Chapter 96 - 97. A Unicorn?
Azalea was the one who sent that letter. She wanted me to come because there were things to tell me. I did not take Mickey along with me because I did not want that tubby cat did not want me to be in that place anymore. Actually, I did not want to go there, but I was part of them no matter what.
I was really curious about important issues she wanted to tell me by sending so many stone birds, including to involve me in this issue. Yeah, I felt that I would be the person who would eat up her food stock if I stayed too long in her place and did things on my own.
When I reached the portal, I saw Naar had already stood there. It felt so odd after not seeing each other for a long time. "What's up, Bro?" was my reflect reaction. 'stupid me! Of course he doesn't understand that language!' I tapped my forehead and grinned when I realized I said such magic words. I was so embarrassed.
He laughed, but he tried to hold it. "Miss Azalea has been waiting for you, Tha," he was still trying to hold his laughter.
I looked at him in embarrassment and in annoyance, following him to cross the portal.
As we arrived, a spot of light in the sky was on top of us. I learned many things about this place before I left at that time.
When that dot was in the sky, it means it was daytime in my place and when the dot was gone, it was night time although the time here and the time in my place were not in harmony, such as day time here did not mean day time in my place.
"Naar" I wanted to ask him something that had happened.
"Yeah?" He turned back, "What is it, Tha?"
"I am very curious about what has happened? Why have people like me been involved?" I did not beat about the bush.
Naar was alerted instantly. "I can't tell you in detail here, but a creature belonging to this place is escaping and crossing to your place. I can't say if it is dangerous or not because I have never seen it nor met it myself directly." He explained it.
From that short explanation, Naar gave I thought that they had better make protection at the portal so that anyone or anything coming in and out of this place could be known. It would impact if not anyone could go in and out without being noticed. Alright, it was just an idea, anyway. The problem was if a computer or scanner was available here. I had to think over this idea again.
I noticed the place where I came from, no one was there to guard it. Was it okay to leave such a place unguarded like that? I tried to ignore it and continued my trip to Azalea's place.
When we arrived there, there were quite a lot of people there. Naar told me that Rea was in charge of replacing the leader position since I killed Yon.
It seemed that the young wizard was not really supported by the other wizards. It could be seen that in this meeting when Rea was explaining his plan to capture that animal, many wizards ignored him. Azalea took over the meeting. She slammed the table angrily. All the wizards who previously ignored or even slept were awakened right away.
"I don't invite you to have some sleep here or to talk to your friends. I want all of you to contribute to solve this problem." She spoke loudly, her gaze was sharp and intimidating.
I, who was still uninformed about the issue, just kept quiet. 'I guess things can grow into chaos!' I guessed the meeting did not run well. Azalea started explaining what had actually happened. She started from the beginning because she was aware that I did not know anything about it.
People usually called this animal a desert horse which was actually Shadhavar or Aras. If in tales, you knew it as Unicorn. This one was called another version of that creature. I myself had never seen or heard about it.
In some books I had read, Aras, as Azalea said, was far bigger than a horse with horns having forty to forty-two hollow branches. When the wind blew among the horns, a melody would be created.
Shadhavar was mostly hunted for its horns, as a gift for a king due to its beauty. The melody it created was not always the same. There was no specific explanation for that, but it surely could hypnotize its listeners.
You could listen to the strains of melody which could make even other animals stop doing whatever they were doing just by listening to it. Some melodies could cause you to cry, but some also could spread and radiate happiness.
A Shadhavar was known to be missing from this place and crossing into the human world. What made things worse was that not everyone could see Aras. That creature was like Falak, a huge snake that was in no way could be tamed by anyone, and it was invisible to most people, too.
I finally understood the reason why we were all gathered here. All of us here had special abilities to help the search for that creature and bring it home
"Shadhavar is a man-eater," Azalea warned us again. "I chose you not for no reason, but unfortunately only some have good fighting skills," Azalea stared at me and I knew the meaning of her gaze.
"I do hope you are very cautious and careful in this mission because that creature has mystical power from its horns. When you find it, don't approach it right away. Make sure you don't listen to the melody coming out of the horns, then you can take action." She emphasized her warning.
The meeting was closed by dividing fifteen of us into five smaller groups of searching. Unfortunately, the number of people with the ability to see Aras was very limited. One team had one person with the ability to see Shadhavar.
It could be said that people with abilities like mine were very rare. I saw some of them chose to withdraw from the search team. They assumed that it would be very difficult to see Shadhavar because it ran very fast. Three teams remained. And Azalea had to find the right persons for the replacement for those who had resigned.
"Tha, have you heard stories about Aras?" Azalea asked me.
I gave her a big smile showing off my teeth. She definitely knew that I never heard about it at all. "To be honest, I just read once from a book Hana lent for me and from your explanation just now, but now I have a description of what that creature looks like. In my place there is such a myth about unicorns although I don't think they are similar. But I can use it as a guide to find it." I said.
"I am more afraid when you have seen it but you don't know it is Shadhavar," It sounded like she wanted me to be the laughing stock for everyone here.
"Naa, I'm not worried at all about that, " I tried to find the right words to say it correctly. "I just have little time to search it because I have a job now. I am a teacher and I finish working at two in the afternoon. Will that be enough with such a short time I have to search for it?" I tried to make her understand that I was just an ordinary human being without magical power.
Azalea kept quiet for a while, she seemed confused. "Tha, out of all I have chosen to find Aras, I put high hopes that you will join us in the search. We don't know what will happen if we don't find it as soon as possible and from all I know you have the best eyesight," from her words it was obvious she relied on me heavily.
"Alright, but I can do the search right after I go home from my school until ten at night. The rest, I am just an ordinary human like the rest others." I just wanted to say; 'I need rest before the following day and have to get up at two in the early morning' but, I could just swallow them for myself.
...
I was in one team with two teenagers of twelve years named Mirai and another girl who was just six years younger than me, Winnter.
Mirai and Winnter were Azalea's prisoners. We were in fact in the same room at that time. Both of them were under Falak's guard, the same place where I was kept. Another one was Naar, but he would join us two weeks later because he had issues with Yoru and Miss Anty's team.
Mirai means hope. Like her name, this girl was cheerful and liked telling funny stories, a bit noisy, and full of spirits like an ordinary teenager of twelve years old.. We got along very easily and pretty fast, and of course, she got a habit of telling funny stories to other people.