Little Ozaka watched with dismay as his bag of treats fell into the sea below him. His heart felt the annoyance of losing something that he had been looking forward to all week. He then remembered his mother and his dismay increased. They had both been longing for their favorite treats and now look- he had lost them.

The little one’s intentions were sweet. Ozaka had wanted to share a little with the fishes but a servant who was hurriedly passing with a large stalk of ripe bananas had bumped him. If you can remember, this was the same sweet treats that the traitorous female warrior was to lace with poison for Kadijah and Ozaka.

” Son, why the sad face?” King Vulcan asked after having searched for him

” Baba, sweets gone.” Ozaka replied pointing to the sea.

” Oh no, your sweets fell into the sea?” King Vulcan questioned

Shaking his head up and down, Ozaka said “yes”

” Mhmm don’t worry we will get more later, and I will explain to MoMA so she won’t be sad.” King Vulcan said picking up his son and kissing his little cheeks.

Seeing that the boy was smiling and feeling more at ease, King Vulcan kissed his little cheeks even more. Which caused King Vulcan to be caught completely off guard by the blow from behind to his head.

He fell to his knees holding his son. King Vulcan dimly saw a raised hand coming down towards him for another blow. He reached up and braced off his attacker. He could hear screams, he was aware of his son crying. He wobbled to his feet somehow and mustering himself together, he grabbed his attacker by the neck. King Vulcan was much larger and more powerful than his attacker. He was quickly able to snap the man’s neck.

He saw chaos ensuing on his ship. His loyal men were bending over grabbing their bellies and bleeding from the mouth.

” Poison!” King Vulcan shouted.

A group of assassin’s gathered around him, he heard Kadijah scream, he turned to block his son from the approaching men. He saw Kadijah fighting off the female warrior while shouting,

” Traitor, Traitor. Devil heart traitor!”

Kadijah spotted her husband and son. She ran towards them while being chased by two men.

” Don’t let her get away!” One shouted.

” This should have been quick and easy!” Another one complained.

Rushing to Vulcan’s side, she made like a mad buffalo and rammed through the circle of men surrounding her husband. Getting to her husband and son, she quickly turned and threw three daggers which she had hidden over her body. She aimed for their eyes and throats.

The group of men, momentarily startled by the abrupt deaths of their colleagues, rushed the family after seeing three of their men fall dead.

” Kadijah take Ozaka and go up to the helm of the ship. I will take care of the rest.”

” No Vulcan I’m not leaving.”

” Kadijah it’s not just you and me. There is our son! Take him and go!” Vulcan insisted.

Just then sharp swords swooshed at King Vulcan’s head and torso. Two more men advanced menacingly towards Kadijah. Heeding her husband’s command, she pushed little Ozaka up the stairs of the ship and ran towards the helm. She felt one of the attackers blade swipe across her back, a sharp stinging pain engulfed her.

She turned and threw a dagger hidden in her hair right into the forehead of her attacker. The other assassin ran to the other side to circumvent her flying darts. Kadijah had only two darts left.

” I can’t miss.’ she thought.

She watched as the last assassin charged at her with his sharp sword. His intent clearly lethal. She waited for him to bring his sword down and nimbly ducked out of the way while swinging her dagger with a hard jab right into the neck of her attacker.

She turned to see King Vulcan fight off and kill the last of his attackers. Feeling relieved she called out to him. He turned and looked at her and began making his way towards her. It was then she saw two arrows hit him in the shoulders.

Kadijah screamed, her heart fell in dismay as she saw a fresh batch of assassin’s crawl up their ship. She saw that there was another ship aligning itself with their ship. Grabbing Ozaka, Kadijah ran back towards Vulcan. She was stopped by a bleeding Salan.

” Queen Kadijah, you must escape the ship. Jump. I have cut one of the boats for you. I will protect the King. But you must go.” Salan said

” No no, I can’t leave him. No.”

” Protect the prince and your unborn child. King Vulcan will survive. I will throw him into the water myself before I let these whoremongers take his life. Go now to the left side of the ship and jump.” Salan said.

Kadijah watched as Salan went to assist King Vulcan who was fighting with the two arrows in his shoulders.

