I don't want to open my eyes. There could be any number of crazy and unwanted outcomes of yesterday's actions out there just waiting to harass me, and fear is the main motivation that keeps my eyes clenched. As hard as I try to ignore it, the cool water gently caressing my forehead implores me to face the consequences of my rash decisions.
I allow my surroundings to envelop me briefly, but immediately snap my eyes back shut afterwards. The small action overwhelms my senses, and an army of pain assaults my already throbbing skull. That coupled with the stabbing pain I feel throughout my whole body is almost enough to make me scream. Instead, I just let out a pathetic whimper.
I try again, parting my eyelids ever so slightly. I cry out in anguish as I squint and push myself up to a sitting position. I lean up against whatever solid surface is behind me and massage my temples, smacking my lips together. They're dry and cracked, a sure sign that I haven't had water recently. I wonder how long I've been here.
I turn my head a fraction of a degree to my right, though every part of me screams not to. Nasrin hovers in my range of sight, tending to Mina, who has a nasty gash on her arm.
A pocket-size first aid kit is nestled in a little hole above Mina's head, and Nasrin reaches into it. She procures a little bottle from its depths and peers over at me.
"Nice of you to finally join the living," she taunts, allowing a small smile to grace her face. The small gesture makes me want to get up. I want to leap for joy. I want to tackle my friends in a bear hug, but I just can't right now. So instead I smile, only wincing slightly.
Nasrin shakes her head. I think she understands. She too moves stiffly and slowly. It's barely noticeable, but it's there. The little cringe every time she has to bend over. The way she bites her lip as she reaches for the first aid kit.
Apparently jumping out of a boat into the ocean and crashing into a giant tree can really leave you sore in the morning.
"Where are we?" I croak. I raise a hand and touch my throat gingerly. My grating voice is barely above a whisper.
Nasrin looks over to me, dumbfounded, and even Mina unclenches her eyes just to stare at me. "I'm joking," I rasp out, grinning like a maniac.
Nasrin's eyes flit up, and I crane my neck painfully to the sky. I feel my eyes widen, and goosebumps prickle all over my arm. Over my head is a canopy of leaves that stretches as far as I can see in every direction. I jump to my feet, suddenly unfazed by my pain.
"Oh, my go-" I start. I whip towards my friends. "We're here! We're actually here!" I gaze up at the canopy in pure wonder. It's unreal the way that the larger-than-life plant sways gently. The air is fresh, and the peaceful way that the light filters through the thick leaves clears my mind better than any meditation session I've ever had.
"Yep," Nasrin scoffs.
I lean back against the tree as she drops some fluid into Mina's wound. Her eyes are squeezed shut again, and a single tear drops out of her left eye. I gesture to my injured friend. "Are you alright?" I inquire.
"Yeah, she's alright, except for the giant gash on her arm. It's not like she's going to bleed out or anything," Nasrin snarks.
"What?" Mina worries, snapping her head up in alarm.
"Don't worry about it," Nasrin mutters nonchalantly, yanking a bandage tight around her arm. Mina grunts like someone just punched her in the gut.
I massage my temples. "Do you guys have any idea on how we're supposed to get up in the tree?"
"Yeah," Nasrin says, and I raise my eyebrows expectantly. "We'll just take the magic tree elevator to the top. It's over on the other side," Nasrin says dryly, her voice still dripping with sarcasm.
I roll my eyes but let the jab slide. "Seriously though. What are we going to do?"
"Well, there has to be some sort of entrance around here somewhere," Mina muses.
...
Wallowing around in the shallow water around the tree for an hour proved to be tedious, but productive. We found what looks like the Persian version of the rabbit hole in Wonderland. It seemed inauspicious at first glance, but as we neared, the soft blue glow it was emitting was a sign of something promising.
The three of us stand around the little hole, silently debating over who has to go down and check things out. I cock an inviting eyebrow at Nasrin, who "innocently" diverts her attention to Mina. She sighs. "I can't go down there, guys. I can barely swim when I'm not crippled."
