Tales of Ayre

It was a cool summer’s morning in the middle of January. A crisp twenty-seven degrees celsius on the platform in the centre of the suburb. The air was thick with the smell of wet foliage and fertiliser, with a hint of burnt oil and grease. Far in the distance, a horn blared and brakes whistled as a kilometre long cargo train began its slow task of coming to a halt. Closer and muffled behind concrete sound deflecting walls, hybrid cars and SUVs along with diesel powered trucks tore through the freeway to get their occupants and cargoes to their destinations.

The platform was a buzz. People looking down at their smartphones that were blaring advertisements and cringy music videos. Others looked at displays on their arms. And others still preferred to socialise, chatting about the latest gossip and current headlines. All waiting for the public train so they could get to the inner city.

The local council had just renovated the station. Cool light blues along the walls and maroon tiling for the floor. Still shiny with their factory coatings. Above, long planters that stretched from one end of the platform to the other. They misted every so often to keep plants hydrated and the awaiting passengers cool. But it just made the air thick and humid.

He adjusted the collar of his shirt. The weather forecast said it was going to be forty-two today. So he continued to stand there, waiting for his train. Then the rails clacked as the six car passenger rail crested around the bend, coming into view. It was grey, yellow, and green. The city public transport colours. Jace took a step up closer to the edge of the platform. The steel tires made their characteristic screech as the train came to a halt.

With a hiss, the doors opened. Jace stood aside to let the off going passengers leave, then he and a small crowd funnelled into the passenger cars. Jace was lucky today. There was an open window seat for which he dove. He then rested his arm up against the windowsill. The doors closed. A halting shift occurred as the train took off again.

Despite powerful air conditioning. The interior was musty and thick with the body odours of thousands of people. At least the seats were comfy and in good condition. Jace could deal with that.

It was several more stops before Jace could reach his destination at the heart of the city. His body being jostled by the trains rocking as it sped along the track. Cars honk and truck horns blared as the train emerged from a recessed tunnel. Taking to the centre of the freeway.

Jace had leant his head on the crook of his arm, watching the mixture of green and red roofs behind dull concrete walls as they flew by. Many people have taken it upon themselves to cover the walls in displays of paint. Each mural blurred into each other as the walls rolled past.

The central station was underground. Loud with the bustling of morning crowds as the people rushed to get to work. Jace put his hands in his pockets and ambled his way out to the chattering escalators. No need to make eye contact with strangers, as all he wanted to do was make it to the city library to check out its endless hoard of hardback books.

The walk was short, the noise of the crowd dimmed by a thicket of rustling trees. It smelt cleaner here, but still the thick scent of dew. The wind carried a strong smell of hot waffles and steaming coffee. Jace’s shoes scraped lightly across the pavement as he continued to walk along. Paying no mind to the small line of cargo container sized food stalls.

The library building itself was a modern construction with many stories forming a flat ziggurat. Its first skin being a bare smooth yellow tinged concrete. Attempts to beautify the imposing structure, both to soften its appearance and to reduce the cost of cooling the building. The result of which was each of its stepped layers had greenery overhanging the sides, giving the mock look of a hanging garden.

Jace climbed the steps up and reached further into his pocket to pull out his ID card. A simple yellowed card with his full name, home address and birthday. He presented the piece of plastic to the receptionist as he passed through the lobby and scanned it against the door. The door simply chimed and let him in.

The interior of the lobby was plain and modern, with glass walls and white laminated floors, which were marked with streaks of black from the shoes of many library goers. There were even simple blue upholstered seats around the ground floor. Jace journeyed deeper.

The air was clean and smelt of old paper and splashed cheap coffee. The carpet was a dark red and hard-wearing to survive the many shoes that would stamp across it. Jace stretched his arm up as he walked by the rows upon rows of categorised and alphabetised shelves. His fingers lightly brushed against the old hardwood, feeling its lacquered texture. Where were the fantasy books? Jace wondered.

Despite the availability of audiobooks and digital books. Jace still preferred a nice hefty hardback in his hand to read. The feel of the paper and the smell of it. And it also helped that his eyes didn’t hurt as much after reading.

He turned down an aisle, following the directions to the fantasy fiction section of the library. The first set of shelves were marked ‘Fantasy, A’. Jace began slowly combing through the aisle, scanning the various books. Many of which started with The.

