nr2 chp7

CHAPTER 7

                  I never knew we had complete control of our connection. Mitiksha told us the techniques. It was really just a question of will power and commandment over one self. She was a very good teacher. We could successfully block and allow each other into our minds, but reading someone’s mind without letting them know our presence was really tough. None of us could do it. On the other hand, Mitiksha was a pro. She said, “We are taught this when we turn twenty years. But your grandparents were taken before that. So they probably are learning it right now.” I hoped what she was saying was true. And that they were safe.

                  There was very little time left for us to practice because the moon was about to set. I was proud of how much I could learn in so little time. The moon-set on Prisma was so much more beautiful than sunsets on earth. I always wanted to watch a sunset with Yen, but now I wished I watched the moon set on Prisma with him. I recalled how he had given me his Audi for my birthday. I wondered how he made his parents agree to it. His dad loved their car. He hadn’t told me what all he had to do for such an amazing gift. Thinking of Yen made me remember of Arya’s feelings about him. It hadn’t really left my mind the entire time, it had only sidetracked. I’d imagined a hundred different jealous girls who would try to take Yen away from me. But I had never considered Arya one of them. He’d told me he wouldn’t give up. I’d have to fight for Yen, well at least not physically. I missed Abhi too. He had always been there for me. Always. He was the best best-friend anyone could ever have.

                  A large thud interrupted my thoughts. It was Mitiksha’s rora again, “Oh God Mitiksha, could you please keep those things far away from us?” Mitiksha scowled and said. But next to it, was another rora. It was Shikhar. The stories of Prisma said that if all the clan members of an orea died, the corresponding rora would become as tiny as a normal eagle. But Shikhar was the same in size. Since it only belonged to grandma, I knew she was alive. It was such a relief! As I walked towards it I saw grandma. “Thank god you’re alive!” I went to hug her when I saw her supporting grandpa. He had blood all over him. Even grandma looked tired. “What happened?” we all gasped. All of them looked towards Shikhar. There was something on its back. We had to stretch our legs to see. It was Tony, dead.

                  “How did all this happen?” “We first need to get Fiddle to Ospea.” Grandma said. Assuming Ospea was something like hospitals, we tagged along. Mitiksha spoke in Pris, but I recognized the word Lusciata. Mitiksha removed that powder like thing. But it was very little. We reached the jungle again. I hadn’t imagined Ospea like this. I don’t know why I was expecting doctors. Grandpa was kept on a golden leaf-bed. Some of the Prismates started searching in the forest and came back with some soil. The soil here was medicinal. Grandpa didn’t show signs of improvement as fast as he’d shown when we used Lusciata. But it was working since I saw grandma calming down.

                  Grandma turned towards us and said, “We were talking to the others and telling them all about what was happening.  That’s when the news of the soil storm reached us. We left to find you’ll immediately. But the jungle had changed completely. The moon was up and tried to connect. We could only hear screams and we felt the connection slowing down. Gradually it faded and left us scared. We searched and searched but couldn’t find any of you. As a battle practice, we were training for connection control. After several hours Shikhar showed up. It showed us what all Tony had done. Mitiksha’s rora had told Shikhar all about it. All the royals connected with us, and started our search. Luckily we hadn’t eaten any of the food. One of the other roras had seen Tony hiding in the jungle. We followed directions and found him, but he put up a good fight. Every time he was hurt, he used Lusciata and became stronger every time. He did this to your grandpa. Eventually the game turned in our hands. He’s dead now.”

                  I wished I was the one who killed Tony. Anyways, at least he was dead. We had hated the roras right from the start, but we were alive today, because of them. I walked towards Shikhar and Mitiksha’s rora. I was closer to them than I ever was, but I still maintained my distance. I noticed how beautiful and thick each of its feathers was. It was hard to believe I was thinking of them beautiful. As a thank you, I did the walking-fingers gesture towards it, like all Prismates had greeted us. Grandma laughed out loud. “This is not how you thank a rora. If you feel gratitude towards it, you look straight in its eyes, let it look at you, and it will show you what it feels. “Show me? As in it’s gonna dance if it accepts my gratitude? Haha!” “No Lune, it has its own way of showing you stuff.” “Huh?” I wasn’t really sure what to interpret when Marsella quickly commented, “You said earlier that rora showed you about Tony. What exactly did you mean?”

                  Grandma looked at us like we were kindergarten students asking her a complex mathematics question. But she answered any way. “When you have a rora, it is assigned to you, but that is not the only relation between you both. You both can communicate.” “So one connects with their rora? When the moon is up?” Arya asked. “No dear. It’s nothing like the connection that we have. Each rora communicates differently with its members. Some roras prefer talking, its nor Pris nor English. It’s a different language altogether. And oh they sound really harsh. Some roras transfer their memory, so you can see everything that the rora has in its memory. Some of them simply make you feel what they want you to know. Shikhar is among the roras who communicate by showing you their memories.” Wow! I was really in a magic fairy tale. [with lot of villains in it!]

