nr2 chp9

CHAPTER 9

                  Each footstep that the roras took, fastened our heartbeat by double the speed. Our hatred was mutual it seems. The roras never approved of us, it was clear from their eyes. Why had I ever used the terms intelligent and beautiful to describe them? Their sound alone was frightening. I couldn’t see Marsella, Arya or myself dying.  My eyelids dropped. I sensed a jerk and then strong wind blowing through my hair. The pace of the wind kept increasing and I felt myself floating in the air. I could feel mom and dad embracing me. It seemed like I was in heaven. “Lune? Lunette can you hear me? Lune?” I could hear Marsella and Arya’s voice. So both of them were with me in heaven? It felt nice. An afterlife with friends, cool! I opened my eyes and I could see clouds below me. Yep, definitely heaven. My parents were still embracing me. Then I looked up to find my parents. “AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” I couldn’t help screaming.

                  It was Shikhar. I felt very much alive and both my friends were with me. My expression told them how insane I was feeling. “Shikhar had the element of surprise. He uprooted the entire tree we were tied on. We got rid of the tree, but you need to wake up now. They’re chasing us.” I looked behind. Shikhar was saving us. From his friends. How much more weird could the day get? I was on Shikhar’s back. His small hind wing wrapped around me, which prevented me from falling. It was twisting and turning many times, so balancing myself was pretty tough. But I was actually enjoying this ride. I’d always loved adventures, and this one was amazingly thrilling. I was flying! Over the trees, crossing the rivers, right through the colorful rays of light. Prisma did not need a rainbow, the entire place was so colorful.

                  Two roras were chasing us. “Hey, roras can read each others mind all the time, right?” Marsella confirmed. “Then how did he plan this? How could he surprise them?” I hadn’t thought about that. Shikhar was in full speed, giving us Goosebumps. “I have been thinking about the same Mars, but let’s think about that later!” I couldn’t agree more. Balancing ourselves was getting trickier with each of Shikhar’s sharp turns. One of the roras was right behind us, so Shikhar turned the other way round but bam! There was the other one. Shikhar was falling, we were falling with him. It was sort of a valley. We fell so deep that I couldn’t even see where the top was. It was narrow and we soon couldn’t even open our eyes fully. With the largest thump I had ever heard, Shikhar hit the ground, with a little creek full of water. All the water flashed out in a blimp. My brain was shaking inside my head.

                  The three of us greeted each other, confirming we were alive. We all looked at Shikhar. I had gone near him before when grandma asked me to. I was going to make this the second time, and looked intently in his eyes. He didn’t reject me this time. He lifted his free wing to place it on me. But before he could reach me, his wing fell back on his body. He had fallen from such a great height. We fell on him, he was the one who hit the ground. I hadn’t even realized when I’d started calling Shikhar ‘him’ from ‘it’. We needed to take care of Shikhar. He had saved us. Now it was our turn. I looked up. We’d lost the other roras.

                  The three of us set off in different directions to find some Lusciata for Shikhar. Marsella told us how the lusciata leaves looked like. She’d seen Mitiksha use it once. We were supposed to meet back after an hour what so ever. We’d only started trekking when Arya called. He looked aghast. “What happened Arya?” He was so amused. He replied, “do you know where we are?” he asked. Marsella was always the sarcastic one, “Yeah sure, let me check on the map!” “What’s the matter Arya?” He looked at us, then ran towards the trees. Man! He was so fast! “How did you do that?” we asked in chorus. He replied, “when we fell, some of this grass entered my mouth. I’d thought I’d taken most of it out, but I was wrong. Lusciata gives speed right?” We looked at each other. We were standing on it? On Lusciata? “But Mitiksha hadn’t used that one” Marsella pointed out. “Let’s try this at least” Arya suggested. A flash of how Nana had experimented with us came before me. “Shikhar is not a guinea pig” I refused to ‘try’ it on him.

                  We were bruised as well. I decided to try it myself first. I made crushed the golden brown grass and applied it on my fists. It worked! I could see my skin getting back to normal. We used the whole lot of it on Shikhar. I was in front of Shikhar, Marsella and Arya at his left and right respectively. He seemed even bigger to me. I was so glad we could help him. Only there was one problem. We couldn’t reach its back. We were so tiny. Our jumps didn’t even take me near to his back. His wings were back to normal already. Suddenly he picked me up with one of his wings and put me on his back! I was so amused, I choked while laughing. So were the others. Once Shikhar was back to normal, we urged it to stand on his feet. After a few attempts, he could even fly a bit. I was glad he was fine.

                  I felt the urge to sleep so many times on Prisma. Shikhar invited us by opening his wing. We chose to sleep on the ground. Only it wasn’t discern this time, we wanted him to rest. I felt so restless, I couldn’t sleep. I looked up at Shikhar. He often stared into the open sky. I went to sit beside it. “Beautiful isn’t it?” I asked him. The sky was always pretty here. Shikhar looked at me too. He closed his eyes. Even my eyes closed automatically. I could see grandma and Fiddle practicing their connection skills. I opened my eyes quickly. I had not seen them practicing. Then how did I have this vision? I looked at Shikhar and realized what was happening. He was there while this was happening. He closed his eyes, simultaneously closing mine. He even appeared bigger in size. Shikhar had accepted me as a member of the clan. He now belonged to me as well…

                  It was an out-of-the-world sensation. I felt so… I had no words to describe it. I hugged him showing him my acceptance. Shikhar opened his wing again. I cuddled myself in. It was the best sleep I’d had in months. When I woke, I told Arya and Marsella about what happened. Even they had mixed emotions like mine. Shikhar walked towards us gracefully. He closed his eyes again, and even mine did. I knew why he was showing me that vision of grandma practicing her skills. I translated the images. “The reason why the other rora’s didn’t read Shikhar’s mind is connection-blocking. It was the first time a rora had seen the practice and Shikhar tried to implement it. He was obviously successful!” We could only smile. “Shikhar also told me about the Lusciata. It wasn’t exactly Lusciata. It was its variation. That’s why it looked different. It’s a hybrid.” The shocked expression was a daily thing now.

                  “Where were you three?” It was grandma’s voice. My grandparents were on grandpa’s rora. “I saw what Shikhar was showing you. It’s impossible to believe that he chose you. It’s a very rare thing they do.” Before she could complete her sentence, Shikhar attacked grandpa’s rora. It was calling the others. It was too late. There were several other roras flying towards us with their Orea on them. It was the entire village I guess. All the rora’s cornered us and a war began. Shikhar was torn between watching out for me, grandma and also himself. We updated grandma and grandpa with everything that happened, in the midst of punches and kicks. The Prismates fought differently. But they were good. The five of us were on the verge of losing. A rora pinned each of us down.

                  The only way we could save ourselves was to tell them that people from earth are not all that bad. That we weren’t going to hurt them in any way. Of course, our voice wasn’t even audible. All I could remember is grandma’s advice. I was singing the moon song in my head. It was what I liked doing the most. Something soft was tickling my feet. Even Marsella said the same. She added, “I wished all Prismates could just shut up and listen to us for ten minutes!” But only I could hear it. The roras leg was on our throats. All of a sudden, everyone was quiet. There was pin drop silence. I felt the tickling again. I bent down to see what it was. Oh my God! They were lamors. They had given Marsella her wish.