Not so far from this tearful reunion, Dadi and Zoya were having hard time finding the hell burrow.
According to their mountain guides Sol, Ariem and Fonjuar, the friend who could help them, lived in an elusive house in this dense forest, and since he wasn't in the spot he was last found, they had to split up and search in groups.
Dadi and Zoya were part of one group while Ariem and Imam, Fonjuar and Diya, Sol and Mikesh were three other groups on their quest to search the mystery man.
"What if he don't help us?" This question was not a surprise for Dadi as she herself was having the same worries.
"I fear that too Zoya but we need to put all our hope and trust into this at the moment."
Despite the sky being lesser gray now, light was still dull inside the forest as giant trees blocked most of it.
Other than trees there were also thick bushes and occasional spotting of plants with familiar and unfamiliar flowers.
Walking without any directions or clue, Dadi and Zoya had the least chance with the hunt since they were the ones without any experience in this forest. Others had native partners.
"Dadi we don't know how big of a forest this is, or where we can find this hell burrow. What do we—"
"Shhh" Dadi put her hand up to indicate the presence of a third party and Zoya immediately fell silent.
Leaning forward she tried to listen to the slightest movement.
Huddling close together, they scanned the area with their fearful eyes for the unseen probable perpetrator.
"That way." Zoya whispered and pointed in direction of a banyan tree at a little distance from them.
"Who's there?" Dadi called out, "Show yourself."
"You are in a forbidden territory." The deep musculing voice came from behind the same tree that Zoya pointed out.
"Who are you?" Zoya asked. As few moments passed in silence, Dadi and Zoya shared a questioning look.
"We are not here to harm anyone, we are just looking for someone." Zoya said again.
This time there was sound of rustling of leaves, preceded by the shadow, there emerged a human figure through the thick roots hanging from the branches of the banyan tree.
Medium built, with average height would be correct way to describe his physique. As he came closer, more of his body features became visible to them.
This stranger was wearing grey ragged pants and some kind of wrapped shirt which had a dozen cuts on it. To the left of his shoulder, there was a very visible mark of an animal bite, probably a coyote or hyena.
He approached closer with his dusty green boots and stopped a few meters away.
"Who?" The man said.
"What who?" Diya asked, not keeping up with the conversation as all her focus was still on this forest peeve.
"Who are you looking for?"
"We are looking for some place named hell burrow."
This phrase instantly altered his expressions from questioning to defensive and anger.
On the other hand Ariem and Imam came up with a new strategy to find the 'hell burrow'.
"Why did we decide to do that again?" Imam yelled over the swoosh of the wind with more of a mockery than questioning as he raised higher above the widest trampoline he's ever seen.
"Maybe because I've more experience in this area and this is the fastest way to spot the hell burrow." Ariem said bouncing back from the rubber floor, going high up in the air.
According to Ariem, hell burrow was always built closer to the human friendly animal habitation and jumping on trampoline was best idea to look for monkeys or any other animal on trees on the far sides of the forest.
"Since we are just jumping, can I ask what you are? Like I'm a human and you are?" Imam said taking another leap of jump.
"I'm a Keolzar, only one of my kind left." A cloud of pain crossed her eyes which she shook off and bounced back again.
Imam realized the sorrow in her voice and skipped the questionnaire part of the conversation.
"So—"
"Just like Elothere, there are many species with no more than on or two fellow creatures." Ariem continued, interrupting Imam.
"Elothere? You mean those giant mythological boars." Imam asked, fascination evident in his voice as he unintentionally slowed down on the trampoline.
"Yes and you can rest now. Although we don't know where he is anymore."
"I never thought this was all true and it could ever happen to us." Imam sat down on edge of trampoline as Ariem continued her jumping quest.
"If you think this is weird then just wait and watch. Woah."
Ariem exclaimed.
"What? What is it?" Imam stood up on the edge and looked at Ariem who took yet another leap towards the sky and finally with few low bounces came to halt.
"There's someone that side, someone with a highly reflective object, let's move."
Sun was almost out now but the forest land still didn't had much taste of the sunshine yet, except occasional escape from the gaps between the leaves.
Thankful to these escaped rays, one of it reflect from that shiny object and Ariem caught the clue.
"We are not here for fight. Please put away the sword." Dadi was saying to the stranger who lost his cool at the mention of hell burrow.
"How do you know about it?" He asked, still in defensive stance with sword on go.
"We know nothing about it except the fact that we might get some help from there. That's it."
"Why do you think so?"
"Sol. Sol told us." Zoya said with her hands up in surrender, this man clearly misunderstood them as a threat.
"Sol?"
"You know her?"
"No. I don't know any such place or anyone named Sol. Go away while you have the chance." He said, this time lowering his sword to the side.
"If you don't know and can't help, then we keep looking." Dadi said but none of them moved as his expressions gave a lot away than he intended to and the visibility of hidden truth was obvious.
As the stare down between the three continued, Ariem and Imam arrived there, Ariem had her arrows drawn out along with a sharp metal rod in other hand.
"Hendoor?" Ariem called at the stranger putting away her go to weapons.
"Ariem. Why did you and Sol gave these poor people false hope?" Handoor asked as Imam, Dadi and Zoya looked at each other feeling the sense of relief and sadness at the same time.
Judging from the exchange of words between Ariem and Handoor, this was a step ahead but what if it was really a false hope.