Netra’s PoV
I called for the blue bird and she flew straight to my hand. The forest has many blue birds just like the one that came to visit me with messages. The blue bird wanted me to find my mom’s journal. But then, I strongly believe it was my dad who wanted me to find the key. He talked to me through his ring that I wore on my finger. So my grandma was the one that sent the bird! Why?
I remember Ambuli uncle told me that before every catastrophe, the blue bird was seen. So she has been trying to warn our people before dad strikes? But why would she warn them instead of stopping her son? Why is this forest forbidden? What other secret is hiding in this darkness?
“Aira, I think we have to go out before Giza wonders where we are.” I told her but she never moved an inch.
I jumped down from her and started walking around. The glyptodon that we met outside this forest came to me and nudged my legs. I looked down at it and it started rolling further deep into the forest and I followed it. Aira followed me and I was completely taken by surprise to see a cavern glowing with crystals. The top of the cavern is open like a volcano top and different colored crystals are hanging on the ceiling and growing on the floor like icicles.
“Wow!” I exclaimed at the sight. The glyptodon nudged me to move forward and go in. I am not sure if it is a good idea to go in further.
“No! Wait!” I tried to stop it but it pushed at the back of my knee and I lost my balance. I stepped in the cavern and got a hold of the crystal that was growing on the floor. “God, what is in here? What do you want me to see?” I asked him but he stood out of the cavern and looked behind me. He is trying to tell me something and I trusted him. I walked further inside passing the green and orange crystals. The wall and the floor of the cavern is wet and slippery and I had to be double careful to not end up dying falling on the sharp icicle.
“Mmm uh…” I heard a weak moan from deep inside the cavern and a ball of fear gathered in my tummy. I held my tummy with my hand and walked further in towards the moans. My babies were wriggling inside my tummy.
“Isfe! Let us go! I know you are here. How long do you think you are going to have us here as captives? This damp place is agony to us. Let us go, please!” I heard a weak man talk.
“Just kill us! Why are you torturing us like this?” another man asked.
“We are wrong. We agree with everything we have done. We did it out of ignorance. We are ready to succumb to death, please, kill us!” another! How many people are there? I fastened my pace and reached the crystals that had grown from the floor to the ceiling in an orderly fashion. It was like a sealed gate.
“You!” the man who stood near the gate stumbled behind after seeing me. There were four men on the other side of the gate and they were all pale and thin. They were taller with big eyes than usual and they are not very human-like but they are humanoid with a little elongated head at the back and they were beautiful! Everyone feared me!
“Who are you all? Why are you here?”
“Go away!” a man who was behind in a corner yelled.
“You don't remember us?” the man who stood near the gate asked me and I shook my head in a no!
“Maya?” He asked me and I shook my head in a no again! They think I am Maya? Why? Do I look like Maya? Isn't Maya the god? Why are they terrified of Maya?
“Don't try to trick us Maya. Kill us. Send our souls to space. Erase our memory. We are tired of this life.”
“I truly don't know who you all are and I am not Maya. I am Netra. Who are you? Why is my grandma holding you all here?”
