A.S. Sleight Of Hand - Chapter 24

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Adult content ahead. Reader discretion advised.

24 – Forest

“V’esh⁹⁷! V’esh!” yelled Iraz as he heard another thunder.

    He waved his free arm toward the other side of the clearing, where his companion Urbeth was. His other hand held their two horses by the reins.

    “At this rate we’re going to get soaked! We must return to Ashkā!”

    The silver Azara got up from the ferns he was scouring, searching for a trace of Razer’s passage in the forest near the Capital. He didn’t say anything, but looked back at Iraz with an unreadable expression.

    “Hey, are you listening to me?” prompted his friend. “We’ve scanned this area inside out, Rāsh’err hasn’t been here. It looks like she’s not here at all. Let’s go back before the storm breaks loose, or we’ll be stuck here!”

    Urbeth seemed to wake up at his roars. He walked up to him but he was too confused to formulate a response. It had been so long since he had last seen that painting, back in his house. He had worked so hard to forget about it, but now, that image had clung to his mind and just wouldn’t leave.

    “What’s wrong with you?” asked Iraz with a hiss of exasperation as his friend approached him. “You’re even more absent than Rāsh’err is. You’ve been checking that bush of ferns for nearly half an hour.”

    “Sorry,” said Urbeth at last. “I’m… spacey today.”

    “Yeah, I can see that,” huffed Iraz, then turned around, heading toward the exit of the forest and into the dirt road that led to Azca, his silver friend following him slowly, tail and ears drooping.

    Looking up, Iraz suddenly froze and turned around toward the other Azara.

    “Hey, Urrb’esh!” he called, then pointed toward a spot in the far distance, behind the massive shape of the Capital. “What is that?”

    Pricking his ears with interest, Urbeth approached his friend and followed the direction of his finger. He gasped with pure horror as he recognized the red glow of fire, barely visible on the line of the horizon. Shivering, he turned toward Iraz, his eyes wild with fear.

    “That’s… D’ekk’utt,” he whispered, anxiety gripping his throat. “There’s a fire in my hometown! Ishā is in danger!”

    In the blink of an eye, Urbeth leaped onto his black mare and rode back toward the forest of Azca.

    “I’m going to help her!” he called to Iraz behind his shoulder. The cream Azara had remained astonished, as if he still hadn’t realized what had happened.

    “Irrash, please, you need to tell the Queen about this!” roared Urbeth, getting farther and farther. “Go to Ashkā! Tell her! Call for reinforcements to put out the fire!”

    Iraz remained still for some more seconds, then shook his head, and seemed to come back to reality. A determined expression on his face, he mounted on his own horse and headed toward the Great Capital, that stood ominous and grey against the hazy atmosphere.

    Thunder rolled in the sky once again as Aznor led Kaphar deep into the forest of Decut.

    The surroundings were gloomy and dark, he could barely see the narrow dirt path in front of him. Leaves and branches forced him to lie low against the horse’s neck.

    A lightning flashed, backlighting the undergrowth for a split second, during which the boy thought he had seen a massive black shape hiding among the trees.

    Don’t panic, he reminded himself. I may as well be wrong. I’m just imagining things.

    What he was sure he hadn’t imagined, however, was the acrid smell of charred wood carried by the wind as an ominous, rain-presaging breeze blew in his face.

    Perplexed, Aznor sniffed the air again.

    He had no doubt, something was burning.

    As he rode further on among the trees, he saw an orange reverb in the distance, at the far edge of the forest, and even caught a glimpse of shiny, incandescent scraps of ash floating in the air.

    Fire!

    Prodding Kaphar on, Aznor looked wildly around, hoping to locate the pups as soon as possible.

    I’ll need to find them before it arrives here, he thought. Let’s just hope the rain will be enough to put it out.

    Wondering where the two young Azaras could have gone, the boy attentively scanned the surroundings, looking for a trace. Tiny paw prints were still half visible in the dark mud, but they were fading more and more with every step he took. Eventually, the traces ended as Aznor reached the jagged edges of a large ditch, that opened up in the forest floor like a menacing gaping mouth, with big, sharp stones for its teeth scattered at its bottom, and a small creek for a  tongue, flowing peacefully between them.

