The Nymph released his adversary who fell to the ground, with a strong thud. He was struggling to stand up, but he was powerless. His limbs were slipping, his wings hurt and blood was running down his body. His opponent landed next to him and watched him closely, waiting to see whether he wanted to continue. But he gave in, and his head fell on the tree bark with a bang.
The crowd started to applaud and cheer, congratulating the victor. Afaris, in exchange, remained silent. His stomach was upside down. He could not believe what he was witnessing. He could just imagine that what he had just seen would repeat in two days’ time, with a much more unfortunate outcome. A tear appeared in the corner of his eye.
Ulmaf, who was sitting next to him, was cheering; he turned to Afaris and told him:
‘I’m glad we are not the ones to do this. Anyway, it was an awesome fight, wasn’t it?’
Afaris did not even look at him. He stood up and left the arena. Falus joined him, while Ulmaf was watching them puzzled, but he was too captivated by the show to mind his friend’s problems.
‘Afaris!’ Falus called him, but he continued to walk on, ignoring him.
Falus leaped forward, floating on his wings and cut in front of Afaris:
‘Are you ok? You should not attend the fights unless you want to.’
‘I wasn’t going to, anyway. I don’t know, I find this terrible. Watch a Nymph struggle for days on end to put an end to his life.’
‘Afaris, I see what you mean, I do. But for that Nymph life ended years ago. The true torment for him has been life so far, not death, not the fights.’
‘I understand, but can you understand I can no longer witness this?’
Falus nodded, moving his beak to and fro.
‘I do.’
Afaris started walking, moving farther from the arena.
‘Go back to the tournament, I don’t want you to miss the fun because of me.’
Falus followed him.
‘I don’t miss it because of you. I miss it for you.’
***
For the rest of the day, Afaris and Falus spent time together in a corner of the tree, at the edge of a hole looking out to the ocean. Far away, the sun was setting. Up, in the tree dome, they heard the cheering of Aorians and Nymphs for the fourth time, which represented the end of the last fight. The two did not know who would move on, except for the disabled Nymph.
‘Do you want us to go back?’ Falus asked.
‘Yes, we should.’
‘Tonight, you should have some fruit. It’ll help you relax.’
‘I will try it. What shall I expect from it?’
‘I don’t want to ruin your surprise, but you will get all sorts of hallucinations, apart from the euphoric state.’
‘Sounds interesting.’
Afaris stood up and Falus followed him; the latter leaned forward so that Afaris could mount him more easily. He then threw himself off the tree and flew to the dome.
Flying around the arena, the two noticed the crowd congratulating the victors, while others were consoling those who would fight the following day.
Falus landed on the branch on which Saraf and Calis were sitting, to their right. When they saw him land, they turned around in surprise:
‘We were wondering where you are, you just disappeared’ Calis said.
‘I could no longer watch, so I left.’
‘Yes, it was indeed terrible, it’s better that you didn’t see what happened afterwards. In the last but one battle …’
Saraf grabbed her arm and put his palm over her mouth with a tender gesture, seeing that Afaris’s face started to change.
‘Alright, alright, you do not need to tell him anymore.’
Afaris smiled, amused by his father’s fast reaction. Falus was giggling, too.
The crowd started to spread. Small groups were formed and they were all discussing the battles that day and making assumptions about the future fights. They all agreed that the disabled Nymph could not cope, especially given his wounds.
Afaris was sitting up on a remote branch, next to Ulmaf, Calis and Falus. Urfius joined them, unaccompanied by Vilinda or Finaria, who had decided to stay home. Obviously, all night long, Urfius could not refrain from referring to his daughter, in the presence of Afaris. Afaris was too careless to be affected.
Saraf had left them some time before and nobody knew where he had gone. After a while, he appeared on his branch, holding a large piece of fruit.
‘Let us have some fun tonight, how about it?’
‘An excellent idea!’ Urfius exclaimed.
