It was a successful day for Azar, to say the least. From 3 silver coins to more than 800 coins in one afternoon, Azar could not have done better. In fact, he really couldn’t. Azar understood fully that those were fortunes that God had given him. If he was to gamble like those stinky humans, he would have walked away empty-handed or worse. However, Azar was not oblivious to the fact that his unbelievable winning streak had gotten him a lot of unwanted attention. That was one of the reasons why he decided to head out before sunset. That way, Azar would still be only winning by a good amount, not too much that would make them grow angry and make a fuss about it. He left before stepping foot up the second floor, where the semi-wealthy and much more dangerous humans stayed.
“Next time, I’ll only win by just a little then get out,” he told himself.
800 silvers were more than enough for him to buy the supplies he needed and then some. They were going to last him for quite some time. Azar decided to spend some coins on new clothes, not something fancy-looking or expensive, just a simple dark-colored cotton shirt and pants would do the job. Traveling alone and through such a long journey, Azar would much rather have comfortable clothes than expensive and fragile ones. Finally, Azar chose an Inn and headed there for the night. 2 years as a human and Azar had never known what the inside of a human Inn looked like, Azar felt a little frustrated that he did not think of abusing his luck to gain some silver earlier.
“Finally, a bed !” Azar immediately laid on the bed. The room was far from being the best. It was a simple 3 by 4m with just one small single bed, a table, and a wardrobe. It wasn’t even that clean either, dust was on the floor, and that table did not look at all suitable for eating anything on. However, after 2 years of sleeping on the street or out in the wild, this was more than luxury for Azar. Sometimes, Azar still felt as though a dragon such as himself should not have been put into such humiliating circumstances. But in those times, he always told himself, it would only be this way for 10 years, then he would be back to his former mạjestic true self. However, that night, those thoughts did not cross Azar’s mind for a second. He took a comfortable bath in the Inn and then headed back to bed. He slept the tiredness away, but it was strange for him at first. He spent so much time sleeping in such harsh conditions that Azar felt almost unnatural sleeping in such comfort.
Azar was not a careless spender though. The Inn he stayed in was just a small and middle price Inn in that city. And the first thing he did was buy out as many supplies as he could carry. One more day to make sure he got everything he needed and fully rest himself for the long journey ahead, Azar planned. Azar browsed through the marketplace one more time to see if there would be anything affordable that caught his eyes. And something did catch his eyes, but it was something that he would rather not see. The little boy, Munir, was standing suspiciously close to a food stall with no silver on hand. And as Azar suspected, he tried to pull a quick one and grabbed an apple. However,
“What do you think you’re doing, little rat !?” The stall owner caught Munir red-handed. “Stealing from my stall !? How dare you! Do you know what we do to street rats like you !?”
“NO PLEASE! SIR! I’M JUST SO HUNGRY! I HAVEN’T GOT ANYTHING TO EAT FOR 3 DAYS…”
“Not my problem rat! GUARD !” the stall owner shouted. But before he could notice, one of the guards.
“Let the little boy go !” Azar stepped in and stopped the stall owner. “Whatever he took, I’ll pay you for it !”. Azar gave him two silver coins, the market price for an apple.
“Just two silver coins for the crime that this rat had done !?” he was asking Azar for more. Azar did not want to prolong this any longer and got more unwanted attention. So he gave the stall owner another 10 silver coins and told him.
“Take it or you’ll just get a separate useless hand, your choice !”
The stall owner let go of Munir’s hand and gave both of them an ominous smile.
“Never come here again, street rats !”.
Azar led Munir out to the outskirts of the city. Throughout the journey, Azar did not say one word to him. The only thing that Munir could tell was the angry eyes Azar was giving him.
“I’m sorry! I…. I promise I’ll pay you back … somehow...”
“Are you hungry ?” Azar's question caught Munir completely off guard. Azar then gave him an apple which Munir finished within less than a minute. Azar took notice of Munir’s hands when he took the apple. They were soft, very uncommon for orphan children living on the streets and stealing to survive.
“Why keep trying to be a thief? Clearly, you’re not good at it !”
“I... I have no other choice.” Munir cried, “I owe someone a lot of money and now if I don’t pay him every day, he is going to beat me up ….”
Munir told Azar his story. Munir was not a born resident here. In fact, he was only here a few months before Azar arrived. He had lost his parents not so long ago. They were caught by some bad people on their journey through the desert. His family all died at the hands of those people, and Munir only survived because he faked his death. After days of wandering in the desert, Munir found this city and had lived here since. And just like that, Munir became a beggar on the street without food and coins. That was when that man, Firmino Salah, let him borrow some silver and began gambling in order to gain some for his own. However, the more Munir played, the more he lost. He had no way to repay the silver to Salah, and the interest rose day by day. So Salah forced him to pay him some small amount of coins every day to repay his debt and interest. Each night, if he could not manage to do so, Salah and his gang would beat him up and let him starve.
