*CH*7*ALMOST CURSED*

                         ~unknown POV~~

His broad grin was starting to piss me off. 

          'what could he possibly be thinking of now?'

         "General, please, walk with me."

He turned and as he walked ,the twins doors gave way for him, I quickly followed behind him, the corridor ahead of us was dark but as we walked, the lights came on were we stepped ,as though our footsteps were the light in the darkness but as we passed a certain place ,the light would go off again, leaving only the place our feet touched at the singular moment to shine, this arrangement made it difficult to see the entirety of the corridor, so you couldn't gaze at it's beauty, you could only catch glimpses of the portraits of our ancestral chiefs on the golden and texturally silky walls, you could only catch glimpses of the white drapes that turned to metal when touched, which protected the representations of the seasons of nature on the left wall  and the representations of the elements of nature on the right wall, all safeguarded by glass cubes. The representations of the seasons of nature are leaf like , each possessing a different power, a different colour and a different look entirely.

    The first leaf was rainbow coloured and on it was a sleeping new born child, surrounded by blooming flowers of reds,blues, violets, yellows and whites, the beautiful thing about it was how alive it all looked , as a soft breeze made the flowers dance and tickle the sleeping baby, who yawned and turned, it was indeed a beautiful sight to behold, it made you want to smile and dance, it was obvious what it represented, it was the representation of spring, of joy, hope and birth, all encased in a beautiful glass cube.

      The second leaf in the second cube was the colour of fire, it's colours and shades, changing with every passing second, from blue, to red, to orange, to yellow and back again all together, dancing, then again as separate colours, it was entrancing , the leaf had a moving image on its body, it was the figure of a woman ,her body made up of moving flames, she was surreal, she had no face or real body, but she was beautiful, the way the flames danced around her, delicately giving form to her, like the stroke of an artists brush, it gave life to her soft curves, defining her without a name, this flaming woman twirled around the leaf, jumping with her arms stretched wide by her sides. It all made you want to desire, no, that's not it, it gave you desire, it gave you a will, it gave you purpose. With that you would easily identify it as the representation of summer, life, youthfulness ,freewill and freedom.

        The third leaf  unlike the first two , although encased in it's own glass cube was lifeless, it didn't give life,this one took life, the colour of the leaf was reddish brown,it's image was not a figure, it was a natural disaster, a tornado, destroying everything in it's path with no control ,no mercy, looking at this, the only thing one would feel is fear, fear that all good things must come to an end, looking at it, only one thing came to my mind, it was an obvious representation of autumn, adulthood, realization that everything is not as it seems.

          The fourth leaf carried with it, characteristics of the first two seasons and the third. It didn't have a colour per say, it was more of a texture, the leaf looked as hard as ice but was see through, like a mirror, a window to your soul perhaps, snowflakes circled the tip of the leaf in a synchronized dance while snow came down from nowhere filling up the glass cube that could really never be filled, there was something particularly special about this season, it represented death yet togetherness, light and darkness, as though to tell you that wherever there is togetherness, a will, there will always be a way, it was the season of winter obviously.

      All the seasons, a beautiful demonstration of life and all it holds.

And to my right, the representations of the elements of nature, where the seasons of nature required more comprehension to grasp a sliver of its symbolism, the elements of nature took close to nothing, not to disregard them, they equally hold much power but were easier to understand.

       The first element was water, encased in glass cube, it was a single drop of water floating then it multiplied , into hundreds in just one small cube, then it hardened into ice and began to fall, and suddenly it stopped and began to float, then it stretched into water again, taking no particular form and it all rushed into one form once more, a drop of water. I smiled to myself, this minutual dance explained the duality, flexibility and strength of water. The most powerful element.

           The second element was earth, in the glass cube,there were little rolls of coal on the floor of the cube, they shakily rose and were pushed together as though there was a force controlling it, then slowly but surely,it took the form of a tablet, on it there were inscriptions.

        'Let your will be stronger than a thousand men, then you shall be like the mountains, impenetrable.'

The element of earth has always been the element of will power ,strength and stability, an endurance testing element indeed.

