Grandeur of the Elite Black

In the centre of a lush forest, overlooking base Iron fort, a US military camp just outside its border lay a man clad in some sort of ancient attire. It was an attire made out of animal skin,adorned with feathers. The man's figure lay unmoving under a massive tree with thick roots protruding from the earth. Occasionally,the tree leaves which were comparable in size to that of a human child fell off it's branches.

Only the sounds of birds and crickets chirping could be heard in the quiet forest. However, the next moment he fluttered his eye lashes and opened his eyes only to be meant by the sharp rays of sunlight seeping through the branches of the massive tree. This made him involuntarily move one of his hands in front of his eyes, acting as a shield towards the blinding rays.

After he adjusted his body to a better sitting position, still on the bed of dried leaves formed from falling off the massive tree, he took a proper view of his surroundings. It made him realize that he was in what seemed like a forest. This should have made him worried being stranded in a forest that no doubt was filled with wild animals and some other unknown dangers, but the contrary was the case. The more he stayed, the more he assured himself that this was not at all new to him "This feels so familiar, I've seen this before ". This was his thought before flashes of unknown memories came to his mind one after the other.

"General Andre, do you you take us as kids or what"

"Warriors, let us rid this stench out of our lands: yeaaaaahhh!"

"Have you gone crazy to the extent of capturing clan chiefs and generals in broad day light?".

He delved into his mind, trying to connect and probe deeper ,hoping to gain more memories. while doing this,he stared at everything in his surrounding but nothing in particular.

"Arrrggrh",

he grunted in frustration as he could not understand his thoughts which made him even more confused. He was forced to inwardly question himself, "why am I here? where am I?...what am I even doing here?" .He went on wondering if he was dead already,and if so ,how did he get here ? .He just could not understand why he was getting these fragments of memories and where they came from . It was at this point an echoing monstrous voice spoke into his mind saying,

"ANDRE, REMEMBER YOUR PAST, FACE YOUR QUEST"

"Who...no, what are...you.....which quest?" he asked but got pure silence as an answer. It seems the voice had vanished almost immediately it spoke as if it never came. His thoughts went next to the words of the voice, "My past?....My past....My....."

ANCIENT SOUTH AFRICA :1700 C E

"General! General !" called the general's assistant who just left his post of guarding the entrance to the cave as his master was taking longer than usual to meditate. General Andre stood up from his sitting lotus position and gently exhaled. "My apologies General, just that you have spent more than three hours already" ,said his assistant. General Andre slightly opened his eyes to show that he was a bit surprised at what he just heard."For how long?" ,he asked

"Six hours",replied his assistant. A bewildered look could be seen on his face and he wondered why he meditated for so long. However, he shrugged it off ,possibly blaming circumstances for his long meditation. Putting himself together, he immediately ordered "Prepare the horses and inform the guards...we leave immediately".

Andre was the general of the Rhoza clan known for their military strength and prowess, commonly called the Iron clan. He was the youngest general in the history of his clan, with his battle instincts being like nothing that has ever been seen in the clan and this has gradually earned him a reputation of being "The silent Demon" on the battlefield.

General Andre gracefully stepped out of the cave and saw his five guards standing close to their individual horses. He walked past them towards where his own horse stood.They all bowed their heads. He gently stroked the hair of his horse as he lifted his foot off the ground and landed perfectly on the saddle of the horse. He grabbed the rein of the horse ready to leave but did not forget to take a look at the structure of his clan that could be seen from where he stood afar off. He was a man of actions and did not believe in too much words.He did lot of strategizing even before muttering a single word.

His silence was interrupted when his assistant spoke "General, the chief sent a message. He asked that you see him immediately you get to the Clan". General Andre paid no heed to the words he just heard and instead gave an order of his own "lets head for the BORDERPASS" before the sound of his horse hooves could be heard galloping away. "Tsk....he would never change" ,said his assistant inwardly before shouting to the other guards, "Let's move!" . They all mounted their horses and followed the trail left by their General to quickly catch up with him.

" hyah.... hyah... hyah....hyah"

General Andre rode on while keeping an eye on the path ahead of him, at the same time listening attentively to his surrounding against any mishap or surprise attack even though the path was normally patrolled periodically by his warriors . As he kept his gaze ahead, he could not help but think about what happened in the ALLIANCE meeting he attended the day before.

The ALLIANCE was created to tackle problems not just affecting individual clan but the entire South Africa lands on which the eleven (11) Clans resided in. The Clans were the Zulu Clan, Zothec Clan, Rhosa Clan being the first three (3) major Clans while the others are the Wasil Clan, Nedian Clan, A'kana Clan, Spédic Clan, Donga Clan, Vana Clan, Tekwa Clan, Gela Clan but for some reason known by no one till date, the Vana and the A'kana clan respectively refused to join the Alliance. They limited activities with other clans and worse still, their Chiefs and General never showed themselves in public.

Andre who has now unknowingly slowed down while riding his horse was fully brought back to reality when he heard the sound of horses approaching him as his men had caught up with him . It made him realize how slow he had become while riding. When his men got close to him, they reduced the pace of their horses so as not to ride past their General. Andre kicked his horse, riding again at full speed which was followed by his guards. They rode on for hours before they stopped at an open space where they made a temporary campsite to rest their horses as it would soon be night fall.

