CHAPTER 9: ZIZIRE - FIRST CONTACT

FLASHBACK

“This is a lot to take in at once, father.” Zizire replied with disbelief laced in his tone, “First you tell me that the stories are actually true, and not only that, but you and a couple of other men actually hunted Azura.”

“I understand that this is confusing, but I suggest you get comfortable son because what I am about to tell you is no fable or scary story, although it may seem like it, but trust me it is not.”

Zizire got comfortable in a crossed-leg position on the floor whilst his father took out his snuffbox again; he took a sip of water from the gourd on the side table then cleared his throat and began his tale,

“This mission took place almost four years after we found out that she had been born. We were selected from different communities and parts of the world; each man was great at handling a sword, but he had other special abilities. I was in charge of tracking. Another was in charge of camouflage, and he was the only other person to survive. He looked weak, and we all thought he would be the first to be killed. The other three were masters at sourcing for food, healing, and navigation respectively.

After months of tracking and roaming around aimlessly in the empty forest, we finally got a big break. We stumbled upon a clearing with a rock with what looked like dried blood, so we knew that they were close by seeing there were no longer animals in the forest, so it could not have been from a wild animal. After that clue, it felt like we were playing a game of hide and seek with them, with us always being twenty steps behind.”

“So how did you guys finally get to her, and what do you mean by them? Were they twins, and she is the only one that survived?” Zizire asked impatiently.

“Patience Zizire, I am getting there” replied his father, “She travelled alongside her mother, and with the way they fought and looked they could almost be mistaken for twins if not for Azura’s locs, markings, and complexion. We finally found them with what I can only describe as a stroke of good luck. They seemed to be deep in training, it was the diviner and a girl who seemed to be on the edge of puberty, which we found weird because it had not been that long since the child the diviner was carrying had been born. They were yet to sense our approach. Well, that was until one of us tripped and fell down. Can you just imagine?” He said with a shake of his head, “A group of well-seasoned hunters tripping and falling whilst tracking a target, such a beginner mistake.”

“Hahaha! I can only imagine how angry the rest of you felt” said Zizire in between laughter.

“Are you going to keep laughing or quiet down and let me continue my story?”

“I am sorry.” Said Zizire whilst wiping his eyes, a few tears had escaped. “Please, continue, but wait, how were you people sure that the girl with the woman was Azura? People do not usually grow that fast.”

“A child conceived unnaturally would never follow the natural order of things, more so she also had the distinguishable features the chief priest informed of us about before we embarked on the mission. The child with the former diviner possessed them; the gold-colored eyes and marks on her face and limbs” His father replied. “So, after losing our advantage which was the element of surprise and the possibility of a sneak attack; it was an all-out fight. The duo were fierce opponents, and they seemed to be in sync. The former diviner was a formidable force, but she was nothing compared to Azura who seemed to have been wielding a blade since the moment she was born. It felt like the blades were an extension of herself. Her movements were extremely fluid and quite fast. Had she not been an abomination; she would definitely have been regarded as a fierce warrior.”

“Father, you sound like you were and still are in awe of her.”

“Maybe what you say is true” he replied and took another snort of tobacco before continuing, “But anyway, back to the story. We finally thought we caught a break when out of nowhere, one of us managed to strike the former diviner down, everything seemed to stand still as we all watched in slow motion as she let out a loud scream before falling to the ground. The ground greedily lapped up the spilled blood, and before we could even process what had just happened, the ground opened up and swallowed the diviner.”

“What do you mean, the ground swallowed her?” Zizire said incredulously. “The earth does not just open up and swallow people.”

“Nothing that has been happening in this world since Azura was conceived has ever been normal but granted when that happened, we were all in shock and unable to move well that was before saw a flash of blue light; It was Azura. I remember seeing her body glowing blue and then seeing the head of one of the men rolling on the floor, and suddenly I felt blood seeping out of my abdomen, the pain had still not registered; it felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. She had sliced my abdomen before moving in a blink of an eye to the two men that were fighting her mother and beheaded one of them. The other three remaining three sprang into action and started fighting, but I was still frozen. She moved so fast and with a vengeance. Almost like she had been toying with us all this while, or maybe the death of her mother suddenly tipped her over the edge. The weak-looking man grabbed my hand and muttered some words under his breath, and we immediately disappeared, but not before seeing a fountain of blood spring up from the neck of the third man with his head at her feet. The blood fountain sprayed her face and bathed her clothes in blood, the blood from the other two decapitated bodies that lay on the ground was greedily lapped up by the earth. We reappeared on the outskirts of this village. After tying my wound, he left. I do not know where he is now, but I will forever be indebted to him. Had it not been for him, you would have grown up without a father, for you were just a toddler when all this happened. Luckily, someone found me and carried me to the chief priest’s house and I gave him my report. All efforts to locate the other survivor proved futile, and we decided that he did not want to be found for the fear of being asked to participate in another suicide mission.”

“This is a lot of information to take in,” Zizire said with a loud exhalation.

“I can only imagine”

“But it still does not answer my earlier question”

“I told you this story because I want you to get as much information as is available about Azura. I am doing this because I want to give the advantage we to never had, and it is important that I do so because it is your destiny to bring Azura before the gods for judgment. The four other men and I were just mere scouts.”