Azar Training

Sevir closed his eyes and heard as far out as he could. There was no rustling, no mewling cat or footsteps. It was a still night with only the sound of crickets behind him and the rushing waters ahead. Sevir opened his eyes and looked around, but the edge of the dark forest behind him and the moonlight waterfall before him were as far as he could see.

His sight was certainly not comparable to his hearing. He removed his cloak, his sash, his pants and the free flowing tunic. Standing in the slight inner tunic garment, he raised the small crystal to his eye level and released some of the fire in his hand. His hand lit up and the fire running in his veins climbed up his wrist. The crystal absorbed the flames immediately and a familiar eye popped into view. His.

Sevir crossed his legs and settled on the lake’s edge, pressing the urge to shudder. The light from the crystal, from his bedroom where RuIng was, light up his surrounding slightly. The gushing lake before him reflected the glow back at him. Sevir looked around once, tilted his head, ear raised up, then extended his arm over the water.

The gushing lake reflected two circular moons, one from the sky, another from his hand, one white and pure, another reddish orange and unforgiving bright. The brightness didn’t both him. His mother’ fire was bright, unlike his. And now this fire was bright. He had no time to observe it before, but now he leisurely looked at the colours while RuIng stared at him with a big anxious eye.

“So, you have better control of the fire than me. Did you… try Azar?” RuIng asked hesitantly. Sevir came out of the mesmerising and looked at RuIng.

The frown between the brows and the searching look told Sevir what he needed to know. He asked, “What are you hiding now?”

RuIng glared at him, but Sevir continued, “It’s related to Azar? The beast?”

RuIng glared harder, but did not answer. Sevir kept the crystal on the solid, muddy, grassless ground at the edge of the lake and entered the water. The lake’s depth started right over the edge. All he had to do was dip his feet and slip in like a pool and he was instantly sinking.

He tilted his head slightly and noted that the sounds of the forest were gone. He kicked his feet immediately, broke through the surface, grabbed the crystal and submerged again with a big breath.

RuIng spoke, “I didn’t plan to hide much from you. Just don’t tell anyone about my beast and abilities. Control and hide as much as you can.”

Sevir raised a brow, bringing the crystal closer to his face for light. RuIng suddenly smiled, his characteristic crooked smile. “You are not saying anything? I will take that as a yes.”

Sevir rolled his eyes and kept listening, “Azar is the state when your whole body is on fire. Headmaster Wama predicted that if I can reach Azar, it is the closest to the beast I can get and might shift one day. However, 8 years and that one day has not come.”

Sevir frowned, finding it hard to hold his breath. He kicked his feet and quickly broke the surface.

“8 years?” His question sounded ragged.

RuIng blinked innocently. “Yes. The first time you and I started talking. Wasn’t that 8 years ago? If you remember, I told you how Headmaster Wama barged into my grandparents’ house to get me here.”

Sevir swallowed the lump in his throat, and it settled in his chest. An old and dull ache rose from there. RuIng’s eyes went wide. “Your eyes, my eyes…”

Sevir blinked, unsure one moment and sure the second. He shuddered and forced the lump further down.

“So, Azar. What do I do?”

RuIng’s lips crooked suddenly, “you figured out what triggers it. Didn’t you?”

Sevir shrugged his shoulder and smirked back, “maybe I can cultivate a new ability.”

RuIng smiled brightly, “maybe you can. The control you have over the fire is much better. You have higher chances of controlling and directing abilities.”

Sevir pushed aside the ache and concentrated on the warmth in his soul, in his memories, of how his mother had first wrapped her large hand in his and the warmth the engulfing fire had brought. It was the first time she had smiled.

The veins on the tip of his fingers, wrapped around the crystal, lit up and the liquid like fire flowed down into his wrist and up his arm. Quickly it touched his elbow and in a couple of blinks it was up to his shoulder. The warmth from it was comfortable. Sevir raised another arm. It looked the same. The patterns travelled all over his body. This time, he didn’t try to stop them. He didn’t feel different from usual until the pattern reached his heart and his core.

The glow of fire all over his body got brighter. A distant groan reached him at the same time. Having his hearing muffled underwater, he guessed the person was not far from the lake. He looked at RuIng and pointed up. The groans were slowly lowering into wails, sharp and harsh.

RuIng shook his head, “do you hear a sharp sound?”

Sevir frowned and nodded.

“Get out.”

Sevir nodded and kicked his feet, controlling the fire he had let loose. The pattern contracted, fading a little, but the wails turned sharper, desperate, faster. Sevir’s heart picked up. The pattern that was extinguishing slowly burned brighter suddenly. The wails turned to one long single screech, too painful for his ears.

“Your eyes,” RuIng had barely spoke when Sevir let go of the orb, and covered his ears, contracting all his muscles as if forcefully pulling back an extension of himself, like yanking his arms and folding them in, forcing the fire to follow his will.

The orb floated down in front of his eyes. The fire retracted quicker than before and RuIng called urgently, “if you find it hard to extinguish it, ask the fire nicely. It’s wildfire, it’s unrestrained and free flowing. Pay respect.”

