Nyansakrom: Chapter 5

Later that evening, five people rushed to the same clearing in the forest. "nothing here, just like the five other clearings, we checked," muttered a girl with braided hair. "I am beginning to suspect that those twins asafo captain dede handed over to us last night lied to us, Pokuaa,she sighed." "As an nkatahofo, you should be more observant, Agyeiwaa, said a girl wearing a large straw hat,covering most of her face. 'there are traces of cloth on the rough bushes where they left, she said with their distinct blue and white markings.she said. "besides that, there were several traps here on this path , traps set for us."she concluded. ''the twins were right, she mused ,there are seven main meeting places, this place is certainly the sixth.' given the trouble we've had to go through to reach each one and the senties we caught on each one.'nkatahofo),she spoke up, we will proceed to the final location now", if they are there, bear in mind that several traps will be set for us on the way. on spotting them, we are simply to inform the asafo through the usual chirping signal and let the m handle things."

Engage them in combat, only when neccessary, she stressed. 'let's go, she signalled, and with that, the nkatahofo) , the dreaded village spies of nyansakrom sped off into the woods as the sun began to set.

in the night, at abrewanana ama's hut, the head of the royal guard, Nii, the head of the nkatahofo), Abena, Dede and Abrewanana ama herself, thrashed out the final points of the plan to deal with recent events.'so, it's settled , said nii, the royal guards will triple their defence around the palace to keep out the threat,.." Tumi',sighed the nkatahofo) head. 'That is what they call themselves. so far they have been content with stealing weapons, capturing spies and destroying our defensive outposts, but now they've become more focused, more watchful of us." dede spoke up,"I'm not so sure why they would target osuani but if they are, perhaps we should cancel the osuani program for now, at least until things become stable again, as well as ..." "triple the protection around the osuani, interrupted Nii, we cannot do that, we've had to assist the asafo in patrols around the village by tripling their forces already. 'so', Ama spoke up, let's arrange things in such a way as to ensure maximum protection for the royals and the osuani, and still have a team left to hunt down this group." she concluded.

Later that dawn, Pokuaa stealthily crept towards the cave prison, recalling what the twins had told her in private. they had made it clear that the keepers of fate had infiltrated every village group and thus keeping them in the cave prison would not be safe." i can't forget the look of terror on their faces when i assured them that nothing would happen to them here for failing their task top observe the osuani", she mused. normally, i would not go alone but I feel uneasy whenever someone doubts the security of the largest prison on this land." she went around the main entrance, noticing with growing unease the abscence of any guards and the eerie flashing of lights from the windows. walking through a darkened entrance, she realised that it had been recently used.'impossible, only the nkatahofo) should have access to this particular entrance into the prison. she soon heard murmurs and was shocked to find several sentries gagged at the lower level of the prison huddled together! "all the sentries have been tied up here, she realised , then that means... suddenly ,there was a loud clang as several weapons skidded along the floor towards her. she quickly rushed towards the shadows, as a heavily scarred man yelled,

'Careful, nyamekye, we do not want any more delays in transferring the weapons to the others'. "alright, yelled a bald man gathering up the weapons, the strike begins in a few minutes after all". " a strike against the village", realised pokuaa. suddenly, an axe flew towards her, missing her by inches as she leapt back out of the shadows. the two criminals froze upon seeing her, but a familiar voice snapped. 'dont just stand there, transfer the weapons to the others. I will deal with the intruder." Asafo captain asamoah, so you are a member of Tumi , ' pokuaa slowly said as she drew out two drumstick shaped weapons from her clothes. asamoah ,with two matchetes in hand rushed towards her, swinging each machete alternatively. But she sidestepped all these attacks, shifting her weight from one foot to another. '

She leapt to the side dodging asmaoah's strikes . At the same time , both weapons clashed and asamoah was shocked to notice that the drumstick shape of pokuaa's weapons enabled her to hold onto and wrench the machetes from his grip.there was a sharp clang as asamoah's matchetes clattered to the ground. even more shocking was the rain of palm thrusts that pokuaa began to deal to asamoah, each blow connnecting with his joints." as he fell back, panting, he gasped, ' so she planned to disarm me and knock me down. "those joint focused attacks are difficult to block,but I can't fail here,not yet. As she watched asamoah warily for any sign of a counterattack, she was suddenly aware of a blur of movement behind her. as she dodged an arrow that grazed her shoulder, she landed on her side. she was shocked to realise that standing behind her, bow and arrow in hand, was Agyeiwaa! even the nkatahofo) have been infiltrated!, she realised with growing despair.

‘She avoided being hit directly by the arrow”impressive thought agyeiwaa ‘however the tip of the arrow till ot her’not enough to kill her but enough to keep her from reporting this’ Asamoah slowly rose to his feet. She watched Asamoah approach her she swiftly shifted her feet on to Asamoah’ s machete and released them, one in Asamoah’s direction and the other in Agyeiwaa's direction. She sidestepped the machete and paused to pick out an arrow.

