“Rayen, Rayen, wake up! We got things to do.” The voice urged Rayen and he had to open his eyes. Despite it not being the usual time for him to do so, he still opened his eyes. After that, he focused his eyes to see Azir, who was before him. Currently on the top oversized Cherry as the bed, he tilted his head. For he didn’t understand why he had to open his eyes before the usual routine. But Azir had his plans for waking him up before the sun rose. “ Come on, let me help you get ready. I will show you something good today.” Azir said and pulled Rayen up. Then he looked at Cherry’s sleepy face with her closed eyes, and shaked her too.
“Woo!!” Came a sleepy reply from the lazy Cherry. But Azir didn’t put too much mind on her as he took Rayen and started to wash him up. In ten minutes, Rayen had to follow Azir as he did various things including combing his hair. When they came back, Cherry was still sleeping like a drunk man with a hangover. But Azir knew how to wake her up. “ Rayen, looks like we will eat the sweets by ourselves.”
“ Woof!!” As Rayen was not sure Cherry’s eyes shot wide open and her large body sprung back from the ground like a spring, almost hitting the roof. Before Azir or Rayen could do anything, she was in front of them, using her extra large nose to investigate them front and back. It was only when she confirmed that there was no sweet at all did she stopped and stare up close at Azir's face.
“ I, too, am happy to find you awake. Now let’s go.” Rayen got pulled up as Azir passed through an oversized Cherry with a small circle. Cherry looked at such and her size started to become that of a normal dog before she too followed after the duo. When she walked outside, Azir closed the door and started to walk towards the city wall. The sky was bright but the sun was not out there yet. And Rayen found Azir rubbing his hands as well as some lingering fog from the night. “ It’s still a little cold.” Thar’s temperature of day and night was opposite of each other. The day was hot enough to boil the water while night was cold enough to freeze it.
“Woof!!” While on the walk, Cherry asked for their early walk since Rayen was not going to. But when Rayen was going to kneel and write the translation, Azir stopped his movements.
“ No time to delay. I got something to show you.” Azir said and got two different responses. Rayen tilted his head while Cherry yawned at him. Soon, they were at the wall’s foot. The newly renovated one looked way better than what Azir remembered without any noticeable cracks or missing portions filled with mud. This was a proper stone with some beast’s images drawn into it. “ Now where did I put it?”
As Cherry and Rayen looked, Azir got closer to the wall and started to dig something up. When neither of them had any idea of what he was doing, he pulled a long rope from the small pit. When he brought the robe back, he found four eyes digging into him. “What?”
“Woof?” Cherry asked and this time, Azir didn’t need to have Rayen translate for him to know her queries.
“ It’s easy. You see, we're gonna climb the wall.” He said with absolute seriousness but got no reply and only stupid faces, which made him feel like he was the one being stupid. So he explained his full plan. “ For some days, I have been doing some intelligence-gathering work and I know the routines of guards at the top of walls.” Despite having said that, Azir was surprised to find that there were not that many guards at the top of the wall. Only one on patrol and that too rarely goes for early morning patrols. He didn’t know why but guessed it had something to do with Oasis’s status. But overall, the odds worked in his favour for today. “ Now, watch me. I would use this rope to get all of us at the top.”
“Woof!” Cherry glanced at the rope and then at the wall’s height. And before Azir’s wide eyes, she pulled another rope from her collar. This one was thicker than the one in Azir’s hands and also had a metal hook at one end.
“... Why did you have a rope in your pocket?” Azir asked but Cherry had nothing to add. Seeing the sun also rising, Azir quickly took the thick ropes and pinned the hook to get the momentum going. “Rayen, look at me. I'm gonna teach you something good.” With that said, he threw the hook up to the wall. But the hook didn’t even reach the hallway so it fell back into the ground. Azir again found four eyes digging behind his back. He just remembered that he didn’t practise how to throw the hook high. Now, it was too late and had come to his little pride and he couldn’t go back. He had to get it right.
Cherry on the other hand was bored and was licking herself like a cat. A very bizarre view as Azir was huffing in front to get his hook up but failing, Rayen beside with eyes closely following the trajectory of the hook. Ten minutes later, Cherry was all cleaned and Azir was huffing with some sweat. She then yawned and sat down, ready to take a nap or two when she got another idea. She pulled a little trick and when Azir threw the hook again, the winds pulled up the hook in the mid-air and directly fixed it up to the top of the wall. “Woof” She turned her head and said to her. But Rayen failed to understand her reasoning. It was something about her being benevolent and then ending with asking him not to tell Bella about him almost becoming a paste. But he failed to see why he shouldn’t say something when Bella asked him, for all he knew, there was never a case of not doing what Bella asked him. Cherry came down after seeing his blank face, she felt talking to the wall was easier than talking to him.
