The four of us collapse in a heap at the base of the mountain, a heaving mess of sweat, and in Nasrin's case, blood. I consider letting sleep consume me. The night isn't too hot or too cold, and the stars are bright and clear. Pure fatigue causes my eyelids to droop, and the rewards of rest bait me. However, I never do get the chance to close my eyes completely.
Ali rises from the ground next to me. His muscular shoulders droop, and he has some serious dark circles, but he stoops down and grabs one of Nasrin's arms regardless. I lean my head back into the dirt in annoyance. My emotions are still a mess, and I'm too tired to deal with any sort of physical activity. Mina seems to be on the same page as me. She's fast asleep on the ground next to me, a loose strand of curly hair fluttering away from her face every time she breathes.
"Are you serious, Ali?" I manage weakly. "You can't be serious," I mutter.
Ali drops Nasrin's arm to the ground unceremoniously. "Serious about what?" he shoots back, his tone exasperated.
"Serious about leaving right now! We're all tired, Ali. No one's going to bother us down here. Can't we just sleep for a while?"
"You can do whatever you want, Kiana. I wasn't planning on bringing you along anyway."
"What?"
"I was going to transport Nasrin somewhere safe. She needs medical attention as soon as possible, but you guys are fine here."
I struggle to sit up and lean back on my elbows. "We're fine?" I ask incredulously. "We are as far away from fine as you can get! We're totally drained, Ali! The only supplies we have are a 24 pack of granola bars, a single tube of toothpaste, and my daggers."
Ali frowns as if bored by listening to me speak. "You always have Mina's books," he says pointedly, looking at Mina's bag. The bag had burst open when we deposited Nasrin on the ground, and a plethora of reading material spills out all over the ground.
I give him a hard stare. "That's not going to do us any good in the next 24 hours, and you know it. You say you're going to transport Nasrin somewhere safe? If you can transport yourself anywhere you want, can't you just go back to the village really quick and steal some supplies? No one would even notice."
Ali shakes his head. "It doesn't work like that. You can't magic your way into Visya. No one on the outside can even contact the village unless they're invited to. You can't even make phone calls to anyone in the village."
I ponder this. "Well, can't you at least zap all of us, or whatever it is you do, somewhere a little bit more convenient?"
"I really can't. I don't have enough energy to do anything but bring Nasrin to safety. Don't you think I would if I could? "
I shrug. "I don't know, Ali. Would you? You were acting suspicious back in Visya. You had a really hard time giving us a straight answer on why you were there. You knew the consequences of going back, so why did you?"
Ali's brown features drop the little emotion that they hold. "That's none of your business," he enunciates coolly. "Look, Kiana. I'll make sure that she's in good hands. Don't worry about it." He scoops Nasrin up bridal-style, an impressive feat considering that Nasrin has more than a few inches on him.
"Wait!" I cry out, but Ali is gone. He simply blinks out of existence, taking Nasrin with him. I slam back onto the dusty earth in frustration. Why do I even bother speaking? It's not like anyone listens to me.
I roll over, furrowing my thick eyebrows. My mind races at a million miles an hour, but the thoughts slow down and eventually stop as exhaustion takes over.
...
I awake the next day with the remnants of yesterday's skull-crushing headache still pounding my brain. At least I feel I bit more rested.
Mina leans up against a rock a few feet away, cramming an entire granola bar into her mouth while she studies what looks like a thesaurus with great rapture. Wrappers and an assortment of literature litter the ground around her.
"Mina," I croak. She snaps up, giving me her full attention. "How long have I been asleep?"
Mina glances down at her wrist. "'Bout 14 hours," she announces casually, flashing her mouthful of food. She returns her focus to the book. 14 hours?
"Are you serious?" I exclaim.
"Uh huh," she replies absently.
"Mina! Why didn't you wake me up?"
She looks at me with her eyebrows raised. "You needed the sleep, didn't you?" I don't even bother with denying her statement. Honestly, I could use another couple of hours and a cup of coffee on top of that.
I massage my temples. "Has Ali come back?" I ask. The least he could do after kidnapping our friend is come back to check in.
Mina shakes her head. "Nope."
I lean back onto the ground with a pained sigh. My whole body is sore with the efforts of the past few days.
"Hey, Kiana?"
"Mmm?" I reply, so deep in thought that I hardly hear her question.
"Where is Nasrin, exactly?"
My eyes flutter and I sit up, ignoring the head rush. The question is innocent enough, but it's the gravity of our situation that settles in and pulls me back to earth.
"Ali took her." I swear under my breath. "Ali took her. "Damn it, Mina! What are we going to do? We can't do anything without Nasrin. We can barely tie our shoes without Nasrin!"
"Come on, Kiana. Don't be like that. You're not going to get to a solution if you're panicking."