Saraf sat next to them and placed the fruit in the middle and each of them grabbed a piece. Afaris was waiting and analysing it with curiosity. It looked very tasty. Even though the peel was hard and red, the core was soft and juicy, of a bright yellow colour. The scent was strong and pungent, yet luring at the same time.
‘Where have you been?’ Calis asked Saraf.
‘Hmmm’ Saraf said after taking a big bite from the fruit. ‘I equalled the odds for tomorrow.’
Afaris looked up in surprise.
‘I have restored the powers of the Nymphs who will fight tomorrow. That one-legged and one-winged Nymph would not catch the end of the tournament. Or if he did, his opponent would just have to wait and see him run out of breath.’
‘Did they let you do this?’ Afaris asked. ‘Isn’t it against the regulation?’
Saraf laughed whole-heartedly. He could see the fruit was already effective:
‘Come on, who writes the regulation, can alter it as well. This is why it is good to be a friend of Akdarosif, the great!’
Afaris started laughing seeing his father’s mood. He looked down at the piece of fruit in his hand, then took a bite. The juice filled his mouth, then ran down his throat. He felt it burn him, flowing directly into his veins. It was as if time was running more slowly and he felt everything in his body. His heart was pumping the blood faster and faster, distributing the substance all over his body, until it reached the head. Everything changed.
Saraf was watching him amused and asked him with a broad smile:
‘What is it like?’
‘I cannot tell, I feel strange.’
It was as if his sight started to bounce. He was looking at his father’s face. That smile, for an unknown reason, seemed the funniest thing ever. He rested on his back and laughed until he ran out of air, and everybody there did the same.
They would sit up in turns, whipping away the tears from their eyes. Then, they would fall down again, laughing, after another bite from the fruit.
Afaris stood up, trying to stand straight and continued laughing. He glanced at Falus, who was watching his feather and studying them as if they had grown on him overnight. He started laughing again, while going away from the group, down the branch. He felt breathless and needed a break, but could not next to the others. Descending he started to calm down and the first hallucinations occurred. He could see small Nymphs, the size of his fist, flying around him.
‘Baby Nymphs …’ he whispered watching them charmed.
Then the Nymphs changed direction, going past him and flying over the ocean. He turned around and followed them. They seemed to be running from something.
‘Where are you going, creatures?’ he said stammering.
He tried to reach out to them, but they were too fast and going away from him. He looked behind and wondered raising his hands puzzled:
‘Is there aaanybbbodddy behind me?’
There was indeed. A black, dark cloud was approaching him. It covered everything, the tree branches, leaves, the crowd, everything. Paralyzed, Afaris was swallowed by the cloud and his whereabouts became black. His heart was pounding as he failed to understand what was happening, but, in the back of his mind, a neuron left untouched by the fruit juice, was shouting:
‘This is not real! This is not real!’
Then, the view started to change. The cloud disappeared and he was back in the tree again. But it was not th
e same as before. The remaining fruit fell off his hand as he realized what was happening. The tree was on fire. Everything was engulfed by flames, the branches, the leaves. The Nymphs were flying and shouted hysterically, on fire. His nose sensed a terrible stench of burnt feathers and flesh.
In front of him, not far, a burning Nymph collapsed. It was turning and twirling, screaming insanely trying to save his life, yet the flames were too strong an opponent. Afaris was standing watching the scene open-mouthed, frozen. He could not budge. Looking at the flames fuelled by the Nymph’s body, it seemed he could make out something in them. A dark figure. At first he thought it was an Aorian, so he headed towards him, trying to help him out.
‘Hold on, I’m coming!’ he shouted.
On reaching the flames, the figure stepped outside heading to Afaris who came to a halt, in shock. It was something he had never seen before, a body like that of an Aorian, yet covered in what seemed a dark flesh armour, taken out of Saraf’s crystals. Looking closer he saw the armour was part of his body, like a shell, but there was no face. The face was flat and hard like the rest of the body and three horns came out of his forehead, slightly bent downwards, then going over his head, like spikes.
