(1st excerpt from A Book of Creation) In the Halls of Exile 1

Introduction to Azrah

     Azrah turned and saw the light as it struggled to shine into the recess of his cell, and it lit up a portion of the wall where he stood tall. His turquoise feathers shifted in the rays of light as he looked at the words he had carved there so many years ago. He remembered the soft sound of his sisters’ voices as he read their words over, ‘Let it be known that an entire race of people can be redeemed through the actions of a single being.’ Their words were the one thing that Azrah had left to hold on to, and no matter how much uncounted time passed in Exile, he had faith that he would live to see the Creators plan through to the end. Hard as it may have been for him to hold onto his faith, tossed in a hole to be forgotten, and after a quarter century, Azrah still had not diminished.

     “I’ll find you girls,” he said wistfully with his shimmering emerald eyes locked on the engraving. “Your words have such power to resolve even the most cowardice of hearts,” he looked at his surroundings. “And, here, they hold the power to steady my mind,” he rambled in a daze. “To steady it in these, the hours that would bring despair to the common man,” he turned from the wall to peer into the darkest recesses of the cave. The longer he stared at it, the more the shadow seemed to breathe and stare right back. “Despair…it hangs in wait among the shadows of my cell, only held at bay by the light of this truth,” weary, he turned back to the phrase and brought up his arm, and lightly, his claws clicked across the shallow scratches in the surface.

     The sound of something unfamiliar caught his attention and brought him out of his meditation. It came from the cave entrance, and Azrah made his way over to peer up the shaft and see what he could. He flinched aside as a trickle of small rocks and pebbles tumbled down the steep decline, their shadows broke the column of light that shone into the cave, and he stepped back as the stones skipped around his feet. Then, a larger shadow spotted the ground as a startling sound echoed to make Azrah jump back and away from the opening entirely. It was a bumbling caterwaul that huffed and squeaked as it neared the bottom of the cell at a great speed.

     At last, a dizzy, little ball of fluff bounced and slid to a quick stop at the cave floor, limbs outstretched, and claws dug in. It shook its head and let loose a gruff meow while it looked around. On its shoulder, under the fur, a small green light blinked.

     Azrah leaned down and forward to look at the little thing, and his nose inched out of the dark and into the column of light to reveal a long, chiseled snout.

     The cub’s eyes widened at the rows of teeth to either side, but when Azrah fully stepped into the light, his broad and towering stature finally frightened it. The cub shot backwards on all fours with an arched back and a raised tail, and when Azrah raised the plume of his crown in curiosity, it let out a small, yet, hearty growl.

     Azrah tilted his head aside and his crown of feathers eased as he observed the little creature. Not wanting to threaten it, he brought his wings in close and crouched down, and wrapped his tail around his feet to seem smaller. There, he stayed absolutely still. The cub calmed after a minute, but it took much longer than that for Azrah to coax it over, and when it finally came close enough to sniff his hands, it seemed shocked at how he smelled with a single whiff.

     “Yes," he chirped with a chuckle and a nod. "I’m sure I’m quite pungent,” he whistled with quick, sharp chirps that startled the cub to make it draw back in caution. “My apologies,” he offered in a softer pitch. “Where did you come from?” he wondered aloud as he looked at the blinking, green light, not expecting any answer, but still, he wondered while he watched its shoulder blink away.

     In just a couple of hours, Azrah and the cub were best of friends as they played, and played. Rough and tumble, they wrestled as Azrah let it gnaw on him here and there. The whole time, he would catch a better and better glimpse at the blinking light. At one point, the cub’s fur wrinkled just right, and Azrah saw the broken skin flip open to reveal the tiny device.

     “Did you catch yourself on something in the fall?” he hooked it with the tip of his nail as the cub flinched away with a yowl, and, just like that, the little blinking light flicked to the ground.

     The little fur-ball, on the other hand, poised itself near the entrance and twisted around to lick its shoulder. Azrah looked at the object light up the cave in a rhythmic pulse, and he figured it could only be one thing, a tracking beacon, then he snuffed it out with a crunch under his foot.

     The cub stretched its whole length up against the rocky slope as it reached towards the barred opening. With one paw farther forward than the other, it looked from the entrance to Azrah, and back again.

     Azrah had made the climb many times before in futile attempts to escape, but this time the climb could actually be of some use to help his little friend escape. He walked over, bent down and scooped the cub up in his arm. He tucked it in close, and with practiced skill, he scaled the rocky rise with great effort. Nearly half of an hour had passed by the time he reached the top, and with a final boost upward, he let go of the rock face and grabbed hold of the bars that closed off the hole. He wedged himself into the corner and, anchored safely, he pulled the cub from his side and slowly began to lift. Carefully, he balanced its weight as he lifted higher and higher. The cub reached out for the ledge as Azrah eased it closer and closer, and with a sigh of relief, he set the cub on safe ground. Not missing a beat, the cub ran off and out of sight, and Azrah made his way back down.

A Book of Creation is available on Amazon, here : https://www.amazon.com/Book-Creation-Gregory-James-Gardner/dp/0692105409/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524508182&sr=1-4&keywords=a+book+of+creation