“ See, that’s how experts do it.” Azir on the other hand came back with a very excited face for getting the hook up. He even jumped in happiness like a warrior who trumped his enemy in a battle. It was then he noticed Cherry with a downward face and Rayen who were looking up as he missed the moment it reached up. He then moved quickly as he wasted quite a lot of time in his hook throwing, which he was still not sure how it reached up. He walked to the rope, grabbed it tight, and used his feet to get into the inner lining of the walls. This part was something he had to learn while in the academy. So, it was the easy part and in just ten minutes, he reached the top of some twenty-metre tall wall. With sharp eyes, he examined the top for the patrol which might come for a round. “ Alright, Cherry come on, grab it and I will first pull you and then we pull Rayen.”
His words made Cherry stare back at him. Her eyes were exceptionally good and she could see Azir atop the wall like he was beside her. Looking at his figure, though not as malnourished as earlier, it was still that of a child. Then she tried to imagine a scene of him trying to pull her up and suddenly a terrible thought of falling from such height shook her body. It’s not that it would be painful but it's against her pride. After all, for all she knows, someone could be talking behind her back about how she fell from a small height. Not a good outlook as far as she was concerned. She looked beside her and then said which was much easier for Rayen to comprehend compared to the time she tried to negotiate. “Woof!” Her size then started to increase to around a little more than Rayen and then she lowered her body.
Rayen came close and did what was told, climbing the top of Cherry’s back. Then before another of Azir’s shouts could reach them, she jumped right straight up, with such force that it left a gust of wind below. The wind blew against Rayen's as well as Cherry’s hair as they landed on the wall with a loud thug.
While the jump made Azir stare with his mouth opened with a big ‘O’. Rayen climbed down but then noticed something different and started to look to the far right. There in the distance, there was a strange phenomenon which caught his eyes, a group of orbs surrounded by what he judged mana lines but way crude than what Bardar had shown him. Meanwhile, Cherry who just made it atop also found something was wrong and looked to her left towards speechless Azir and tilted her head in confusion. “ Woof!”
“ You made me do all that…when you can do this instead?” Azir said as he put his hands on his hips. He felt he just performed a fool’s play.
“Woof!”
“ Forget it, Rayen, come here.” Azir then remembered their original purpose for coming here and quickly came to Rayen and pulled him to the wall’s edge. “ Look, the party has come to Oasis.” When Rayen followed his words, he found the bottom of the walls filled to the brim. Far from the empty red sands that usually surrounded the city, it was now filled with sprawling tents, big and small, lined in order. With big ones surrounded by smaller ones. Despite the dense fog that spread in between the tents, Rayen could still see the many orbs as well as shadows of the figures that held them inside even the smallest one was much bigger than Azir’s. Many were already awake and a small percentage of them could be seen beside the fire to warm their bodies. Others were running in the big space in the distance. With even more tents that spread into the far distance.
“ I heard that it was the Saharhub’s army that pitched their tents here. And they camped here and are waiting for other armies from tribes to catch up. Their final destination seemed to be Esparton.” Azir said as he marvelled at the rising sun that pierced through the fog of morning. Rayen looked as Azir climbed atop Cherry’s back and then pulled Rayen too.
“ Grab with strength Rayen…Yeehaa…!” With his cry, he pulled Cherry’s hair. Getting her signal, Cherry raised her front body high and jumped down. When they disappeared from the wall. In the distance where Rayen was staring, the space distorted and the figures of a few people appeared. Most had the same outfit donned to their bodies with light clothes and small swords and shields in their hands. One of them, a slightly old man with white hair, looked at the person who just undid his magic and asked. “ Are those kids the reason for Cat’s sudden interest in our patrols, sir?”
“ Take it as that.” The person’s voice was distorted and was indistinguishable from men or women. He was dressed in a completely black attire that also wrapped his face around and only allowed his green eyes to peek out. He had a small badge with an outline of a cat. He looked at the space where Cherry jumped in and said to the men behind him. “ Continue with your patrol but be careful with your words.” With that said, his body melted into black smoke and moved towards the tents.
***
“ Man, that’s a lot of people out here. Rayen remember not to go on your own.'' As they arrived this early, Azir thought that the place would be less crowded, but only now he felt how wrong he was. The passage between the tents was packed with different rows of people passing in different directions such that it was difficult not to bump into someone. As such, Azir decided to grab Rayen’s hand making sure he would not disappear behind his back, Azir had no thought to try finding out if he could find a lost person in such a place.
