Aru Shah and the Soul Trident

Marshmallows here, Marshmallows There, Marshmallows Everywhere!

Aiden sighed and shrugged. "Well, I guess it's better than nothing."

Aru smiled. "Yup! You and Rudy go to distract the demoness. Mini, Brynne, and I will go get the vines."

Aiden hoisted his weapons a bit higher in the air, and nodded determinedly. His skin glowed in the moonlight, probably because of his apsara lineage, but it still made Aru's heart skip a beat. No, Aru, she told herself. Bad heart! Focus!

"Aru!" Brynne and Mini raced towards her and came to a halt.

Aru turned, and she saw her sisters looking at her determinedly. She clapped her hands together and said, "Alright, let's do this Potatoes!" She spared a quick glance at the rakshasi, and saw that Rudy and Aiden were keeping her busy (well, Rudy was mainly running around screaming). Aru gave a quick nod to her sisters, and immediately, Brynne turned into a bird and flew to the top of the tree. With her claws, she snagged a couple vines and brought it down to her sisters.

"Okay, so all we have to do is connect the vines together, right?" Mini asked, looking down at the pile of vines that Brynne had dropped on the ground.

"Yep," Aru said. "Then, we trip the big, scary lady. Not too hard."

"What do we do after we somehow manage to knock her down?" Brynne asked, back in her human form. "Should we kill her?"

Mini looked uneasy. "I guess if we have to...we should try talking to her first though. Maybe we could negotiate?"

Aru shook her head. "I don't think it's gonna work. I already tried."

"Guys, can you hurry up!" The three girls turned their heads around, and saw Rudy yelping as the rakshasi nearly crushed him with her feet.

"Yeah, give us a sec!" Aru yelled back. Then, she sat down and started to knot the vines together. Luckily, they were pretty thick and looked sturdy enough. Mini and Brynne followed pursuit, and soon enough, they had a nearly ten-foot long rope.

Aru got up to her feet, dusting off the dirt on her pants. Mini grabbed one end of the long vine rope, and Brynne turned into a small cat and grabbed the other end. In her cat form, she crept to the other side of the rakshasi, careful to keep out of sight, and turned back into her human form. She gave a thumbs up, indicating that she was all good. Mini and Brynne held both sides of the rope, waiting for the rakshasi to fall into their trap.

Aru's job was to go join the boys and lead the demoness towards their makeshift vine rope. She ran towards the rakshasi and waved her arms in the air.

"HEY, SKULL-NECKLACE LADY!" The rakshasi slowly turned and faced Aru.

"PANDAVA! Stop squirming around and let me eat you!"

Aru's heart nearly stopped. Pandava?! How did the rakshasi know that they were Pandavas? Well, except for Aiden and Rudy, of course. Did someone purposely send her to stop them?

She pushed those thoughts to the side. Not now, she told herself. Worry about that later.

"You know what?! All you've been doing is stomping around! We're like, the size of ants to you and you haven't even been able to catch us! So lame!"

Aiden, catching up to her idea, yelled, "You're so slow! Are you part slug or something?!"

Rudy, joining Aiden and Aru, shouted a little too loudly, "I BET MY GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT GRANDMOTHER IS FASTER THAN YOU! AND SHE CAN'T EVEN SLITHER BY HERSELF ANYMORE! SHE USES A SLITHERER!"

What the heck is a slitherer, Aru wondered to herself. The rakshasi growled, and stepped closer to them. Aru sneaked a glance behind her. Only three rakshasi-sized steps to go.

A/N: A slitherer is my version of a walker (lol)

"WHAT? I, THE GREAT PUTANA, AM SLOW?! HOW DARE YOU!" The rakshasi roared, taking another huge step. Two more steps to go, now.

"DUH!" Aru responded. Putana? The name did tug at the back of the brain, but as annoyingly usual, she couldn't quite recall who she was. "PROVE IT IF YOU AREN'T! CATCH US IF YOU CAN!" Aru, Aiden, and Rudy ran towards the rope, and luckily, the monster followed them. The three of them ducked under the rope, but the rakshasi who towered over even the trees, did not notice the vine until it was too late. Two large steps later, she screamed as she tripped over the rope, startling dozens of birds that flew out of the trees.

"Timberrrr!" Aru yelled gleefully.

The rakshasi, Putana, growled and tried to get up again, but she was too slow. Brynne climbed up on top of her and quickly transformed into a blue whale, and with her enhanced powers, she was three times the size of a regular whale. Putana struggled, but she couldn't get up.

"HOW DARE MERE CHILDREN STOP THE GREAT PUTANA!"

Aru crossed her arms and responded, "Sorry, but it doesn't ring a bell." She looked at Mini, who usually knew the names of monsters in Hindu myths. "Mini?"

Mini nodded, and faced the other Potatoes. "I don't really know the details, but I'm pretty sure she tried to kill Lord Krishna when he was an infant. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but Krishna ended up killing her instead."

Aru raised her eyebrows. The avatar of Vishnu killed a rakshasi when he was just an infant? But then again, he was a god, so she guessed it was possible.

Aiden cocked his head towards Putana. "So, what do we do now?"

"LET ME OUT!" she shouted under whale-Brynne.

Rudy threw a marshmallow at her, and popped one inside his mouth too. "Mmmm." He said with a smile spreading across his face. "Is this ambrosia? I have never had anything so...fluffy." He then turned to Aiden. "Are there chefs who make these? Where can I hire them?" Aiden, as usual, ignored him.

"HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME, THE GREAT PUTANA, YOU PESKY LITTLE-" The rakshasi was cut off by the sound of caws of crows. Aru and the rest of the Potatoes tilted their heads towards the sky. She gasped. A whole murder (apparently, that was what a whole bunch of crows together was called. Aru had done her research) of crows formed a black ball in the night sky, illuminated by the moon. They screeched and dove towards the Potatoes. The crows swarmed them, and the Potatoes swatted their hands around in the air, trying to shoo them away, as if they were flies. Long story short, it didn't work. It was reallyyy hard to fight without celestial weapons. Aiden half-heartedly waved his swords around, but the crows dodged them easily. Rudy tried throwing his rocks at the murder, but the crows swarmed him and particularly attacked him more than any other Potato.

Whale-Brynne was still on top of Putana, pinning her down to the ground. Mini waved her stick in the air, trying to ward off the crows. And her? Well, Aru just ran around screaming profanities at the birds. However, just as quickly as they appeared, they dissipated just as fast. Aru watched on in amazement as the birds came together and formed...a person?

What-who is that? She mind-messaged to her sisters. Mini didn't respond, but whale-Brynne said, I don't know, but how much longer do I have to stay on the rakshasi! I wanna get off already!

Aru mentally shushed her as the person stepped forward. She snatched a stick off the ground and readied it in front of her, and Mini did the same. Rudy clutched his pouch of gems and Aiden flourished his swords in front of him, the blades glinting in the moonlight. And well, whale-Brynne just kept crushing Putana.

The crow-man walked forward and the Potatoes tensed.

"Who are you?" Aru called, steadying her breath. The bird-man smiled and lifted his arms up.

"I am Jayant." The man crossed his arms and appraised them. Now that he had stepped into the light, Aru could see that he had feathery (literally) black hair that fell to his shoulders. He had an eye-patch over one of his eyes, and his other eye surveyed them diligently. He was dressed in a white sherwani that was beaded with crystal sequins at the ends.

"What do you want?" said Aiden, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"To help you," Jayant said, smiling.