                  I did what grandma had told me, I looked intently in Shikhar’s eyes. I waited for it to look at me the same way, but it just turned around and flew away. It rejected me! This was so embarrassing. Everyone was laughing at me! Argh!! I was never gonna look at it the same way again. Shikhar had missed his chance of friendship with me. His loss! In the meantime grandpa started to feel better. We could see him recovering. All of us were so relieved. Before I could step out I saw Marsella crying silently behind a tree. She was missing Abhi, of course. I went and hugged her tightly. She started crying even more loudly now. After some time she gained control of herself and we joined the others.

                  “Hey Lune?” Arya called. “Do you remember I told you that I had seen Mitiksha’s look-alike somewhere?” “Yeah” I replied but Marsella was completely lost. “What?” she kept repeating over and over again. We gave her a quick recap and Arya continued, “I just remembered. Once I heard my dad talking about some riots that were prone to happen. I rushed to that area but the chaos had begun already. There was only one girl left who wasn’t running away. She had no expressions on her face. I went to help her but she only looked at me. I dragged her away and saved her from a roof which was about to fall on her. She looked pretty amused and shocked. I didn’t get it! Without saying a word, she just left from there. She ran away and I couldn’t find her. But this was about a year ago. I swear she looked the same like Mitiksha.”

nr2 chp6

CHAPTER 6

              No. This couldn’t happen. “Tell me you’re lying” I yelled at Tony. His smirk told me otherwise. No. No. Was that the reason the connection didn’t work earlier? I didn’t want to believe this. Marsella, my grandparents… no. The surroundings started to blur and darken. “What did you do to them?” Arya was also screaming his lungs out now. “Oh you want to know the details then. Okay. Your royal dear grandparents have probably eaten their food by now which is poisoned. Guess who poisoned it?” he laughed so cruelly I had the most instant urge to kill him by tearing him apart. “And as for your pretty little friend, I shot her right in her heart. With this very gun! Now you tell me your plan. If you don’t, I’ll make you. You two were lucky to escape from that storm, go to Samar, kill him, kidnap Rhodes and come back here to hide. But I figured it all out. If you wrecked the shuttle, you won’t be able to get back either. Come on, spill your backup plan. Tell me how to travel back to earth.” He was one, we were two. We could take him down. But I didn’t want Tony to die so easily. I’d take the life out of him like a psycho-killer. Slowly, part-by-part. He’d killed the people I loved. I was barely aware of tears trickling my cheek. While I was in the midst of deciding which kind of torture would hurt him the most, Arya spoke in a very convincing way “Okay. Looks like you figured it out already. You’re smarter than we thought. Lune, I think we should tell him the truth. But Tony, in return I want our lives safe.” What was Arya talking about? We hadn’t even seen those two guys. Let alone killing and kidnapping them. He definitely had something in mind. “Oh yes, sure” Tony replied a little sarcastically.

                  I felt sort of numb. What was happening? Why couldn’t I be a normal human? Why did I have to be an alien? I wished I had a normal life. But I had to come back to reality. Arya was leading me and Tony lingered behind. I had no idea what Arya had in mind. Today was one of the few days when the moon shone. Arya connected at about the same time when I thought of it. “What are you going to tell him Arya?” “I frankly don’t know Lune. It’s just a distraction. We have no weapons and he has a fully loaded gun. A fight could turn into his favor.” We discussed what to tell Tony. His harsh voice interrupted us, “Speak up fellas. What’s the plan?”. “There’s another shuttle”, Arya said, “When Pikshtra invaded Prisma, he’d hid an extra shuttle here to be on the safer side. When I and Lune escaped, we encountered that shuttle and planned all of this.” I added, “We’re reach there soon. And remember your promise Tony.” I told him in the same tone he used for us. I wanted to kill him so badly. Arya now spoke through the connection. “There’s a long rope like thing under my leg. Don’t look at it right now. Its long. I’ll pass it over to you on the count of three. When we stretch it from both sides, let’s hope Tony trips over.” I was in.

                  The plan executed successfully and we snatched the gun from him. Arya pointed the gun towards him but I was not gonna let him die so easily. ”Wait Arya” I said, “He has killed them. He killed them all! He deserves being tortured at every step while he drags himself to hell. But first I want to know his purpose. Speak up!” I was sure Arya was on my side and he felt the same way. As an agreement, he shot both his legs first, making him immobile. “Tell me why you wanted to come here. Before you even the others have tried to implement the connection in human brains but it never worked. You thought it would work if you came here? What did you want Tony?” “I really can’t believe you’ll are that dumb kids. It’s not only about the connection. You see this place around you? It’s magical. I know about the lamors and lusciata. The leaves are made of pure gold. The air is so pure.” “What’s lusciata?” I asked him like he was my science teacher. “You seriously don’t know? Your dear grandfather didn’t tell you?” He hadn’t. “Figure it out yourselves kids” Arya had his gangster look on his face like before, “You are under my gun. And you think such kind of an answer is going to help you?” Tony looked scared for once in his life. “lusciata is a kind of plant with medicinal properties. It can cure any wound within seconds and has the ability of curing cancer completely.” Why didn’t grandpa tell us about this? May be he’d just forgotten. “So you thought you’d take all of this to earth and get a fortune that’ll set your life?” “No kid, I didn’t want to take any of this to earth. I wanted to make this, another earth. The amount of money I would get is beyond counting limits. But more importantly, you know what I would become? God!” His eyes told me how much he was yearning to complete his mission. He might even have completed it if he hadn’t told us how he’d killed my family. “Good plan Tony, but now it’s your time to die.” I snatched the gun from Arya and shot his shoulder. He started crawling towards his left. He took out something from his pocket and said “Haven’t you heard? Never wound something that you can’t kill”.