Nasrin rolls her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic. You're going to be fine." She claps Mina on the arm. She cringes and points an accusing finger to Nasrin.
"I'm out of the game by default, and you're the one who is literally better than me in every physical aspect. Why shouldn't you do it, Nasrin?"
I edge away from the pair. If I run away now, they won't be able to drag me into the argument. "I'm too tall," Nasrin whines. "It'll take me twice the time to get through the hole as..." she turns to me, a wicked smile plastered across her face,
"Kiana."
My stomach drops. "Uhh," I mutter stupidly, unable to produce a good argument.
Mina nods slowly, catching on to Nasrin's idea. "Uh huh. I think Kiana should do it too. She is the one who was handpicked by a goddess, after all. This is your quest after all, oh chosen one." She mocks a bow.
I scowl. It's not worth the fight. We'll end up chasing each other in circles for hours. "Oh, shut up already. I'll do it."
My "friends" grin triumphantly, simultaneously patting me on the back and pushing me towards the hole.
I place my hands on either side of the opening and send one last sorrowful glance over my shoulder. Mina sends me a thumbs-up, and Nasrin smirks. I am just so fortunate to have them as friends.
"Wimps," I taunt before taking a deep breath and plunging into the water. The water isn't as cold as it was at the lake, and it's refreshing as I push myself down and forward. The passage from the hole into the tree isn't nearly as long as I thought it would be. I don't even have to swim forward before I emerge into the hollow tree.
"What do you see?" Nasrin calls out. Her voice is muffled and unclear.
I'm in a hollow section of the trunk. Water laps gently against the sides of the hidden room, and it would be nearly impossible to see if it weren't for the little bugs floating around and illuminating the space. I gaze at them in wonder. They don't look like fireflies. Instead, they wriggle through the air like water snakes, emitting a soft blue light.
"Well, you weren't so far off with the whole magical elevator deal," I say.
A thick, wooden ladder takes up the middle of the room, stretching upwards as far as the eye can see. I swim over to the ladder and grab hold of it, thankful for the break that it provides for my tired arms. I look down to my feet, and to my surprise, the ladder doesn't just go up. The water beneath me seems to fill an endless chasm in which the ladder extends on forever.
I pinch my arm and shake my head. I'm not dreaming after all. "This place makes no sense," I whisper to myself.
"Is it safe to come in?" Nasrin calls out.
"Yeah," I shout. "Head on in."
Nasrin joins me momentarily, our bags in tow. Mina splashes in a moment later, knocking into Nasrin clumsily, who rolls her eyes and grabs Mina's arm, pulling her over to the ladder. She latches on and casts a grateful glance to our friend.
"What is this place?" she asks now that she isn't busy thrashing around.
I shrug. "I guess it doesn't really matter. I glance up and gulp. "We just have to climb."
"No, duh," Nasrin snipes as she turns to Mina. "What about you, Mina? What are we going to do with you? You can't handle this kind of climb right now, seeing as you were just complaining about swimming in here not five minutes ago."
"I think I can manage," Mina protests.
I bite my lip. "Are you sure? We can take turns carrying you if you need us to."
Mina sets her jaw in determination, her eyes steely as she stares up at the ladder. "No. I can do it," she insists. "I don't need you to play hero right now, Kiana. It would be more dangerous for all of us if you had to carry me the whole way up than if I just did it myself."
I send Mina an encouraging nod, a slow smile overtaking my features. "Then let's do it."
...
We reach our destination after what seems like an eternity, exhausted but alive. Mina and Nasrin crumple in a heap as soon as we reach the end of the ladder, but I scoot close to the edge and examine the horizon. We're nowhere near the actual top of the tree, but rather a forest sized clearing high up in the branches. There's dense, colorful foliage in every direction, and the whole area buzzes with activity. I hear a stream gurgling somewhere in the distance, but I can't see it.