In that time,she sped towards the exit. As Asamoah dodged the machete, it hurtled towards its true target the interior wall of the cell holding the sentries, there was a brief struggle as the sentries cut their bonds and rushed towards the exit forcing Asamoah and agyeiwaa to attempt to hold them off. Several convicts were called in to assist in this.

As she sped through the darkened path, she noticed the growing numbness spreading through her arm. ‘It’s fast acting but panicking will only make things worse. “If Agyeiwaa has betrayed me, then base baako is already in disarray”, she mused as she moved through the forest, cold beads of sweat running down her face. She approached a brown hut partly hidden by several trees.’ Good, base mmienu is still fine, “she gasped as she reached its entrance. The guards on duty noticed her approaching form and call out, ‘halt, ‘’ then noticed who she was, Asafoakyere pokuaa, “are you alright…, “No I’m not”, she cut in, inform the asafo that keepers of fate have obour prison, they are arming themselves for a strike against the village.

'At first' ,said Adisa to a large audience, each of you will attend three groups for a while but later several group will be formed and those who cant cope normally leave ”of course chipped in Antwiwaa’ some return to continue the programme but a few of them often leave permanently. this created a lot of murmuring with some promising to never quit “they are doing their best to dispel the tension by stating the basic of the osuani training””most of them think the emergency Is about their performance in the groups but concerning the attacks and Dede’s absence since last night it could be something more serious.

The murmuring were cut short by the sudden arrival of an abrewanana who said‘ the asafo, the royal guard, the abrewanana council and the elder council have decided that due to current circumstances it’s hazardous to continue the osuani programme hence it has been temporarily suspended”. This created even more murmuring”. after a brief pause she said ’any inconvenience Is deeply regretted. The asafo are waiting outside to personally escort you to your home immediately” . Frightened,the girls left for home accompanied by a small asafo detail across a bushy path. As they walked through the forest there was a sudden gasp of horror from the group when several flaming arrows flitted towards them. As they landed around them, the foliage around them began to burn around them and a deadly ring of fire began to slowly form around them.

Several metres, away, badu and a section of the asafo under Safohen edzikyir Karikari rushed towards the burning forest path. As they got closer to the scene, several warriors burst through the surrounding bushes crashing into karkari’s unit. For a brief moment, Karikari’s unit stood face to face with Asamoah and the prison warden.After a brief pause, both units rushed towards each other. Asamoah’s matchete clashed with karikari’s and badu’s warstaff blocked the prison lady’s strikes from her twin matchetes.

Two kilometers away, from this battle, Sumina gave orders for the first ten to continue firing on the osuani, the next ten to wait for his signal before firing in karikari’s position.. “Oti, Duku“he called, “you and the orders are coming with me to torch the huts at the village square. Fire only on the ones I point out.” He said as they rushed towards the village square.

Elsewhere dede rushed to the obour prison with pokuaa in tow. they soon came across the two fallen asafo groups.”it’s worse than I imagined, thought dede, it seems the keepers of fate have already began their strike on the village.’Owusu,Appiah,treat the wounded. 'Asafoakyere dede, a young man among the fallen said weakly. It was terrible. Asamoah, he,..he’s also..’ ‘ I know', Dede said gently,’save your strength”. Odame, kusi, check the prison for signs of surviving sentries or otherwise.”yes,captain, they replied before rushing up the hill into the main entrance.'How could they infiltrate the prison so easily?' wondered pokuaa. ‘

Suddenly,there was a loud boom in the distance as a large tree in flames fell to the ground ,spreading more flames to the bushes around it. As thick smoke arose from the distance, dede told five asafo to help those two to move the boulders.”the rest of you come with me,' she said, breaking the grip of fear and indecision around them.

There was a loud clang as Asamoah and Karikari’ clashed several times. “samoah pushed karikari back and made several quick swings of his matchetes ,forcing karikari to be on the defensive. However, Asamoah slashed Karikari’s chest,drawing blood.’He then increased the number of swings and combined several thrusts, forcing Karikari back. Karikari dodged a few swings and dodged the rest.

Asamoah then blocked Karikari’s strike with one machete and aimed at Karikari’s belly with the other. Karikari dodged this by leaping back.. Asamoah then rushed at him and they clashed with such force that Karikari’s machetes were knocked out of his hands and Karikari fell, spinning to his left and hitting the ground with a loud thud.

Struggling, Karkari crawled towards his machetes but Asamoah mercilessly kicked them away and kicked karikari on to his back.

'Gaah', badu cried out as she slashed him twice in seconds. As he leapt back, she steadily advanced toward him. “I can feel her killing intent”, shuddered Badu as he dodged a slash aimed at his face. Taking deep breaths, Badu attacked with his staff repeatedly but she sidestepped each attack and forced him backwards with each blow. She swung her machetes at him who dodged to her left and tried to catch her from the side. But she foresaw this and broke through his warstaff , shattering it into bits and at the same time, kicked him to the ground.