Protecting your family may led to you to do something stupid , protecting what you love might make you lose the real thing you are protecting. Be careful and protect with care.
I.
After being told of the Abdachy Tribe at an oasis nearing the River of Tigris, in a part unknown to normal people but known to the Abdachy, the Stranger and Aishir took off to see it and deliver the news of their other tribe mates.
"Isn't this brilliant?! We will see the Abadachy tribe!" the Stranger said excitedly.
"Yes! I am excited too!" they conversed as they rode a green camel all the way to the oasis. "Stranger?"
"Yes?"
"Why are these camels green?"
"Ah! The Green Camels are the extinct subspecies of camels, they can never be tamed and very dangerous to be riden," the Stranger said.
"What?! The why are we riding them, then?!"
"Well, these two were special. I saved them once," the Stranger said. "Oi! There it is!" he pointed at a collection of trees nearing a wall of a plateau.
"Where?" Aishir said squinting her eyes.
"There!" he said pointing. "Oh, just follow me!" he said clicking his tongue and giving his camel a nudge and it bolted in a blur of speed. When the Stranger's camel bolted, Aishir's bolted as well, everything was blur as Aishir's camel stopped in a sudden break which made Aishir almost threw up because as the camel stopped, she felt like her stomach contents would come back up.
As Aishir's vision cleared, she can see what the Stranger was saying, behind a thicket of forest of palm trees was a clearing, a clearing filled with tents and desert lions were walking around at the center with people who glistened, their brown tanned bodies glistened under the sun. Piercing filled their faces, paints draped their arms, legs and body. Women were draped with colorful cloths while men wore loincloths.
"Welcome to the tribe of the Lion's Warriors or the Abdachies," the Stranger said to the nauseous Aishir. "Are you fine? You look pale?"
"Fi--fine... Just need to get off this camel," Aishir said. The Stranger helped his companion off the camel, it neighed and disappeared with a poof of ink.
"Why aren't the desert lions noticing us?" Aishir asked as she got her bearings back.
"They are used to people here but unless you've brought any weapons or any intent to disturb this tribe, you'll be torn from limb to limb like a little rag doll, so play nice," the Stranger said with a smile but Aishir grew paler as she imagined herself being torn limb from limb. "Well, I'll leave you for awhile, I'll talk to the village chief!"
"But wa---" before Aishir could stop the Stranger, he was off like a child off to play. "He is such a child!" she said stomping her foot irritably.
"Hello?" a young man with glistening skin and amber eyes of a lion approached Aishir.
"Oh! Hello! how can---" she was about to ask how he could speak her language but then she remembered the Hummingbird fluttering invisibly beside her. "Hello!"
"Welcome to our village. Who might you be?" he asked. Aishir couldn't help but look at the amber eyes of this boy, he was as old as her.
"Oh! Aishir. H--how about you?"
"Khalid. Are you alone?"
"Oh no! I'm with my," she thought for a second. "With my grandfather."
"Where is he?"
"He said he went to the village chief, I think he is friends with your chief, Khalid," as Aishir said this, Khalid's eyes turned into slits, he was like an angry lion.
"Where did he went?!" Khalid said that made Aishir took a step back, she pointed to the north and Khalid dashed towards where the Stranger went. Aishir followed him.
"Great. A handsome boy was talking to me but the Stranger had to ruin it!" she shouted in irritability.
II.
As Khalid and Aishir reached the tent at the center of the clearing, Aishir was breathless while Khalid didn't broke a sweat.
"How co--come y--you aren't tired?" Aishir asked but Khalid ignored her, suddenly the scream of the Stranger filled the air.
"We're too late," Khalid said.
"What?!" Aishir shouted in surprise, fear creeping inside her. "Stranger!" she ran towards the tent and opened the opening flap of the tent and revealing two old men hugging each other.
"This is not what I have expected this," Aishir said.
"Oh! Grandfather! I have thought you---"
"Hush boy! I will no kill or endanger my friend!" an old wrinkly old man with white hair, filled with tattoos and a loincloth said at Khalid.
"Aishir, I thought you'll go exploring," the Stranger said looking at the bewildered look on Aishir's face.
"Stra--- I mean--- Grandfather, I thou---"
"Oi! Grandfather?! I'm still young, you know!"