                  He threw the soil in our eyes. Before we could attack him we caught a glimpse of him sprinkling the powder on his shoulder. It was like magic. We could literally see the wound getting dissolved in his skin. We caught him before his next move. “Did you seriously think you would be fast enough?” We’d held him tight but by the time he had already put the powder on his legs. He was fit and fine as before but he didn’t have the gun. We had. I put the gun straight in his mouth. I was about to pull the trigger when I heard a voice in my head. Marsella’s voice. It said, “Kill him Lune. He killed Fiddle and Fiona. Kill him!” I was obviously imagining her voice asking me to avenge her and my grandparents. But then something weird happened. Arya connected to me and he was telling me the same thing. We could feel another presence in our minds. Marsella was alive? But Tony had shot her in her heart… “Guys I’m alive. Thanks to Mitiksha. I’ll tell you the rest later but first kill Tony.”  We both were so happy to hear her voice we’d lost hold of Tony. He had disappeared from our hands and we saw him running far ahead. We chased him but he was fast too. We barely heard his voice saying, “Hey guys, I think I forgot to mention this. But lusciata gives you great speed too!” We lost him. Shit! I had a gun on him, and I let him go. I’d never felt so restless and guilty in my life. We searched and searched for him but couldn’t find him.

                  We tried to connect to Marsella and told her everything. We could feel her disappointment too. She told her where she was and we followed her directions. She was sitting on the ground beside Mitiksha. I hugged her so tightly, it hurt both of us! I was just so happy that she was alive. Even Arya did the same. “How did you survive?” he asked her. “It’s all thanks to Mitiksha.” She said. Tony shot me but didn’t realize Mitiksha was nearby. He just shot and left. Mitiksha told me that she was going to get something for me. I don’t remember anything after that but I think I survived!” she said laughingly. Now Mitiksha spoke, “Tony bad human. He doesn’t know we have heart on right side. Not on left. So Marsella alive.” What? Even I didn’t know this. Thank heavens. It was such a relief. Marsella said, “I can’t even feel my bruise. She told me that she had used some plant extracts called Lusciata.” So Lusciata it was. “Tony had the same thing” we informed her. I and Arya told them the entire story. “We’ll catch him” Mitiksha said with confidence. We also told them about lamors. Mitiksha was pretty impressed. She told us that inspite of living here her whole life, she’d never seen a lamor. Hm. We were lucky. “I think we must go to the royal building or tent or whatever it is. We need to take care of grandma and grandpa.” I said. Both Mitiksha and Marsella looked at each other.

                  “Lune, before shooting me, Tony said that he had poisoned them and killed both of you with a tree or something. I thought you’ll were dead. I couldn’t even feel you’ll in the connection. But after I connected with you, we both went to the tent-house where Fiddle and Fiona were. But there was nobody there. I couldn’t connect to them. I have no idea where they are. But we saw the food right there. So they haven’t eaten it.” So they’re alive too? But where were they? Mitiksha was listening quietly, but now she spoke, “They blocked you out.” We all replied with “huh?” She was laughing. You’ll need to know a lot about connection. She closed her eyes and her rora came before us. Why had she called it? She kind of hugged its neck and it went away. We were still uncomfortable with the roras. Specially that one. But he flew away immediately. “I will teach you how to block, allow and be invisible in the connection. Let’s begin.”

nr2 chp5

CHAPTER 5

I was so used to fainting by now. Every time I fainted, I woke up in a new place. As I opened my eyes slowly, I was wondering “where would I be now?” It was pretty small, dark and rough. I was used to this too. At least nothing was moving. So I hoped I was far away from the jungle. Arya was still unconscious. I tried waking him up. “Where are we?” he asked in his rough voice. I really had no idea. “I don’t know” is all I could say. “Can you peep outside from that little hole like thing?” he pointed at a small opening above my head. The place was so tiny he couldn’t even come over to me. The hole was above me and I had to stretch but I finally made it. “Oh crap!” I said after realizing where we were, “We’re in the jungle itself. And I suppose we’re underground, under a tree and this one’s the only one fallen. We’re out of luck I guess”.

“On the count of three” he said. “One Two Three” We tried our level best, not once, not twice but several times. The tree wouldn’t move even an inch. I felt like yelling my lungs out. Arghhhhh!  We sat down disheartened. Several minutes passed. Arya’s look reminded me of the conversation that had remained incomplete before we left. “Hey why did you ask me about Yen?” I asked breaking the silence between us.

“Forget it Lune. Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen.”