He stopped. A single book caught his eye. The spine looked old, and the edges were flaying. He reached up to the book and dragged it out from between two larger octavos. Once the book was in his hand. The leather felt was rough and well used. With The book itself smelling of stale ink. The writing on the spine was impossible to read, and the title, with only the word "Ayre" discernible, had also suffered damage.

“This is new.” Jace eyed the cover of the old book. He opened the cover carefully. The text on the inside title cover read “Tales of Ayre.”

Jace flicked the page and began reading. The world shook and rocked! Everything in Jace’s vision went dark.

Jace, for the longest time, felt as if he was floating. An infinite darkness obscured his vision as he continued to float at the edge of consciousness. Was he dead? Jace tried to shake his head. Everything felt stiff, like a dreadful night’s sleep. He tried to suck in a breath of air, and his chest barely moved. There were no sharp pains. He felt nothing broken as far as he could tell as he tried to shift his heavy feeling body. He tried to flex his toes and fingers, but they refused to move.

The fog covering his mind cleared. His senses slowly crawled back to clarity after being knocked out so thoroughly. He tried to blink open his eyes. They refused to open. He took in a sharp snort through his nose. He could smell the telltale sign of soil and the thick, humid scent of woodland. As he stretched, he felt odd, with something seeming to flick far out of place. He wiped his eyes from sleep and groaned aloud. His voice felt hoarse.

Blinking his eyes for a moment, he looked around him. Ancient trees loomed overhead. They had thick green canopies which let very little light filter down towards the forest floor. The forest echoed with the sounds of frogs and chipping insects. He could easily hear a stream of water gurgling and weaving through the root knotted surroundings.

Jace reflexively shook himself. He immediately looked down in surprise. He saw the backs of paws. Covered in a patchwork of both grizzled and fiery orange fur. He wiggled the toes, claws shot out at the slight movement. He could feel the forest floor with its loamy, twig filled soil. What was he? Jace wondered to himself. Turning his head to look at his side, he saw haunches that were also covered in salt and pepper fur. And Jace also spotted the part of him that felt out of place, a similarly furred tail with a black strip rubbing down the back of it.

“I hope I’m dreaming,” he thought to himself. “Or this is going to be a huge problem.” His heart rate lifted and he could hear it in his ears.

Jace tested the flexibility of his new body. He sat and tried to lift an arm to scratch at the back what were clearly pointed ears on the sides of his head. He could barely reach and had to lean his head down to scrape his forelimb across the back of his head.

Jace squinted as he looked down at his now naked and white furred belly. “Oh.” Jace let out. He was clearly some sort of canine, but he definitely wasn’t a dog.

Jace sauntered carefully around. Surprised by how easily he could walk around on all fours. “This can not be happening.” He said to himself in mild panic. “This has to be a dream.” He reached up to pinch his cheek. He yelped in pain as the claws were sharp and drew a tiny amount of blood.

“Okay, it’s not a dream. I’m whatever this is, in the middle of a forest somewhere.” Jace tapped his forepaws against the crest of his head. “Think, Jace, Think.” He looked up at the canopy. “If I’m going to find my way out of here, I need to get to higher ground.” He thought. So He sat on his haunches again and raised a paw. He flexed it lightly, claws pushed out. “Maybe these would allow me to climb the trunks?”

He walked up to the trunk of a tree that he thought was the tallest, with some apprehension. “At Least it’s at a slight angle.” He placed his forepaws against the rough bark of the tree, which smelled heavily of sap and tannins.

The ease with which he climbed up through the tree and its branches surprised Jace. As if he had been doing this for years. The last time Jace climbed anything was the rock face of a sheer cliff, being guided by his father and siblings. He wasn’t exactly a mountain goat of an individual. The leaves brushed past his rough fur as he climbed up further and further. More and more light filtered through as the canopy thinned out.

The wonderful view of a sea of leaves delighted Jace’s eyes. Each leaf being a different shade of verdant green. He could see further, noticing a range of tall mountains stretching off into the distance. He turned his head around. The sky was an overcast of grey clouds. The wind was stiff and bracing against his rough, dark nose. He saw yet more mountains around him. There were, however, signs of fires burning. And as he squinted his eyes. He could barely make out the dark tops of roofs past the tree line.

“I guess I’m in a place where people regularly burn wood, I guess.” Jace mentally shrugged. “Maybe there is someone there that could help me?”