General Andre dismounted from his horse, grabbed it's reins and gave it to his assistant to secure it before he said "We will rest here tonight, assign guards for the first and second watch...at first light we ride for the BORDERPASS without stop", having said these words, he made way to the large tent that have been set up for him.

When Andre entered his tent, he sat on the blanket made out of animal fur and almost immediately he stretched his body which was an indication that he was tired.More still,he was mentally exhausted from the long hours of meditating earlier in the day and the only thing on his mind at the moment was to get sufficient sleep. As he however laid his head on the pillow made of cotton, he couldn't help but feel that something was off but he couldn't lay his mind to it.So ,instead of sleeping, he decided to only lay down and sharpen his senses for this was one of the gifts he had. Since he was younger, he had noticed that he possessed enhanced hearing, as he could hear sounds coming from a bit far away and even when people spoke in low tones away from him, he still heard them. At times he wondered if this was the same with others but recently came to realize that he was the only one with such ability after confirming it on several occasions. He did this by asking people close to him, mostly his trusted comrades if they heard a particular sound he was sure he had heard faraway but they always answered in the negative.

This ability of his, finally paid off several minutes later when he heard footsteps some meters away gradually approaching from behind his tent. He swiftly but quietly stood up and paid attention to this threat. Crawling outside to meet his assistant whose body expression went on high alert the moment his general said "Code dead meat". "Yes general" he answered bowing slightly at the time before he saw the figure of his general disappear into the bush close by.

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There was a little group of robbers that has been terrorizing this part of the Rhoza territory for some time now. In the past few days, they had not carried out any successful raid and they were even thinking of changing their location as a result of the discouraging outcome. Lady luck however,decided to shine on them today, well so they thought. Little did they know that they were in for the worst raid of their lives.

They have been trailing the riders since late noon and were very happy when they saw the riders set camp so they waited for the perfect opportunity to strike. This opportunity came when they saw the guards at the campsite sit and slowly slept off. The robbers did not waste this golden opportunity as they approached the camp stealthily and gradually rounding it up. The leader of the robbers approached one of the guards lying down and placed the hilt of his sword on the latter neck commanded him "Surrender your horses and valuables and we will let you leave with your lives".The guard on his part was completely unfazed.Instead of being worried for his life, the guard quickly assessing the situation, found an easy and tricky way to kill these robbers at the same time.

From what he observed , they were ten robbers at the least who were armed with swords but having no protective clothing aside from the leader who wore some sort of thick leather armour. "Tsk... tsk , that guy with the bow is going to be a problem" , he sighed inwardly as he thought. He was brought back to reality when the sword on his neck went deeper enough to graze his skin but causing no proper damage. The General's assistant snapped " Fine! you can search but don't expect to see anything valuable".

The bandit leader then ordered two of his minions to search their camp . Unknowningly to him ,this was the perfect distraction the general assistant to execute his plans. He quickly brought out a dagger he had pegged into the ground a little beforehand and threw it towards the robber holding a bow with full force. "Swishhhh". It was a precise throw and it landed accurately on the robber's right hand making him drop the bow . "Aaarrrgrh " the robber sniffed in pain.

This opportunity was not wasted by the General's assistant as he got up and dashed at full speed towards the direction of the robber he just threw a dagger at and when he came close enough, gave him a heavy kick 'Bam!' which sent the robber flying meters away. Almost immediately he picked up the cross bow, already stationed with two quivers, gauged his target and aimed at the legs of two other robbers standing closeby,which immediately incapacitated them.

The General's assistant satisfied with his deed, paused for a moment to observe the situation properly.As he walked towards the leader of the robbers,the man positioned his sword in his front ready to defend himself. This was because he had no idea what the latter was about to do.In fact,he hadn't recovered from the shock of his first defeat.

"I will give you the same conditions you gave to me, only a bit different....surrender and face the punishment for robbery on the Rhoza territory or fight and meet with your death" the general's assistant said.

The leader of the gang of robbers was carefully thinking of what to do. He knew the Rhoza Clan were good warriors but at the same time, there was no way he was going to let himself get captured easily. Only one solution was possible....Escape!.

"Even if you are formidable warriors, do you think you can actually leave here without causalities? he asked , "Look around you, it is a ten against five battle". Apparently, the robber who was kicked was now standing on his feet with bruises on his body. Just as the leader was about to order "Atla...." He was stopped by the voice of a man who came from behind the tent casually dragging two dead bodies as he said , "It's now eight" . Everyone turned in awe as General Andre said,"Now eight against Five". When General Andre got to their position, he dropped the bodies on the ground and said to his assistant, "When you are done with them, meet me at the entrance to the BORDERPASS" .With this he turned his back and started walking towards his horse that was tied to a nearby tree.

The leader who was now boiling with anger made to dash towards the man who just killed two of his men, only for his assistant to stop him half way by jumping in front of him saying

" Hey, I'll be your opponent"