“No I want to know” I insisted. I didn’t want him to hold on to false hopes. I would tell him what I felt right away. I could sense him bracing himself for something big. For the first time, I heard his soft and pleading voice. “Promise me this will remain between us” It was unusual of him to request. His next words were expected, “I’m in love” he told me. “Arya, really I had a crush on you, but that was before Yen. I love him now.” I tried to be diplomatic by adding, “There are plenty others out there. Better than me, smarter, more beautiful…” Now Arya interrupted me. “You’re getting me wrong.” He said nothing else and his silence was killing me. “What do you mean then?” Arya looked up and added after a long pause, “I’m in love with Yen”.

“What!!”  That was a bummer!I had a hard time stomaching it. Arya was so manly and rough and handsome and strong. He couldn’t be gay. He had to be joking. He guessed what I was thinking and said, “What? I don’t walk like gays? Don’t dress up like them? Don’t look like them? Which part is making you hard to believe?” “Uhm… all of it actually”. He gave me a small smile. “Lune, that doesn’t matter. It is a kind of misunderstanding that all gays behave like that. Some of us are like me, and I’m not the only one trust me. On the other hand even some of the straight guys behave like gays, but they are straight.” I didn’t know how to react so I went with “ohh…kay”. Suddenly a question popped up in my head, “Arya, you should hate me, in that case. And have you ever told Yen about this?” “No” he said. “I don’t hate you, you’re my friend. But I’m not gonna give up on Yen so soon. Anyways, all of this is inappropriate at the moment.” He was right. We needed to get out of here first. But I don’t think this was ever going to leave my head. At least for the next few weeks. “If I survived that long” I added in my head.

Suddenly I noticed the moon from that little hole. I tried connecting with the others but I couldn’t feel any presence in my head. The same happened with Arya. Maybe the connection was different on Prisma. Damn! What was happening? Arya started singing our song. It relieved me. Before I could start thinking practically, Arya, for a change, asked me an absolutely impractical question “Hey does Mitiksha seem familiar to you?” “What??” Everything that Arya was talking about today, made me reply with only ‘what’s in different tones. “How is that even possible?” I stated obviously. “I know, he said. She’s an alien and all. Maybe she has a look-alike on earth. There’s something odd about her. I’ve seen her, I mean her look-alike somewhere on earth. But I can’t recall”. “Don’t bother much Arya. It’s probably a co-incidence.” While I was assuring him that he was wrong, a flash of how Mitiksha looked at Arya played before my eyes. When I told him that, we agreed on the fact that something fishy was going on.

Out of the blue,actually out of the black, we heard a soft noise. I peeked out of the hole again to see if someone had actually come to help us. I saw some tiny creatures hopping like rabbits. They distinguished themselves from the other weird looking insects and small animals because they were extremely graceful and cute. They were light yellow and light pink in color, had big black eyes and were tiny, almost as small as our face. They had short ears and long length fur on their head. I felt rather crazy to find them gullible. All of a sudden, one of them had an eye exactly in front of me and I banged my head on something behind. “What is it?” Arya asked me. I told him about them. But to my surprise, he started laughing. “What is so funny?” I asked him, confused. “Not funny, Lune. We’re gonna be safe now. Didn’t you realize? They were lamors. Grandpa told us about them remember?”

Oh yes! Lamors, the one-time genies. “Remember what Fiddle told us?” Arya said, now excitedly, “Lamors are like genies. They grant you one wish. But the wish has to be made in your head, and they read your mind once, through touch. But each one gets only one wish and it shouldn’t violate the laws of nature according to them. They’re pretty intelligent. You can’t find them. They find you.” Yes! Yes! I think the lamor knew we were going to ask for their help. One of them extended their paw-like hand through the small hole. “Go on Lune, grab it and make a wish to get us out.” I did. But nothing happened and they hopped away. “Maybe it was just a fake story” I told Arya. Shit! One chance we had at getting out and it was… Suddenly the ground started vibrating. The soil storm was starting again but this one was mild. The tree which had fallen rolled bit by bit. After a minute or two, it slowed and finally stopped. We helped each other out. It wasn’t a fake story! We were so hungry we felt like eating the fruits but we had no knowledge about them. What if they were poisonous? We couldn’t take a risk.

We tried to find our way out but it the entire jungle had changed after the soil-quake. I wished I had wished for us to get back with the others. That would have been better. Stupid me! Well anyways, at least we were out of that pit hole. We walked and walked until we finally found some fruits that we recognized we had eaten after we arrived here. We quickly climbed the tree and ate like we were breaking a hunger-fast. I didn’t even know I could climb trees. Prisma was teaching me a lot of things. Now we had some strength and enthusiasm too. We started finding our way back.

Out of nowhere we heard a voice, Tony’s voice saying “Night risers, hello. Good to see you’ll back and alive.” We couldn’t see him anywhere. “Oh no!” Arya said and looked up at the exact moment when Tony jumped on him from the tree above. He spoke in a very dangerous tone. “I cut the entire tree in such a way that it falls on you two, but you still survive. Lucky.Hm. Is that why you avenged me? By killing Samar-the pilot, by kidnapping Rhodes-the payload specialist and by wrecking the entire shuttle? How the hell are we supposed to get back?”

