'Whoosh'
A long white silk rope originated from the fourth floor and fell all the way to the first floor of the shopping mall. The silk rope was 2 millimetres thick and seemed to be sturdy enough to bear his weight as Prakash began to climb up.
It had all transpired 2 minutes ago as Prakash gazed at the dozens of humanoid figures that had managed to expertly manoeuvre through the suspended silk threads and collect the carcasses of numerous dead insects.
Prakash immediately began to think about the ways to contact them; he was currently on the second floor while they were on the fourth floor. He couldn't count on their sense of sight to spot him as he had firsthand experience about the reduced visual prowess of humans, so he needed to project his voice all the way over there.
"Help!" Prakash bellowed the most obvious word aloud without the slightest hint of embarrassment but discovered to his disappointment that the sound produced by exerting his vocal cords to their limits wasn't audible enough to reach the group of humans as they continued their tasks without disturbance.
Purple smoke gushed out of the pores on his skin and coagulated to form a cocoon around him that immediately shattered to reveal a cute puppy from within.
'Woof' 'Woof'
Prakash controlled his barking when he sensed that the sounds he produced began to echo through the empty hallways.
The abrupt barking sounds disrupted the peaceful gathering tasks of the humans as they turned restless and immediately began to retreat towards their base.
When he noticed that his barking sounds had produced effects the exact opposite to what he intended, Prakash controlled his vocal cords and tried to produce barking sounds that might help them track his location.
'Woof'
Crisp sharp barking sounds resounded in the air when the sound abruptly turned into a whine as the puppy was so focused on making traceable barks that its paws had slipped over the edge on the glass walls.
'Aieee!' The puppy abruptly dissolved into purple smoke that was absorbed back into a tiny human that flailed its hands in the air to find support.
Purple smoke instantly converged into his palms as Prakash pushed them towards the wall and slid for a foot before coming to a stop.
'Shhh'
There were faint sizzling sounds produced on his palms that were now bleeding purple blood as Prakash gasped for breath. His heart was still beating like crazy while his face was flushed due to having just survived a fall.
Prakash took a few moments to calm his beating heart as he began to scale up the wall that was at the edge of the second floor; after that was the tiny glass wall which he scaled up with almost no difficulty.
Standing atop the glass wall once again, Prakash fell into a daze as he saw a silk rope fall near him. Its bottom end reached all the way to the first floor while its top had been secured somewhere on the fourth floor.
'Swish'
A man sporting a thin moustache with a wide forehead and a decent build descended along the silk rope as he flashed a professional smile towards Prakash as a sign of friendly gesture.
"Hello there brother; hold the rope like this, we'll pull you up." The man gestured Prakash to look at his hands as he swiftly told him the method to safely hold the rope and not fall off.
"Thanks for the help. Your response was quite quick," Prakash flashed him an awkward smile as he extended his hand towards the silk rope and held it in the exact same way as the man had described.
"Is there anyone else accompanying you brother?" The man directed a question at Prakash but his eyes kept scoured through the nearby surroundings as purple smoke gushed towards his eyes.
After failing to find anyone else, the man slightly tugged at the silk rope as Prakash watched it in surprise when the rope began to move upwards. It meant that people were pulling it from the top which came as a pleasant surprise to Prakash who had mentally prepared himself for another excruciating climb.
His sense of thirst had already worsened to critical levels, anymore, and he would begin to lose his mental clarity. If it wasn't for this sense of thirst affecting his concentration, he wouldn't have slipped back then in the first place.
The man with a wide forehead was silent throughout the journey as if his earlier friendly demeanour was just a front.
Prakash felt overwhelmed at the sight of thousands of insects that were trapped along a wide expanse of silk webs in close-up as he had reached the upper levels of the third floor.
"Amazing right?" The man at the front who had been silent all along their upward journey suddenly spoke with an admiring gaze when he noticed the shocked face of Prakash.
The wide expanse of silk webs spanned along his route as Prakash felt like all he needed to do was just extend his hands out in order to touch the trapped insects.
