The Fourth Village

After speaking this much the head elder took another moment of silence, waiting for any kind of reaction on June's face or any kind of question that June might want to ask after listening to the complete story.

But to the head elder's surprise, the June was looking down at the burning fire with his eyes almost closed, then suddenly his eyes opened a little while still looking at the fire and without raising his head June said

"Tell me more about these Gate Keepers"

For a second, the head elder thought that the June had slept while listening to his story and was about to become furious after all this was not a bed time story for the head elder, for him this matter was quite serious.

To any kid this might seem like a bed time fairy tale, but the head elder understood that June was not a normal person, and June's ability to understand and read the things that were present in between the lines of this story was sufficient to see the hidden dark side of this story.

Upon hearing the June's request, the head elder nodded his head and continued with the story.

"No one knows the real extent of their abilities but there is a story about them, that has been passed on by our ancestors.

But the thing is that this particular happening is only known to the current head elder of the present generation.

And this story is actually more like a warning to all of the five villages of the Oma Hills than just another story."

After hearing the last sentence that came out of the head elder's mouth, suddenly the ears of the June perked up. Then the head elder continued

"A long time ago, one of the five villages in these Oma Hills refused to give any of their young children when the Gate Keepers had come for their regular recruitment that happened once every five years.

But what happened next was something that all of the Oma Hills would forever be remembered as a nightmare throughout the coming years.

It happened a long time ago during the period of our ancestors, the Gate Keepers would normally move in a group starting from one village at a time to another in order to carry out their regular recruitment and one time while they were currently recruiting from the fourth village, they had out stayed their normal visiting period.

They were supposed to arrive at the fifth within a day or two, but every one got tensed when they did not show up at the fifth village for next three weeks.

Normally the people of five villages would always travel from one village to another for some kind of business, trading or to even visit their own relatives living in the other villages and every time the Gate Keepers came for their recruitment the word about their visit would usually travel throughout the Oma Hills and, almost everyone from the five villages would know about the recruitment.

But at that time suddenly out of every single person that went to visit the fourth village did not return.

Some thought that there might be some kind of entertainment show or some kind of festival going on in order to please the Gate Keepers, so they might have stayed there to enjoy the event, but when almost twenty days have passed, some of them decided to take a look for themselves at the fourth village.

During that time, when the people from the first three villages met with the people from the fifth village in order to visit the fourth village together, the elders also decided to take a visit since the matter was regarding the Gate Keepers of the Old Gate.

So, when this group of elders and some adults visited the fourth village, they could never forget the scene that they saw in that village at that time.

There were no males present there, that could be seen within the whole boundary of the fourth village and all that they could see were females.

From the youngest infant to the oldest elder, there were only females present in the whole fourth village, and not a sign of any male could be seen within the village boundary that belonged to the fourth village.

While at the center of that village there was the biggest house, that belonged to the village head elder and within that house, there were around seven men that had stayed there for over three weeks.

These seven people were the 'Gate Keepers' from the Old Gate that had come for the so called recruitment.