1 DAWN

Dioha woke up with a start.He didn't get up,just became conscious with his eyes still closed and with very little movement,a trick he learnt from the Scaven,a tribe of very skilled hunters and powerful potion makers.He quietly lay there feeling his limbs,consciously checking from his head down to his toes.He felt fine,a little weak,but fine.After moving his body parts one by one and confirming there was no damage,next he sensed his surroundings.

Judging from the hardness and roughness underneath his back he'd say he was lying in the street.He tried to reach beyond the asphalt concrete he was lying on but could sense nothing else other than the sound of the wind as the skies kept threatening to weep.There were no thunderclaps or lightning,and quite frankly,he'd have been surprised if there was.He wasn't the avatar for the god of war for nothing.He pulled himself together and tried pushing his awareness away from his body.

'Wait,my body.'

He sat up abruptly and used his hands to feel his face.He looked at his hands,they were scrawny and long,not to mention dirty.He got to his feet and looked around.He was on the street like he'd suspected.The street was deserted,the taverns closed,not one single soul was awake at this hour.

"Where am I?" Dioha asked no one in particular.The frown on his face deepened when he heard his voice.Or should he say 'the voice' cos that sure as hell wasn't his voice.He didn't sound anything close to the little raspy voice that just came from him.He looked around for anything that would reflect his image.He had to see his face.After a few seconds,he spotted a puddle close to one of the inns.The electric light from the porch of the inn was at an angle that would allow him see himself in d pool of water on the road.He limped slowly to the puddle and looked down.

"This...this is not my body."

He stared in shock at the face in the puddle,his new face.This was the face of a kid.The body shouldn't be more than fifteen years old he assumed.Not a rich kid,or a healthy one even,he looked himself over.

"I am dressed in rags."

He wasn't supposed to be in this body.How is it possible that he transmigrated into another body?Where was his body?He tried to think,suddenly a heavy wave of vertigo attacked his senses.He lost balance and fell on the ground.Memories began pouring into his mind.

He remembered seeing this boy,the real owner of this body,shivering in a little shack somewhere close.The plague which had wiped out almost a third of the Ngáme community,was eating deep into his body.The boy had just a few minutes breath left.Dioha could see the boy,he was standing right next to the boy,waiting for that precise moment when the boy's spirit would leave,granting him the chance to take over the body.The old man had said,he had to possess the body before the soul was extinguished.

"The soul is the last thing to leave the body in death.Once the spirit leaves,the soul burns brightly for a few seconds trying to hold on,refusing to accept defeat.After some few seconds,it realises it can't move the body on its own,that was the job of the spirit.Its light dims in disappointment as it embraces the darkness that awaits it.Until the light goes out,the body can be reanimated by a foreign entity,but not before the spirit leaves" the old man had said.

Dioha had watched the boy get up with much difficulty and try to make his way to one of the taverns.Dioha had followed closely,wondering where the kid was headed.As the boy neared death's threshold,Dioha had caught a fleeting glimpse of his thought.Turns out the boy just wanted to have one last drink before dying.Call that bowing out in style.As the boy collapsed on the road,Dioha had felt a huge surge of pity,the tavern was just a few more steps away but the time was up for this one.The boy lay on the pavement clutching the money he wanted to spend on a sip.His body spasmed as the sickness wrecked his being one last time.In that instant,the boy looked at him.Dioha wasn't sure if the boy saw him then or not because truth be told,he himself wasn't really there.At least not physically.He was a spirit trying to get back into his body but was unable to locate his body.He himself had died a few hours earlier.He shouldn't have been able to keep his consciousness tethered to this world after dying but there he was roaming the streets in search of his body.

Remembering the words of the old man,he had decided to take the body of another who was on the verge of dying before midnight.

The old man.Who was he really? Was he a part of this world or a being in another existence? Everything seemed very foggy at the moment but he would get answers.He just needed to find a place to stay,stay off the grid for a while and figure out his next move.

Dioha came to his senses once again and discovered he was bleeding from the nose.

"This body is so fucking weak!" he yelled frustrated.He dared not approach the council in this weakened state.They probably won't believe he was the one anyway,which would spell certain death for him,again.

Thinking of death,he balled his hands into fists and snarled.Someone dared to kill him.Him,the Avatar for the god of war,the god of thunder and lightning.Someone had succeeded in killing him and the love of his life.Someone who knew how to bypass his God Shield.No mortal knew how to bypass the defense of the God Shield unless told by one of the other six Watchers.And even so,the unfortunate mortal would have turned into marble immediately,after landing the killer blow.Dioha made a mental vow to check the place he was killed for clues.There would be reprisals once he was ready to return to the council.For now he had to do something about his appearance.He knew just who to meet to get the potion that'll alter his feature,returning him to his original look.That had to be done unless he'd be unable to get into his sanctuary.His dogs would rip him apart if he so much as set foot on the island.

With that in mind,Dioha set out to meet an old friend.He travelled as fast as the new body could possibly go,which was agonisingly slow to him.Once he tried teleporting a short distance,and regretted it immediately as the vortex he entered and exited immediately gnawed at him nearly ripping his flesh from his bones.He knew instantly that his current body wouldn't survive another teleportation skill.After twenty minutes,Dioha walked off the main road unto an old dirt road.At the end of the road sat a lonely house so distinctly different and seperated from the other houses around.In a locale where all other houses were made of stone,brick and mortar,a house made entirely of bamboo sticks and leaves was pretty eye-catching.

Dioha made his way to the front door and instead of knocking,he spat on it.As the spittle hit the door,the wood started consuming it.The spittle was being sucked into the bamboo stick at a rather alarming rate.In less than five seconds,the whole thing was gone,disappeared into the wood like it was never there.A sharp and clear voice rang out from inside the house,

"Go home kid.I don't have Igbo for the likes of you." Dioha smiled and shouted,

"By Ama i will strike this house with just one bolt and wait for you to scream..."

An eerie silence followed.After a few seconds that really stretched,the voice came again,this time fearful and bewildered.

"Amadioha?"

"It is I" Dioha answered.The eerie silence returned for what seemed like eternity before there was a thud inside the house and the door slowly opened by itself.

An old man was sitting directly opposite the doorway with a clay chalk in one hand,and herb Dioha recognised all too well,in the other hand.

"Explain yourself kid.You've bought yourself ten seconds by uttering Dee's exact words but I'll send you to join him in the Afterlife if you don't speak up."

Dioha slowly walked into the room ignoring the questioning look of the old man.He squatted down slowly,bringing his eyes to the same level as that of the old man.

"I know i died a few hours ago and i do not look like my old self cos this ain't really my body,but I'm back for just one reason.Vengeance!"

"If you're really him,you should know,you died a week ago," the old man answered still eyeing the young kid who exuded the kind of confidence he had come to see usually around Dioha.