Three Signs Of Death(Ayush Kumar) Three Signs Of Death
By Ayush

“Ho!” grunted Anaun, as he mounted the azure-fleshed reptile, then grappling the rusted harness of the beast; he made it move, clinging on along the rugged edges of the mountain, to the woods of willows. The willows dozed in the mild breeze as a distant hoot made the crickets chirp, occasionally; Anaun gazed sternly across the woods, and then irritated by the flicker of his ‘mount’, he kicked it. He carried the dead crow Qarga, he carried the horn of bison Goshi; and when he’d crossed the woods, he’d carry the rotten apple of the witch, too-the three signs of death all in his sack. It was believed that, to the master of the crow, the horn and the apple, Death would serve like a slave; and this was in Anaun’s mind when he’d slain the shape-shifting crow-man Qarga and had torn apart the horns of the giant Goshi- now was the turn of the trickster, the witch. Fuzfa, of the willow woods was feared far and wide for her evil tricks that inflicted madness upon the minds of folks who dared to go through the woods; mad…Anaun was, and after the blood and gore he’d witnessed along the stony roads, he wasn’t to be afraid of imprudent tricks.
Giggles, as the hefty reptile trudged along, teased Anaun as he passed by shabby willows and blinking hollows; a look behind and the shroud of mist told him-he’d come too far to return.
In distance, he could see a shape forming, as if the mist was carving a creature to haunt the woods and its beings; Anaun’s muscles tensed as his grip on the chains tightened- he’d seen the witch, and the apple that she held.
She didn’t have eyes, nose or ears, her face was ivory except for the rosy lips that would tear open every now and then to reveal a pointed tongue- She was Fuzfa, the witch of willows.
“O rider of the eastern marshes,” hissed the witch, “I, Fuzfa, offer you the rotten apple, the third sign of death…in return all I ask is your heart, come rider take your prize and make death your slave.”
Anaun slipped his hand into the sack that hung by his shoulder, then taking out the horn of Goshi, he roared- “My father taught me, eyes reflect a man’s heart…” he pressed the horn against his left eye and hauled the eyeball out of the socket; “O Fuzfa, the trickster of willow woods, here take my heart that is my eye.”
Fuzfa, enraged, charged towards Anaun as she cursed, “Your father was a vile man rider and you’re a cheater!”
Hardly had she reached Anaun, when he thrust the horn of Goshi bathed in his blood, against her bosom; the rotten apple fell in his hand as the trickster witch lay still amidst the mist from which she was born.
With the crow, the horn and the apple in his sack, Anaun waited for Death to come…
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