Firewind

Chapter 8-Kathra

I wasn't actually expecting my Okur to let me go with him. But the fact that he didn't think I was capable really hit home. I wasn't the favourite child. I had little to no friends. I thought I at least had my uncle Stor on my side. But I guess in the race of life the only person you can count on is yourself.

We left swiftly and silently that morning, waking no one and leaving no sign of where we were headed. Although our footprints would've led to our location, Stor swiftly and efficiently covered our tracks with a swift silent wind.

"So do you really have the powers of the elements? Which ones do you have or do you have all of them? Can you die? If you can't die how can you look like you've aged?"

"Woah, calm down Kathra," my uncle said, amusement gleaming in his eyes. "You're giving me a headache."

"Well, do you?"

"I only have two elements. As do all the other ritskilionoso."

"Which ones?"

"Go ahead and guess."

"Earth of course, because you made those giant silver rocks appear. And your natural strength. Oh and air because you flew. What is it like to fly? Do you ever get scared that you'll fall?"

"It feels normal to me so I don't know how to explain it. It's great for travelling swiftly though. And I don't get scared. I've been doing it for thousands of years."

"How old are you actually?"

"Kathra," he exclaimed, putting a hand to his chest as if he was shocked, "don't you know it's rude to ask old people their age? We're seriously sensitive seniors!"

I laughed. My uncle could be so ridiculous.

"Now I have one condition," he said, his smile dissipating.

"What is it?"

"You need to trust me when I refuse to answer some of your questions. It's better if you didn't know some things about me and my kind."

"Okay."

We kept on our journey, heading east. The sun was setting on our first day in the desert. It wasn't so bad. I was used to the heat because of how close Aniath was to the desert. My uncle seemed uneasy at the fact that I was with him. But honestly, I felt the same about him. All my life I've known him. And I didn't realize what he was. And after I found all the weird books and the letters in his room, I'm not sure if I should trust him. Something bigger was behind the abarif attack. I just felt like my uncle had more to do with it than he let on. Besides, he's lived far longer than any human. Who knows what might have happened in his past.

That night, the desert was quiet. Far quieter than I thought it would be. The only thing to be heard was the faint rustling of the breeze in the sand, provided by my uncle. It was weird thinking of a place so dangerous being quiet. It was almost eerily quiet compared to Aniath. You would hear drunks calling after one another in the streets or some villagers having parties full of music and laughter. You would hear alley cats scrounging for food and dogs chasing after them. You would hear the soft clopping of horses' hooves on the cobblestone or in stables. You would hear nighttime birds and animals making the familiar chorus of the night.

Here in the desert, there was no other living thing than myself and my uncle. Occasionally, a roar could be heard in the distance in the rocky outcroppings on the horizon. That was where we were headed. It's strange to know that danger wasn't even that far from your life. It just makes you realize how little you are compared to the world. There was so much of Usnae Ari and I didn't even know a quarter of it. All I had seen was the village of Aniath.

I sat staring into the flames of our small fire. My uncle, luckily, could just grow trees on a whim. There was so much that I didn't know about him either. He could fly! How had he hidden such a crucial part of his identity from us for so long?

***

The next day was slightly more suffocatingly hot than the last. We still had enough water to last us to the middle of the desert. The "path" we were following led through a ravine in the rocky outcroppings I had seen the night before. We hadn't seen any sign of the abarifs. The only sign that we were nearing their home was the smoke in the distance and the smell of burnt earth.

"Was it hard to lie?" I asked my uncle as we climbed over the steep rocks along the bottom of the ravine.

"This used to be a river," he said casually as if I hadn't even spoken.

I rolled my eyes. Every time I tried to talk to him and ask questions, he would change the conversation. Why couldn't he at least tell me something about who he was or how he ended up meeting my father? The outcroppings on the ravine floor got steeper and steeper as we journeyed further into the Monlae desert. When the sun was just past its highest point in the sky, Stor decided that we should stop for the night so we could face the abarifs after a good night's rest.

He also insisted I learn some sort of self-defence. He gave me a knife he had in his pack. It was a bit longer than a dagger but shorter than a short sword. The hilt was wrapped with leather. In the hilt, there were three spheres of clear glass of different sizes. The biggest one was towards the end of the hilt and the smallest was closest to the blade. He taught me how to grip it, throw it and successfully block an attack. He didn't teach much about striking, just enough to keep me alive long enough for him to come to my aid. Even though we only had an afternoon, I was a quick learner and eager to save my sister. Though my uncle was as eager to find Mei as I was, he decided that we should wait another day to make sure I had the practice.

The suns were setting at our backs as we laid out our bedrolls. As the last sun dipped under the horizon, the sky turned bright red as if set on fire. The stars slowly made their appearances and the moons crept up in the west. My Okur Stor was already sleeping. But I had other things on my mind. So by the light of the dimming fire, I read and re-read the letter I had found on his desk, searching for more hints about what it might be about.

The four moons were close to their highest point in the sky and I was about to give up and go to sleep. Then as I looked at the letter, to my astonishment, the page lit up and revealed a shining blue script in between the original lines that I had memorized.