“We didn’t do any of this!” No matter how much we raised our voce he didn’t even blink. “And why the hell do you want to kill us anyway?” It was Arya who answered his own question, “You just needed some support here. We are of no use to you anymore huh?”  “Yes. You’re right, smart boy. And I know very well that you have wrecked the shuttle because these aliens do not know of my intentions and all the other night risers are dead…”

                                                                                                                                                                                                

nr2 chp4

CHAPTER 4

               I started bracing myself for death again when I saw a rora enter. Unexpectedly, this time it didn’t look ferocious or raged. This time it looked like a friend. We all stepped back except our grandparents who were cooing. “Seriously Fiona?” Arya asked, “It’s not a dog. It tried to kill us some time back. The way you are treating it, it seems like your pet.” Arya was angry. So was grandma now. “It only attacked us because it thought we were dangerous. Wouldn’t you try to kill a person who you consider as a threat to your life?” That explained everything. “And you dare not speak anything about Shikhar.” Great, so now they had names. “Shikhar is my rora” she said with a few tears trickling down her cheek. “I thought roras were assigned to a group of people” I asked. The reply was obvious. “Yes, but belonging to the royal family has its advantages.” Another rora appeared from the entrance. “I assume this one is yours grandpa” I presumed and he nodded. “How does this solve the sleeping problem anyway?” Marsella asked. My grandparents looked at her intently and said, “Prismates sleep on their roras”.

               “A maximum of seven to eight people can sleep on a rora. That is, the entire group.” I didn’t quite understand how that would be comfortable. Just then Shikhar opened up one of his wings and I saw the armlike structure again. Grandma climbed onto it and demonstrated to us how one slept. She put her head over its arm and lay the rest of the body on its wing. Shikhar embraced her like a mother. They looked so peaceful and contented in such a position. Nevertheless, I wasn’t going to go anywhere near them. Marsella and Arya agreed with me. But Tony wanted to try. He climbed on Shikhar as well but Shikhar started screaming in his crow-like voice. Tony was hurting it. What else could we expect?

               The three of us took the corner and slept away from the creature. Peaceful or not, it still scared us. The lonely feeling started taking over me. I wasn’t alone here, but I missed my parents and my brother. I also missed Yen. These were the four people I loved the most and without them my heart felt empty. Gradually I drifted to sleep. When I woke up, it took me a minute to recall everything that had happened. There was no concept of day and night here, due to absence of the sun. They slept as and when they got tired. From the corner of my eye I saw Arya awake. He was staring at nothing. “Hey” I called him. He was so involved in his deep thoughts that he didn’t even hear me. I went to him and he was startled for a moment. “What happened?” I asked “Are you serious about Yen?” he asked me firmly. I could only respond with “huh?” Where did that come from? Before I could ask him anything else, we saw Mitiksha enter. She started blabbering about something in Pris. This woke the others. She looked so sweet and elegant as she smiled. No one would have believed that she can be fierce enough to stop the roras. Grandma was the translator again, “they want to show you guys around.” “Are we sight-seeing on Prisma?” Marsella asked sarcastically. But we eventually agreed and left after some time.

               Fiddle and Fiona announced that they needed to talk with royals. They told us to go on a short tour with Mitiksha. “How will we communicate?” Tony stole my thoughts. “I speak English” Mitiksha said in a different accent. It left our mouths hanging open. “How do you know English?” Arya spoke each word distinctly. Fiddle told him that Pikshtra had trained some of them for English, perhaps it kept passing on. Mitiksha smiled in agreement. “You come with me or no?” Her english was not fluent, but enough for us to understand. Though her question was rude, the way she said it made it sound sophisticated and erudite. It kind of fascinated me. She closed her eyes and the rora she’d stopped earlier, came before us. “Climb” she said. Actually it was more of an order. “No” Marsella and I spoke together. “Let’s go on foot” I insisted. “Mad?” she asked with one eyebrow up. “No, we’re serious” we said. She only said “mad?” again. Now Arya came before her and spoke, “We’ll walk”. She reluctantly agreed, but I was glad she did. At first I thought Mitiksha had a crush on Arya. He was a handsome stud after all. But she never showed any flirty or romantic gesture.

               We started walking the beautiful lanes. “Are the leaves made of real gold?” Tony asked Mitiksha. She gave him a sharp look and said, “On earth, different gold. This, only color same. This, pure. On earth, mixture in gold.” So this was purer than gold. Maybe this was the reason Tony bought us here. No matter how much we asked him the real reason, he wouldn’t tell us. Tony and his little secret were getting on my nerves as it is when I realized Mitiksha staring expectantly at Arya. Something was definitely going on in her mind and it bothered her. It reminded me of Arya’s question earlier. Why had he asked me if I was serious about Yen? I had a crush on Arya back then but I loved Yen now. Was Arya interested in me? He never gave me any signs. Why else would he ask me such a question? Maybe he was trying to be brotherly. But there was something in his eyes which told me that it wasn’t brotherly concern. Yen would be so jealous! I could fool around with Arya a bit. No, I couldn’t play with Arya’s feelings. I hoped it didn’t get awkward between us henceforth. But now wasn’t the time.

               As I came out of my thought cloud, I felt rather odd that Mitiksha said that the gold on earth was mixed. Before I could ask, Tony stole my question again,

“How do you know this?”

For a split second I could see her eyes getting wide but then she said “Fiddle told me”.