‘W-what are you?’ Afaris asked in awe.
The creature continued towards him and Afaris backed away.
‘Stop’ he screamed, but nothing happened.
His face started to change. What he saw was also a shell protecting its face. The shell detached and withdrew to the sids of his head, revealing a gruesome face, dark with a strange black fluid flowing down the chin. The creature’s mouth was open, showing sharp and awesome fangs, and the jaws and cheeks seemed red, rotten, with holes. The nose, even though it was clear it once had one, was broken and replaced by a hole through which air came in and out with a horrible whistle. But the most frightening aspect were the fire-red eyes, inspiring the greatest fear.
Afaris continued to back away, scared to death.
‘Go away! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!’
‘I am... Hathim’ the creature whispered.
‘GO AWAY!!!’
Afaris stumbled and fell, then looked back fast. The creature was continuing its way. Its arms seemed to extend, and the fingers turned into long sharp claws. Between them, a burning Nymph crashed. He screamed sharply and jumped over the creature which, despite the Nymph’s much bigger size, grabbed his throat with his claws and clenched it. Blood started spurting from the Nymph’s throat, caught fire and spread all over. Afaris stood up fast and took a couple of steps back, traumatized. Tears of fear were flowing from his eyes.
The creature dropped the Nymph, then, kicked it directly into the ocean below.
‘Come to me’ the creature whispered in a voice which would give the shivers to the bravest Aorian.
‘No!’ Afaris shouted, taking a step back and covering his eyes with his arms so as not to see it anymore. ‘You’re not real!’
He felt his back hit something. Looking back he saw a high dark wall blocking his retreat. A dark hand came out of the wall and grabbed his arm. Afaris screamed and struggled trying to get away. It released him, then other hands appeared closing down on him menacingly.
He was cornered, behind him were those terrifying hands, and in front of him that creature which stopped and was looking at him, his head slightly bent to one side and hissing through the nose hole. There was no way out. Afaris knew what he had to do. He started to run to the edge of the branch intending to jump into the ocean. Yet, another dark wall came out of nowhere in front of him. He looked around. He was again inside that dark cloud, in which one could not make out anything. But he could now see two things. The eyes of the creature which approached him again.
‘Join me … it is your only way …’
Adrenaline started to fill his body, fear turned into anger. It was fuelling him and giving him strength. He stretched his hands to the sides and bowed slightly, in a fight position. Two energy swords appeared in his hands, their blades illuminating strongly. It seemed all his energy was spread all over his body and his two swords.
‘I won’t join you, instead I’m sending you back!’
He started running towards his adversary, shouting. The creature remained still and continued to watch him. For Afaris, everything was in slow motion. Two meters away from the creature, he raised his right sword and shouting as hard as he could directed a blow at the creature which jumped back at an unseen speed, fending Afaris’s colossal blow by inches.
The black cloud disappeared. He was again in the burning tree. The sword got stuck in the branch beneath him with a thud. The energy inside discharged into the tree leaving a deep crack. The tree started growling and cracking. Afaris took the sword out and headed towards his adversary, and the branch gave way and fell into the ocean. Step by step, Afaris was loading with more and more energy.
‘Come …’ the creature hissed again.
Two seconds later, everything went dark and the creature disappeared. Afaris lost consciousness.
Chapter 17
War
Afaris opened his eyes. He was lying on his back, on something soft. His look was hazy, but he could make out the light, it seemed it was day.
He stood up and put his hand on his face. His eyes were teary and his head ached. He suddenly remembered the creature. He looked up scared trying to find it, but could not see much. He then realized it did not exist, it had just been an illusion, a chimera. He breathed at ease.
‘I advise to lie down’ he heard a psychic voice he did not know whose it was.
‘Who are you?’
‘Falus. Stay still and don’t agitate.’
Afaris turned and fell off the thing he had been lying on, hitting the ground. His view was still hazy. A claw grabbed him by the hip and lifted him, putting him back on the soft spot.