Even before Munir told his story, Azar already had a hold on the general picture of the situation. However, what interested him the most was Salah’s gang.
“They are children !?”
Munir nodded. “Yes, most of them were just like me, once. They had to work for him, and when he saw that they could do his tasks well. He offered to erase their debt and join his gang willingly. They will do his dirty work, looking and luring more kids like us to that house. Or for the older ones, they would work as his goons.”
Azar sighed. “What a pathetic coward, hiding behind children !”.
“There isn’t much that us street rats can do to stop him,” Munir continued. “He paid off the guard to generally overlook his business. All those that do not follow him will get beaten up or worse. This city did not care if children like me disappeared. Heck, they might even throw a party__”
Azar cut Munir off immediately. “Never call yourself a street rat !”.
Azar gave Munir the tough love, which his parents would have given him if they were still alive.
“You’re not an animal, you’re a human, never let anyone demean you like that ever again !”
“I’m sorry ….”
“And stop saying I’m sorry all the time and start doing something about it! If you don’t, then all your life, you will be called a street rat forever! And you’ll live your entire life in constant fear !”
“But I’ve tried, and nothing ever changed. I only ended up getting hurt ….”
“You try and you fail, and you try and you fail,... but you will only truly fail when you stop trying” Azar put his hand on Munir’s shoulder. “I understand that life must have been hard for you… But you can’t let it stop you… you can’t just give up and let the world take your life away. You have a whole future ahead of you, and you have to carry on your parents’ legacy as well. So no matter what, you can’t just be a little thief your whole life !”
“But I can’t … I’m not strong enough !...” Munir broke down crying. Azar understood that he had asked a lot from a 10-year-old who had just become an orphan not so long ago. But it was something this boy needed to learn to survive in this wicked world.
“Then, just this one… I’ll help you”.
As day turned into night, the city of Habarga went to sleep along with its people. Except for a select few. In the house flooded with the smell of cheap wine and opioids, the light still shines from within.
“Ok boys, let’s see how much we have made today,” Firmino Salah spoke to his gang of poor teenagers. Sitting on his fur chair, trying hard to make himself look like a kingpin in front of the children, Salah skimmed through everyone's offerings, and unsurprisingly, one name popped up. “Again, this Munir kid never learns, does he?”. Just last night, he had ordered his little gang to teach the kid a lesson, but it seemed like he would need to step up his method.
Out of nowhere, the front door opened wide,
“Salah, I’m here to make a deal !” Azar stepped in and spoke loudly, with Munir following a little bit hesitantly from behind.
*****************
All eyes were on Azar and Salah as they sat on opposite sides of a round table. Surrounding them were Munir and around 15 teenagers, aging from 12 to 15. They were all recruited into Salah’s gang. While Munir was shaking like an autumn leaf, Azar was as calm as could be. Even though it was supposed to be a conversation between a grown man and a 10 years old kid, no one could have told if they were only listening.
“You got guts, I’ll give you that !” Salah sat comfortably in his chair, “But going here by yourself, that’s not a wise decision.”
“Well, I’d like to do my business personally. Especially if it involves the freedom of an acquaintance of mine.”
Salah laughed hard. “HAHAHA !!!!”, it was a mixture between a burst of genuine laughter and a purposefully taunting one. “Do you even know how much he owes us! Am I going to believe that a kid like you would have that kind of money ?”
“I know that I don’t have that kind of money. But I do have something to offer, something that you want,” Azar smirk “My skill.”
“Your skill !!??” Salah smirked.
“Yes, my skill” Azar comfortably put his foot on the table and leaned back. “Don’t act coy with me, Salah. You remembered how I cleaned these floors to their last coin. That cost you a lot, didn’t it. Imagine what I can offer you if I decide to work for you… and now imagine what if I decide to work for one of those rich bastards up on that 3rd floor, … oh, how much profit it will be… for ME!”
That smirk on Salah’s face was clean off. If Azar would work for one of those rich patrons of his, Azar would easily defeat everyone else who came and went into his house, and with the protection from his new employer, there was little chance that his gang of teenagers would be able to scare him off. Salah had placed some hired gamblers and dealers on every floor to cheat all those poor souls, but all those that faced Azar only came back empty-handed.
