EXAMINATION

Chapter Eleven

Chapter 11:

"Ugh it's been such a long time, and we still haven't arrived at a tower yet!" Asbar said, the annoyance evident in his tone.

They had been walking for 20 minutes and they were starting to feel the toll of their earlier fight. Shad had his leg examined and thankfully the bite wasn't poisonous so they had applied the tube for wounds they had gotten. Now the bruise was fading fast and his limp was barely noticeable.

"We must be getting closer since that last test was harder than the others." He points out.

"One of us could climb a tree and take a look, if they can see anything..." Mah-Rukh suggested.

"Good idea, I'll do it." Khizar said, taking his bag off and putting it on the ground.

He grabbed the trunk of the nearest tree, and pulled himself up using the lowest branch. Then he grinned down at their surprised faces.

Sehr started laughing and the rest joined her.

"I didn't expect you to be so closely related to your monkey ancestors, you know!" Shad called up to him.

"Well, that would explain his face, don't you think?" Asbar said grinning.

They heard Khizar's laugh trailing down to them from way up high, where he was climbing with ease. After just a while, they heard him climbing back down.

"What happened? Did you see anything?" Shad asked.

"Yeah!" Khizar replied cheerfully "It's really close, just a little bit ahead."

Asbar gave him a weird look then shook his head and handed his bag to him. "You sure are happy all of a sudden." He said.

Khizar hesitated for a second. Too short for anyone else to see, but Asbar's sharp senses took notice. "Of course!" Khizar said, still using that overly cheerful voice. "We're almost at the first tower!"

Asbar raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything. Khizar stared back.

"So... where is the tower?" Shad said, looking between them.

Khizar looked away from Asbar.

"Oh, this way." He said and started walking towards the trees on the side of their path.

They looked at each other.

"But Mahad told us not to step off the path remember?" Mah-Rukh said, speaking for all of them.

"Mahad said not to go so far that we can't see the path anymore. The tower is really close to here." Khizar replied, grinding his teeth.

They looked at each other then nodded hesitantly. Now all of them were aware that something was wrong but they didn't know what it was.

"What the..?!" Shad cried out angrily. "What are you doing Asbar??"

They turned to see Shad's shirt soaked and an empty water bottle in Asbar's hand.

"Oh! Sorry!" Asbar said, wincing. "I wasn't paying attention."

"Tsk!" Shad frowned down at his shirt. "Hey Khizar, lend me your shirt, my other one is buried way under my backpack."

Khizar hesitated.

"What 's wrong?" Sehr asked looking at him with curios eyes.

"Nothing, but can't you borrow Asbars'?" He asked Shad.

"He's the one that dumped the water on me! There is no way I'm asking him for anything!"

"I didn't dump water on you. It was an accident." Asbar grumbled.

Shad ignored him and looked expectantly at Khizar. Asbar stepped aside and also started observing Khizar. Sehr and Mah-Rukh looked at each other and shrugged. They knew the boys were up to something so they watched from a distance.

Khizar looked at them then shrugged nonchalantly. Then grabbing his shirt from the hem pulled it over his head, and held it out to Shad.

Shad looked over at Asbar, and stopped suddenly. Asbar's eyes were wide in a mix of shock and fear, and his fists were clenched. Without wasting another moment, Shad brought his leg up and karate chopped "Khizar's" head.

Sehr and Mah-Rukh gasped as he fell to the ground, unconscious. "What..?!" "Why...?!" They exclaimed at the same time, and then stopped short.

There on the back of his shoulder, there was a wound like a burn. Slowly in front of their eyes, Khizar transformed into a face they had seen only once.

"Afreeth." Asbar said in a grim voice.