Sevir looked down at the orb and glared, but he said nothing. He turned down, headfirst, and retrieved the orb, all the while keeping his resolve to pull back the fire, intact. His muscles pained from the extra strain.

Sevir finally broke through the surface and opened his mouth, taking in a ragged breath. His head swam and eyes unfocused. He pushed the water away from his now fire free hand and raised the orb to glare at RuIng. “When had wildfire ever relented over anybody’s respect? It is unyielding. It might be wild, but you have to consider it your wild. If you separate it from yourself, how are you ever going to control it?”

RuIng’s eyes widened, “you… you don’t know anything.”

And just like that, RuIng was gone. The orb reflected darkness again. Sevir pinched his eyes closed before he opened them and noticed the surrounding steam. He could hear the crickets faintly and something else he couldn’t quite make out. At least no one was groaning or wailing. The drain hampered his hearing. His muscles trembled as he made his way to the edge of the lake. The steam was thinner at the edge.

Sevir put his hand on the edge and hauled himself up. His trembling arms spasmed as soon as he put his knees over the edge and he fell on the ground face-first. He pulled his trembling arm closer to his body, hiding the orb closer to his skin under the wet robe. Then he lay unmoved, listening.

The first thing he focused on was listening for a living being. Anyone in pain or problem. No deep groans or wails!

The sound of water evaporating was the loudest, all over himself as the high temperature made it sizzle, steam and evaporate, surrounding him in thickening steam. Sevir remembered the embarrassing moment from that morning. The sizzle sound when a hand came in contact with the white-haired highborn’s wet clothes. Despite RuIng’s continuous reminder, he had not realised it immediately upon arrival. Too much was going on already, not to mention seeing a human sized lizard for the first time.

Sevir smiled to himself as other sounds flowed in. The crickets got louder, as did the waterfall in the distance. Somewhere, far, far away, there were people whispering. Sevir, in all his trembling limbs and growling stomach, dragged himself into a sitting position.

He removed his half dried robe and pulled on other dried clothes, all the while listening to that distant whisper. He turned his head in every direction, waving at the steam, until he caught the direction of the sound.

It was coming from above the waterfall. He concentrated harder, but the speaking person was getting further and further away, until the whisper was completely gone. Sevir looked towards the top of the cliff and remembered the white-haired man again with all his red, purple, green and blue scratches and wounds, nosediving into the lake. A pair of wings, as white as the moon, unlike a fairy tale all muscles than feathers, spread and fold in a brief flash.

He shuddered again. The world was nothing like the comics about shifters and beasts he had scoured in his younger days. He pulled himself together and stood up. His legs were still wobbly, but manageable.

At the edge of the forest, the sounds shifted. He heard a sudden, soft, broken snore before it died away. He looked to the right. There was more of the same forest, but the sound was coming from the same direction he had heard the cat mewling in the morning. He stayed still for a moment, hands clutching at the inside of his wraparound cloak. Nothing more.

He concentrated harder. There was even breathing. More than one, a little more to the front than the direction of the snore. Sevir shook his head and started walking. At the other edge of the forest, he could see some parts of the dome when he heard another sound over crickets- a hoot.

Sevir paused. The sight of lit up windows over the large dome structure and its extended arms looked like a hotel. The open ground between him and the dome looked too wide to cross in the face of danger. He looked around and heard a flutter of wings. The owl had taken off.

Unsure if it was an ordinary animal or more, Sevir looked around aimlessly, ears perked up for the smallest movement, the flutter getting further away from him. Two people’s footsteps were getting closer, as if they had been still and this while and started now. Sevir looked in the direction. His earlier hearing might have been a figment of his nervousness, but this was real. He could see a faint outline of two people coming through the trees. As soon as their eyes met, the people stopped. Sevir recognised them. The one on the right was the leader he had seen this morning. The one on the left, the lizard-eyed human, started breathing unevenly, heaving, eyes wide, leaning forward.

It was the same guy he burnt by mistake. Sevir looked towards the dome and knew his chances were no better out in the open than they were in the forest.

He raised his hands and released the fire, ignoring every revolting muscle in his arms. Every fire in his body remained tightened to exercise control. His hearing heightened, and he detected two more people’s breathing behind the first two.

“Shit.” Sevir squinted and stepped back. Looking was a mistake. Two identical faces stepped forward. Meeting their eyes drained him of every last drop of energy in his body. His entire frame went limp, eyes rolled back and pain boomed in his head. The fire in his hands extinguished and his head hit a tree before it hit the ground. The small group of four started towards him.

He tried to concentrate on the fire in his hands now that he couldn’t see, but the pain in his head was increasing as much as the warmth in his hands. He could tell that he was on fire again. However, he couldn’t move. The footsteps stopped by him and a long finger wrapped around his wrist.

“Where do you want him?” he heard the voice before the pain increased. He couldn’t even groan. The pain overwhelmed everything before the last of his hearing turned numb.