I feel on edge about leaving Visya, and it's evident in my fidgeting. It won't take us long to get ready to go, but we don't want to seem suspicious, so Nasrin and I decide that I should finish all of my scheduled classes before we head out. The day goes by smoothly despite my nerves.
I really don't have much to my name right now, so the only items I'm able to stuff into my travel bag are a few changes of clothes and a few personal items. I asked Nasrin earlier if there were any sort of magical tools we could bring along to aid us in our quest, but she laughed in my face and told me that the closest thing to a magic item we could get our hands on is a plastic wand.
It's been a quite a few hours since lunch, and now we're heading to the armory in search of some sort of middle ground between a plastic wand and Excalibur. For the most part, the village has gone to sleep, and the armory has already closed up shop by the time we get there. This allows us to push open the doors and sneak inside without suspicion from others. "There aren't any sort of alarms or anything in here, right?"
Nasrin shakes her head. "No, stupid. What do you think this is, a prison?" she snaps, and I scowl. I feel the slight urge to argue that you don't need to be at a prison to lock up your weapons, but it's too far past my bedtime to deal with Nasrin's sarcasm. I flip on the light switch and blink wildly as my eyes adjust to the newly illuminated room. Every kind of weapon imaginable lines the walls- except guns.
"Why aren't there any guns here?"
Nasrin shrugs. "Most people around here feel that guns aren't good enough for them. They're loud, unreliable, and most of the time they're useless against monsters and... gods, and stuff." Makes sense. I couldn't have killed the manticore with a gun.
I waltz over to the wall and run my fingers lightly along the arsenal. There's knives and daggers, bows and arrows, staffs and bows, and every other kind of tool and weapon you could ever need. I'm not quite sure what I need, but I pick up a variety of tools and test their weight.
Nasrin is hovering by a shelf of daggers and I wander over, curious. She selects one and flips it over in her palm. It's polished bronze with a soft, leather handle and a swirling design etched into the smooth metal. It's beautiful, and my fingers itch to get a hold of it. Nasrin tosses it carelessly back on the rack, and I cringe. She gives me a strange look.
"What's wrong?"
I bite my lip. "Nothing, it's just that I wanted to see that one."
Nasrin shrugs and picks up another blade. "I've never been good with daggers," she admits casually. "I've always been better with a bow and arrow."
I nod thoughtfully. I don't even know what I'm good at yet. My combat classes haven't even started to cover weapons yet. We're still mastering hand-to-hand combat, which to my surprise, I'm fairly good at. I find the sister to the dagger that captured my attention and pick the pair up.
The metal grows warm in my hands, and that very same warmth spreads pleasantly up my arm and throughout my whole body. I shiver in delight as a cold I didn't even realize was inside of me vacates my body. I glance over to Nasrin, wondering if she noticed my odd experience, but she's left to explore the archery section. I tuck the pair of blades into my belt quietly and head off to select some armor.
...
I leave the armory feeling a little bit more secure about the mission that lies ahead of me. Nasrin helped to fit me with some armor, and I'm not going to lie. I feel cool. Over my normal jeans, boots, and long black shirt, I wear a thin layer of scale armor. It's like chain-mail a bit, as it moves in the same manner, but that's about where the similarities end. It has layers of ultra-thin, scale-like pieces of bronze to match my daggers. To top off the elaborate armor on my torso, I've strapped on some leather knee and elbow pads.
Nasrin looks pretty cool as well, I have to admit, with her knee-high boots and the long bow slung across her back. Her armor matches mine, not including the open back on her "chain mail."
There's only one thing left for us for to do, and I feel that it's the most important task that we've faced yet. We need to get some food from the pavilion.
Everyone should be in their cabins asleep right now, so we don't bother with silence as we creep around. Even if we got caught, it wouldn't be completely out of place to see villagers seeking out a late-night snack, even in their armor.