"No, not with that face," Aishir said to the Stranger who looked insulted.
"Girl, it is okay if you call the Stranger in his own title. I have known him but with a different face, younger than this one. Why is that?" the chief said.
"Reincarnation spell took longer to kick in in this body than my last body," the Stranger said. "Aishir sit, I'll introduce you to my friend, Chief Al-Salid."
"It is an honor to meet you, Aishir," the chief said. "You smell of Uruk, you have come a long way from home."
"How?"
"We, the Abdachies, have a keen sense of smell that is why I knew," the chief explained.
"The Abdachies has trained in the early age of ten to be a warrior tribe, they trained to be like lions that's why their sacred animal is the lion," the Stranger explained.
"Oh! That's why you summoned those lions when we were about to be attacked!" Aishir said.
"Attacked? By whom? One of us?" the chief asked.
"Oh yes. We went to the Mirage Tower and came across with your tribesmen under the slaver ship of a merchant," the Stranger told what has happened at the Mirage Tower.
"It is a relief that they have found a new calling and to a mystical creature as the Sphinx!" the chief said laughing happily.
"Was my brother in good health?" Khalid asked the Stranger.
"What was his name?"
"Fadiri," Khalid answered.
"Oh! I've met him. He was the one who told me how to find your tribe! Yes, he is in good health," the Stranger smiled and Khalid gave a sigh of relief.
"We should leave you, Grandfather and Stranger, to talk," Khalid bowed and left. Aishir followed.
Outside, Aishir tailed after Khalid. "Do you long for your brother?" she asked.
"Yes. He left before I have been able to beat him," Khalid said, his face was solid, a wall of unemotional facade.
"Beat him? In what?"
"In combat," Khalid said.
"Oh."
"Why have you come our village?" Khalid asked.
"Well, just to travel."
"No. Our village is hidden. Why did you come?"
"I do--don't know. I just came with the Stranger," Aishir said feeling Khalid's eyes as if tearing her apart.
Khalid turned away and walked away from her. Aishir sighed then a firm hand touched her shoulder.
"Stranger!" she gasped as she turned to look at the Stranger.
"We'll be staying for the night," the Stranger said. Aishir didn't argue, she was tired from their travels. She hasn't slept because of all those life threatening journeys across the desert.
III.
"How do you know the chief?" Aishir asked as they were setting up a mat for them to sleep in.
"I knew him because I saved his life when he was dying at a battlefield," the Stranger said as he was peering outside their tents.
"You've gone to war before?"
"No, I passed by that war. I arrived and it was over then I saw him, he was still at his prime but he was dying. I poured him a potion and he drank it. He lived and he owned his life to me as a debt," the Stranger said. "Its a full moon," the Stranger muttered.
"What's with the moon?" Aishir asked standing and joining the Stranger at their opening.
"The tribe became quiet. Like nobody is in this tribe at all," the Stranger said. His face fixed in a curious smile.
"Stop that," Aishir said.
"What?"
"Smiling! It gets me excited! What is wrong with this village? Khalid awhile ago when I told him you went to the tent of the chief, his eyes turned into slits like ---"
" A Lion's?" the Stranger interrupted.
"Yes! Why is that?"
"I think its because of that," he pointed at the moon that was turning the shade of yellowish orange.
"What's happening?"
"That's, as I am brilliant and I know it, is the Cat's eye spell," the Stranger said.
"Cat's eye? What's that?"
"Its a spell that turns a creature into a cat but why would this village be under it?" the Stranger asked. "Darn. Not knowing is so frustrating!"
"Let's go find out then?" Aishir smiled at the Stranger and the Stranger smiled back.
As the two crept out of their tent they hit a barrier surrounding their tent. "What the?!" the Stranger said filling the barrier around them and his forehead that was forming a bump.
"Why are we inside a barrier?!" Aishir said.
"Lucky guess?" the Stranger looked at Aishir who just smiled. "This barrier is too weak to stop us," the Stranger said as he fished out his quill and drew a sword on his parchment, dripped blood and it became real.
"But that's only a normal sword," Aishir commented.
"Aishir, nothing of my creations are normal," the Stranger smiled as he sliced the barrier and it disappeared. "A nullification sword. Works with any magic," he said as his sword disappeared. "Let's go."
IV.