I look down. It doesn't seem natural that all this plant life is able to grow straight out of a branch of the Gaokerena. There's no earth underfoot that I can see. I guess that logic doesn't really apply when you're standing on a tree branch large enough to house a forest.
I glance over to my friends. Nasrin is changing the dressing on Mina's wound while the latter mentioned patient flips through a book. She plucks a leaf off a small bush positioned next to her and holds it up next to the book, squinting. She informs Nasrin that it's supposed to accelerate the healing process. Seemingly satisfied, she crams the leaf into her mouth and chews thoughtfully. It isn't long before a look of disgust finds its way onto her face and she spits out a mouthful of nasty green paste onto the ground. She holds the book up for Nasrin to see. "It does NOT taste like mint," she exclaims.
I'm about to chuckle, but another noise disturbs the silence before I ever get the opportunity. Sticks snap and pop, and I whip around, searching for the source of the sound. "Hey, did you guys hear that?" I call out.
My companions cease their bickering over the fact that Mina nearly spewed plant mush all over Nasrin's shoes and perk up, instantly silent and somber. Every muscle tenses in my body. I crouch and run over to join my friends. Nasrin offers me my remaining dagger. "You managed to save it," I whisper. Nasrin nods and silently pulls her bow from her back. I'll have to thank her later. The air is thick and slow with tension, causing the three of us fall into an expectant hush.
"How much longer do you think we're gonna have to be here?" a voice grumbles.
"I dunno," another gruff voice responds.
There's a brief pause. "I wanna go home. What are we even doing here? How much you wanna bet those girls aren't even here?"
My eyes widen, and I dig my nails into palm. "It can't be them," I whisper. Nasrin shushes me and slaps my arm.
"Shut up, Kiana! Maybe they'll give away whoever this Big Boss guy is," she hisses.
"I don't know! Big Boss sure is a pain in the a-" the first voice starts, but it freezes when the owner bursts into the clearing.
The duo of complainers is none other than Thing One and Thing Two, the daeva from New Delhi. Nasrin curses under her breath, and the five of us fall into an uncomfortable silence as we stare at one another. The Gaokerena shudders in the wind, and the rattling of the leaves brings us back to earth.
"Ah, man!" Nasrin groans. "I thought we got rid of you guys!"
Thing One scowls, his ugly red cheeks tinting a deeper shade, if that's even possible. "You can't get rid of us," he threatens, cracking his hairy knuckles.
Nasrin rolls her eyes. "Is that supposed to scare us?"
Thing Two shifts his gaze from side to side. "It was scary," he mutters, but I don't think he's even convincing himself.
"Whatever," Nasrin continues. "Let's strike a deal, my... friends. If you get lost right now, we'll tell this Big Boss dude that we got rid of you, and you'll never have to work for them again." She inspects her immaculate finger nails.
Thing One shakes his head, looking down at the ground. "Oh, I don't know. I have a feeling Big Boss would find out. He'd be really mad if we did that."
I look to Mina, who cocks an eyebrow. "I think you're missing the poi-" she starts, but Nasrin holds a finger up to silence her. Mina bites her tongue, looking to be more than just a tad but annoyed.
"Oh, come on! We'll make sure that Big Boss never finds out. What do you say?" Nasrin invites, batting her eyelashes. "Don't you trust us?'
The demons seem to ponder the option for a moment. Thing One's jaw sets in steel, and he smacks his companion's arm. "No can do," he grunts out. Thing Two nods in agreement.
The pair puff their chests out and start to advance, slowly picking up in speed.
I look to Nasrin, my heart picking up speed in my chest. "What are we supposed to do now?" I hiss. "There's no dirt or anything around I can use, and there's absolutely no way I can bend the water from below all the way up here." I eye the squat demons, wondering if I can take them hand to hand. They can't be taller than five feet, but they're wide. They're like tomato colored boulders. You can punch them, but you'll probably break your fist.
I dance out of the way as one of the daeva snatches at my arm. "Think of something," I mutter out of the corner of my mouth.