She continued with her tour guiding. Occasionally, even she asked us questions, actually many questions about earth. The question answer session stopped abruptly when strong wind started blowing. It was a bit scary actually. The sound of the wind was nothing like that on earth. The sound was more like a roar of the most ferocious lion with an echo effect. We started running back again when Mitiksha started cursing us in Pris. It was easy enough to guess. “That’s why we go on rora” she kept saying, louder each time.  “Noha Noha” Mitiksha was screaming at the top of her voice. When we turned to the direction she was looking towards, we almost froze. “This is storm of Prisma” Mitiksha tried to explain.

The trees were moving. At least that’s what we thought at first. But soon we realized that it wasn’t the trees. The soil below the trees was moving, along with the trees. They were changing directions so fast that it was impossible to trace our path back. But that wasn’t the main trouble. The trouble started when the trees started coming in our direction. We all ran as fast as we could but the trees in front of us also started moving now. The levels of soil kept changing as well which made us fall down a lot. We didn’t even realize when we got separated. Arya was by my side, Mitiksha and Marsella were together and Tony was right behind them. I could literally see waves of soil. If I were at a distance, this could have been the most magical and beautiful view I had ever seen. But with our life in danger, this was a curse. There was chaos all over and there was nothing we could do. I could feel the storm slowing down, but that’s when a tree came from behind in full speed and knocked me and Arya down. We were about to get up when something hit straight on my head. The place was also spinning now. I was probably on the verge of fainting. Arya lend me a hand. Before I could grab it, something hit him too and he lay unconscious beside me. Bit by bit my world started becoming darker and soon I lost consciousness. 

nr2 chp3

CHAPTER 3

Instead of hay huts, there stood a pyramid like building before us. It was built with some translucent yet strong material. It was absolutely stupendous. It was a material that I had never seen before, something between metals and glass. Obviously the basic elements and metals of Prisma would differ from those of earth, but I didn’t expect it to be so damn beautiful. We entered the premises. I couldn’t believe how sophisticated and elegant this place was. However, I was shocked to find nobody. First the silence, then the absence of animals in the jungle and now this emptiness. Something was definitely wrong. We all looked at each other and no one was speaking.

All of a sudden, a group of people entered from the back door all talking at once. They looked exactly like us, with a few exceptions. Their clothing style was so weird. They all had wrapped themselves in a light colored material. It was somewhat like cloth and somewhat like leaves. Additionally, there was no distinction in the dressing style of males and females. All the people I could see had short hair set in a spiked manner. “Pranc Feedle, Prancee Feeona” one of them said with tears. That was easy enough to understand. They were calling my grandparents in their own accent, but how on earth, uhm I mean how on Prisma did they know it was them?  Grandpa turned towards us with a smile and said, “They recognize us!” They started talking to each other in Pris and we couldn’t understand a word. Marsella, Arya and I were dumbfounded by the place.

               I had never seen the expressions that these people wore. It was joy, anger and fear together. Most of them seemed to know us already. There was something peculiar. Every time someone cried, the person next to him would wipe his tears. No one wiped their own tears. Every now and then, somebody would touch their forehead and do a hand gesture. The hand gesture was similar to the act of walking- with two fingers from the head to shoulder level. Grandma and grandpa did the same but in the opposite direction. It seemed like a response. “What’s happening?” Arya asked. Grandma was eager to be the translator. She said “They can’t believe we’re back alive. The finger thing we are doing is a way of greeting people. It’s similar to shaking hands. They asked Fiddle where we were all these years and he told them how we were taken on earth by Pikshtra. He can’t tell them why Tony bought us here simply because he doesn’t know either. They’re scared to come near us because of you four. After Pikshtra’s visit, they hate humans. And since you four are introduced as half humans, they’re deciding what to do with you.”

               “What to do with us? What do you mean? We’re not a threat!” Marsella yelled so loudly, I think it scared and aggravated them. They all took a defensive position and clenched their teeth. They were sophisticated, yet wild. But they didn’t move. “Now I know why they are not moving” Arya said in a scared voice. We saw some creatures emerging from behind the men. They were huge. They had to be the roras that grandpa told us about. That’s why none of them were flying in the jungle. They looked like giant eagles, almost as tall as us. Their round ferocious eyes scared the hell out of me. I couldn’t help noticing that each rora emerged from behind a group and its color matched with the cloth color of each Prismate in that group. Each step that they took towards us freaked us out more and more. Only the Prismates to which the roras belonged, could control them. With the Prismates angry, there was no way they would stop. But if they continued coming towards the four of us, we would die in no time.

               They were about to attack us with their wings which exposed their arm-like structure below the wings. Darn it! They were super-animals. Our life was going to end. In a split-second, a lady from one of the groups came before us.  She said something to the roras with a fierce expression that calmed each of them down. Then she turned towards us and looked straight into Arya’s eyes. She looked sexy in that outfit and expression. Arya was so confused. He gave her a ‘what-just-happened’ look. Without saying a word, she went back to her group.