As the duo crept around the village, they saw no one. No children, no people and even the lions were nowhere to be found.
"Where are they?" Aishir asked.
"Let's keep looking," the Stranger said.
Minutes passed as they walked around the tribe. "Why not use those birds again?" Aishir suggested.
"Its night, birds can't see well in the dark but I have a better one," the Stranger smiled as he produced his quill and parchment from his bag.
"How many parchment do you have inside that bag?" Aishir asked pointing at the Stranger's pack.
"Wanna see?" the Stranger asked as he opened his bag and Aishir saw it, it was like a library inside, shelves filled with rolled up parchments, numerous shelves and the bottom of those shelves were like a black hole, one cannot see the bottom. The Stranger saw the look at Aishir's face which made him smile. "What do you think?"
"Its.. bigger on the inside... than on the outside... how?" Aishir asked.
"Space manipulation. Bloodlord magic. We can manipulate space in our belongings," the Stranger said.
"How?"
"How what?"
"How does these things come to you if you get reincarnated to another body once you die? And how do you know what body you'll end up with?" Aishir asked as the Stranger as he was drawing a picture.
"My things have their own consciousness. They will hibernate for years or days depends on a vessel that will accept my consciousness. Once the vessel is ready, my memories will come back, and my bag and quill will find me no matter where in these world using the magic built inside it, space manipulation," the Stranger explained.
Aishir just stood back, still absorbing what she heard. It was too much to take in. "So, you're consciousness just floats until it finds a body?"
"Yes," the Stranger answered as he dripped his blood unto the paper. Three owls spurted from the paper, a snow owl, with its bluish eyes and white feathers, a falcon owl with its hazel nut eyes and brownish feathers, and the last one was a forest owl, with its ruffled feathers and wild eyes. "Now, look for those tribesmen!" he said and setting the owls to fly.
"Isn't that wrong?" Aishir said taking a step back from the Stranger. "You're stripping away their life from them."
"That is why I'm giving them the adventure of the lifetime. An adventure to make them see the world, to make them feel the world, to make them hear the people that they can never meet. It's my gift to them, its my reward for them, its my job to make them experience all of this," the Stranger said, guilt filled his eyes and Aishir saw this.
"How about this old man? Who was he?" Aishir asked.
"He was a hermit in a lone house in the middle of an oasis. He gave his consciousness away and I took over. He had no family, no one else with him He chose the life of isolation and he felt my presence inside him and told me to make his life worthwhile," the Stranger said.
"Who was your body before this?"
"It was my real body. I died before, I was protecting a group of people and next thing I knew I was waking up inside a messy and wrecked house at the center of nowhere," he said.
The snow owl screeched from above the tent of the chief, "That's our cue," the Stranger said as he ran towards the tent but Aishir stopped. "If you see me as a monster or a thief, its fine with me, its up to you if you want to still come with me," the Stranger said. "One more adventure?"
Aishir smiled and grabbed the hand of the Stranger. "Of course, Grandfather."
"Please stop calling me that," the Stranger said smiling at his companion.
V.
Inside the tent of the chief, the Stranger and Aishir search for everywhere.
"Where are they? The owl said its here but where?!" the Stranger asked irritably.
"We are here by couple of minutes but you're already irritated? You're such a child!"
"Because the suspense is killing me!" the Stranger said but then he felt under his feet a breeze. "There something under this matt," he said as he peeled the mat from the ground revealing a passageway going underground. "See?! My owls were right!"
"Yes and we need to follow this to find out what is happening now," Aishir said kneeling down.
"We need to be careful, follow me!" they both jumped to the hole on the ground and it sent them inside a narrow tunnel. At the end of the tunnel was a orange light and a chanting of people can be heard.
"What do you think they are saying?" Aishir asked.
"If you listen carefully, the Hummingbird will translate," the Stranger said and Aishir obeyed.
She closed her eyes and listened intently. "... Bast of the felines, grant us the power to live and protect us to our own extent..." the chief's voice can be heard.
"That's the chief!"
"The ritual has begone, let's go."
They both crept towards the opening and hiding behind some rocks. What they saw was both bizarre and "Brilliant," the Stranger muttered.
A boy was suspended in air climbing towards the opening at the ceiling that the moon casted its light.
