Netan started packing his luggage. They would be leaving the temple for the federation the next day. The reason they were given an extra day was so that they could say their goodbyes to their family.
The official story was that they were going to a school to develop skills. This wasn't that far from the truth. He was indeed going to learn, just the skills were less applicable in the real world. After Netan finished packing, he went outside.
While Netan was an orphan, he still had people he considered family. Among them were Muna, the priest who looked after him when he was going and Saaho, the priest who found him.
First Netan went to the house where Muna lives. Muna had 7 children so she needed a bigger house than everyone else. Netan entered the house. He saw two men talking to Muna. These were two of her children. Netan recognised them in the office when they stepped forward. He hadn't talked to them there because it didn't feel like the right place.
Muna saw Netan. "Netan!" She exclaimed. "Did you also get into this academy? Are you going with Poole and Arnob?" She asked Netan.
Netan nodded.
"Wonderful! Then you should take care of these boys when you are there. They will definitely get into trouble there," Muna said.
Netan smiled lightly. "Goodbye Muna. I'll see you once I get back," Netan said. He then went out of the house to where Saaho was.
Netan walked towards the tree where lessons were taught in the temple. He knew that Saaho was on teaching duty for the day and he was probably free because of today's incident. When he reached the tree he saw Saaho sitting there thinking about something.
Saaho saw Netan coming his way.
"The big shot has finally remembered me! How are you sir?" Saaho asked jokingly.
Netan replied briefly, "I was packing."
"So you are also going with everyone to this academy, huh?" Saaho asked.
"Yes," Netan replied.
"This all seems so suspicious to me. I trust Acharya garu, but still… do you know what you are getting yourself into?" Saaho asked Netan.
"Yes. But suspicious? Why?" Netan asked Saaho.
Saaho sighed. "Well, this so-called academy is all the way in Aiah. That place is very far away from here," Saaho replied.
What Saaho was talking about was the cities of Kasi. Kasi's cities in ascending order of size were Kota, Aiah and Kaja. Kaja was the capital city. Netan was currently in Kota, the smallest city. Of course this city was still larger than the many towns and villages. Aiah was over 400 kilometres away. Hence Saaho's concerns were justified.
"Oh, don't worry," Netan said. "Nothing will happen."
Saaho sighed. "Don't blame me for not warning you. Everything aside, enjoy your time there," Saaho said.
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The next day
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The nine people who agreed to go with Brahlan were seated in a horse drawn cart. The nine of them were seated in the back while Brahlan sat in the front. They were going to Aiah, which was 400 kilometres away in a cart.
Some of the students felt suspicious. The journey would take a week by cart. The normal mode of transport was by air. While it was expensive, ten people could go to Aiah in a hot air balloon in a single day.
While everyone was thinking that Netan felt a sudden jolt. He was awakened from his usual trance and looked outside.
Kota was surrounded by a forest inhabited by a multitude of animals. This was one of the features of Kota. They would normally be in this forest once they left the premises of the city. However, Netan saw that they were in a marsh-like land. Netan saw a swamp that would not be found in Kota.The cart slowly came to a stop.
"We will be stopping for a while. We will resume the journey after three hours. If you are feeling hungry, then you can try foraging for food," Brahlan said from the front.
The other eight were talking to each other and hadn't noticed the change in location. When they looked outside they didn't immediately understand the difference. They were confused about why they stopped after only exiting the city.
"We are in a marsh. Not a jungle," Netan told them. Everyone suddenly understood why they stopped. If they were in a marsh, they were probably in the Great Marsh, the only swamp land in Kasi. This was halfway between Kota and Aiah.
Netan got off the cart first. The only dangerous animals in the swamp were inside the swamp. If he just looked around on the ground nothing would happen to him.
Netan went to the front of the cart. There he saw Brahlan meditating. Netan saw sweat dripping from his chin. He was visibly exhausted. Netan concurred it was from the teleportation he caused. He didn't see any other explanation.
Netan didn't disturb Brahlan and looked around. He didn't want to stray from the cart. Netan saw a few berries hanging from one of the bushes. He gathered those berries. There were many, enough for a dozen people, so he couldn't gather all of them. He took the berries he could hold to the cart and dropped them there. Then he went back and repeated this.
Meanwhile, the other students were just stretching and looking around. They didn't see Netan gathering these berries. After three hours, Netan had gathered all the berries. One everyone was back in the cart, he distributed the berries.
The cart started moving again, but this time everyone was munching on berries. Netan felt a familiar jolt. He saw a city in the distance, but the cart wasn't going towards the city.
The cart stopped suddenly.
"Everyone, get down," Brahlan said.
Everyone got out of the cart. They were still in the middle of nowhere. They were once again confused why Brahlan told them to get down. But this time they expected something mysterious like the teleportation. Only Netan was looking behind Brahlan. He was the only one who observed the peacock behind Brahlan.