“It was unbelievable,” They all told him. But, of course, on the other hand, if Azar would work for him, Azar could clean all of those rick bastards’ pockets, something that Salah still found very difficult to do. All of them were experienced gamblers, and they could tell if they were being cheated by Salah’s simple tricks.
“So, Salah, what will it be? Does the prize interest you now ?”
“Let’s get one thing straight” Salah leaned forward and spoke much more seriously. “You are offering your service for this boy's debt !?”
It was Azar’s turn to laugh. But, unlike Salah, Azar still kept his nonchalant attitude to the last second.
“What would be the fun in that? I won’t get anything out of that !” Azar smirked. “That would break all the spirit of your business, wouldn't it Salah”
“What do you mean by that !?”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I’m offering a bet, Salah” Azar put his feet down and leaned forward. Finally, he started to get serious. “Winner takes all. If you win, you will get my service for free. But if I win, that boy will walk out of here debt-free!”
“And you think that I will take such a deal !”
“Yes,” Azar said calmly, “I know you will. Because, Salah, I know you’re a businessman, and businessmen like you only care about coins and profit. And we both know that boy over there isn't worth that much. He can’t even earn you the bare minimum required amount, let alone how much I can offer you. He is worthless to you, and now you have the opportunity to bet nothing and win everything. Everyone with half a brain will take that deal.”
Azar’s reasoning easily got into everyone’s heads. Just minutes ago, they were talking about how useless Munir was. They had beaten the life out of that boy many times. Munir had been living in fear, yet, the boy just could not earn them the coin they demanded. Salah had met many cases like Munir. Most of the time, all those little kids would just end up dead in filthy gutters in this city or die in the scorching desert trying to escape. And just like what Azar told him, it was really the case of losing nothing but having the chance to win so much more. Besides, even if Munir got his debt paid, Salah knew that he could easily get Munir back under his feet anyway.
“I’ll take that deal, boy !” Salah stared Azar down. “But on one condition, I’ll pick the game, one round only, winner takes all, and we will do it right here, right now !”
Azar chuckled and stared back at Salah. His bright amber eyes were like fire, cutting through Salah's cold and dark gaze, reaching deep within his soul and beyond. Salah felt like a gust of sheer winter wind just passed through his whole body the moment he was caught by Azar’s gaze. It shook him a little bit and made him feel uneasy about what was about to happen, but he told himself.
“Not even skill could help this kid with this. Luck and skill mean nothing if the game was rigged from the start.”
Again, Salah presented four dice and a cup to Azar, then explained the game.
“It’s a simple game, similar to what you just played yesterday” Salah shook his dice in the cup then poured them on the table. Salah lifted his cup and showed all the numbers on his dice, “We will count all the points of the dice, but this time, the lowest point will win.” He looked at his dice and told Azar, “Wow, 14 out of 24 points. I hope that I’ll get better luck next time.”
Salah, of course, would expect Azar to check the dice or even switch the dice, but it wasn’t the dice that decided the game. It had already been decided the moment they sat down. All 8 dice were the same, but they weren’t normal dice. Each had a thin magnet layer at the bottom of a face. The part of the table which Salah was sitting had a small magnet surface, right to his right side. All Salah needed to do was shake the dice like normal, then pour the dice onto the magnet surface, and every time, the magnet would turn the dice to a specific face up, “1”. Salah would get the minimum point all the time. There was absolutely no way Azar could win, no matter how many times he tried or how hard he tested the dice. But Azar responded in the most unconcerned way possible.
“Sure, let’s go, it’s getting late and I need my sleep” Azar picked up the dice and put them in his wooden cup. That startled Salah a bit. He knew that even though that boy was young, he was in no way naive. Azar must have been at least a little bit suspicious of him. The fact that Azar did not show any emotion, and did not give out any more questions, made Salah feel deeply uneasy. He started questioning himself.
“Did this kid already know about the trick ?”, “Does he have a trick of his own” “Maybe the table was flipped beforehand ?”,...
Numerous questions popped into Salah’s head, and it had gotten to a point where both he and his gang started to forget who was the one that was cheating.
“Come on, are you going to back off now !?” Azar snapped Salah out of his thoughts. Salah took a deep breath and calmed himself.
“Why am I getting so worked up? He is still just a child !” Salah told himself. Then he picked up the dice and smiled.
“Alright kid, just remember our deal! I’m not the forgive and forget kind of person !”
Salah shook the cup and poured them out to the right side of the table. The trap was set, and now he only needed Azar to finish his obligatory turn to claim the prize. Azar nonchalantly shook the cup, and rather than pouring them all out on the table, he simply turned the cup upside down on the table and hid the dice underneath it.