            The third element was fire and encased in the glass cube was a hand, it's palm facing my eyes, it was a strange sight, nothing happened,the hand was just rotating in the cube ,then suddenly ,it sprout fire ,up , down, right,left and center, aggressively 'attacking' the cube, but the cube stood as it was, not heating, absolutely nothing happened to it, it was created to withstand anything, including the elements.

    The element of fire was life and death, control and indecisiveness, it was beautiful and scary, it was a wonderful chaos.

          The fourth element was the element of air, encased in the glass cube was absolutely nothing, or rather you would think it's nothing if you don't pay attention but if you looked closely ,you would notice the occasional gust of wind which flew within the glass cube.

        The element of air has always been and would always be peaceful, calm, free spirited.

There was so much beauty hidden in the darkness of these corridors that one would miss if they weren't careful, as we walked I noticed the Chiefs broad grin was gone,in its place was his signature look, absolute indifference, I wanted to finish the report of my mission ,but I wasn't sure if speaking up was the best.

         "What is bothering you General?"

         "I killed the girls family and pointed all accusations in the direction of Horex."

          "And Idris?"

          "Dead."

Total silence but I had a burning question to ask.

         "Chief, I can feel it,my soul, I can feel it being chipped at the more I kill, I know that I won't be cursed but isn't it better to be cursed than to be a soulless witch?"

          "You made a pledge when you became a soldier, what was that pledge?"

I sighed.

            "To serve my people no matter the cost."

             "So, why do you ask such questions?"

            "Because I don't want to rot."

           "Are you afraid of death General?"

           "No I am not but death is a better fate than rotting, with all due respect why did the witches start training themselves to become soldiers when they all very well know the price they must pay for having blood on their hands?"

            "You question our ways, why don't you go to the library to study our past and understand the drastic decisions we had to make, General, you must understand that for the greater good ,you must be willing to sacrifice and everyone here agrees to it, why don't you?"

At that exact point we stopped walking as we had reached our destination, then the twin doors gave way and we saw a beautiful caramel skinned middle aged woman,with long black braided hair , brown eyes and full brown lips seated at a table staring at us.

         "We do what we must to survive because the fate of the world rests in our hands, we turned down this path because a great evil was burn, a great evil that has yet to be vanquished, the race of the vampires." The woman seated said it all as we walked in and I was shocked ,I wondered how she knew what we were talking about, because she gave a very direct answer to one of my questions and just like clockwork ,the Chief answered the question like he knew what I was thinking.

           "Her name is Bimbo, she is a seer, she gets visions into the future and she doesn't like to mind her own business,hence the reason why she heard all what we spoke about."

A seer, I had heard about them but I had never seen one before.

         'And this place,it was strange, I had walked through the corridors before but I hadn't come across this particular door.'

        "That's because I only reveal myself when I am needed and sometimes when I'm not in the mood ,I reveal myself only when I want to be seen." Bimbo answered another one of my questions that I didn't voice and I wanted to ask how but the Chief beat me to that.

        "She can hear thoughts,so basically she always knows what you're thinking."

With the Chiefs answer to my unspoken question, Bimbo smiled at me and winked.

       "So, you're here to know if this new idea will work, well, there's only bad news." Bimbo said

        "What do you mean bad news?" Chief asked.

        "I mean that I can't see it, I can't see that future, I tried but it's foggy but I can't tell if it's an omen or not."

         "This has never happened before, why now?"

         "It's not just about your idea ,it's the girl herself, I can't see her future, I can't see anything, it's like whatever our next plans are, we'd be heading in blindly."

         "But that cannot deter me, we might have a chance, I must take it."

         "I have said all I know and I won't stop you from taking this action but I warn you, doing this might only lead to your downfall."

         "I have made my choice."

After their discussion which I understood nothing about, the Chief turned around and walked away, I followed suit but as we were about to leave completely ,she stopped us.

         "Wait, one more thing, General, you are lucky you didn't kill the girl, count your blessings because you were almost cursed ."

And with that said, the whole room just disappeared and we were once again alone in the corridor, the Chief no doubt thinking of how to go about his idea and I, thinking of Bimbos last words.

           'You were almost cursed.'