I chew on my lip so hard that I almost draw blood. Mina's right. If I lose my cool we'll lose the one thing that we actually have to spare. Logic. I sigh. "You're right. I'm sorry," I admit.
Mina offers me an encouraging smile. "What do we know about Ali that could possibly be helpful?" she asks.
I don't know much about his abilities, except for that he can teleport just about anywhere, and he can run fast. Useless. I rack my brain.
"What's Ali's personality like? How does he act?" Mina pushes.
"He's Mr. Moody and Mysterious for one," I mutter. I scratch my head. "And he can be so rude sometimes," I mutter.
"Amen," Mina adds.
"We know that he at least cares for his mom, since he went to check up on her."
Something clicks in my mind. "Mina," I say slowly, "do you think that Ali took Nasrin to his mother? He said that he would make sure that she's in good hands, and he obviously trusts her."
I raise my eyebrows, waiting for Mina's excited response, but it never comes.
"But we don't even know who his mother is," she says.
"Well, that's okay. Where's he from?"
Mina shakes her head. "I don't know."
I raise an eyebrow. "Alright. What about his last name?"
Mina casts her eyes to the ground, ashamed. She absently rubs the toe of her sneaker around in the dirt. "I don't know," she admits.
"What? Mina, how could you not know his last name?" I ask, my high pitch a perfect reflection of how startled I am.
Mina shrugs but doesn't grace me with a response.
"Mina!" I shout. She cringes. "How could you not even know his last name? You people in Visya are so terrible to each other. I just don't get it. You're so busy judging each other all the time that you can't even be bothered to learn your peer's last names! That's absolutely crazy."
Mina' s cheeks flush red. "You don't know his last name either!" she accuses.
I shake my head. "That's not the same, and you know it. I've been here for a shorter amount of time, and I actually bothered to talk to him when we were together. He just wouldn't respond."
Mina finally explodes. "Look, Kiana! Ali was just another face that didn't have anything nice to say to me. He never even bothered to talk behind my back." Mina clenches her fists at her sides as she speaks.
"If people treated you the way they treat me, you'd understand my perspective. Don't you dare judge me, Kiana Ahmadi," she finishes, heaving with anger.
My jaw drops. The brutal honesty is a bit refreshing to hear from Mina. She doesn't usually have any harsh words to say.
I scratch my head awkwardly. "I'm sorry," I whisper. "I've never thought about it that way."
Mina's features soften. "It's fine. Let's just forget about it," she mutters, and just like that, all of the tension is gone. Mina's countenance completely changes. Her muscles loosen, and a small smile makes its way onto her face. We share a nod of understanding. We're just two losers having a moment.
I shrug my shoulders, shaking away the stress. "What we really need is to find Nasrin. It's just the how that worries me. Where do you think they went?"
Mina shrugs. "I don't have the answers you're looking for, Kiana." She chews on her lip. "Do you think that once Nasrin gets better they'll continue on the quest without us?"
My stomach flutters. I sure hope not. It would make sense. Ali is much more capable than me, after all. A wave of doubt comes crashing down over my head. Nasrin did say that she needs to help a hero be successful in their endeavors to get to paradise. What if she dumped me for Ali?
I rub my chin. "It's hard to know. We should consult the poem." I lighten up, temporarily forgetting my uncertainty. I shake the contents out of my bag and emerge from the deep, dark depths victorious, waving around a wrinkled piece of paper.
I clear my throat. "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."
Mina contemplates this, rubbing her chin. "Well, we know that the mastermind we're working against here is using daeva as their lackeys, and they sent them after the horns of the sarsaok." She scrunches up her face so tight in concentration that it looks like it hurts. "The tree is the source of their gain. Does that mean the Gaokerena?"
I shrug. "That's what I thought, but Nasrin said that the tree might not even exist."
Mina ignores me, jiggling around excitedly. She stands up and begins to pace, twirling a loose strand of hair around her finger. "I have an idea!"
"Well, what is it?" I press. My tone grows more excited, feeding off Mina's energy.
"They're looking for a death cure!"
"A death cure?"
"Yeah," she exclaims triumphantly. "A literal cure for death. Some sort of immortality potion, I'm guessing."
The gears in my head start turning, and everything starts to fall into place. "Mina! You're brilliant!"
I tackle my short friend in a brief embrace. I pull back and grab Mina's shoulders, shaking her around. The breakthrough sends a much-needed surge of energy through my veins, but it doesn't take us long to get down off our giddy high. Reality is a real jerk sometimes.
Negative thoughts assault my mind. How are we going to find Nasrin? Who is it that needs a cure for death, and why? How are we going to handle this situation? A quick glance at Mina reveals that her emotions are plagued with the same fears.
I don't know what we're going to do next, but I know we have to do something soon. It's time to get to work.
...
Author's note
This was a short chapter, which means it was short to edit.
Ye ye.
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