“Ok kid, let's see what we get !” and unsurprisingly, all four dice were facing “1”. Salah laughed hysterically as his gang clapped and cheered for him.
“WOW! Must be my lucky day! A 4, that’s the lowest number you can get, kid !”
“Woohoo! way to go boss !”
….
Munir almost fainted when he saw what Salah got. Munir’s legs started to shake uncontrollably, and his breathing was all over the place. Of course, why could he be so foolish trusting Azar like that? Azar barely looked any older than Munir was. How could he help him out of this mess? As the crowd cheered for Salah, Munir could only stand in silence as he imagined the dark future lingering ahead of him.
A 4, it was the lowest number that anyone could have with 4 dice. Though Azar knew he had extraordinary luck, even that had its limit, this was just simply a math problem. How could he roll a lower point with 4 dice? He started to beat rapidly, and Azar felt warmer and warmer by the second.
“Come on kid, show us what you got !” Salah was yelling at Azar at that point.
Nothing could be done then. Azar slowly lifted the cup while he started to think his way out of that mess. However, everyone’s jaw was dropped to the ground as they saw Azar’s dice.
“A one !!!!?????” They started to shout.
Azar was just as surprised as they were. He could barely believe what he was seeing. All four dice were standing on top of each other like a tower, and the one on top showed “1”.
“You won !!!!” Munir shouted and cheered for Azar. While Azar himself acted as if he knew all of this was going to happen in the first place.
“I guess luck wasn’t on your side” Azar smiled and stepped away from the table, “We will take our leave then….” Azar signaled Munir to go.
“Stop them !!!” Salah shouted. Instantly, the front door was slammed shut, and the gang stopped Azar and Munir and their track.
“You cheated! You have to be !”
“With your dice, your cup, your table, your game, and your rule !?” Azar spoke in a cheerful and taunting tone. All 15 teenage gangsters looked at each other with confused facial expressions. They all knew that Salah cheated, but somehow, Azar still won, in an impossible way even, no one could tell how he did it. It was like God was on his side on that roll. And of course, Salah could not explain it either, but one thing he knew for sure was, he was not going to let a 10-year-old kid berate him in front of all his mob like that and get away with it. If Salah could not get Azar’s skill and his side, he would erase him from this world.
“Don’t let any of them walk out of here in one piece !” Salah yelled out to his little gang. All 15 young teenagers pulled out their weapons and aimed them at Azar and Munir. While Munir was scared shitless, Azar calmly scanned through the crowd. He had been in that situation before, both as a dragon and a human.
“Which one of you is the ring leader ?”. Azar knew that among every crowd of goons such as this, there would always be one that called the shot, the one that the rest rely on, beat him up good, or in this case, the worst would make the rest flee.
“Ah yes, there we go …” the one who took a step forward usually was the leader. He looked much older than the rest of the teenagers, probably around 15 at the point. Many eyes were on him from the start, he was relatively tall and slim, but he was, by all means, stronger and more confident than the rest of them.
“That right go get him for me, Tompson !” Salah called out to the teenager.
“I won, fair and square. If you try to hurt me or this boy over here, then I don't care how young you are … YOU WILL DIE !” Azar stared firmly into the teenager’s eyes. Meeting Azar’s frosty amber eyes, Tompson felt this nerve-wracking tension, something he had never felt before. He and his group and gang had never actually had to face something that dangerous before. Salah was not a big-time crime boss. They knew that he only picked on young orphans or good for nothing weak and drunken bumps, so they were their real targets, easy prey. It had always been like that, around 7 or 8 teenagers ganging up on one defenseless victim. But Azar was much different. He was not the usual 10-year-old street rat they used to take advantage of. That gaze from Azar alone sent shivers down Tompson’s spine.
Suddenly, seeming out of nowhere, the wind started to howl from the outside. The growling thunders shattered the fragile vale of silence while lightning streaked across the starless night sky. A storm was coming … to the desert.
“Don’t listen to that scumbag, kid !” Azar told the teenage boy, “A man who does not honor his own word is not a man that you should follow.” Thunder and lightning were getting louder and louder outside. Those kids had never experienced something like this before. They were all scared, even Tompson.
“There is no honor among thieves! Take him !” Salah shouted.
“They are not thieves !” Azar turned to Salah. “It was you who took advantage of them. It was your cowardice and shame that turned those innocent children into the dark path. It was you who had taken their life away from them !”
The wind was screeching like a monster, the sound of heavy rain hitting on the roof of the house, and the terrifying roar of thunder mixed in perfectly with Azar’s speech. It was like the storm was forming because of his rage.