               Again there was pin-drop silence. The Prismates talked like they were in a conference. In a second, they were wild, the next second, they were sophisticated. Their mood swings left us deep in thought. We looked at grandma. She translated “The lady who stopped the roras is Mitiksha. She is the head of her orea. Oreas are nothing but groups. She convinced the others that you’ll are of no threat to them, by observing your expressions in the time of danger. But she is not sure about Tony. He was more offensive than defensive. But since he is with us they are going to let him stay alive too.”

               I think they decided to trust us when they made way for us and the hugging and crying started. Each one of them hugged my grandparents, but stayed away from us. For a second I was happy that Yen was not here, because the girls on Prisma were very attractive. They had sharp features and looked beautiful. I loved their classy outfits, although they were weird. “Fiona, is there something special in the color of their clothes? And the color of the roras?” Arya asked. He’d observed it too. Grandma’s smile made her look like Einstein. “Yes” she said. “Whenever a Prismate is born, he is kept in the birth nest. It is on top of the holy hill, called urvay. The color of the ray of light which touches the baby first, becomes his identification. All Prismates of the same color-identification siya, are a part of the same clan. A rora is assigned to a clan, and he gradually gains the color of that clan. The roras only obey members of their clan, but especially obey their clan heads. Plus, the roras are connected mentally. Like we can read each other’s minds when the moon is up, the roras can read any other rora’s mind all the time. Every time a clan member dies, his rora decreases in size and vice versa. We become emotionally attached to them too.” Grandma’s eyes told us that she was longing to see her rora.

                              The group of Prismates who had come to receive us were a part of the royal family and their servants i.e. stors. They took us to another pyramid like building which was similar to a guesthouse. Once all the other Prismates left, I said, “I feel like sleeping today”. Unsurprisingly everyone agreed. I looked all around but I couldn’t see a bed or sofa. “Where’s the bed?” I asked. Grandpa answered my question by another question, “We’re not in a luxury hotel. This is not earth, remember?” “So we’re not going to have beds?” Marsella asked inquisitively. Grandpa and grandma gave each other an intelligent look and closed their eyes. “It is time” they said together.

Life and death

Life and death

Some things you know, some things you don’t

Then why do you believe in the things unknown

What you see- you ignore, what you don’t- you fear

Your fear makes you a loser, can’t you see this dear?

You don’t really know what comes next after death

What actually happens after your last breath?

If you’re scared of death, you’ll be scared while you live

Don’t mess up your present; the present is your gift

Some talk of death like its worst thing of all

Afraid of the moment when death will make its call

But think, if no one died and all of us survived

Would it be possible for the resources to be revived?

There would be people everywhere, no place to stay

No water to drink, no place to live, and nowhere to play

What’s the use of a world like that?

What happens is for the best, always believe in that

Some talk of death just to judge their friends

To see if it affects them or they carry on their trends

Some hate death, some welcome it

But success comes to those, who live every bit

Death is just a phenomenon like walking, talking or birth

It’s nothing to be scared of- it is the most obvious thing on earth

But before you die make sure, that you’ve done what you’re born to do

Everyone has some talent- yeah that’s 100% true

Don’t be suppressed and open your heart

Don’t let the bad spirit catch you off guard

Identify your talents, and live your present

In the fear of future, don’t waste you present

We control our life, be independent and strong

Have faith in your intuitions, they’ll never be wrong

Death will come when it has to; you are born to die one day

But no matter how far you go, your memories will always stay…

aids song

AIDS POV:

Right now it’s only cough and cold

But you won’t survive until you’re old

Your friends and family will stay away

No matter how much you plead or pray

You’ll lose your weight and faint at times

You’ll prefer dying than being alive

No one to take care of you at night

You’ll be untouchable, yeah that’s right

It doesn’t matter how I infected you

All they’ll think all you do is screw

Your life will be like a living hell

You’ll be alone and lonely, can’t you tell?

You’ll regret that day I entered you

The days you have are very few

Within no time you’ll beg to die

But I’ll kill you slowly while you cry

PATIENT’S POV:

Right now it’s only cough and cold

But I am gonna get you trolled

My friends and family will stay with me

They love me so much, can’t you see?

Skinnier I’ll be, unhealthy I’ll be

It’s not ‘you’ and ‘I’, with us it’s a ‘we’

They’ll stand by me, take care of me

They’ll take me home, I’ll be free

But today they asked me the reason

Was it some blood transfusion?

Yes it was, I wanted to say

But I realized my life had started to sway

They’re going away, the ones I loved

Was it really necessary for me to be shoved?

I trusted them to stay with me

But now I’m begging you to let me die…

 

* Guys, there are so many people we know around us, who are HIV positive or suffering from AIDS. The awareness is already created. We very well know that AIDS does not spread by contact. But still we refrain from such people. Why? By rejecting them, all we do is take a step away from humanity. Finally, what goes around comes around. Support them, help them, accept them.

-Apoorva P

nr2 chp2

                                                                                         CHAPTER 2

Gradually as I gained consciousness, I was ready to find myself tied with a rope or something. Where were we? It was pretty dark but I could feel Marsella and Arya behind me. I gained complete consciousness to find a seatbelt-like thing around me and an oxygen mask hanging above my face. I saw my grandparents on the seat beside ours, they were still unconscious. Oh my ghosh! I spoke in my mind with my eyes wide open, I am in a space shuttle!

