BETRAYAL

Zeruta suspended her plans and decided to rest in the forest while thinking of the next action to take. While resting in the forest at night, she heard voices within the forest. "Who could be in the forest by this time of the night?" she asked herself. She got up and tried to listen to the conversation going on between the four men. "The girl from the East wouldn't be here to help them; you should be able to capture them. Even if she comes, we'll capture her too." one of the men said."The East is planning on fighting the Emins, they have formed an alliance" another man said. One of the men who was on mask then asked, "what do you plan on doing?" The first man that spoke then replied, "We plan on luring them into your hands, when your men come, we'll open the defenses for them and give you secret coordinates in and out of the battle ground, in exchange, you'll spare our lives, give us our own lands and make us high ranking officials in the North" the man said boldly. "And how am I sure you'll deliver as you've promised?" The masked man asked. "hehehe" the first man laughed. "We will surely deliver, just the same way we killed the Zaandi clan Chief's wife and also the same way we destroyed the Zaandi clan, that same way, we'll destroy the East for you, as far as you promise to spare our lives and our lands when you attack". The masked man thought for a while and then replied, "In two days, we'll attack. Better keep your words." and before any of the men could reply, the masked man had left.Zeruta decided to discover who these men were. She had thoughts of who they were but she wasn't sure. After going closer to them, indeed, her thoughts were true. They were the three chiefs of the Zumba, Salmi and Mazil clans. They were about to betray the East. Zeruta knew she needed to do something fast but on a second thought, she decided to resume her sleep. The following morning, the entire East gathered to prepare for battle. The Mazil, Salmi and Zumba clans were in charge of defenses and this arrangement didn't surprise Zeruta at all as she already knew what was going on.On the specified day for the battle, the Emins started coming, anyone within a ten kilometer distance from the East could hear them. The drums of war were beaten, the people of the East (Ferads) quickly took their battle positions and so did Zeruta. The battle field was surrounded by a large forest. This was part of the Ferads plans. They hoped that if anything went wrong, they could use the forests to escape to the West.The Ferads hoped that their defenses would wear out the Emins and that it would be difficult for the Emins to pass through but even before the Emins touched the defenses, the defense was already down and at least five of the Ferads had already been killed. This weakened the morale of the East greatly.And within minutes, the Emins had infiltrated the East and at least twenty Ferads had already died and of course, this was the handiwork of the Zumba, Mazil and Salmi clans.The Emins pattern of battle was usually to set the city on fire, once they did this, it would be very difficult for their opponents to win. They tried setting the city on fire but before the Emins warrior could light the fire, something went through his chest, its source was from a tall coconut tree just nearby. That warrior fell down dead. Within ten seconds, three other Emins warriors had fallen dead due to arrows flying from the coconut tree. They knew who it was, it was 'The Girl from the East'. They started throwing stones at the tree, and threw all sorts of weapons to the tree. Their Emins archers paid all their attention to the tree, trying to kill 'The Girl from the East', but while trying to do this, another tree started releasing arrows and then another tree followed suit. Within seconds, six trees were releasing arrows. The people started wondering if there was more than one 'The Girl from the East'. Well, this was Zeruta's doing. She was conscious of the fact that she couldn't beat them alone so she set up bows and arrows in the trees, and with the aid of the tree branches and some other equipment, she was able to set up an artificial archer. she tied a string which connected all the bows together, once she draws the string, the bows on the trees wouldn't stop shooting until they ran out of arrows. She knew this so she didn't wait till the arrows finished. From her own hiding place, she started shooting, while changing her location constantly.Before now, she had already written secret letters to the women. She had warned them not to tell anyone about her presence. The letter contained secret routes which they were to follow. The arrows from the trees was their signal to move. Zeruta did all this without the knowledge of neither the Chiefs nor the warriors. By the time the arrows from the trees were exhausted, the women and children had long gone. Leaving behind the Emins and Ferads warriors.The Emins were later able to destroy the trees but they couldn't find anyone there, they only saw the machinations done by Zeruta. They realized that they had been fooled by 'The Girl from the East'. The Emins were so furious and decided to vent their anger on the Salmi, Mazil and Zumba clans. "You tricked us!!!" the captain of the troops screamed. "Nooo!!!, we didn't. We had no idea of what she was doing." Said the Mazil Clan Chief fearfully. The Ferads troops then realized that the Salmi,Mazil and Zumba clans were in alliance with the Emins. They had been betrayed. The Emins decided to destroy the Salmi, Mazil and Zumba Clans. While all these commotion was going on, 'The Girl from the East' had secretly alerted the faithful Ferads warriors and they had started retreating, one by one. By the time the Emins finished with the Mazil, Salmi and Zumba clans, the others had escaped.In this battle, The Girl from the East's machinations made the Emins lose about a hundred and fifty warriors. They returned back with just fifty warriors. Having rescued all the territories, Zeruta knew that the time for her to face the Emins was fast approaching. She sneaked into the Western territory and cross dressed like a man to hide her identity.