Mina and I have no ride. There is no physical way that we can get ourselves away from the village, which is why we must seek help from higher powers. I don't really want to request Anahita's help, as my last face-to-face experience with her was less than perfect. However, our current situation is more than a little bit desperate.
Asking for assistance from an almighty figure with major mood swings might not be the best idea, but it looks like our only option right now. We've already pondered the outcome of going back to Visya (that is so not happening), and we've weighed the pros and cons of consulting every magical creature in our collective reservoirs, but we've come out dry. We're on our own.
"I don't know, Kiana. The chances of us getting the attention of a goddess are pretty slim," Mina muses. I've already pitched my idea to her, and based on her hesitant expression, she is not even a little bit on board.
I purse my lips. "Well, we sort of already have her attention. We are the ones running her errands. She chose us. She's probably keeping tabs on us, don't you think? Can't she get us out of here?"
"I'm telling you, Kiana. We aren't in the position to make demands of a goddess."
"Well, do you know about any rituals, or something we can do to get her attention?"
Mina drums her fingers on her thigh. "I honestly have no idea. There isn't much information on how the ancient followers of Zoroastrianism worshiped the gods, and up in Visya, everyone has their own personal ways of showing respect. There's no set way. Most people either meditate or keep sacred fires. I've never heard of anyone doing rituals."
"Sacred fires?"
Mina nods. "Yeah. The elements, untainted by human or other means of intervention, are pure, right?"
"Yeah."
"Fire can represent God's light and wisdom for some people. They keep little fires going in their homes as a sign of respect."
I bite lip. I have an idea. It's ambitious, a far reach, but it just might work. "Mina, do people ever use sacred fires for burnt offerings?"
"No, Kiana. Didn't you hear me? The sacred fires are meant to be kept pure."
"Okay, I get it, but what if we made some sort of burnt offering?"
"I don't think that will work. Like I said, I've never heard of anyone doing that."
"What if we were the first successful attempt? What if Anahita actually responded?"
Mina takes my statement and chews on it for a moment. "I guess it's worth a shot. I mean, we're gonna die out here anyway. Might as well speed up the process and burn up all our food," she says dryly.
I ignore her sarcasm and rub my hands together, grinning. "I'm glad we're on the same page now. Let's get started."
...
An hour later, we've unwrapped every snack in our possession, collected it in a big pile, and surrounded with stone. It looms nearly two feet high; it's a high calorie, extremely flammable mountain.
I dig a lighter out of my pocket and turn it over in my hands nervously. Mina is right. If this doesn't work, we're just going to end up dying sooner. I glance to my partner. "I guess now's as good as ever." She shrugs.
I raise the lighter, and I'm about to drop it when Mina speaks up. "Wait!" I hesitate, my arm still hovering over our tinder. "Is there any sort of chant or anything else that we need to do?" Mina asks, biting her lip. I can see right through her. She is totally stalling.
"Nah," I say with a smirk. We don't have time for second-guessing. "For Anahita," I whisper, releasing the lighter. Mina tenses up, and the small flame seems to fall in slow motion towards our offering. It catches faster than I expected. Suddenly it's ablaze, sending puffs of eerie blue smoke skyward. They swirl ominously in irregular bursts. I raise my eyebrows and whip around to face the skeptic hovering behind me. I look back. The flames begin to flicker without warning and sputter out with a hiss. I hear Mina snigger being me.
The world darkens as if someone is holding their hands over my eyes, and my head begins to spin. My stomach turns, and I have to bite my tongue in order to hold back the bile rising from my stomach. I feel as if I'm being tossed into a category five hurricane. I lose control of my limbs, and I flail around wildly.
The swirling sensation ends abruptly, and I'm deposited unceremoniously on some sort of squishy substance. The thud next to me confirms that Mina does too. I force my eyes open. I didn't even realize that I had squeezed them shut.
I'm shaking on my hands and knees, looking down on a thick carpet of moss. A quick glance up reveals evergreen trees so dense that they almost block out the darkening sky. Our new location is so peacefully quiet that the only sound I can hear is Mina trying to recover from her nausea next to me.
"I guess that worked," I mutter dryly, spitting into a bush. Mina doesn't reply. I gag.
"That felt awful," she moans next to me.
I wipe my mouth. "Agreed."
She flops onto her back, covering her eyes with her hands, but I stand, using a tree for support. My hand comes back to my side, covered in sap. I roll my eyes and extend a non-sticky hand to Mina. She grasps it weakly, and I pull her up.
"Where do you think we are?" she asks, and I shrug.
We follow a short path in the underbrush, and it leads us to a small lake. Mountains loom over the smooth surface. The tips are rocky and barren, but the bases are lush and green. Patches of snow dot the surfaces sporadically.
It occurs to me that I don't even really know what season right now. I've really been out of touch with the world for that long. It must be spring, as it's not too hot, and not too cold. My guess is that there's only snow because of the high altitude.
I inhale deeply, enjoying the sweet air. The whole area looks untouched. Crickets hum happily, and a deer munches on something green a few yards away. It glances at us lazily as we approach, unfazed by our presence.
Mina and I plop down on some boulders to take in the scene. She looks just a puzzled as I feel. I can't make any sort of connections from our mission to the peaceful mountain scene surrounding me. Ali wouldn't bring Nasrin to the wilderness. That just doesn't make any sense. There must be something that I'm missing. I try to focus on my breathing. We have the whole night to figure things out, but for now, it's getting dark and cold.
I break the serene silence. "Why? Why, out of every helpful location in the world that we could be right now, would we be here?" I say with a giggle.
Mina shakes her head. "I don't know." She gestures to the sparkling water. "At least it's beautiful."
I nod thoughtfully. "There are worse places to be, I guess." The two of us enjoy the peace of our surroundings for a few more minutes but decide together that we need to relocate and set up camp. We push our way back into the woods, searching for the perfect spot.
We don't make it far before our first accident happens. A large pack flies from the sky, completely unannounced, and hits Mina square in the back. She flies to the ground with a grunt, and I look up for some sort of magical source that our package could have come from, but the heavens are clear. That is, except for the identical bag flying straight for my face. I jump to the side and hit the ground, narrowly dodging being pummeled.
My heart races with adrenaline, and I glance over to Mina. "Are you okay?" I ask. I close my eyes and try to calm my breathing.
She answers me with unintelligible mumbling.
"I think you're right, Mina. We should just camp here for the night," I supply.
She lifts her head to glare at me for putting words in her mouth, but she doesn't protest my idea. I crawl over to our new bags, which are presumably full of supplies. I draw them to my chest and cast my eyes to the heavens. "Thank you," I whisper. The words are swallowed by the quiet around me, but I know that they are heard. Things are finally looking up, and I'm grateful for the change.
...
Author's note
Not a huge fan of this chapter. I do really like the next one though. ;)
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Thanks for reading.
