Hayden
My legs were blocks of iron but I urged them on.
The atmosphere had turned thick and tense, filling up with the sounds of hysterical neighs from the horses and the crescendo of the gunfire. The premise was yet colorless with thin early morning sunlight spread around the horizon, the air decidedly chilly but the smell smoky campfire-ish. I crossed through the location where Nazira had established a garden using her magic. However, currently, the garden had disappeared and been replaced with dry grass, some sedges, and heavy snow. Weird. The morbid curiosity within me was strong. I ignored it for now and ran towards the forward-facing apartments, towards the screams.
Hardik jetted crazily in the air, a whirring swish and a whiz.
The far east portion of Sharad's palace and a few of the adjacent apartments were allegedly set on fire. Flames were huge and sizzling, creating bursts of hostile rings of smoke. The palace's walls made of rocks were still intact, but everything else crumbling down and dripping into puddles, the roof caving in, and the loud creak and groan of the contracting wood. There were intense cries for help, scared citizens shuffling away from the fire and crowding back amidst the apartments.
The explosion bore all the hallmarks of Shashi's attacks.
The Sharad's knights had gathered in the frontal portion of the palace. A few of them pointed their musket at the sky, as though searching for a target. The birds went flapping and chirping, the drumming hoof beats of the horses fanatically scattering away from their stables. A rush of sick terror bubbled through my stomach. I took a couple of hurried steps ahead and then stopped at the spot where the three most important people of my life came into the picture. Knights were nursing King Aghashtya, Queen Urmila, and my aunt. They were seated on the edges of the knee wall and looking over at the fire burning a part of their home.
"Leena," I mind-connected. "Leena, are you awake? Please wake up."
Another ear-splitting screech emerged out of nowhere, disrupting my concentration. The knights instinctively loaded their muskets, howling with fear, and pointed the weapons up. I followed their sight.
A speck appeared in the sky. A black dot amidst the columns of smoke. It came closer down to the earth, turning into an orange light, like that of an afternoon sun. It sailed smoothly down, its shape reforming into a bird, wings, and claws taking its position. It was only a bird, a huge one, sort of peculiar. It started to revolve and rotate at the same spot. Much closer it came now, its neck split into two, casting a monstrous dark shadow over the battalion of knights. I sensed their terror. I sensed mine and gradually realized that it was no bird.
The two eagle-headed monsters- Agnidaanav- loomed high up in the air. It screeched, its volume tremendously loud. Its skin was covered with scales and was shiny as though coated with gold. It spread the bat-like humongous wings, seizing me with panic. Wings flapped and a sharp gust of wind sent away a flurry of powered snow backward. It screeched louder and louder and began hurling flames in the air. Anger evident. This creature was Shashi's friend gifted by Almourah for his excellence in dark magic. It was Shashi's friend and that reminded me of Tyrell's prior warning- Shashi had been creating a new menacing clan and was about to unleash a fresh wave of violence upon the country.
The creature showed off its fierceness with its powerful talons, strong legs, hooked beaks, and keen eyesight. Despite that, the only feature that amazed me was its size. My previous encounter with it had happened more than two years ago, the remembrance of which was enough to determine the difference in the sizes of both the creatures. The current one wasn't as huge as Agnidaanav in the past. What did that mean?
I ran towards the knights to lend my support, not once leaving my eyes off the creature that hung in the air flapping its wings, pushing wind away, and seemingly staring at the group ready to fight back. Its eyes were filled with dragonish glare. It stopped screeching, just for a second though. Then it opened its mouths, the tense seconds enough to brace myself. And at once thick currents of fire gusted out its mouths, the rush of which knocked me senseless.
A ball of fire emerged out of my palms. I had it spread far and wide on my command. I covered myself and the rest of the knights, using my fire as a protective shield. Boom! The collision created a powerful blasting effect. I fell on my knees, jerked my head down. My outstretched arms gave a prick. The enormous weight of the pressure bearing down on me. The oppressive heat drained off the strength. My fire wasn't as effective as the opposite force and I sweated profoundly. The heat was stronger than that of the natural fire, powerful enough to melt the tar within the road.
"Go away!" I yelled at the knights, sweat streaming down my temples and feeling its saltiness in my mouth. Thankfully they listened. The crowd slowly dissipated, squatting from below my umbrella-like fire and escaping from the heat of this inferno. The newly healed wound in my gut suddenly stung, like a stitch tearing off. My stomach heaved. The heat was still pressing down, the creature incessantly pouring down its fire.
I was trapped, like a mouse in a cage.