Rayen, who was being pulled, gave no thought of the direction he was being led to since Azir was in the front and thus with nothing else to do, eyes wandered unconsciously in an attempt to look around. It was an experience he was both familiar with and a stranger to. It was his first time seeing so many unfamiliar shadows, and unnoticed by the passing onlookers, his eyes captured all of them. The vision change was a great contrast to the otherwise happy and laughing atmosphere of the road. All kinds of orbs, from small to big, red to blue, but none matched that of either Bardar or Bella that he was most familiar with but still significant compared to Azir’s. With most of the words uttered by the pedestrians, their orbs shook with some waves, an effect when lying. Here, he pointed towards a group of giant centipedes enclosed in a ring with a wood railing, facing the direction of the Oasis. The smallest one measured over 10 metres in length and 3 metres wide, covered by a segmented exoskeleton that gleamed in the morning sun. It had numerous thick legs, numbering in dozens and shaped like powerful long curved claws with many tiny hairs. A colouration blend of brown and yellow makes it seamlessly bend in the desert, if not for the amount of sand they left behind. And on their backs were big, almost two-metre-high platforms for holding things like massive crates.
Called Scavengers. With formidable mandibles and venomous fangs, coupled with thousands of sharp teeth that were coated with green thick saliva which impressed Azir. These beasts were the backbone of Thar’s logistic network. They move everything and everyone across the vast emptiness of Thar. Cherry on the other hand was not impressed, she believed none could match when it comes to beauty. And snorted like a human would. Azir continued not minding the small nudge from her. He asked Sam before who said there are at least several thousand of them here in this camp and are still increasing day by day. When Azir first heard that a large group of soldiers was going to arrive at the Oasis he did think they would be given a room in many of the empty houses of Oasis, but now it was clear to him that the rulers of Oasis don’t think so. Other than some marketplaces, the soldiers from outside are not allowed to enter the city at will. Azir then thought of something and picked Rayen’s hand before starting to walk somewhere. He pulled Rayen to the outermost part of the camp where the tents thinned out but still, a large crowd could be seen making loud noises. Azir pushed from the crowd using his small size and brought Rayen to the front with him.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“ Look,” Rayen followed him and found a group of people on the top of rapidly moving Scavengers, with a dash and flashing sands behind they all arrived at the other end where a large number of crates were placed, stacked at the top of each other in multiple columns. The people riding on the top jump down even before the Scavengers stop. Each of these comprises a group of five people clad in brown clothes with fully covered faces. As soon as their feet landed on the sand, three men ran near the crates and grabbed the whole stack, about four metres in height with their hands. Filled with some unknown things.
“Wow…” Azir cheered beside him like the rest of the crowd as the trio easily lifted crates with ease, their sunken feet told the onlookers about the abnormal weights of those crates. The Scavenger then caught up at that time and as soon as it was drawn closer, the trio suddenly jumped above it while still holding the stack of crates. Multiple booms were made as the crates dropped on the backs of Scavenger who were unaffected by the impact of such loads. The crowd exclaimed even more when seeing the fourth person of the team whose anchor-shaped glove shined the moment he landed on the ground finally released his magic and the iron chains emerged from the end of Scavenger and wrapped them around the many crates on his back, placing them tightly in place. Following this, the others jumped back on their previous seats and the Scavenger turned his body swiftly around and moved fast towards the other end.
“ Rayen, don’t you think these are beauties of the desert?” Azir suddenly said as the last Scavenger also ran away, it was a little slower than the rest but still, all this took no more than 6 minutes from the Scavenger closing in towards crates and then going back with them. “One day I will be like them, I tell you.”
Rayen meanwhile found the sizes of orbs of the persons at the top of Scavengers and also that of Scavenger itself was much larger than that of Azir’s. That was the difference between a small grain of sand grain and that of a small stone. At least a difference of 5 to 8 times. Azir also found Cherry looking at him and then at the people in front. She even raised her right paw and woofed once. He seemed to have guessed her doubt and coughed. “What are you looking at me like? Besides, I am not talking about power here. Look, did you see that person sitting among the group of five?” Rayen found the person almost immediately as he was sitting at the forefront, near the head of Scavenger. He was also the person who Rayen didn’t see doing much but Azir seemed to disagree.
“....”
