Ochieng' could not help but sigh when he saw it. He wondered what animal it could be. He stood to stroke its neck only for the latter to give a loud roar and jump aside. Ochieng' immediately understood that everything seemed deplorable.

He never thought the animal that appeared harmless and friendly could be so unapproachable. He saw the animal open its beautiful small mouth before das.h.i.+ng as fast as it could towards his direction.

'This is really bad,'

The Invincible stance!

That was a stance once taught to him by his father. According to what he had learned, when a warrior was confronted and escaping was not a choice, the warrior could use that stance. With it, all the warrior's Achilles points could be concealed and it prepared him for the battle before him. He could react the fastest no matter how the enemy came in that stance.

Ochieng' had not been involved in any fight and this

was his greatest opportunity to know if he really could. The animal was around twelve inches close to him, he tried sending his fist towards it and to his astonishment, he found himself kneeling right before this bizarre animal completely powerless.

The creature that was charging towards him at an ultrasonic speed suddenly stopped just around ten centimeters before him. Then what left his mouth agape happened...

"Young boy, what brings you here at this time of the season? " the animal roared.

He had only heard the speaking of animals from his elders and mother in their fictional stories. He never thought in his childhood he could meet one. At this moment, he found himself trembling like a rained on chick. This animal had supped all his braveness.

First, it was the impeccant looking animal turning into a savage beast when he didn't expect it. Secondly, it was it's speed. Thirdly, it was the animal's ability to make him submit without him knowing and lastly, it was the animal's ability to speak. He only prayed not to be harmed by it lest he could never forgive himself.

" I would like to visit the forbidden land, the boundary between our Karachuo and the Subi divisions... " As surprised as he was, he still answered in the end.

"You want to visit the forbidden land?! "

The beast repeated before examining the kneeling young blighter carefully. Except for his handsome face and courage that evinced from his face, there was nothing extra ordinary about him.

"Do you really know the perils involved in this, do you really have to go? " the beast could not help but ask in the end.

I do know the dangers and that's why I want to go... "

" But what if I killed you in the first place? "

The beast chuckled. The boy could not help but sigh deeply. He came to think of what could happen if this beast killed him. It was at this moment that he realized how c.o.c.keyed his idea of going to the forbidden land was. He didn't even know how many days he could take to get there, let alone the fact that he had not thought of what could happen along the way.

'I ddn't know how naïve this seemed. I've not even reached the land itself and here I am, incapacitated by an animal that I don't even know. How ridiculous! How did Nyakam get there?' he thought but in the end tossed his worry aside, after all, according to his ancestor Nyakam, Were was with him.

"Then..." he wanted to answer but nothing came out of his mouth.

"I really like your courage but I also understand you are too young to even know how stupid your decisions can be. I will ask you to go back home, because after walking for seven days, you will be approaching the gates of the forbidden land. "

"Along the way there are a lot of dangers. If in any case you survive along the path, just at the gates, there are extremely dangerous beasts and other creatures that are far much dangerous than you think..."

The beast advised as it paced slowly around him. Its advice however fell on deaf ears because what the boy said next surprised it.

"Thanks for your advice elder, but I am sorry I won't listen to you because I have made up my mind..."

"I still underestimated you kid, I am Le Lwenje (simply means beast of wars), climb my back and I will help you in your stay in the forbidden land."

Immediately he finished saying so, an invincible hand of it lifted the young boy and put him on its back. The boy on the other side felt the pressure that was weighing him a moment ago dissipate wholly. The beast took off at a terrific speed. Its speed was at least ten times faster than the speed of the horses he had seen so far.

What Le Lwenje didn't know was that the kid already knew he was walking with Were's spirit itself. This alone gave him courage that no one could imagine. That is why even after it rendered him powerless, he knew he was safe. Little did he know that his future in the forbidden land was bond to be course.

"Thank you elder Le Lwenje, I am Ochieng' Lwanda, the son of Chief Ong'am, the chief of Odindi clan. "

"So you are from the Odindi clan...How did you even know the path leading to the forbidden land? "

" From the stories I heard from my elders. " he answered.

The beast could not help but be awed by the kid's brilliance. It could never know the direction of a place just from a story. It swore from the bottom of its heart,

'I'm taking this kid to that land with me. He can make a powerful human and maybe can help me get the stool of the tribe head if he turns out to be those humans. I only need to ensure that he is tempered to the maximum when staying with me. I will protect him at the cost of my life, after all, if he turns out to be those legendary humans, I may be the next tribe head. ''

What the beast was certain about was the fact that so long as it tempered the young boy to the best of its abilities, rising to the stool of its tribe head was not a problem. It could even control all the beasts if there was no beast 'ordained' by a human somewhere. If even humans were sometimes greedy, what about them, the beasts that had no laws?

Beasts feared the strength of a human as it could destroy them with just a thought. He could tame them and make them serve him so long as he had enough power. This is something that the beasts did not really want. That is the reason why any human that dared to step into the forbidden land could be devoured especially by the weaker beasts, who couldn't protect themselves from stronger beasts who could s.n.a.t.c.h from them the human for their personal gains.

For a beast to be the head of its tribe, it had to have an artifact that could make the beasts of its tribe submit to it. This artifact was called 'Yir'( bewitch). The artifact could bewitch the other beasts to lie low in fear of the bearer of the artifact. The other way was to be 'ordained' specially by a human who had a certain degree of power. The latter was more effective than the former as a beast could retain the stool till death.

To be 'ordained' by a human, a beast had to have an intimate relations.h.i.+p with a very powerful human from the time when he had no power to the time his power was cryptic to the beasts. As they continued living together, when the human trained, he could emanate an unfathomable aura. This aura alone could kill beasts no matter how powerful they were.

Training with humans since the time he had no such aura, the beasts that had intimate relations.h.i.+p with the human had already somehow, merged it's beast aura with his and therefore during his training, the beast could devour the aura that was released by him - he could however choose to keep the aura from getting into the beast's mouth. After it consumed the aura, it could never gain power that would surpa.s.s the human.

After the beast devoured this aura, it could handicap another beast by just a sliver of it. That could give it the power to control all beasts from all tribes. However, humans with strength to do so were extremely rare such that one could walk several hundreds of kilometers without getting a human of such kind. It's because of this reason that Le Lwenje decided not to harm Ochieng as it thought he could be one of the rare talents that beasts could do anything to get.