This was no one-person job. I needed help, I needed my friends or at least Singh. It was either that or the choice was to burn to death. Then, just in time, the much gratifying help arrived. My nerves were deadly wild, that it must have sensed it from the far distance. A satisfying beautiful sound of a swish, and Hardik slid from space beneath the brawling fires. It waited beside me, hovering just above the ground, its velvety pattern glittering underneath the hues of fire. It was urging me to step on. I couldn't help but smile with a surge of relief washing over me.
Gradually reducing the pressure of my fire, I jumped on it, and Hardik took off, its speed incredible, wind blasting past me. It was almost comforting getting exposed to the cold air again.
The creature screeched. Its blood-curdling angry tone silenced everything else around.
Hardik had come only intending to rescue me from the creature. It was sincerely taking me back to the apartment. But I had an otherwise thought. Without a shadow of a doubt, this was Shashi's doing and I needed to figure out a way to deal with this creature.
I caressed Hardik's soft surface, took deep breaths to settle my nerves down, and tried to make the carpet understand my impulses. But will my tone replicate Leena's sweet words? "Hardik, please don't run away. I need you to help me fight back. Help me get started with the thing. I promise I'll not let anything happen to you."
The carpet twisted and wriggled in the air for a second or two, as though making a decision. Then it veered around. The gadget accepted my instruction flowing through my nerves. My heart thumped with anticipation and I held it tight before Hardik flew slantingly upwards towards the creature. Fire yet was shooting out from the creature's mouth and blasting the roofs of several apartments. Ashes and smoke drifted in the air. The devastation had to be stopped immediately.
I rose well above the premise, circling the creature and trying to find my best angle. Hardik intelligently read my nerves. It only took a moment for the great beast to spot me. Roaring in fury, it spread its massive wings and Hardik took to the sky after it. Despite my predicament, I couldn't help but be awed by the creature. Its wingspan was so large and strong that it nearly shadowed the entire width of Sharad's palace. It soared gracefully into the sky.
I commanded my stone. There was no Nazira and a battalion of fire bullets zapped out of my single hand, another carefully holding Hardik. I targeted its humongous body, which seemed to have been made of steel. None of my fire bullets worked like they had last time. My Formation was only brushing against its skin and instantly getting disappeared into the void leaving trails of small smoke.
The creature streamed from above the damaged portion of the palace, flames still ravaging. The creature was seemingly hiding in the thick smoke. Hardik followed. Suddenly, the air turned humid and sticky. The carpet struggled to maintain its speed. Its flight caused several vigorous turbulences. My concentration on my stone was getting disrupted.
I gasped and grunted, trying vainly to get control of the creature. The Aerial combat was new to me, and I decided then and there to better get used to it soon. I staggered on my knees, worrying that at some point I might lose my balance and topple off onto the gouts of flame burning the palace. My nerves were faltering. Hardik quickly folded itself from the sides, helping me keep the balance. Brilliant. The carpet did not seem as scary as before. Perhaps it all depended on the way humans handled it.
The creature flew out of the smoke and retaliated, sporadically hurling down its fire. Hardik meticulously escaped, swooping from above the gushing fire and escaping from between its necks. "Stop, stop!" I urged and Hardik hung in the space between its necks. Taking that as an advantage, I lifted both my hands and concentrated hard on my stone. Fire coursed out and traveled in opposite directions, away from each other, with an electrifying speed like that of a ballistic missile. My fire then rammed into the creature's skin, right below its eyes.
The atmosphere shattered, and the world spun when the creature screeched aloud. The bloodcurdling screech sent shivers of terror through my twisted spine and literally hurt my ears. I fell completely down on Hardik, pressing my eyes and ears shut, teeth gritted, and praying for the creature to stop screaming.
Hardik gently flew away. The pressure of the wind wasn't as bad as before. When the screeching sound felt mitigating, I opened my eyes, and sat back up on my knees, quickly choosing my next command.
It was all silent and shocked in the wake of the frenzy. The creature then spread its wings wider, gently humming, leaping high in the air, and showing off its full glorious size. Great scrolls of smoke curled beneath it, drooping like a mournful flag. Its fully alert posture was as though threatening to spark off another battle and do away with me. I did nothing, only glared. I frowned, staring back at it. Did I just get dared? It then sinuously turned around and flew away, towards the horizon, wings flapping hard and fanning the smoke below.
I watched it go until it disappeared into the grey clouds massing in the sky. No wind rushed past me anymore. I was left with an eerie silence, sitting on Hardik floating in the air and feeling the insistent throb of blood in his veins. This isn't over, the creature had warned.
