The Dark Path: Stygian Days

Of Hellfire And Flames

- Of Hellfire And Flames –

When flames rise to an unnatural height,

A dependable ally to have or a formidable foe to fight,

Past the scorching heat and the unbearable suffering of thirst,

The phoenix shall rise to bring renewal and rebirth.

[Archer’s POV]

I awoke to a bright shiny morning as sunlight seeped through an opening between my curtains and gently touched my face. I smiled. What a great way to start the day. I spent a few moments lying in bed, not thinking of anything in particular. All I wanted to do now was relax and not rush. After all, today was my day off from working at the library.

After a while, I kicked back the quilt and sat up on the side of the bed. Ava was still sleeping soundly on the bed. She looked peaceful as she slept so I decided to let her continue dozing. Stretching my extremities when I got up, I proceeded to take a shower. I didn’t have the money to have warm water so I had a shock bathing in the ice-cold water like I always do every morning.

Breakfast didn’t exactly satisfy my appetite. All I had were bread, some fish, chicken and orange juice. Day offs were usually boring for me and didn’t want to start the day off with a dull breakfast. As I stood there staring at the contents of the fridge, Ava, who had just woken up, sat next to my leg.

“Good morning, girl. How was your sleep?”

Ava waved her tail calmly.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything interesting to eat right now. Sorry, girl.”

Ava whimpered sadly. I walked to my sofa and laid down on it as Ava curled up on the rug.

“Well, I’ve got to feed you Ava, as well as myself. I don’t want to be walking around with an empty stomach all morning. You know how I hate when Syschela lectures me.”

I quickly looked around the room.

“She’s didn’t hear that right?”

Ava looked up for a while and laid her back down.

“Any ideas, Ava?”

Ava didn’t move for a while. Suddenly, she got up and started dragging me one of my atlases.

“What’s this girl?”

I looked at the atlas for a while before realising what she had in canine mind.

“Oh, you fancy something different today. What foreign breakfast would you like?”

Ava looked around on the atlas but failed to respond.

“How about we eat here?” I said as I pointed at Turkmenistan. “I heard the food there is quite good or at least, that’s what the observers say.”

I took out my laptop and used a public wireless internet access to do some quick research.

“Interesting…they have food like pilaf, manti and shurpa there.”

I searched for some pictures of the food and showed them to Ava.

“Does that look yummy to you, girl?”

Ava laid her front paws on the table and stood on her hind legs to look at the images. Since she began wagging her tail, I took it as a yes.

“Alright then, it’s settled. We’ll eat in Turkmenistan for breakfast. Start preparing, Ava. It’s going to be a long trip. Let me dress suitably first.”