The Gate Keepers

"You have managed to surprise this old man at almost every moment that we have spent together starting from the time when we first found you naked in the under the waterfall and brought you here in the Soma village.

I know that you are not an average person and if this were a normal time, looking at your nature so far and as well as your intelligence and potential, I would have done almost everything within my power to make you stay here in my Soma Village together with my people."

Then he stopped for a moment and then raised his eyes from the burning fire, to directly look at the June's face and once again while looking at the face of the head elder, June could sense the same serious expression resurface on the old man's face along with the strange atmosphere that he had sensed before, when he had first heard the poem 'The Red Heavens'.

Then the old fellow continued to speak.

"I originally came to warn you to maintain your distance from my younger daughter Misa for your own sake, but looking the calmness in your attitude I think it would be better to tell you a little bit more about the history of our Soma village and also the other four villages that are currently located in the Oma Hills Region".

And this last line of the head elder forced all of the attention of the June's consciousness to move towards the next words that were going to come out of this old man's mouth.

"I have already told you about the existence of wild beasts beyond the mountains and the 'Old Gate' which is situated at the location where the three river streams meet at the northern edge of the Oma Hills, that protects all of the five villages present within the Oma Hills from any kind of harm that those wild beasts could bring.

This 'Old Gate' has been present at the northern border of the Oma Hills ever since the time of our oldest of the ancestors that anyone within the five villages could remember. That is the reason why we call it the 'The Old Gate'

But in order to maintain that Old Gate that had existed since the time immemorial, a lot of sacrifices that numbered more than you can imagine, had also been made since the time that any one of us could even remember anymore.

There is a particular group of people responsible for maintaining this 'Old Gate' and to keep it still standing in front of those dangerous wild beasts, after all this Old Gate is present at a very dangerous location that is almost inhabitable for a normal human and due to the regular attacks from the wild beasts, there are no other major standing structures at that location.

The people from all over the five villages call this group of people 'The Gate Keepers'.

'The Gate Keepers' are the main reason why all those dangerous wild beasts could still remain on the other side of that Old Gate.

These Gate Keepers look exactly like normal human beings but it is commonly known since old times that they possess extra ordinary powers within their bodies that would make any normal human being look like a tiny insect in front of a fully grown two meters long snake.

In every five years, these Gate Keepers would come to visit each of the five villages in the Oma Hills in order to recruit children from this place to join their ranks, but their selection criteria is a little too unique.

Every time when they come to visit this place; they would always select at least one virgin female from each of the five villages.

They say that the virgin females are required at the Old Gate as the 'so called Oracles' which would stay in the temple that is present at the Old Gate and help them connect with the deities of this land in order to give them enough power and their blessings to peacefully protect this place from the danger of those wild beasts that were present beyond the Old Gate.

So, in order to comply with their request, the five villages always prepare at least one virgin girl every time the Gate Keepers come to visit these Oma Hills.

And last time they came for 'recruitment', they had already picked my younger daughter Misa Soma, but she was a lot younger at that time and was not ready to move up to the cold atmosphere of the Old Gate, so they told us that they would come next time within the five years to 'recruit' her as an 'Oracle' for the temple of the Old Gate."