It was likely, Jace thought to himself, that he’d lose the direction of where he’d need to go once he got back down to the forest floor. So he did his best to keep his head faced toward the rising smoke. With such sharp senses, Jace could barely pick out the smell of smoke and what was cooking on it. The smell made him salivate. Climbing back down was a chore. At least the claws made the climb easy.

Jace had to pace himself carefully as he trekked through the forest. He first had to find a stream of water to sip from before he travelled any further towards his chosen destination.

Luckily, his ears could direct him to the closest source of water. All he had to do was listen, tilting those ears toward the sound of splashing and crashing waters. He followed through the knots of roots and climbing vines towards the sound.

He brushed past some blackberries along the way. Tempted, Jace wished to take a bite, but he didn’t know if the berries would poison him or not. So he avoided them, however tempting it was.

There was a break in the forest, opening up into a pool of water that had reeds and cattails growing out of the centre. The area smelt of dead matter and felt humid. The water streaming into the pool was stirring up the silt, making the pool look filthy.

Jace took his chances by taking a drink of the stream directly. Jace regretted that decision. The water had a brackish taste, making him want to throw up. But water was water, and he needed to quench his thirst before he moved on. The taste was lingering. He spat at the floor a few times as he reorientated himself. He closed his eyes and sniffed the air again, looking for that scent of smoke.

Something Jace noticed about this body was the skin seemed to be anchored at points instead of being attached to the muscle, so as he brushed past bushes and branches. He would get caught and had to stop and back up slightly to get free.

Trudging, trudging, trudging. Jace kept his direction, following that wisp of scented smoke.

He had the feeling of being watched. The light of the day was fading as the fireflies came out to dance. The Tree seemed to arch in. Jace could feel the claustrophobia building up inside him. Feeling his breaths become harder as the light faded. His movement slowed to a measured crawl. Jace couldn’t understand why he felt like this. Why was he crouching to the ground as he got closer to the source of the smoke?

Jace heard the impact of something on the tree next to him. So he bolted fast the way he came. He could hear the barks and howls of dogs behind him as he ran as fast as he could.

Jace was breathing hard. His body was hot from the work of running. He needed a safe spot to rest. Whatever was stalking him from far away would not stop coming after him. That he could die, again at least, panicked his already tired mind.

The dogs had given up the chase a while ago, but he could still hear something or someone was still stalking after him. Jace needed to slow down and breathe. He couldn’t figure out why he was so hot and so tired.

He looked around and ducked under a bush. The ground felt inviting and soft. He stretched out and curled up. The sounds of the forest became louder. The insect chirping and frog songs constantly ringing in Jace’s ears. His breathing was ragged and hot, but he tried his best to keep his quiet. Something snapped a twig as it stepped through the foliage. The crack caused Jace to jerk and hold his breath for a moment.

He nearly gasped.

A hulking individual stepped out from the brush, with the darkness concealing much of their features. He could tell the individual was tall, even with the loss of height Jace was currently suffering. Thick set and heavy musculature. But the head was definitely not human. They had a substantial jaw. Was that a glint of a fang? And the smell. Jace had to cover his nose. It was like he walked into a gym’s locker room after a team went in there.

The ground was crunching beneath the pursuer’s feet. They stood there and snorted the air. They turned and stared Jace directly in the eye. Jace bolted away yet again. Only this time, Jace felt as if death was really upon him. Despite how fast he ran, bouncing over roots and dashing under branches, he couldn’t achieve any sort of separation from the immense humanoid monster.

Jace broke out into another cleaning of the forest, and panting heavily. The figure behind him trailing close behind. He could hear their guttural breaths. Jace looked back at the pursuer and tripped hard with a yelp. Tussling over onto his side.

This. was his fate now. He was going to die… The world was slowing down as the figure stepped towards him. Then a growing darkness approached from the corner of his eye and scooped him up.

Jace struggled weakly against his captor.

“Do not struggle, pup. Do you want to be taken by the Kith?” The cloaked and cowled figure said in a feminine voice.

Jace ceased his squirming. “What’s a Kith?” the question rang out in his mind. However, that quickly slipped out of his thoughts as he noticed the speed at which his now saviour was carrying him. “Eeek!”

“Pipe down.” The figure growled. “Let me concentrate on getting you as far away from here as possible.”