Nasrin and I invade the table of snacks left out for villagers in need of munchies, shamelessly stuffing entire multi-packs of granola bars into our backpacks. We're about to slink out with our loot when a confused voice behind us makes itself known, almost startling us out of our skin.
"What are you guys doing here?" Mina asks, wiping her hands on an apron. Her short, curly black hair is pinned back, and her apron is stained with the food of the day.
"The real question, Mina, is what are you doing here?" I ask as a few plastic wrapped treats slip from my grasp noisily to the floor.
Mina sighs. "I got assigned dish duty, again." It's now that I notice the puffy dark circles under my friend's large, innocent eyes. They've probably always been there now that I think about it.
She raises an eyebrow expectantly. Okay, so my distraction didn't work. "We're just taking some food back to my cabin. I'm so far away from the pavilion. It would be nice to get some extra sleep and just stay in for breakfast some mornings," I attempt weakly.
Mina screws up her face. "That doesn't even make any sense. Haven't you been training with Ali in the mornings? You're up with the cooks anyway."
I scowl, and out of the corner of my eye I see Nasrin bite back a laugh. "That was supposed to be a secret," I mutter.
Mina's eyes widen. "I'm sorry, Kiana. I thought everyone knew that." Okay. I guess everybody knows I'm a loser then.
An awkward silence falls over the three of us, and I bite my lip nervously as Mina ponders what I've said. Realization dawns on her face. I contemplate yelling, "RUN, NASRIN, RUN!" but I never get the chance.
Mina points an accusing finger in our direction. "You guys are running away, aren't you?"
"No!" Nasrin and I exclaim simultaneously, but our denial sounds pathetic even to me. Mina shakes her head.
"You were really gonna leave me, Kiana?" The hurt in her voice penetrates me like frostbite. I look over to Nasrin, who awkwardly clears her throat. We make eye contact, and the words behind her eyes are clear. This your problem, and it's up to you to fix it.
"We aren't running away," I protest, but Mina has already begun to walk away.
I really should weigh my options, but I don't stop to think before blurting out Mina's name. She turns around expectantly, and I don't think I could stop my next words if I tried. "Would you... would you like to come with us?"
Mina and Nasrin's jaws drop simultaneously. "Really?" Mina asks softly, her expression so touched that I don't have the heart to tell her that I, in fact, do not really want her to come along.
Despite my doubts, I nod with a smile and lie. "Really, Mina. Why don't you go pack a bag and we'll fill you in later?"
She hesitates for a second, but it doesn't take her a long time to unknot her apron and throw it joyously to the side. I'm not surprised. I don't think Mina has much to stay behind for.
"Thank you," she laughs out, pointing to me. She skips out of the pavilion, humming loudly.
"Seriously, Kiana?" Nasrin hisses under her breath, just loud enough for me to hear.
"What were you thinking, inviting that dunce?" Nasrin asks as soon as she's gone. "What can she offer us? Mina can't even do anything!"
I cringe. "She was just so sad, Nasrin! What was I supposed to do? She's my friend."
"She's borderline useless, Kiana," Nasrin spits out. My expression hardens.
"Nasrin, I'm pretty useless too, if you haven't noticed. I'm not nearly as talented as any of the other people in my class. But you chose me. You still have faith in me."
Nasrin scowls at my blackmail. "That is so low," she says as she pokes my shoulder threateningly. I've already won though, and there's nothing Nasrin can do. Mina is coming with us.
...
Nasrin, and I crouch behind the stone wall of a gazebo. It's the one I meditate in everyday with Ali. Mina tries to squat down next to us, but her backpack is stuffed over capacity, and she topples over. Nasrin and I watch on in secondhand embarrassment as she goes down.
"Mina, you're going to have to leave some of your stuff behind," I explain patiently.
"Alright," she grumbles. She rips the bag open and starts pulling out the contents. The slew of items starts out normal. There's a jacket, a pair of jeans, a hairbrush, and a compass. But then there's the books.
