Just a few moments before the infamous executioner appeared out of nowhere, Zar-e-Zameen opened her eyes from a deep slumber and pulled her kids behind her. Then she stood up, reaching almost the midheight of the enormous trees, and unfurled her magnificent tail.
And the executioner appeared right in front of her.
He dwarfed in comparison but stood defiantly before the majestic bird with a pocket watch in its hands. And the ground underneath his feet started rumbling. A few unlucky creatures that were in range died instantly; the executioners were not fond of useless chatter. They had only one objective, and that was to kill; words were unnecessary.
Zar-e-Zameen stood motionlessly, observing. In the next second, the ground below the feet of the executioner parted, and thick lines of cracks radiated outwards at such an incredible pace that the whole grove vibrated, but Zar-e-Zameen stood still. She remained unbothered.
Then she opened her wings, and something horrifying happened. Just a few moments before where there was an executioner, one of the most lethal weapons of sovereigns, now stood a statue made out of deep brown clay; the executioner had died before even realizing it.
Zar-e-Zameen then lay back, and the ground started knitting itself together. On top of the repaired cracks, small luminescent flowers grew, and soon the butterflies descended on them and started collecting the moonnector. Zar-e-Zameen slept back, unbothered.
The whole fight lasted for some thirty seconds at maximum.
**********
"Qatan, what happened?" Isra asked; they were still laying low, on top of the branch.
"The executioner died; Hira killed him before he could even deliver an attack," he said.
"So that's good news, right?"
"Not really, no, it's not. I have to go somewhere. You two, go back to sleep. And Isra, next time, take a look at your arm; when you feel something odd about to happen, it may glow up," and then Qatan left.
The girls were left silent. Unknowing the sheer scale of danger that had been neutralized in an instant, they climbed down, confused and sleepy, and went back to their grass beds. Isra felt extremely exhausted and slept right the moment she lay down.
The next morning, Khadija woke up to shrill murmurs, and she saw Gimpi standing in front of her face, tiny and fat, arguing with the wooden critters who had been waiting for god knows how long in a line. Apparently, Khadija had once again unwittingly blocked their entire supply chain by moving just a few away from her bed in sleep.
The critter who was arguing with Gimpi seemed particularly more upset than the others and even had a rock picked up in his tiny wooden hands, it continuously threatened to throw it at Khadija.
Gimpi noticed Khadija's opened eye and flinched back, then cleared his throat.
"Madam Khadija, breakfast ready, come. And please wake Madam Isra too," he said.
Khadija got up.
Then he turned around and signaled for the critters to continue; they all threw mean glances at Khadija and resumed the line.
Soon they were surrounded by fresh pots of steaming honey soup and natural-grown mushroom bread. #212 had slept like a baby, and by the looks of it, he had not noticed the unusual happenings last night.
"Today, we will practice with sharper weapons, so be prepared," he said.
The girls nodded.
Khadija then nonchalantly mentioned what happened last night, and at the word executioner, #212 grew extremely still. Even Gimpi stopped pouring the soup midway and looked at Khadija with terrified expressions.
"What do you mean, executioner?" #212 asked.
"Qatan said they were after him; he said they were extremely dangerous but didn't seem that terrible to us; the executioner died in some thirty seconds only," she said.
"What do you mean died?" #212 was in deep shock.
"Zar-e-zameen killed him. I haven't been to the place where they fought, so I don't know what exactly happened to him. But Qatan said he died," said Khadija as she continued slurping the delicious honey soup.
#212, and all the creatures around him, were still and in deep shock, reeling from the news. He then silently glided up and flew to the place of Zar-e-Zameen and noticed an unusual statue that wasn't there before; butterflies played on top of it. #212 had never seen something like this before, so he was at a loss for words. After investigating the statue, he contacted the queen.