87 The Warning

Ochieng' suddenly found himself in a completely barren desert. Only piles of dried human bones could be seen scattered everywhere in this godforsaken place. He was wondering why he was there when howling winds started beating his bare chest. He tried not to close his eyes entirely so that he could see what was there for him.

Out of the blue, in the direction where the winds were coming from, he saw a silhouette of an old man. The old man was so weak that he could fall at any time were it not for the support of the stick he was tightly clinging to. Even the winds seemed to sway him. It was a bizarre sight. All of a sudden, Ochieng' saw the silhouette moving towards him. Each step he took was forced and heavy. It was as if he was struggling or learning to walk.

When he was almost half the distance between ochieng' and where he was previously, he fell down and yowled in pain. Ochieng' ran up to him to help him up but instead of doing so, he stood rooted to the ground awestruck.

'If I continue being shocked this way over and over I will have a heart attack'. He thought to himself

The old man was Nalianya, the old prophet who had been killed under his nose a few minutes ago. What was more surprising was the fact that he looked even older than he was just before he died. The seventy year old now looked like a man in his hundreds.

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"You are alive?" Ochieng' asked with tears welling down his cheeks.

"Do not be such a girl Ochieng'. You saw me die not long ago, how you can ask such question. Hurry up and help me up." The old man protested in reproach.

The young man helped the old. As the latter rose, creaking of his joints echoed as he moaned annoyingly.

'Did he change this much after dying?' Ochieng' thought.

"Thank you, young man. Now, follow me, we need to rest and have some food."

The old man said after he was up. The young man wanted to protest but the old man did not give him the chance. The old man turned and walked slowly along the wind. They took an hour just to cover a distance of around three hundred meters. Ochieng' started getting bored with the pace, he turned to issue a complaint but was stopped by the old man's wave and serious look.

"If you think I am too slow, you can as well carry me..." The old man started but his eyes landed on something that made his eyes light up. He said with wide smile, exposing his toothless jaws, "We are there."

Ochieng turned to the direction the old man was looking but was stunned to see nothing that could make someone lose his composure. He then threw a look of confusion and incomprehension at the old man. He was just about to ask something when he saw the man disappearing at some point. Looking carefully at the point he disappeared from, he saw his reflection.

'That is my reflection...so there is a barrier here...' Ochieng's train of thoughts was interrupted by a gentle voice at the other side of the barrier,

"Brother Ochieng' please walk over to the other side, we do not have much time."

Ochieng' recognized the voice. It was Nalianya's voice, the Nalianya he knew of, not the old man he just met. Walking over to the other side of the barrier, Ochieng found himself in a lone hut standing in the midst of a thick forest. The hut was circular and empty inside. At the center, the Nalianya he knew sat on a three-legged stool eating millet porridge.

"Help yourself please." As soon as Ochieng' entered, the old man passed him a gourd of porridge.

"Ochieng', I am sorry I was taken away from you even before you knew my worth. But I know the severity of your quest, so I decided to send you this dream to at least do you one thing before I finally rest in peace with my ancestors. Who knows, maybe this is what I was meant to help you with" Nalianya started as soon as they were done with the porridge.

"Nalianya, I am starting to get scared. This thing looks difficult than I thought it was." The young man cried.

"Do you know the reason why I had to take you to the desert in the first place?"

"No."

"That is the future son. The piles and piles of bones you saw are the people of Keniya you are fighting for about five hundred seasons from now and the old man isn't me but yourself"

"What?"

"I saw how scared you were of that serpent and that is why I had to show you that prophecy. The One from above had made the thirty seventh Ordainer the greatest and the last. This Ordainer he had seen as the one capable of helping him defeat the Lord of darkness once and for all. If the Ordainer fails in his quest, then what you saw in the desert is what will happen. If you cower even before a creature that is several-fold weak before you, then the Lord of darkness through the Black Fiends will destroy Keniya and all that will be left will be piles of bones and the Ordainer who failed in his quest."

ochieng felt fear rise in his heart and his heartbeats became even quicker. Cold sweat trickled down his armpits. He asked, "Nalianya, are the other gifted people completely incapable of fighting the Black Fiends?"

"They can but only if they fight alongside the Ordainer because it is him that gives them strength to fight against those monsters. If he is afraid, then their gifts are meaningless and powerless against those from the dark world." The old man said shaking his head.

"The serpent out there, it is more powerful than me, I have tried whatever I can but everything is useless against it." Ochieng' said with a helpless and bitter tone.

"You have not tried enough and that is why you think it is more powerful. Otherwise, I could not just be meeting you as a spirit and I would have fought alongside you in this war."

"I am sorry for being useless. What do I need to do to defeat it? I cannot afford to lose my other companions."

"The creature is a subordinate of the gods of the Mbeu people. This god is a force to be reckoned with. I am pretty sure you are tributes the serpent is going to pay to the god to conciliate him. Luckily, the god knows a lot about Ordainers. Just ask the serpent to let you talk to their god first before killing you. It is difficult for it to let you see its master but you must try. The god will not only spare you and your friends after seeing you, he will even offer you his blessings. I said earlier you are powerful than the serpent and probably even the god, but do not try to do anything stupid, your powers are not yet awakened to the fullest. Furthermore, they will be of great help in the future. At the moment, they can do anything they like with you. Be careful."

"Thank you Nalianya.'

"Consider my help as a parting gift. There is a stuff that I have left behind for you. It is the bane of the likes of the fellow pretending to be Mboya. When you get it, keep it and don't use it against him. He is useful to us alive. As for other uses of the stuff, the One from above will guide you. Farewell."

With that, Ochieng' woke up in the cave. The stick Nalianya used against the warlock two months ago was now in his hands. For the rest of the night, as others whose pains could not defeat sleep and were dead asleep, Ochieng' was contemplating over what Nalianya told him. As for the reason why Nalianya knew much all of a sudden, he understood it was because Nalianya was now a spirit and spirits tended to perceive the world more intently and clearly. Everything they left behind on earth always lay bare before them.