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…”