I couldn’t see Yen and Abhi anywhere. Where were they? We were screaming and yelling. I saw Tony smirking through his cabin. We couldn’t break into his cabin. We couldn’t do anything but wait. Now I know why we weren’t tied. Tony didn’t need to take the efforts. We were helpless as it is. Damn! After some time, we were all conscious and wore the same unbelievable expression. Ever since I had heard about Prisma I wanted to see what it was like. I thought it was impossible but I still had the urge to visit it once. But not like this. I suddenly realized that mom and dad would be freaking out again. This was the third time I was in trouble. I tried to use my cell phone, knowing it was stupid, but still worth a try, right? Obviously, no network, why did I even try?

Every day a man gave us food tablets which kept us alive. We couldn’t kill him because he was the payload specialist. Without him, everyone in the shuttle would die. Yen and Abhi must be so worried, I thought to myself. The name of Yen bought back his memories. Tony had spoilt my birthday. I was about to read Yen’s love letter when Tony had rudely barged in. Oh yes! Yen’s letter, I had put it in my pocket. I quickly reached my jeans and pulled out the crumpled note. I hoped it to have some romantic and sentimental lines. I started reading it:

Dear angel,I want to ask you something. Please say yes.

Will you come to the town circus with me right now?

               What the hell? This was not a proposal. It wasn’t even a love letter. Was all of this just a joke to Yen? I felt curious and angry at the same time. Good thing he wasn’t here. There were obviously no windows. I wished I could see outside. Our connection didn’t work either because there was no moon. The thought of my human friends was troubling me. I hoped they were safe. The digital clock in the cabin told us that almost five days had passed. We abruptly felt disturbances. The shuttle was sort of trembling. We felt lighter. Each one of us was told to put on the oxygen masks. That’s when Tony peered from his seat and smiled so victoriously as though he’d found tons of gold. “Welcome home night risers…” he said.

One of the men announced, “We have reached Prisma’s aura. We’ll be landing soon.” After some time, Tony slowly removed his mask and his smile faded. So did I. Hm so Prisma had oxygen. “Where are my friends, you dog?” Marsella asked in an earsplitting noise once we could speak with him. This was the first time he had stepped out of his cabin. Tony put his hands on his ears very dramatically and said, “What’s with the shouting dear? Calm down. Your friends are where they should be, in their own house on earth. They won’t speak a word about anything that happened because we have threatened them to kill you. And as far as your parents are concerned, we sent a letter saying that you two are on a surprise field trip along with a few others. We don’t want to take any risks now, do we? And as for you three” he pointed at Arya and my grandparents, “I don’t think that anybody needs to be informed” he added with a smile. Did he expect us to thank him? Well, I was glad at least my parents wouldn’t be too worried.

Tony’s smile grew bigger with the increasing disturbances in the shuttle. Oh bugger! What was happening? And finally with a final thud, it was all still and quiet. The scary silence told me that we’d finally landed. After a few seconds the door slowly opened. I expected Prisma to be like an ancient place. Grandpa had said that there wasn’t any democracy. The kings ruled. And Marsella and I were real royal princesses. But our prince were on another planet altogether. I missed Yen terribly. But Grandpa’s eyes were sparkling and a little smile started playing at the corner of his lips. Perhaps his memories were refreshed. He identified his planet. So did grandma.

Before we could step out, Tony gave us a sharp look and said, “Whatever you do here will be under my supervision. Remember, your friends and dear ones will stay alive only as long as you do as I say.” Moron. Grandpa was the first one to step out. His smile told me how utterly happy he was. As I approached the door, I could feel the wind blowing musically. It was such a beautiful sensation. We landed in a jungle. The trees looked exactly like they were on earth, but shorter. The leaves were bright golden in color instead of green. The black barks gave the golden color an even more exquisite look. Perhaps the chlorophyll was golden on this planet. I couldn’t identify any of the trees. Prisma had its own variety of species. Grandpa had told us that the sun never rose here. The moon showed itself occasionally and the illumination from the planets was the main source of light. It was exactly like he said.

Marsella and Arya had the same exasperated yet astonishing look on their faces like me. The light was not golden like it was on earth. There were several rays of multicolored lights. It reminded me of grandpa’s meteor room. It was so beautiful. We all walked in a group. I was looking out for animal attacks but I couldn’t sense any. Where were all the animals? I wanted to see the species like roras and lamors that grandpa told us about. Tony spoilt the serene beauty of this place by speaking out loud, “We’re about to enter the village. Fiddle, Fiona it’s time to recall Pris.” Pris was Prisma’s language and I’d often heard my grandparents talking in Pris. But with us around, they mostly used English.

Tony had warned us to introduce him as a human friend. We were going to enter a village, so I assumed hay-huts, caves, camp fire, a small river flowing by and a few people dressed in ancient clothes. But every single thought that I had today turned into something totally unforeseen. 

NIGHT RISER 2

NIGHT RISER 2:RETURN TO PRISMA

chapter 1
chapter 2
chapter 3
chapter 4
chapter 5
chapter 6
chapter 7
chapter 8
chapter 9
chapter 10 - last