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.