    Whoa, what a fall, thought Aznor, wondering whether the pups had been foolish enough to approach the dangerous place. The boy rode to a tree growing by the gorge and timidly craned his neck over the straight edge, but saw nobody at the bottom of the ravine.

    Heaving a relieved sigh, he decided to follow the border of the gorge, hoping to find a way that led him further on, to the other bank, where he imagined the pups to be. Looking around, he noticed that the forest surrounded him from all sides. The town of Decut and Iza’s house were no longer in sight. The boy suddenly realized with horror that he didn’t know the way home. A cold wind blew in his face, almost as if it tried to push him further on, deeper and deeper in the thick undergrowth.

    “Great,” he muttered, trying to control his shivering. “What was I even thinking?”

    As he spoke, he heard muffled yelps carried by the wind blast. Tilting his head in the direction of the high-pitched cries, Aznor abandoned the side of the ditch and rode onward, relieved to have a path to follow at last. As he walked around a high rounded rock, the yelps grew louder, until he located two tiny shapes hidden beneath a large tree root. Two pairs of eyes looked up in his direction, probably recognizing the horse Kaphar. He also heard one of the pups squeak the word “Mā”. A rush of joy filled Aznor as he approached, holding the reins tight in order not to lose control of the horse.

    “Ashn’orr!” yelped Rothir, wagging his tiny tail as the horse stopped by him. Next to him, Shucur smiled and pricked his ears.

    “Uzca!” called Aznor, jumping down from Kaphar. “Are you two alright? Nothing broken?”

    “We’re alright,” announced Rothir with his usual cheerfulness. “We just got lost.”

    “Is that so?” laughed the boy. “But why did you even come here in the first place?”

    Rothir lowered his ears in embarrassment and pointed out his twin brother with his finger.

    “Well, you know… Shūk’urr really wanted to see the forest…”

    “Shucur did, eh?”

    “Yeah…”

    Aznor crossed his arms and looked down at the pup with a scolding smile.

    “Alright, I did,” admitted Rothir. “I really wanted to check the gorge out.”

    “But when we found it, we had no idea how to come back,” put in Shucur.

    The boy nodded, understanding, trying to hide the fact that he didn’t know very well, either.

    “Would you like to explore with us, Ashn’orr?” playfully asked Rothir.

    “No. I came to bring you two home. Your mother was looking for you. Come on, before the nocpaz become cold.”

    At his words, Shucur jumped to his feet.

    “Mm, n’ockp’ash!”

    “Right,” answered Aznor, approaching and gently grabbing the pup in his arms. Shucur fidgeted slightly, but quickly understood that the boy wasn’t going to harm him. Lifting him up, Aznor deposited him onto Kaphar’s back. “I’m sure they’re going to be yummy. They smelled great while your mother was cooking them.”

    Shucur wagged his tail at his words, excitement sparkling in his eyes.

    Smiling back at him, Aznor turned around to grab Rothir.

    “How about you, Uzca?” he asked as he held him tightly and lifted him up. “Aren’t you hungry?”

    Before the pup could respond, lightning split the sky once again, an eerie light flashing in front of Aznor, and revealing a huge dark shape a few meters from his nose.

    Panic instantly surged as he recognized a pair of hallucinating yellow eyes glittering in the darkness, an ugly burn scar, and a row of gigantic teeth glowing silver against the light.

    Razer!

97, V’esh (Vez) = “Bad” / “Not good” / “Awful”
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(Actual Artist's descrption)

Aaand Azarian stories

Who else is sad because there are barely five chapters missing to the end? *raises hand*

We follow Aznor as he looks for the pups in the forest. Luckily he finds them, buuuuuut they're not alone D8

Also, about the picture. It took SO. DAMN. LONG.
I'm never drawing another tree for the rest of my life EVER. *looks at upcoming Africa page right next to her* Damnit.

Um, Aznor. It's fun and all that you're playing with the pups, but... TURN. THE HECK. AROUND.

Enjoy this chapter!

Characters and art (c)