Kadijah tried to think, she remembered going over the plans and drawings for the ship with Vulcan.

” Where was the weaponry? Where? Think Think!” Kadijah pressed herself.

” Come Ozaka, follow MoMA.’ she said to her brave little son.

Kadijah crept away as silently as she could down to where the ship’s explosives were supposed to be kept. She tucked away her son behind some crates and said

” Don’t be afraid my son. Take this dagger. If anyone other than me comes, jam it into their eye.”

Kadijah had remembered that King Vulcan had ordered Bum-pows to be stocked on the ship. Bum-pows were explosives shaped like an x.In King Xanoz’s (King Vulcans’s father)time, there were not many ships in their area. However with the advent of more ship makers and the thirst for exploration more ships were taking to the seas. Not all of them carried passengers with good intentions, there were known attacks of mercenaries and pirates occasionally reported.

So their ship had taken precautions. Kadijah then went to get as much Bum-pows as she could. She strapped and jammed them all around her, she jammed them into her waist.

“I need fire to light these!” She rushedly thought to herself.
A thought came into her mind just then, like a whole other voice which said,

” At the cooks station, there is a small handled pot with hot coals. Go there.”

Not wasting anytime, she went to get the coal pot. Running back up to the upperdeck, Kadijah ran to the sides of the boat, lit a Bum-pow and threw it onto the deck of the other boat. She ducked and waited for the explosion.

The first explosion caught everyone by surprize. King Vulcan looked at his Bum-pow ridden wife and felt proud. He made his way towards her in the confusion.

” Give me some.” He said

She quickly handed him five Bum-pows and showed him the coal pot. King Vulcan lit all five and ran. He threw the dynamites far onto the other ship and watched as they exploded. By now the assassins had fallen into confusion and the signal for retreat was being given.

” Don’t let them escape!” Kadijah said running towards Vulcan.

Handing Vulcan and Salan all of her remaining dynamites, they lit them and threw everything at the retreating figures.

” Die you dogs!” Salan shouted out.

When the ordeal was over, Kadijah and Salan laid King Vulcan down on the deck. His shoulder was still bleeding profusely. Calming down from all the fighting, Vulcan had started to feel the pain.

” Kadijah you were magnificent! Your the best wife a man like me could ask for.” King Vulcan said cupping his wife’s face with his hands.

” Oh my love, sheesh, rest. You can show me all your love later when you are rested and healed.” Kadijah said.

Kadijah watched as his eyes closed and he passed out. She kept herself calm. Reminding herself over and over again that her husband was a Lion.

” Lions don’t die from arrows.” She kept saying to herself as she and Salan inspected the wounds and removed the arrows.

They had given him some pain tonics to make the removal of the arrows as easy as possible. When they were done and King Vulcan was sleeping peacefully, Kadijah went for her little Ozaka. She found him sleeping with the dagger held limply in his little hand. Rubbing her growing belly and looking at her beautiful son, she felt waves of gratefulness wash over her.

” They were alive, her family was alive.” She thought as she scooped up her boy and made her way to their room.

Salan had already transported King Vulcan to their rooms. Kadijah briefly worried whether the assassins had other reinforcements out their. She wanted to talk to her husband on the next course of action.

” Salan, everyone is dead. We must do something about the bodies. I want us to go back to land but I keep thinking if we should play along like we are dead to root out who was behind this.” Kadijah said.

” My Queen that is a wise decision but it’s best we wait until King Vulcan awakens to discuss it with him.”

” Your right Salan, we must make a good plan if we are to take such a course.” Kadijah said while wiping Vulcan’s sweating face.

Kadijah found herself lovingly saying words of encouragement to her injured husband over and over again. Salan excused himself from their intimate moments with the excuse of searching out some food and gathering the bodies. He was a tough warrior but he was touched by the Queen’s obvious love and devotion for the King.

Salan spent the rest of the night gathering the bodies of his fellow Mabutu men. He threw the bodies of the assassins into the sea for the sharks. He threw the body of the Mabutu female warrior into the sea as well for the traitor that she was.

When he had completed his task and had cleansed himself with a bath. He returned to his King and Queen.