Mina bites her lip. "I think I have an idea." She darts around the pair of demons and snatches her plant book from the ground.
"Hey!" Thing One calls out. He abruptly changes direction.
Mina races away, thumbing through the pages of her book. "Hurry up!" Nasrin calls out, her voice riddled with anxiety.
"I'm trying!" she whines. The daeva chasing her stops to take a breather, his hands on his knees. He wipes a bit of sweat off his shiny upper lip. Mina releases a shrill laugh, clearly taunting the demon. He looks up and scowls. He might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he's smart enough to know when he's being mocked. She curses loudly and takes off.
I roll my eyes and join the chase, waving my dagger around in the air. "Let's talk about this! We don't want to fight!" I call out.
Mina freezes in her tracks, and I nearly run into the daeva in front of me as he halts. He lunges for Mina, but she dives out of the way, reaching for a vine that dangles down from a high branch.
The thin rope snaps off easily, and Mina whips around, brandishing the plant. My eyes widen, and I leap to the side. Thing One doesn't catch on and is the recipient of Mina's wrath.
The vine that she chose is a weapon. Looking closer, the plant has a small head at the end, almost like a venus flytrap with its teeth-like protrusions. A thick green foam drips from its open mouth. The plant spits a giant glob of the bubbling substance In Thing One's face.
He recoils immediately, falling to the ground. Mina throws her book down as Thing One rolls around, howling and clutching his face.
"Knowledge is power," she states simply, smirking all the while.
Thing Two runs up to join us, and Mina waves the plant in his direction. He raises his hands. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! I don't wanna fight you anymore!" he starts. Mina lowers her weapon hesitantly. "What did you do?" he groans, dropping to his knees.
"Relax," Mina scoffs. "It's not fatal. It's like pepper spray."
"Mina," I hiss, "you don't have to tell him that."
Thing Two shakes his head. "It doesn't matter anyway. We don't get paid enough to deal with crazies. We're getting outta here." The pudgy demon latches onto the hairy arm of his friend and struggles to pull him to his feet. He throws one last dirty glare at Mina before hobbling away with his companion, who continues to blubber like a baby.
...
The clearing has proven itself to be a nice enough spot to set up camp, but I suppose after our run-in with the daeva, we could have fallen asleep just about anywhere. Mina and Nasrin are asleep in a pile to my right, but I lie awake, gazing at the stars. There's no way I can sleep when the sky is so alive. There's more stars than I've ever in one night, so many that the sky is more of a shifting periwinkle than a deep blue. The sky dances and twinkles, and I try to pick out constellations until my eyes begin to droop. I'm just about to fade into unconsciousness when the bushes across the clearing rustle loudly.
I flop over and shake my friends awake. "Did you guys hear that?" I whisper. Mina rubs the sleep from her eyes, and Nasrin glares at me.
"No, actually. I didn't. I was too busy sleeping," she gripes. I roll my eyes and push myself to my feet.
"There's something in the bushes," I say.
Mina grumbles a complaint under her breath but rises to her feet. "I'm tired," she whines, crossing her arms over her chest like a toddler. "We just dealt with the daeva. Isn't that good enough for you? Can't we just get a little break?" She throws her hands up to the sky, but whatever deity she's complaining to doesn't respond.
We all freeze as the noise in the bushes grow louder, and suddenly, a newcomer bursts out of the bush. My jaw drops to the ground. "Ali?"
My brooding acquaintance freezes in his tracks. He doesn't look any different from the last time I saw him, not counting his unusually disheveled appearance. He even wears a similar outfit- black jeans, black sneakers, and a black shirt. All black. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
"Kiana?" he replies, his normally monotone voice laced with confusion.
The two of us point at each other for a few moments of baffled silence. "What are you doing here?" we blurt out simultaneously.
I shake my head. I'm putting my foot down. "You go first," I say, my tone accusing. "You owe us at least that much after what you pulled at the village."
Ali shakes a hand through his tousled hair. "It was the craziest thing. You won't even believe it," he starts, his eyes darting from me to Nasrin.
