village healer but before he could do so, under the gaze of his father, mother, Anu, Labi and Gbolahan, the wounds on his chest began to close up at a speed that could be seen with the naked eyes leaving behind only the scar on his chest, Folarin immediately knew this must be one of the abilities of the cube, everyone was shocked and they all agreed to not let anyone know about this, even Gbolahan had agreed to keep the secret because the ability he just showed was something that only the gods could do, even the priests and priestesses who served as emmissaries for the gods and were believed to wield various magical powers couldn't do such a thing except maybe the high priests and priestesses but it was rumored the high priestess of this generation had already been found, it didn't make any sense for there to be another one, his father had been truly scared and wanted to  confirm this was truly his son and that why he had decided to talk to Folarin when he woke up.

Folarin left his father's side with a renewed mindset and determination, he stepped into his own hut and on the mat was two kitten like creatures sleeping soundly, they were the babies of the Adera he had taken from the forest, one was white as snow and the other was as black as the night, his father had commanded that no one was to hurt the creatures when he heard his son had refused to kill them, instead they were to be placed in his hut, his son would decide what to do with them when he woke up, as he look at their cute sleeping faces, an intense urge to pamper them came over him and he thought to himself "Is this what pet owners feel?" The two babies still had their eyes closed indicating they had been born recently and were still blind, he sprinted to a hut which served as a kitchen and used a calabash to scoop out some goat milk and then brought it back to his own hut, he carried both of them in his arms as he slowly fed them, luckily they seemed to like the goat milk or else he wouldn't know what to do but their appetite was truly enormous, he had to run to the kitchen three times to bring back more goat milk before they were finally full, Folarin kept smiling as he looked at the two sleeping kittens, if any of the villagers saw him right now, they would see him as weird as it was normal to kill the offspring of dangerous creatures before they are allowed to grow in order to curb any future threats but the young chief had kept them and was even infatuated with them.