” My Queen, you must rest now. I have already boarded the other ship and checked that there is none alive. I will watch over the King and yourself for the night.” Salan said

” Ok, but wake me if King Vulcan wakes up.’

” I will my Queen.”Salan replied.

Kadijah only slept for a short time as her son woke up and was hungry. After having fed him and comforted him, she was fully awake. She took Ozaka outside their room and he spent most of the night with Salan play wrestling until he fell back asleep. Salan was used to days without sleep so it was easy for him to stay awake. He had to encourage Queen Kadijah to go back to sleep.

Finally in the cool mornings, King Vulcan awakened. He found the warm body of his sleeping wife next to him and little Ozaka curled crossway at the end of the bed. He felt the soreness in his shoulders as he moved to hug Kadijah. He moaned in quiet pain.

” Your awake my husband.” Kadijah said softly

” Kadijah, Kadijah” Vulcan said kissing her forehead.

” Oh Vulcan” she said kissing him back.

” You were so brave my love.” King Vulcan said once again proudly.

” For you and Ozaka nothing is too much. I love you both very much.” Kadijah said.

” Vulcan this attack was carefully arranged. Even my personal female guard was a traitor. I have been thinking, that to uncover the persons behind this, we should pretend as if their murderous plot worked. Then we can investigate in secret.” Kadijah advised

” mhmm,” King Vulcan said taking a deep sigh.

” To infiltrate my ship, poison my men and to even have an elite member of my female warriors collude in this plot is grave indeed! Where will we go? My brother Warsax, will be placed on the throne if I am declared dead.” King Vulcan said.

” We will send back Salan with the news of our demise. We can burn both the ships. Salan has already told me of an island where a peaceful tribe lives. He will navigate us there. Then he will return to tell of our deaths.” Kadijah said.

” How will we flush out the perpetrators?” King Vulcan asked.

” I already have suspects, the only people who would gain greatly from our deaths would be your brothers. But they are not powerful enough to carry this off alone. Who helped them? That is the question. We will follow them and find out.” Kadijah said.

” Salan will need my trusted men on his side. Cihangir must know that I am still alive and that this is all a ruse to flush out my brothers and their backer.” King Vulcan said

Nodding her head, Kadijah then said.

” The lead Elders must also know, so that they can delay the crowning of your brother Warsax. It must not happen. This will frustrate Warsax, he will be compelled to go to his backer to complain. We will arrest them then.” Kadijah said

” The plan sounds good. I think I can move. We can make the journey to the island today. The sooner Salan gets back with the news, the sooner we can get started.” King Vulcan said.

After informing Salan about their plans, Kadijah and Salan went about lowering a small boat. They then lowered a rope ladder along the side of their ship, King Vulcan slowly made his way down the rope with the help of Salan. Kadijah followed with little Ozaka grasping firmly to her back, his little hands around her neck.

Salan stayed behind to burn the bodies and the ships. He quickly descended the rope ladder and mounted the small boat with his King and Queen. He had rummaged through their food stocks and had packed enough food and water for a week of sailing.

” Here Ozaka wrap this over your face and head, you too Vulcan.” Kadijah said giving them makeshift head wraps to stave off the sun.

” The journey will take us two to three days my King. We hope for continued good weather.” Salan said.

” That’s what your worried about? All I can think about is how am I going to relieve myself in private.” Kadijah said cheekily.

Laughing King Vulcan said,

” Don’t worry my love, we brought the pot. Salan and I will look away and pretend it smells like sweet smelling bushes.”

‘ Well thankfully I took some smelling mixes from the ship. That should keep me and Ozaka alive when you and Salan blast us.”

Everyone chuckled at that,

” I’m use to the sea, I will swim out and relieve myself out of the way of the King and Queen whenever it’s my turn or your turn.” Salan replied.

And so the three made their journey to the island known as Dubadaran. They ate bananas and dried fruits along the journey. Salan had also packed salted meats and preserved cheese. Overall it was a pleasant journey, with breaks along the way. It ended up taking four days to reach.

When they landed on the island, it was turning into the late evening. They felt relieved to have made it within daylight, so as not to run into treacherous reefs.