I raise a skeptical eyebrow. "You're right. I don't think I will."
"After I brought Nasrin's to my grandma's house to recover, these daeva found us. I thought that they were after Nasrin, so I tried to fight them off, but they ran away."
I raise an eyebrow. The whole story sounds more than a bit far-fetched. "You followed them already here. Did you really think they were worth it?"
" You have to believe me," Ali pleads. "I followed them here to make sure they wouldn't come back for Nasrin," he continues. "I wasn't sure if she could have handled them in the state she was in."
Nasrin scowls and picks a piece of lint off her shirt. "I totally could've," she mutters, but Ali ignores her.
"I was just about to track them down when I ran into you guys. I've been on their trail for days, but I haven't been able to catch them yet."
I purse my lips, barely able to contain my smile.
"You mean those daeva whose behinds we just handed to them on a platter?" Nasrin asks proudly, her plump lips turned up in a smirk.
"You mean those daeva that I just defeated," Mina argues.
"Likely story, Ali," Nasrin continues, paying no heed to Mina. "Do you think we're stupid? How did you even get out here?"
Ali frowns like the answer is obvious. "You know I can teleport."
Nasrin places a hand on her hip and shakes a condescending finger at Ali. "Aren't there restrictions on powers like that? Like, you can't go somewhere unless you've seen it before, or something like that?"
"No," Ali swears solemnly, placing a hand over her heart. His stony features don't reveal any inconsistencies with his speech, and the more he speaks, the more I believe him. "I can go anywhere, unless they have protective spells put up, like the village."
"So, what other kind of things can you do?" I press. Ali has never opened up to me before, and I figure that this is as good a time as any, considering that Nasrin has already started to grill him.
"I can't explain them all right now. We don't have time," he says, his tone saturated with exasperation. He throws his hands up in the air.
I squint at him. "We haven't heard from you in weeks. Why should we believe anything you say?"
"Because I can get you out of here," Ali proposes, raising an eyebrow.
"Hold on, now," Nasrin protests. "Who says we're ready to leave?"
Ali shakes his head. "Look, I can help you guys with whatever it is that you guys think you need to do here, but you're going to need me for sure when you want to get out of here. You can't get out of here the way you got in. Trust me. I don't think I got in the same way you guys did, but my entrance had disappeared by the time I tried to go back through it. This place, it's constantly changing."
"And what?" Nasrin says, chuckling. "You've memorized its patterns?"
Ali shakes his head. "No, but I do think I've found a way out. I just want to go home, but I can't do it without your help," he says, pointing to me.
I squirm uncomfortably. "My help? Why?"
"I think I saw an easy way out, but it's blocked by really dense forest. I was thinking that you could topple the trees by moving the dirt under the roots."
I shake my head. "That sounds like way more than I can handle. Besides, how do you even know if the spot is still there? You said the tree is always changing."
"I've been here a lot longer than you have. I know how quickly things change. I bet if we left now, we could get there before it moves."
Nasrin raises a skeptical eyebrow, but my resolve is already dissolving. "We might as well go check it out. It's a good idea to have some sort of escape route."
"I don't know about this, Kiara," Nasrin says.
Ali ignores her. "Say you'll help me. I can't do it on my own." He extends a hand to me and I look at it with apprehension.
I glance to my friends, trying to gauge their reactions. Mina gives me a sharp nod. I return it, a silent tally of her vote. My eyes connect with Nasrin's, and a wordless battle ensues. I can see the conflict behind her steely facade, but I don't attempt to persuade her to make any decision. The world falls quiet, so quiet that I can hear my heart pound over the silence. Nasrin nods, and the vote is unanimous. I shake his outstretched hand. Ali is in business.
...
Author's note
We're nearing the end of the story! For some reason, this experience is much more exciting than the first time around. Maybe I have a deeper connection to the story, or maybe it's just because I'm much more proud of the quality of its contents. Who knows.
If you want to support the story, vote, comment, and share.
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