“ They lead people…or you can say they let people do their work according to their words” Seeing Rayen as well as Cherry stared at him, Azir cut off the shiny coated words about leaders and offered them the shortest answer he could think of, “ I told you, When I grew up, I will open transport agency and will buy thousands of those Scavengers to work under me”
Rayen didn’t understand but Cherry gave a special glance at the face of Azir when he finished his words and that too without blinking, just like Rayen. That face of unmasked scepticism affected Azir, making him fumble around with his words “ That’s too high…maybe be hundred…no ten..yes that the number I will have…surely” At the end of his words, Azir's words lowered in volume lacking much confidence in them. Many times he felt too lonely to talk like that, but despite his efforts, Rayen never talked back to him. Finally, Azir decided to just walk around and see something else, anything is better than getting questioned by a dog. Moving back into the camp, they entered what seemed to be a market. Different vendors set up early stalls here and sold all kinds of things. Rayen was indifferent, but Azir had an eye for beauty and pointed to different things as they walked. Lots of counters had rows of sea shells and corals of all sorts of shapes and sizes while good ones even have some intricate patterns drawn on them. Some have pearls and rare jewellery, those smooth, shiny and lustrous gems of different kinds always drew passerby's attention and gave most a sense of loss as they eventually asked about their prices. After that, there were stalls selling foodstuff, dried and fresh fish, salts, some seaweeds and other aquatic food. There was also some other kind of food, but their numbers were low compared to stalls selling seafood and seafood-related stuff.
“Hey, boss, how much is this?” Azir suddenly asked the vendor selling spices.
His face was very rugged due to moving frequently in the heat of the sun, an appearance typical for many of the low-level traders around. The vendor looked at him pointing to a bottle of ink black salt and said “ Two silver coins for a hundred grams.”
“What? Aren’t you stealing people in broad daylight?” The vendor gave a quick look at Azir and Rayen’s clothes and scruffed at them “ Take it or leave it, these are the Kraken Ink black pepper, harvested from the depths of the sea where Kraken dwells, it cost a fortune to get if not for the mermaids who usually provide it, ask outside Thar, and it will not be less than Fifty silver.”
“ Forget it,” Azir shakes his head, he was already expecting such a result and so was not disappointed and pulled Rayen forward.
He once again pulled Rayen through different paths, occasionally asking people for directions and soon led him far south of the camp, away from the market. They passed through a lot of tents before finally arriving at their next destination. A big tent with occasional cheers from people coming from inside. They followed the entrance and Azir felt heartache as he gave ten copper coins each to buy the entrance ticket for three of them. Despite his solid argument of Cherry not being human, the guard refused to agree to let her in without a ticket so he had to pay ten copper extra. The tent was big from the inside, with a small arena at the centre where two magical insects were locked in a fierce fight. Both of them looked like some giant beetle, each about Cherry’s height. But before they could get a clearer picture, one of the Beatles put so much strength into its legs that he threw the other crashing straight into the wall of the ring, where it struggled a little but eventually couldn’t stand up for some time and thus was declared defeated, drawing another cheer from the crowd. Called Scuttlebugs, one of the five Sacred Beasts of Thar.
Instead of going into the cheering crowd of people with a strong smell of alcohol, Azir’s eyes focused more on the person some distance away from the arena. At the small counter made from brightly coloured pieces of cloth, was a middle-aged man with a long beard. His hands were stable, and almost mechanical in motion as they took the money from one person and gave it to another. Azir's eyes shined as he pulled a copper coin from his pouch. Then like a person who already had a game in his bag, he tossed the coin into the air before walking toward the counter. “ Hey, Boss.” He said with a smile as he arrived at the counter. “ What’s the odds of each one?”
***
It was nighttime when everyone started to leave this place. The man with the beard who was responsible for the counter also left the main tent and arrived at the much smaller but also more intricately designed tent just some distance to the right. It was guarded by some local guards who bowed to him as he walked inside. With the wave of his hands, a small shield enveloped the inside with sound and vision-blocking spells.
“ Finally returned, man, I was almost bored sitting here. You know, when you visited this morning, I almost thought you were looking for some donation or something” A voice reached his ears which was surprisingly similar to his own. He looked to the comfy leather seat to his front and what appeared was a man drinking a cup of wine. He looked at the exact copy of the man. “But first can you do something about your looks? It makes me think I am mentally ill talking to myself. Or we could call you Jaky 2.0” The man named Jaky said to the newcomer whose figure started to distort and soon changed into a man with fully black attire with a badge of cat to his chest. Jaky laughed as he drank more.
“ My work is done. You can take over from here.” the Cat said.