Double-dog dared.
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Tyrell and Celina stopped mid-way, refraining themselves from running through, and stood at the edge of the porch. In the early morning haze and smoke-filled atmosphere, their faces took on dazed and painful expressions.
Hardik swiftly flew down towards the porch. I jumped out of it and heard my friends letting out heavy sighs. Nervous excitement spread between them while I pretended to watch Hardik folding itself and perching at the corner of the porch.
I gave my friends a knowing look, their faces marred by deep frowns of confusion. "Where's Leena and Pruthvi?" I asked.
"Pruthvi's checking on his son," Tyrell replied. "And Leena went to a firefight a few moments ago."
"A few moments ago?" I asked. "Did you not hear the explosion?"
"Well, we were fast asleep...like buzzards. Believe me, we didn't happen to hear anything, and it's confusing to us too."
"You look so beat," Celina said, her voice dripping with concern. Then she pointed down at my shirt. "And you're bleeding. You shouldn't have fought with that creature alone."
I calmly walked inside the apartment. There was a bottle with half-filled water resting on the floor beside the table. Suddenly feeling my throat parched, I held it up and drank it all in silence. Celina and Tyrell slowly walked inside, patiently waiting for a reply. Celina's eyes bored into my skin. She was watching me with unblinking intensity. There was so much she deserved to know about Nazira - who and what she really was. They all did.
"The creature's out," I said, trying to muster up some energy and courage. "It's another crisis and needs to be dealt with by rules. So, I should have a statement of Panchayat's intentions first. But there's an important issue that we need to discuss among ourselves first. And it has to be done now." Fright caught up in my throat and tried to swallow it down. "Something happened last night. Between me and Nazira."
"Who?" Tyrell asked, doing a bad job of hiding his grimace.
"Nazira," I said. "She's...gone. She left with Shourya. Please call Pruthvi. This is a matter of emergency and his involvement is a must."
Tyrell wetted his lips, looking disgruntled. Perhaps no one has yet filled him with the information about the magic cast on Shourya. He shared a glance with Celina before saying, "I don't understand. Are you still a little tipsy? Maybe you need to sleep. We can talk about this later?"
"No, I can't afford to sleep anymore. With the creature here and Nazira gone... we need to bring her back, even if it has to be against her will. She is the only one who knows how to deal with that creature. Didn't you say you were locked somewhere in Sherwood Forest? Maybe we should go search for her in there first."
Tyrell still looked a bit absent. "Alright, I'll call Pruthvi."
He shrugged at Celina and strode away into the walkway. Celina crossed her hands and kept staring at me, while I paced up and down the living room. The atmosphere quietened but became tenser. Hurried steps then resounded and Tyrell eventually showed up. The temperature dropped a million degrees when Pruthvi came into sight. Both of them were whispering and muttering my name again and again.
Pruthvi eyed warily at my bloodstained shirt. My heart sank. The guilt began to grow. It's about time. The quicker I blurt things out the better.
I took a step towards him feeling like a convict trying to explain. "She's gone...with Shourya," I said keeping my voice low. "He took her with him. No, actually she went with him...willingly. She wanted to break the magic laid on Shourya and took this decision without talking to us first."
"Who?" he asked, his brows drawn too close and downward. He's getting mad.
"Nazira...Nazira Khan, heck, I am talking about Nazira. She left. Things did not go according to plan. And I swear it's way more complicated than it looks but I can explain. And...she took the Pride with her."
"Hayden, wait," he said, lifting his hands as though surrendering. "We need a better explanation. Why are you tripping? What's the matter?"
"Nazira is gone!" I said, my voice starting to rise. Why were my friends acting so dense? "Look, there's a lot I hid from you, alright? At that moment, I thought it was the right thing to do, but it was certainly a lapse in my judgment. I'll tell you everything, okay? From the beginning, every single detail. But not right now. We need to bring Nazira back. We need to plan for it."
Pruthvi didn't move an inch. He kept staring blankly. None of them moved.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" I said my frustration was now at boiling point. This was not the kind of reaction I'd been expecting from him. I wanted Pruthvi to yell back at me, punch me in the face, and become a crazed madman on a mission to destroy the world. "Shashi's got Nazira. And the Pride. Don't you care?"
"Hayden, buddy, we all are quite tensed now that the creature is out. And I'm sure there's another good reason for you to freak out this way. But, er..." he glanced back at the others before he got back to me. "Who is Nazira?"
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