Under the boy was a circle of people chanting away, eyes closed, hands clasped together and the chief's hands were spread like ready to catch the boy while the lions looked at the boy above them.
"Stranger, what's happening?" Aishir asked.
"A Turning," the Stranger said.
"Turning? What's that?" as Aishir crept, she stepped on a twig that made the lions looked at them, the people too even the chief, their eyes were slits like of an angry lion. Suddenly, a lion leapt towards them and another to seal them on where they were kneeling.
The lions growled at them and Aishir felt her hairs stood up in fear while the Stranger stood up and straightened his cloak. "Sorry to barge in but I would like to intervene in this ritual," he said smiling towards the chief.
VI.
"Stranger! What are you doing here?!" the Chief yelled, his face mixed with anger and surprise. "We thought you were asleep!"
"A Bloodlord sleeps when he wants to but this Bloodlord wants to know what is happening in this tribe of yours, Chief," the Stranger walked casually towards the chief, ignoring the snarling and growling lions around him. "You are playing with forces you must not play with, chief."
"You don't know what you are talking about, Stranger. Do not intervene or else," then he stepped towards the light of the moon then he started transforming into a lion, fur started to turn all over his body, his gray haired grew into a mane, his eyes became the fearless eyes of a lion. "I am doing this for my tribe," he said in the form of a great lion.
"I do not approve of your methods, chief," the Stranger said as he looked around the cave. "You are deforming yourselves into monstrosities!"
The lions around them roared in protest to what the Stranger said. Aishir ran towards to the Stranger, like the old man can protect her but she believes, he will.
"We do not care if you approve or not but our Goddess, Bast, approves of our rituals! We will be immortal beings that has transcended humanity!" the Chief roared, and the others roared as well.
"Bast is a young goddess and she will approve anything as long as she can lay down on her bed," the Stranger said.
"Do not talk ill of our goddess! Speak your next words carefully Stranger or else it will be your last and also your companion," the chief threatened.
"Do not hurt Aishir or else," the Stranger spat a threat.
"Or what?! Threatening a lion is just a jest for us because lions fear nothing!" the chief roared again.
"Oh it is not a threat. Its a warning. I am your friend and that is why I am here trying to reason with you," the Stranger said. "What you are doing is not the right way to protect your kind! Having this power would turn you mind into power crazed lunatics!"
"Then it is time for us the Torc Leo to take over this world! Being a tribe of warriors, warlords, slave drivers has kidnapped or taken our children and men to be made as a weapon of war but no more! I will lead my kind to be the one ruling these lands!" the chief yelled.
"You will not! I will see to it that you will not! War is not the answer! Taking revenge is not the answer! Taking the lives of countless others is never the answer!" the Stranger roared in anger.
"Stranger, you will never understand us. You feared and you are not hunted or traded off or sold that is why you will never understand us," the chief turned back to human and said. "Capture these intruders and put them to the prison."
Three lions started to crept towards the two but the Stranger stood firm and dabbed a drip of blood onto his skin. "I will stop you here and now," he said that made the chief laugh.
"You can't win, Stranger. Do not underestimate the Abdachies."
"You must not underestimate a Bloodlord, either," the Stranger smiled and he pricked his thumb with his quill and dropped a drop of blood onto a piece of paper hidden inside his hand.
Aishir didn't saw he drew anything but she saw a tiger like creature. With a flash of blue light, a loud thud came from the light then the air became thick with electricity.
As Aishir's eyes adjusted, she saw a tiger, twice the size of a lion, stripes in the shape of lightning bolts, a fur that close its resemblance the a mane of a lion and a tail that is five foot long. It has blue eyes and was snarling at the lions surrounding it.
"Everybody meet the ancient White Tiger of the Orient, Byakko," the Stranger said as the Byakko roared, lightning boomed above the cave. "You will listen or your legacy will end here."
VII.
As the tension inside the cave became more intense by the appearance of an animal deity and the Torc Leo readying to pounce.
"Stranger, do you have a plan?" Aishir whispered.
"I'm thinking of one," the Stranger replied.
"You don't have a plan?!"
"I do! Later!" the Stranger said and Aishir sighed. "Here's the plan."
"Good luck," Aishir muttered.
"I don't need luck. I'm brilliant," the Stranger smiled.