“ So, I supposed I shouldn’t look around for what you did while acting like me, isn’t it?”
“ If you care about your tongue being still attached to your mouth.” The Cat threw him a badge that had a treasure chest engraved on it. “ This should allow you to cope with your losses today.”
“Hey, stop doubting my belief,” Jaky said with a deep voice while looking at the badge. His eyes flashed with green light but that soon resided. “ Even my life could be spent at will for the Great Mother’s cause, what about such a small amount?”
“ It’s a reward for good work. Surely, you won’t reject her good will or would you.” The Cat said. He seemed to have anticipated Jaky’s reaction and thus his body showed no surprise. He then turned around to walk away but Jaky's next words made him halt his steps.
“Say, how did you find those children coming here? Did you trail them for long or just you just sharp enough.” Jaky noticed the Cat no longer replying and was about to return to walking. “ Why don’t you consider it your ally’s curiosity? It does not harm if I knew how to find out about them, no? Especially how you made the odds in their favour.”
“ If one wants to make money, there are not many places he could go to. Your place was the one which ticked all the boxes.” Cat said after thinking a little. It was not that deep a secret anyway and Jake had already found out what he was doing during the time. A few more words to it would not change anything. But despite saying that, he had dealt with a lot of people and he could tell what the other person’s actual motive was, and thus he asked, trying to probe Jaky. “ So, what’s your real question? Let’s get it over with quickly. I will answer if I can.” The reason for such an offer was to improve the relationship between Cats and Jaky, who was one of the biggest businessmen in Thar.
“Good enough. I would be short then. The winds have it, the Great Mother has once again taken the reins of Thar. I wonder if that had some truth to it.” Jaky’s eyes narrowed at his words. His words had not finished when he found Cat disappeared from his place and felt a cool sensation on his neck. The Cat was holding a shot dagger up on his neck, laced with a small transparent liquid. That situation made Jaky laugh instead of fear. “ Hahaha… it turned out, the words are true. It will soon be the time for history to be written again. Ain’t that the truth, Mr. Cat?”
“ Is that your last words?” The Cat pressed the dagger into his neck. With just a little more push, it would penetrate the skin of Jake and the deadly poison would kill him even without serving his neck.
“ Heh, I thought you would ask how I came to know about this. Don’t you want to know about it?”
“ You being alive had nothing to do with it.” The Cat didn't lie to Jaky. They would be in a jittery state of how the words leaked so quickly but it doesn’t matter whether Jaky remained alive for that to see. They didn’t need him to find out about how he got to know this.
“ Maybe, but what about a dead man’s last wish?” Jaky was still unnerved by the closeness of his death. He didn’t doubt the Cat’s words at all. But he was expecting such results the moment he decided to ask. “ For a long time, I have been hearing the disheartening words of an eminent civil war. Can you feel the deadness in the air? Why are we all here? Tell me, Mr. Cat. Who does your loyalty lie to?” He asked. The reason lies in the person who could move the Cats. To whom do they listen? The answer was simple, the ruler of Thar. With Thar usually eliminating most of their successor in line for the throne through constantly occurring beast tides, the Cats were made to follow only the words of rulers of Thar and show no favouritism to anyone. Badar might be the chosen ruler of Thar but he still lacked the authority to move the Cats. That’s why, whatever Cats do, means the will of Bella. This was a problem for Jaky for he knew many things from his connections. “ Tell me, if Great Mother had already decided on Lord Bardar as her successor, why are you guys not made to help him? Are you trying to go against her will?” Jaky shouted with an agitated face at the silent Cat. The silence only increased the agitation of Jaky even more.
“Tell me, why are you guys being silent as the latest weapons from the Hydra Islands are being smuggled to Easparton? When you can find every shipment leaving for Terralea, how can you be blind to what is happening in Thar? Are you trying to lead a coup when she’s not looking?” Jaky could feel his neck getting closer and something warm leaking from his neck. But the sensation of being cut by a dagger was just a tiny piece in front of his whole mind dedicated to finding the answers. “ Tell me first before you kill me. Or else I would have to wait for us both to reach the afterlife to see who was right all along.”
“...I only represent the will of the Great Mother,” Cat said with slow words, almost at the time when the position had reached the main parts of Jaky, thus making him fall to the ground. He looked at the fallen Jaky whose body was getting bluer with each passing moment. He fell into deep thought. It was long but at the same time, a short moment. The Cat pulled a potion from his space pouch and threw the liquid inside atop Jaky’s neck. He then left the tent, without saying a word.