Chapter 35 - a friend

Liyan continued to look at the writing on the ground and Rahen who was standing there with a stick in his mouth for some time before she could get a hold of herself

"are you the one who wrote this?" she asked Rahen with doubtful eyes, to which Rahen retired by simply nodding.

"I can't believe it. you really can understand me." it was still not easy for her to believe what she was seeing at the moment. after all who would not be surprised upon seeing such a bird.

"but if you could communicate why didn't you do so earlier?" she asked

*I was cautious, since I'm not from here and was also heavily injured when I arrived here* rahen wrote in response

"oh I understand. I would have probably done the same and that also explains why you didn't respond to me earlier. I thought there was something wrong with my powers" she said while having a look of understanding

*huh* Rahen wrote

"oh! you don't know that but my special ability is to communicate to animals through mana" liyan said, which shocked Rahen.

"like this" she said and before rahen could understand what she was saying he heard a voice in his head

"hello.. can you hear me..?" and as soon as he heard that he now understood how he could sometimes hear liyan voice without her saying anything. this had happened a few times since he was here but until now he didn't pay attention to it.

"yes I can" he tried replying to the voice

" whaaat! " Rahen's reply gave a huge shock to Liyan.

"what happened? " rahen asked

"hmm so it wasn't an illusion"she said still surprised.

"what are you saying?" rahen asked again

" oh! you see none of the animals have ever replied to my abilities like you did. they can understand me though the connection but they can only reply by actions. none of them have ever talked to me like you just did. it really shocked me" Liyan explained the reason behind her reaction

"I see, maybe it's because I know your language" Rahen was also surprised to know and tried to think about the reason behind it

"maybe" liyan also pondered over it

"let's just leave it at that. so tell me, who are you and how do you know our language!" Liyan decided to put other thoughts behind and asked Rahen.

but Rahen was not sure about what he should reply to that question. whether to disclose his identity or not

"sorry you don't have to tell me if you are uncomfortable with it" liyan said seeing Rahen in a dilemma

"thank you for understanding, the most I can tell you is that I'm from another planet and now I am stuck here because the path back has disappeared."

"the path back? do you mean 'dead zone'? and what do you mean by planet?"

"yes, I came through the place you call 'dead zone. but more importantly you don't know what a planet is?" Rahen was surprised he thought that a place where magic is present would already know about at least something outer space.

"maybe they are not that developed yet" he thought to himself

"well, in simple terms. all of us are living on a large body made of rocks, gases and some other things known as a planet which is running in a fixed path around a much much larger body known as sun." Rahen said while also drawing a simple diagram showing Earth revolving around the sun on the ground.

" what! no how could that be possible. and by sun do you mean that sun in sky we all know?" Liyan was getting more and more confused

"yes"

" but..... but.. " she was unable to process the things Rahen was telling her.

"so that's how some of the people could have reacted when this information first came to light on Earth." Rahen thought while looking at the confused expressions of Liyan.

" I can't understand it. it would be much better if grandpa Kies was here" Liyan said

"don't worry, we can discuss it some other day when he is here. but I can trust him right?" he asked. even though Liyan didn't do anything bad to him yet he couldn't be sure about others.

"oh! yes you can trust him. he is very kind and loving" she said assuring him

"ok. so why were you crying?" he asked

"oh you almost mare me forget. well the thing is I got hurt in my last fight and now I won't be able to fight anymore since the mana veins in my legs got damaged. that's the biggest shame for a warrior" Liyan's face turned sad again, and tears welled up in her eyes.

"I'm sorry. don't worry I'll try my best to help you, just like you did when I was injured." Rahen tried consoling her

"thank you" Liyan picked him up from the ground and gave a kiss on his bird head.

"so what do you plan on doing? going back to your planet?" she asked putting him in her laps.

"no, going back is not so easy. I doubt that I'll ever be able to go back. for now I think I'll stay here, if that's okay with you" he replied

"of course you can stay here. stay as long as you want, I'll be more than happy to have a friend... umm we can be friends right?" Liyan asked while being a little bit shy.

"of course we can be friend. I'm Rahen, glad to meet you." Rahen said extending his right wing towards her.

"and I'm Liyan. I'm also happy to meet you" liyan hesitantly shaked hands with Rahen as she didn't know if that was what she was supposed to do.

hahahah

that moment of awkwardness lead to both of them laughing. and as they did other animals in the garden were wondering what both of them were doing by just looking at each other.