Classic novels litter the ground along with textbooks, magazines, dictionaries, and every other kind of book imaginable. "So, what do you think I need to leave behind? The toothpaste? I can your toothpaste, right guys?" she asks as she surveys the scene.
I give her a blank stare. "I don't know, Mina. Maybe you could get rid of some of the books?"
Mina shakes her head and chuckles. "Don't be ridiculous. I can't get rid of my books." I cock an eyebrow, challenging her statement. "Oh, you're serious," she says, incredulous. Nasrin and I don't supply an answer.
"I can't get rid of my books," Mina protests. "My dad always said that you can learn something from every single book," she utters, rubbing her toe around in the dirt shyly.
"Can't you at least leave the ones that aren't meant to be educational?" Nasrin asks through clenched teeth. She glares at me as if to say, I told you so. I pretend that I can't see her.
Mina sighs unhappily and crouches down and begins to cram some of the books back in her bag. I turn to Nasrin. "So, wants the game plan?" I ask, trying not to look down at Mina struggle with her belongings.
Nasrin shrugs. "Anahita was in a bad mood when she contacted me. She wouldn't tell me any specific details about what she wanted or where she wanted us to go, but she did give me some sort of a poem. My guess is that she got a prophecy but isn't quite sure of what to make of it." Nasrin inspects her nails. "And now it's our problem," she adds. I wait for her to elaborate, but she never does.
"So, what's the poem?" I ask, my patience thin. My legs are starting to ache from crouching down for so long. Why am I crouching, anyway? There's no one else out here to see us. I stand, but Nasrin yanks me back down to her level.
"The poem," she continues, "goes like this." Nasrin pulls a wrinkled price of paper out of her pocket and begins to read her neat sprawl aloud.
"The tree is the source of their gain. They feed, but do not seek the pain. They grasp the horns of the fiery bull of life, accidentally causing great grief and great strife. They seek immortality's breath to please the jaws of inescapable death. To seek them is to put yourself in harm's way, and ultimately, there will be a price to pay." Nasrin finishes the weighted passage with a gloomy sigh. A heavy silence falls over the three of us, but the dreadful quiet offers me an idea.
"Bull of life. Is that the sarsaok? We learned about in my mythology class! What if that's what the poem was talking about?"
Mina lights up and nods, but Nasrin wrinkles her nose in confusion. "Kiana, you've finally had a good idea!" she exclaims.
"I can never catch a break," I whisper to Mina, and she laughs awkwardly.
Nasrin claps her hands. If she gets to be so loud, why is she so insistent that I must be quiet?
"What religion considers the cow to be sacred?" Nasrin asks.
"Hinduism," I answer easily.
Nasrin rolls her hands around in the air as if I should get it by now. "Where is the country with the highest concentration of people who practice Hinduism?"
"India," I say slowly, finally getting it.
"Right!" Nasrin cheers. "If cows are considered sacred by the people, they're going to keep lots of them around. My gut tells me that the sarsaok isn't any different."
"But how are we going to get to India then?" I ask. "It's easier said than done." Nasrin bites her lip thoughtfully.
"There are ways we can get there, but not any that I can think of that won't get us caught. It would not be good if we were caught sneaking off. Ramin doesn't take stuff like that lightly." Nasrin taps her chin. "Honestly, I think we might just have to catch a flight."
"A flight? Where are we gonna get the money?" I ask as my heart sinks.
Mina clears her throat and digs a wad of cash out of her bag. "I don't get paid much for cooking and cleaning dishes around here, but I've been doing it for a long time," she laughs, waving the cash around.758Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdrfA3nN5XJ
Nasrin yelps happily, and the two of us tackle Mina in a bear hug. I pull apart from the group embrace, a giant smile stretching across my face. "We're going to India!"758Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGOsjxWsISC
...758Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmmu6zef7TH
Author's note758Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTW8LqRgM3w
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