(Book 6) Hayden Mackay and The Third-Eye of the Pancharatna

31. Build Better Bridges

The creature changed its course yet again, now sickly straight, its single functioning eye staring directly at the Celina who hovered just before it. Each waiting for the other. Then the creature sprung straight ahead, and Hardik dragged itself from the way. Celina commanded Hardik pointing directly at the creature and Hardik went through.

They were over the mountain trails, gliding up and down, up and down, as though waves of the frequency, the distance making them look like a fly behind a honeybee with water flooding over them. The creature tried to attack with its wings and hurled fire at Celina. While Celina managed to escape and in turn hurled the sword trying to pierce the not-easy-to-see bullseye. The action at a breakneck pace frazzled Nazira's nerves, rain turning into a misty haze, which she fixed the disruption at once. They were so high off the ground and almost undiscernible, neither Celina nor Hardik was invulnerable to speed, flying in the driving snow, flooding rain, and blasting wind. Such stamina!

This reminded her of the days in the Parallel Universe when she had seen Hayden in action and expressing his gratitude to Celina for teaching him the moves. And of course, she remembered the words Leena had spoken once. "Celina has this dexterous grace of a predator that I absolutely adore about her." And now Nazira watching the words come to reality.

Celina and the creature suddenly disappeared behind the mountain, and only after a second or two they appeared and disappeared again, then appeared once again in the shadowy folds of the mountain. Celina suddenly fell back on the carpet. She spasmed as she collapsed, holding her arm. The color of the jacket seemed to have darkened. Blood was leaking off her arm. Nazira swallowed with worry, her nerves going frantic about Celina's safety.

Celina made a few more attempts to lure the creature by hurling more swords at it. From above Vrishabha had been trying to weaken it. Nothing worked. The creature was still strong as the day Haimavati had poured life into it. Bring it to me. Just bring it to me. Nazira frowned. Was I asking too much from Celina? Should I put more effort to reach it myself? But then...would her intrusion make Celina feel humiliated again? This mission was solely not about killing the creature, after all, Hayden had been meaning it to be more than that. But if she never helped her, it would be still far too soon. What was the right thing to do?

Hardik landed Celina on the low ridge sloping to reach a few feet above the mountain.

This was the cue. Nazira took a sharp breath, focused on the energy within, and orated the spell. The time stopped. The world stopped spinning. No sudden blistery wind. No moment of the smaller creatures. Celina, Hardik, and Agnidaanav remained still in the air facing one another. The petrichor earthy smell was gone and defunct. There was just the smell of nothing that Nazira disliked, and she pushed herself to finish the task.

She darted forward, making up her own trail, being careful not to step over the slippery hurdles- rocks, ice, water, gravel, and snow were all making her pace slow down. She placed a first step over the slope of the mountain and slightly slipped back, nearly tumbled, and fell. She wasn't a hiker and regarded herself as a terrible runner of the generation.

This was the second time she had worked up in the still time and the usage of her energy for such magic made her progress slower than usual. She ran and ran and there was so much more to go. The hike on the slopy surface was strenuous. Her legs began to ache. Her energy was draining, it was as though she had used a week full of energy in a single day. One reason why she admired Third Generation Samagraha was that once the task was assigned, they never stopped, they never accepted defeat and they never gave up hope. The thoughts of them made her push through up the hill.

She finally reached where she wanted to, huffing and puffing. Bending low, she planted her hands over her knees and waited for a few moments until she caught her breath.