Naina, a crazy girl, exiled from her hometown, accused of practicing black magic that took her parent's life. Her unique ability, unknown to the world. It burnt down along with her parent's body. Her name itself held deep meaning. Too many secrets s...
Clutching the pendant that still sparkled brightly, Ammie took one step after the other. The sun was covered with a blanket of clouds and the forest a few denser with every step they took. There was no sign of Utkarsha's spiritual pets. Taking a deep breath, Naina concentrated on finding the right path towards the den.
"Do you think Mom is alright? I noticed the pendant was blinking." Ammie asked worriedly as he made her way, dodging the branches of the trees.
"Don't worry, sis. She is a fighter." Naina couldn't come up with any other answer, because she was unaware of the situation.
"Why do we worship Utkarsha when she slaughters our people?" Naina finally asked. That was picking her thoughts.
"That's a long story. Mom used to tell me as bedtime stories so that I would never be in her radar. But my heart wanted it otherwise." Ammie said, clutching David's hand tightly.
"Can you not jumble the words and confuse me more? I want to know about the life we are supposed to live." Naina's blood boiled when she saw how frightened Ammie was, and considering the fact that they had to leave her aunt behind, she found herself helpless.
"There was a time when our ancestors aka Angels were the kings and queens and Utkarsha's father was known as the rebel, a powerful witch," Ammie said. Thankfully, that distracted their mind, and they walked, listening to what Ammie was saying instead of fearing for what would come next.
"The king banned any of his bloodlines to have a relationship with the Witch community. Though King's elder son, our grandfather, obeyed all the rules his other son was a rebellious type. He never cared about the rules and regulations." Naina chuckled hearing this. Every family has a rebellious one in their lives.
Ammie slapped Naina for interrupting her and continued, "The king was always worried about his second son, but our grandfather Adam covered his naughtiness of being his protective elder brother. They never knew his carefree nature would once bring doom to their family."
"He loved a witch?" Naina asked, connecting the dots, and Ammie nodded, making her curious mind even curious.
"The King and the Witch lord couldn't agree so they planned to flee."
"You mean they ran away?" Naina interrupted her again, and David laughed at her curious face.
"That's not funny!" Ammie whined when both Naina and David laughed hard. The moon slowly showed its beautiful face and lightly illuminated its path. They walked as fast as they could. Even if the situation was dire, they did not lose hope.
"They would have if the Akul wasn't that handsome," Ammie said and Naina grew even more confused.
"What do you even mean?" Naina asked as she made her way towards the waterfall.
"Akul loved a witch named Saira, but unfortunately Saira had an evil sister," David responded this time, and Naina looked at him with furrowed eyebrows.
"Utkarsha?"
"Bullseye!" David high-fived Naina and Ammie just shook her head at their childishness.
"Utkarsha loved Akul and confessed her love even after she knew Akul loved her sister. When Akul denied her, she cursed his entire bloodline to always stay out of love."
"That's it? She cursed. And that's it? Everything ended?" Naina grew more curious.
"She ignited the fire that was still blooming inside the Witch lord. They attacked the mansion and killed the king and his wife, captivating their elder son and his family." Ammie said, with sadness in her eyes.
"It was a disaster. Akul couldn't protect anyone, as Utkarsha was more powerful than he predicted. She sabotaged their plan of escaping the castle. The witch lord captivated his daughter Saira when he knew she loved Akul."
"That's not fair," Naina whispered when she felt an unknown sadness weighing her heart.
"That was nothing. What's not fair was her curse affected Akul and Saira when Saira died and no one knew the reason. They found her dead on her bed and blood sucked from her body. There was chaos. When Akul found out about it, he went crazy. His spiritual animal, the tiger, was unstoppable. No one knew how these things happened. He spilled blood all over the world. Killed many innocent people and destroyed houses. The king's entire family was massacred. The witch lord ruled the world and Utkarsha was the reason behind it." Ammie said.
"Damn." Goosebumps covered their body when the intensity in the story captivated their breath. The situation felt really heavy for Naina. Her heartbeat fast and she couldn't know why. Her brain showed some weird flashbacks that made her stumble into the wood and injure her head. David reached for her, but she stood up herself.
"I'm okay, we are almost there." The owls, cooing and snakes hissing made her realize they slowed down, and the sound of waves gave her a sign of relief. When she found they could make it to the cave, she ran along with Ammie and David.
They ran as fast as they could because they did not want any wild animal to eat them up. Slowly, through the woods, she saw the den. The moonlight showed the faded image of the den, and she smiled. A smile of relief. She did not know that there rested a creature who could swallow them whole. Unaware of the danger she was in, she entered the den.
It had a small entrance, but the inside was pretty big. "Oh my God, what was that?!" Ammie gasped when she heard a weird cry coming through the narrow path out of the two ways built inside it. The den was pretty nicely hidden, but the weird cry made it more creepy as the den shook because of the intensity. They thought it was a tiger or any other wild animal.
Naina hastily lit a wooden stick and looked around to close the tunnel where they entered. "It seems to come from the other one." She said, pointing at the pathway. "A tiger?" David asked, as he was shivering because of the intensity the cry held. Suddenly they heard bones cracking, and they covered their mouth to stop their cry.
Desperately attempting to cover the path, Naina found some vast stones lying on the ground. The three of them covered the only entrance they thought the den had and hid inside the cave.
"I guess we have to spend our night here. Let's pray that we could see tomorrow's sun." David said and settled beside Ammie. Slowly, their eyelids closed, but Naina stayed awake. She knew one had to stay awake to protect them. To keep her mind active, she pulled out the wooden box that had the answers to her questions. The last gift from her mother, or she could say, the only gift from her mother.