"Stranger, we won't be swayed by your sorcery!" the Chief growled but Byakko roared that made the ceiling shook.
"I know you won't be but I shall do the only thing I can think of as a way of respecting your wishes," the Stranger said, patting the head of Byakko as he talked, calming the ancient animal.
"That.. is good to hear, Stranger," the chief said, putting his hand to stop the lions approaching.
"Yes, I will let you continue your ritual," the Stranger walking back. "Come, Byakko." Byakko followed the Stranger towards the tunnel.
"But, Stranger!" Aishir was about to protest but the Stranger just looked at her and she understood not to argue.
Once outside the tent, the Stranger started drawing. "What are you doing?" Aishir asked.
"One doorway to a goddess's home," the Stranger said.
"You're going a goddess's home?! Is that possible?!"
"Of course! But only a Bloodlord has that power and other gods," the Stranger said as he dripped a blood on the paper and a golden door appeared out of nowhere.
Aishir looked at the back of the door but there was nothing there. "Stranger, are you making fun of me? There's nothing behi--" Aishir said but when she returned, the Stranger disappeared.
She went around and around the door but the Stranger was nowhere to be seen.
Then suddenly the door opened and the Stranger appeared, the door disappeared. "This will do the trick! Hecate is just brilliant as ever!" the Stranger said as he hold a phial of liquid.
"Hecate?"
"Oh, the Titan of Three Faces. She gave me this potion," the Stranger said.
"What is in it?"
"You'll see later but now we need to go down again that hole," the Stranger said walking towards the chief's tent, Aishir followed and Byakko stayed outside.
VIII.
Once they were at the clearing under the moon, the ritual was over, the children has been turned into of the Torc Leo.
"You have done the impossible, chief," the Stranger said as he clapped slowly.
"Yes, we will now move into the next phase. I will lead my tribe to conquer the next town to reclaim the Abdachy tribesmen that they have taken!" the chief roared as he turned into a lion. Aishir still gasped in surprise as she looked at the man turning into a full grown lion.
Surrounding the Stranger and Aishir was a group of lions, circling them. "Before anything, we lions needs to eat first before a huge war," the chief said, smiling, Aishir assumed it smiled but she wasn't sure.
"Now, before you feast with us. I need my assistant to take a deep breath," the Stranger motioning to Aishir who thought it for a second and she took a deep breath. "Now, for my next trick is," he poured the contents of the phial onto his hand and "Goodnight, Lions." he said then he blew the powder of blue into the air. The lions roared in protest but as the powder travels from their nostrils into their lungs, be absorbed by the lungs and sent the magic essence to their brains. One by one, the lions fell to their sides but the chief still stood.
"What have y---you done.." then he fell. Once the powder disappeared, the Stranger walked over to the chief lion.
"I have stripped you away of your memories," the Stranger said as he knelt beside his friend.
"What was in that bottle?" Aishir asked as she went towards the Stranger.
"I gave them a dose of a mind wipe. I erased their memories of them being humans once and their memory of how to transform back," the Stranger said as he stroke the neck of the lion, sleeping soundly. "Once they wake up, they will just be lions, plain and brilliant beasts."
"Why?"
"The Abdachies are stubborn people, they can't be swayed easily and this is the only thing I can do or the alternative is killing them and killing them is never an option," the Stranger said, standing up.
"We'll just leave them like this?" Aishir asked.
"Yes. Once they woke up, they will do the lion thing and go find a prey and we don't want to be there once they wake up," he said, smiling.
"Why do you do that?"
"What?"
"Smile even if you don't mean it."
"Because smiling makes every pain lighter than it used to be," he said as he disappeared into the tent above while Aishir looked around the pack of lions surrounding her. She looked at a lion she can feel was Khalid, he jerked and Aishir stepped back and she followed the Stranger at the surface.
Back at the surface, the Stranger was looking at the night sky, his expression grave. Byakko was sleeping beside him. His slow breaths suggests a deep sleep.
"Stranger?" Aishir said.
"Aishir, I need to go back to Eastice for awhile," the Stranger said as he turned towards Aishir.
"Okay. Let's go," Aishir said.
"No. I'll go alone. I need to go see something," he said. "I'll bring you back to Uruk and I'll be off."
"Will you come back?"
"Yes. I will. I promise," he said, smiling.