I felt proud of myself to have been able to defeat one of King Jalaar's brothers. But the pride did not help with the pain I was facing.
The fight hadn't gone well for my body. My head was bleeding which was a serious problem. My legs were begging me to take rest. But you know how I am.
I started my journey towards the Headquarters. Although I barely knew where to go, I just began venturing in the wild. Many trees had been destroyed due to our battle. But I convinced myself that I hadn't done anything. It was Tempest who didn't support afforestation. I had to catch hold of trees and rocks to keep going. My legs were literally being dragged. And do not think I was stupid enough to not use my Zantai power. I was out of energy and let me tell you, concentrating on something is very hard.
For example, if I ask you not to think of a pink elephant – Boom! You thought of a pink elephant. In order to master the Zantai power you need to a lot of focus. So stop complaining!
I walked for fifteen minutes straight which I took as a miracle. I was not expecting to keep going for this long. But in the end, I lost all my energy. I needed water and food. It was dinnertime. The darkness had filled the area. There was no one to be seen; probably with the fear of the world on the verge of destruction. My legs gave up and I fell on the ground.
I lied there for five minutes. Again, something I wasn't expecting. I thought that I would pass out the very next moment I fell. But I was given five minutes to look at my surroundings. Then I couldn't hang in there. I passed out in the middle of all the trees.
Dead? Of course not! I am the stupid hero. I can't die this soon. Even if I die, it will be later, right? When I opened my eyes, I found everything around me blur. I could not see clearly but I saw the figure of a women sitting beside me. "Oh! You got up!" She exclaimed. The first thing that came to my mind was whether I was being attacked? It is an obvious feeling you'll get after fighting monsters.
The view became clearer and I found myself on a bed with a lady sitting beside me. I was in a hut and lady seemed to be the only person with me. The woman was slim and quite taller than me. I wanted to ask if she was a Xorain. But I assumed she would feel offended and smack my head. So I began by saying, "Where am I?" I looked around. The hut had a sofa – on which I was lying – a radio on the other side and the world's smallest kitchen I had ever seen.
"It is hard to explain where you are right now." The woman said smiling. "Let's just say that you are in a Realm." Her tone was normal but I was a bit alarmed. "Realm? Like the DELTA Headquarters?" I asked her but then realized that she wouldn't even know what I was talking about. She proved me wrong by replying, "Not quite. The Headquarters is a small place. What I am talking about is like small worlds. Kind of like settlements of weird creatures."
She looked at me and realized that I understood nothing. I probably should have been given a little time to relax after my pass out. But nope. This lady starts talking about Realms. Cool!
"You are tired. I shouldn't feed you all the information right now." She said and took a seat beside me on a chair. For two minutes, there was total silence. I scanned the whole place. The door was closed so I couldn't see the outside region. I did not know if it was day or night.
"What time is it?" I enquired. The women replied, "It is about 7:30 in the morning." I was alarmed. I had been sleeping for the whole night?! "You slept for one whole day. You had been damaged pretty badly. So you couldn't help but sleep." The women said. I remembered the day I had entered the DELTA Headquarters for the first time. I had slept for hours together.
I slowly got up and switched to a sitting position on the sofa. "I am really confused right now. Last thing I remember is that I was unconscious." I recollected. The women looked at me intently and then replied. "Yeah. Treat yourself lucky to be in a Realm. I found you and got you here. I know what all is happening in the over world, Darknor. King Jalaar is awakening and war is coming near." The women knew too much for me to be relaxed.
"Who are you?" I asked. She smiled and looked away. "Come I'll show you around." She changed the topic. I would have argued but I wasn't in a state for another quarrel and also, I wanted to explore the area. The women opened the door and light fell inside.
I had to cover my eyes till I got used to the brightness. Taking my time, I stood up. That's when I felt my head having a white cloth around it. I would have taken serious damage during the fight with Tempest. I slowly walked out.
"This isn't Darknor! What is this place?" I demanded. In front of me was a place which looked totally blue. The land had a light blue texture. The trees looked purple and the leaves were sky blue. There was a blue mist at the horizon and I couldn't see anything ahead of that. I did see some structures near the mist but couldn't concentrate. Soon, the blue fog engulfed those structures too. So I ended up having a bluish forest to see. Not so cool!
"This–" she said. "is our territory. There are various different Realms like this all over the…. well, everywhere." I was a little confused. "Everywhere?" I demanded for an explanation. She smiled and replied, "There are Realms not only in Darknor but also in different planets. In fact, Realms are present in other universes as well. To find one is a great fortune." I understood. "So that means that I am lucky as heck to have met you." I claimed. She nodded laughingly. "But our meeting is not coincidence. I have known about your bravery in the over world, Blaze Hunt. You have defeated some remarkable monsters." She said. I wanted to laugh out and say that she was mistaken. Bravery was not a word for me. "So you wanted to meet me. But for what?" I enquired. She looked at the horizon and then began narrating the real reason of our union.