“It’s not too late for you all !” Azar turned back to the rest. “You have your whole life ahead of you, and the world will grant you the chance to make up for your past sin. But if you decided to follow this snake,... Your life ends here !”
The house itself started to rumble under the effect of the storm, and everyone else in the house was wavering as well. They knew that Azar was just a boy, but somehow, at the back of their heads, they felt as if they were facing the forces of nature itself. And then, they started to crack, the smallest one among them was the first to give up, he just put down his knife and ran out of the house, soon, everyone else followed.
“And then there was one !” Salah, Munir, and Azar were the only people left in the house.
“Fuck those useless little street rats!”
“The only rat I saw here is you,” Azar calmly spoke
“This is all your fault !” Salah shouted and picked up a long sword. “I don’t need a bunch of orphan trash to finish you off !”.
But before Salah could make another move, a thunderbolt struck right next to the house, making the wall suddenly collapse right where he stood. Surprisingly, Salah was almost unharmed, he was somewhat injured and buried under all the rubble, but no fatal wound to be seen. But, it was not over for Salah. Under the rain and thunderstorm, a steel blade was right on his neck.
“You torture me !” Munir was holding the long sword with only blood in his eyes, “You turn me into this ! You tortured every second of my life since I met you! You deserve to die !”
“Killing him will not fix your problem, Munir !” Azar just talked to Munir from a distance. “What he did to you before, it’s his fault, it’s his sin. But what you’re doing now, it’s all you. You can’t blame anyone else for this.”
“But what he did to me !” Munir shouted back, “It’s my right to take my vengeance.”
“And what … so you can become someone just like him …” Azar calmly approached Munir “Killing this defenseless …worthless … heartless ... coward … will this make your parents proud ? Will this make you feel proud ?!?
Munir’s hands started to shake, and tears were running down his eyes. He remembered about his dead parents, all the lessons they taught him,
“Be kind….” Munir’s voice cracked. “My mother … she told me that all life is precious ….”
“She is wise, Munir” Azar stood next to him, “And as their son, you are their legacy. So you will have to live, live in a way that would honor them. It will be a hard life, filled with hard decisions, but that way, when your time comes, you will know that you can look them in the eyes, you will know that you have made them proud….”
Munir's whole body was shivering. No one could if they were tears that ran down his face, or was it just the rain pouring down on him. Munir screamed from the bottom of his lung and held the sword up high. Salah also screamed wildly. And they all mixed together with the roar of the thunder. Munir then drove the sword straight down violently again and again until everything went silent. Munir, Salah, Azar and the sky all went silent just for a moment.
Munir let go of the sword and broke down in tears. He just did not have it in him to kill a man. Salah’s life was spared as the sword was driven down right next to his throat. Azar sighed and told Munir.
“Up, Munir. Let us get out of this weather !”
Azar and Munir walked right past Salah. However, before those two could walk away, the snake-eyes man got out of the rubble and shouted.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going !” as Salah tried to reach for the long sword. But then, among the rubble, something bit him. That sharp pain he felt in his leg was unlike anything he had ever felt before. Salah looked down and saw that when he was standing up, he had unexpectedly stood on a desert sneak, hiding within the wall of the house. Salad stumbled back as the poison worked his way through his body. It was not like he had not been bitten by a snake before, but this one was different, all of the colors and patterns. He had never seen one like this before. Finally, all his body went numb, and he lost his ability to speak.
Azar watched from afar under the heavy rain. He stared at the sneak-eyes man and witnessed as the fear of death consumed the man. Azar made one thing sure, the last thing that Salah saw before he was sent to the underworld was Azar.
*****************
The stormy night ended, Azar finally set things right for the little orphan kid, Munir. Well, almost everything,
“What do you mean I can’t go with you !?” Munir asked.
“I have a mission, and my journey will take me through much more dangerous paths. Definitely not suitable for someone like you.”
“Where are you going !?”
“I don’t know,” Azar shrugged, “But I have the North Star to guide the way.”. And like that, Azar waved Munir goodbye. “Remember Munir ! Be brave and be kind, honor your parents' legacy !”
“But what am I supposed to do now …” Munir whispered. Then, suddenly, at the corner of his ear, a voice came.
“What do you mean he got injured by the storm yesterday !? We are leaving for Tolemac right now! Where am I supposed to find a helping hand ?”
Munir took a deep breath and ran toward the men shouting at each other
“Sir ! May I join you in your journey !?” The men raised their eyebrows. “My parents taught me how to cook and clean. I even know how to read and write, and I will do any job that you ask of me ! And I’ll do it for FREE !”