"Amazing!" Prakash voiced out his honest thoughts when he noticed that they had reached the fourth floor.
Grabbing hold of the outstretched hand, Prakash climbed onto a small barrier and stepped into a wide barricaded area as he gazed at a lively place filled with humans.
In the piece of the corridor that spanned about 25 metres in length and 4 metres in breadth, Prakash estimated there to be about a thousand humans at the very least, each of whom seemed to be going about doing their respective tasks.
"Hmm," Prakash frowned in distaste when he noticed that some of the working women who happened to gaze in his direction immediately avert their gazes with blushed faces, while a sense of envy and admiration etched onto the faces of the men when they also happened to gaze at him.
"My bad, please wear this." The man with the wide forehead promptly retrieved a piece of cloth from somewhere nearby and presented it towards Prakash.
"Hiss," Prakash took a deep sharp breath when realisation finally hit him; he had been travelling naked the whole time. That piece of impromptu cloth he had made for him earlier got left behind atop the mound when he transformed into a fish and dived into the murky waters.
"…Thanks," There was an embarrassed expression on his face as he draped the piece of cloth over his lower body and fastened it tightly so that it wouldn't fall off when he moved. Anyway, he had ample experiences in wearing a dothi, a traditional cloth worn by men in his native that consisted of a long rectangular piece of cloth wound around the lower half.
"I'll bring you to see our leader. He's quite the charismatic guy." The man with the wide forehead lead the way as Prakash got a clearer look at the various installations that had been placed around him.
There were tiny dining plates arranged systematically above the glass walls for every 5 metres which acted like a pulley as different types of ropes ran over them. The ropes ranged from cotton, silk, and wool while the dining plate looked like it was taken from a child's toy set.
What followed next was a block of Lego that had been constructed into different structures that ranged from huge buildings spanning over 4-5 metres in area and 2 feet in height to small enclosings that were meant for storage. There were currently three huge rectangular structures that stood tall in his vision range, with each spanning 4-5 metres in area and had a height of 2 feet.
He also saw a pile of Lego scattered on the ground next to another building as rows of humans began to expertly take them and press them on their designated spots in the block of Lego while another row of humans steadily carried a piece of Lego with them from somewhere far away and replenished the pile.
"Magnificent!" Prakash exclaimed in admiration; humans weren't capable of working together to achieve a cause under dire circumstances and would be busy trying to save their own skin first. The fact that such humans were huddling together and build such magnificent structures as they laughed and joked about themselves, the leader mush have been strong and charismatic enough to create such a phenomenon.
"We are here," The man with the wide forehead brought Prakash towards another Lego structure and pushed at the doors leading within it. Prakash followed behind him and gaped at the crowd huddled within.
Most of the crowds were huddled before walls on which a paper filled with hand-drawn layouts had been affixed. The crowd in front of the paper layout seemed to be in an intense discussion as arguments flashed back and forth while changes were continuously made to the blueprints.
In another corner, a Smartphone had been placed on the wall that acted as a wide cinema screen as another group sat on Lego seats and seemed to be enjoying the show displayed in it. Boisterous laughter resounded through the open hall as the show playing on the Smartphone came to an end prompting the seated crowd to get up from their spots and happily proceed towards their next task.
After that was a series of walls that enclosed a major portion of the hall and as Prakash entered it, he came across soft blankets that were laid on the floor over which numerous people slept in peace, shielded from all the boisterous noises outside.
In order to not induce further chaos in a place of rest, men were quarantined towards one half while the women occupied the other. Crossing this section, Prakash came across a secluded room at the very end.
He followed after the man with a wide forehead and entered into the small room and gazed at a round table and at a row of figures who seemed to be in the midst of a discussion.
A young man was sitting at one corner of the round table while the gazes of all the other people were directed at him indicating that he was the leader figure here.
The man had a long angular nose, eyebrows that looked like a modern bow, big eyes that blinked with wisdom, and a small moustache. Sporting slightly rippling muscles that seemed to have been forged without the aid of supplements, the young man was quite the sight for the eyes.