‘I’ve told you to stay put, but you’re too stubborn, I see.’
He blinked fast. He seemed to be gaining his sight. He could make out Falus. Then, some moments later, the haze vanished. He looked around. He was in a room inside the tree. The sun was shining through the tree holes, and he seemed to be lying on a piece of bark, covered with fluffy leaves.
‘Oh, what happened?’ Afaris asked, face in palms.
‘That is what we wonder’ he heard Saraf voice coming from a tunnel.
‘I had very peculiar hallucinations, then lost it.’
‘I think so, too, if we had not stopped you, you would have killed us all.’
‘Pardon?’
Saraf sat down on the bed of leaves:
‘Let us start from the very beginning, tell me, what you saw, what happened.’
Afaris told them everything he remembered about the previous night, from the midget Nymphs to that horrible creature. Saraf and Falus listened attentively, unable to believe what they heard. When Afaris finished, Falus said:
‘That’s unheard of.’
‘It is… strange indeed’ Saraf added ‘What was the name of that creature again?’
‘Hathim …’
‘Hathim’ Saraf repeated. ‘Never heard of him. It may be a figment of your imagination.’
‘Yes, possibly. I hope so …’
‘Look, I have made some connections between your story and reality. The wall you hit against was me, I wanted to check on you, why you were screaming. Then, the first hand was mine. The other hands, you perceived as such when I tried to catch you again. When you rushed to the branch edge to jump, it was me again who stopped you using my energy. Then, it just became interesting.’
‘What happened?’ Afaris asked.
‘Those swords as you describe them, we have seen them, too. I am telling you, we were not hallucinating. Leaving hallucinations aside, the strength you showed … I never imagined you have, not by far. You broke that branch with one hit. It was as if you cut in two a tower ten times stronger than the one back home.
Afaris continued to listen, but found it hard to believe what he heard. He realized that what he
had seen had been an illusion which stopped at the brim of reality.
‘That creature was in my imagination, wasn’t it?’
‘Somehow yes, but when you imagined you attacked it you actually attacked somebody who was coming around to see us, you mistook him for that creature.’
‘Who is he? Is he alright?’
‘No, he is not alright. We saved him from you first devastating charge, pushing him aside, then I entered your mind and sent you into a coma. We had no way out.’
‘Phew’ Afaris sighed. ‘I’m glad everybody’s fine.’
‘Yes, we felt very apprehensive, particularly Calis and Ulmaf who dropped along with the branch. Do not worry, the Nymphs caught them midair and they are fine.’
‘That’s the last time I’ve eaten this fruit.’
‘Yes, I believe you, but one thing strikes me … raising several questions.’
Afaris looked up into Saraf’s eye, restless.
‘You attacked Tiftorius.’
That, indeed, raised numerous questions. Afaris’s and Saraf’s minds swarmed with such questions.
‘What’s so interesting?’ Falus asked.
‘That is a long story, my dear friend’ Saraf replied.
Falus, noticing Saraf had adopted his secretive posture, renounced asking for details. He knew he had no chance. But maybe he could find out more from Afaris later.
‘When is the second round of the tournament starting?’ Afaris asked standing up.
‘Well, one day ago’ Saraf asked smiling ironically.
Afaris was puzzled.
‘You slept two days. This is the final day of the tournament.’
Even though this came as a shock for him, he was somehow glad he was not supposed to attend a new series of bloody battles.
‘Who made it to the finals?’
‘The crippled Nymph and one to whom he stands no chance.’
‘I was expecting that …’
‘Believe me, you were not. In the fight yesterday, the disabled Nymph’s opponent broke one of his remaining wings, also on the left side. Akdarosif interrupted the game and declared him the winner, disqualifying the adversary for inflicting serious wounds. The peak was when the disabled Nymph refused and offered to fight tomorrow.’
Afaris: Shadows on Aora Page 16