Azkis - Part Four

Azkis survives on the benevolence of a Goddess, but where is he?

Azkis woke from a dreamless sleep and felt a sharp, insistent prodding on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and bright sunlight pierced directly through his eyes and into his brain. He groaned loudly and rolled over onto his stomach, and felt another jab in the middle of his back.

“Is it dead, d’you think?” asked a treble-voiced child behind him.

  “Course he’s not dead, stupid. It just moved. And it’s a he, not an it,” said another child, punctuating his or her confident assertion with more jabs in the back. Azkis ignored the assault, running through the events of the day. He felt fine, but gently tested each of his muscles as if half expecting his limbs to be broken, or worse.

“How can you tell?” the first child asked, then instantly yelled, “You’re the stupid one!”

“You’re more stupider, Huris! Look at the face. Only men grow hair on faces - but you won’t ‘cause you’re more a girl then me!”

“I’m telling papa on you, Maris!” The shriek from Huris made Azkis wince.

“Yeah well I’m faster so I’m telling him first,” the child called Maris declared, just as loud, and Azkis heard the whoosh of a weapon rushing through air. He rolled over and caught the downward swing of the offending stick in one hand. The sharp smack as the stick met his flesh silenced the bickering children.

Maris, a girl of no more than ten summers, gave him a thunderous frown and tugged hard to retrieve her weapon. Huris, who was obviously her younger brother, stared at him with big brown eyes that looked on the point of tears. Both children were dressed in dirty but well-made robes dyed in muted browns and ochres. Both had their hoods thrown back to reveal near identical mops of blond, messy hair.

“Please, young ones, no more screaming,” Azkis entreated kindly. He released his hold on the stick and spread both hands palm out to show he meant no harm. He slowly gained his feet and stepped back, lest the angry young girl decide to take to him again. She looked him up and down and, obviously deciding he was no threat, sneered and sauntered off, her weapon on one shoulder.

“Who are you, sa’eb?” Huris asked, using the polite honorific one man used to address another until introductions were exchanged.

“I am Azkis of the Yurna, and you are Huris.” Azkis bent down to clasp wrists with the polite young boy and then ruffled his hair. At a demanding shriek from his older sister, the boy ran off, throwing a loose wave at Azkis over his shoulder.

Azkis straightened and looked about, for the moment not recognizing any landmarks or terrain. He wondered where in the whole of Goerthirus the cryptically inclined Goddess had deposited him. He could be anywhere between Shanti in the north and his home within the Yurna tribes to the south - a distance of almost 300 hundred fifty leagues. He rather doubted he would find himself in any immediate and desperate need of survival; the Goddess was going to use him in some unknown manner and no doubt, she would want to protect her investment.

He hoped she wasn't listening…

Azkis shrugged and turned to follow the children. Realizing he was once again wearing his own worn travelling robes, the young scholar pulled the hood over his head to protect his face from the harsh desert sunlight.

Author's Note

This is a small part that I probably just should have added to the last chapter. In any case, this is the end of Azkis' story...for now.

Reviews

[AJJordan]

This part of the story is currently in limbo. It's kind of stuck here until I add more chapters to catch up to where this part actually is within the story. I've been doing a little rearranging...

[JR Darewood]

I liked leaving the last chapter at the point you did, as well, smaller chapters are much more easily digestible.
That said, not much is happening in this one, though it is nice to learn a bit of the intricacies of desert life.

[AJJordan]

Yeah I guess you can tell from the short length here that I was really not into it that much and wanted to get it done in as short a manner as I could - although I like the interplay between the siblings. As the next time you encounter Azkis he will be back at college, I thought there needed to be a bridge between his meeting with the Goddess and the resumption of his normal life. Hence this small chapter.

I'm seriously considering moving the chapters around like you mentioned, but that would mean dropping this little part, as it would interfere with the flow if it was inserted between the last chapter and the original battle dream chapter of Haris'. Although....maybe I could just tack this onto the start of the future chapter where Azkis finds himself back at college and trying to resume his normal life (yes I did say "trying")

Thanx as always for your insightful thoughts:)

[JR Darewood]

I think it would be good to do it that way, b/c it also leaves Azkis with more of a cliffhanger-- by not giving us closure you make us want to get to the next Azkis chapter.

Sometimes chapters can be short because that's all there is to say. Some of mine certainly are (0n the other hand, sometimes like you, I just want to get it all over with so i rush through the end of a chapter, like the one you recently commented on-- f**k can't they just get on their horses already?). Instead of deleting this snippet, why not just use it as the start of your next Azkis segment?