MY AVATARS

THE UNREST

" Wake up" small arm grabbed his shoulders and shocks him violently. "You must wake up now, sadiq. We have to leave the hill."
Sadiq brushed the hands away and pushed himself off the mat. He rubbed his eyes.

  Wake up, child, a voice echoed deep in his head.
   Let him be, Azman, another said wryly. Let him stand open mouthed like a confused baboon. They will cut his tongue out and chop him to pieces soon enough.

    Sadiq jumped, startled by the sound of screaming. He looked about, disoriented as he gained consciousness. He was in his swelling on the hillside where he had lived for the past three harvest since seeking refuge with the anti-avatar. Halima stood before him, her hand back on his shoulders and her pale eyes wide with fear and wet with tears. Her milky noor Tasleem skin was covered in angry pink blotches in place where she had been bruised. Sadiq looked from her skin to her face, his confusion written in his eyes.

          "We must go sadiq, we cannot stay any longer."

           "Go" Halima fear and panic were beginning to agitate him. He looked past her, out of the doorway; it was chaos. Fires burned all over the hill, black smoke hung low, thick enough to seem tangible but no too much that you could not glimpse the forms of people running about frantically. "Go where, Halima? What is happening?"

              "The masqute are attacking. They are killing everyone."

   The masqute? Sadiq's eyes widened and the fear the had begun creeping up on him totally engulfed him. If the masqute are attacking, there is no point running. We are already dead

Halima grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the doorway. She looked about trying to decide which ways was safest.
   "The masqute" sadiq whispered in a daze. "Why"

"We are Avatarian, sadiq" halima shouted. His obtuse attitude was beginning to annoy her. "Do they need a reason ?"

        The reason Is far less important than your life, child, Azman's voice came again, survival comes first.

         Ha, what does he know about survival? The other asked. Dying might be the only thing he may actually turnout to be good at.

     If he dies, Othman, a third and calmer voice said, we all do.

    Yes, yes, ilyas, i know, othman admitted grudgingly.
It Is one thing to be an avatar and its is another to be saddled with this useless boy. Tell her to go east, you little Baboon, head for the stream.

        "Go.... Go left," sadiq whispered to halima. "Let's go left towards the stream"
        Halima turned around, her brows furrowed in confusion. "Left? Why, there's noth.... Was it your avatar that told you that"

    Sadiq nodded and had barely opened his mouth to speak when Halima yanked him eastward. He had enough presence of mind to maintain his balance and join her as she broke into run. Once outside the cave, the screams, dark smoke and angry flame descended upon his sense, filling his mind and lungs as he ran alongside halima. What is happening? Why are masqute attacking avatarian in their land? He squinted into the smoke but could barely make out the masqute as they flitted in and out of the shadows, swift and ruthless like as an, beasts from beyond.

     Halima stumbled on a charred stump and fell. Something gave away with a squelch beneath her weight. Quickly, she struggled to push herself up, her disgust and fear barely contained, and was about to resume her run when she froze, her eyes widening as she stared at what she had tripped on. Sadiq barely avoided running into her but she paid no attention, her gaze still transfixed on the ground.

      "Halima" sadiq coughed glancing from her terror-filled face to the ground. "What...?"
    He had the sudden urge to empty his stomach as bike rose in throat. A few bodies had been healed upon on another to form a pile of tattered flesh, their blood mingling freely as it trickled down the pile to soak the earth in college pool. Dwarf lay at their feet, his skin torn up like so many blood-soaked rags, as though a wind of blade had descend upon it with a sudden fury.

             Datti Abubakar Mahmud😁