Prologue (10)

"Anna, Anna! Wake up, wake up!" Bibi told his junior sister.

"Take Suzie with you and hide in the cave!" He ordered her.

"The Monster of the forbidden mountain is attacking the empire. He is right now in Okunde. He will soon arrive in Ekule." He reported to her.

Anna bounced off the bed in panic and rushed to Suzie's bedroom who was still sleeping.

Gently but with hastiness, she instructed the little girl to get up.

"Sweetheart, get off the bed! We have to go to the cave. Do you remember? I told you we will have to hide there each time a villain comes around to harm us." Anna murmured to her ears.

"Ok, mommy!" Three-year-old Suzie answered without opposing resistance, then followed her mother.

"Ok, very good! Now that things are in order, I can leave you with my conscience in peace. I have now to head to Okunde and join the imperial forces which are on the brink of collapsing before the incredible might of the Monster." Uncle Bibi said while wearing his armor constituted of two steel bracelets -one on the right arm and another one on the left hand-, silk trousers, and a long curved sword. His muscular chest was proudly exposed. Ready, he walked out barefoot.

In Okunde, the imperial army had already sustained a significant loss of valiant soldiers. More than a hundred men of honor had perished under the claws and beak of the Monster of the forbidden mountain.

It was a massive bird that weighed about twenty thousand kilograms and measured almost ten meters long and five meters large. It could not then fly for a lengthy moment nor hover enough high in the sky to not hit trees.

So its preferred way of moving was on its legs. It dwelt in the mountain situated in the north of Okunde. The hill was proclaimed forbidden by the late Great Batang IV. No inhabitant in the empire was permitted to hike there after the fifteen-year-old Emperor's son, Dida the first, was killed by the Monster during a promenade.