Slowly they walked upon the cracked barren land, the whole sehra-e-shomal had an outlook of a barren desert, scorched earth, endless streching dunes, and only a handful of mighty citadels to host the population.
There were merchant routes laid down intricately between all the bazaars and grand market hubs, that all kinds of magical creatures used to bring about livelihood to their tribes and families.
The girls currently walked on one of those paths, drawing up a line of myriad of creatures behind them, all of brain bending precarious nature, with battered and broken attires.
Few of them held their wares on their shoulders, others had them ladden on drought creatures, some slithering, some flying, some extremely tiny but looked ferocious.
Marching slowly, Isra and the team reached the first checkpost, two creatures that resembled fat abominable rats with extra long snout and plain surfaced palms walked forward.
"WHAT PURPOSE" one of them shouted, throwing reels of drool on Isra's obfuscated face.
"What do you think, to sell our wares ofcour-" Before Isra finished replying wittily, Khadija jumped forward and interjected.
"We are here to sell honeysoup kind sir, as you can see from our thobes, we are from the Clan of Zaakhi, please excuse my companion. She is tired from the extensive journey" She said, her voice, a perfect blend of piteous and convincing.
Both the obnoxiously fat rat creatures looked at eachother, then one of them moved to the duffel bag that Khadija had on her arm and kicked it down as makeshift jars of honey soup rolled out on the ground from within.
He then picked one up and tore the seal open, then dipped in it, his half arm, covering it entirely with the soup and tasted it.
And immediately spat it on the ground.
"WHAT IS THIS POISON" he exclaimed, his voice was poisonous and bitter
Disrespecting Gimpi's soup pulled a mutual nerve of the team but surprisingly everyone stayed calm, even Isra.
He then threw the jar at his friend and gestures the both girls forward, Khadija, bent down and reassembled the duffel-bag then moved along the line.
Next was the Power Registration checkpost.
It was a long cumbersome stretch of land constantly monitored by gliding abominations that looked like flying octopuses, having numerous tentacles and tiny wings ontop of their heads. The creatures would push burst themselves up in the air to fly hundreds of metres above the ground and then inflate their entire body, slowly gliding down like that, the whole sky had tiny black dots all over it.
Some of them were visible in plain sight while others were camouflaging the sky behind perfectly.
The entire checkpost was just that, a long ardous walk to the front gate and the final checkpoint.
Isra and Khadija kept their eyes down, sticking to the ground. Khadija had tried looking up but someone from behind her whispered her to keep her head down, to their luck, noone suspected anything.
After crossing the ardous second checkpoint, all that remained was the last one.
***********
Haniya had completely immersed herself in the grove, listening to the chattering magical trees as they employed their amazing bargaining skills, attempting to lure her into solving their puzzle and discovering various tiny critters of all kinds, each vying for her attention. However, the most intriguing discovery was sitting idly by the side of the mushroom giant.
Seeing someone so dedicated into blowing bubbles all day gave her a unique kind of motivation. She would sit beside him under the treeshade, her legs crossed, and talk to justuju for hours and hours, getting to know more and more about the history of Sehra and all the topics that came to her mind.
Haniya was extremely impressed by Justuju and her seemingly endless knowledge on things, justuju held an equivalent to a degree in bees society in academics, she was a talking library.
Currently they were investigating upon the lineage of Serpentus from which King Salazaar was descended, ever since she had seen Amawas and heard about her affinity with snakes, a precarious question had creeped into her mind.
How could she fit these two together, what kind of bond would Amawas, who has the slither-core in her being, have with the actual King of serpents?
The tree behind her spoke, startling her. Its vines converged down and touched her hair.
She turned around.
'How did i never notice that before?' She thought to herself, gazing at the curious tree, it looked extremely old and bent, like the grandma of all the trees.
It spoke again.
"You look troubled, child" It said.
Haniya got an idea, she cleared her throat, flicked her hair behind her ears and rotated herself, mantaining the criss-cross position.
"Say Naani amma, what can you tell me about the slither core and who holds it?" She said.
"Ooooh. But you dont need to worry about that my dear child" The granny tree spoke, its voice sounded like biscuits and extreme care to Haniya.
"Please naani amma, I really need this information" Haniya insisted.
"Oh well, i can probably tell you something if you complete the trial that is my dear, i hope you dont mind"
"What would be the trial then?" Asked Haniya.
"Oh its easy, go and catch me a gloopfish, then hang it upside down on my branch, then look away and count to ten" The grandma tree said.
At this, for the first time ever since Haniya had started visiting the mushroom giant, he turned around and looked at the grandma tree, his eyes a bit squinted. He then turned back and continued blowing bubbles.
"Alright.... Where can i find... said.. fish?" She said.
"Oh you cant find it though my dear, you have to invite it, to invite the gloopfish you must sing a beautiful poem of your own making by the pond, it will surely come and listen."
"A poem hmM! I can do that, alright naani amma, i'll be right back after i catch the fish" Haniya ran away, her grey eyes holding the same ambition Isra held before embarking on her mindbending devious schemes.
Justuju was quiet, she had nothing to add, her eyes were stuck at the Grandma tree.
Haniya sheepishly ran to the bank of pond and lifted her dress up to her ankles, then sat down.
'Alright, time to make a poem' she thought to herself.
Mr.Sherjan was a poet, he had written a hundred poems until yet, so composing a poem was literally in Haniya's blood, keeping that in mind, she kept grinding her mind.
The whole day passed.
Just before sunset, Haniya got finished with her small poem
She cleared her throat, and sung.
" A tiny stream of a dried up Sea
what could life, without you be?
A story, a book or milkless tea
What could life without you be?
Above the clouds, where dreams agree,
You're the song that sets us free.
A tiny stream of a dried up Sea
Stay safe and sunggly then come back to me
What could life without you be?"
Haniya's voice blessed the entire pond as it started rippling and the ripples floated to her in waves, then the most beautiful fish Haniya had ever laid eyes upon, emerged from the pond, enormous in size, covering almost the quarter of the pond. The mushroom Giant had stopped blowing bubbles and was looking at the fish aswell.
Its scales were stark red that shimmered under moonlight, and its tail and fins followed behind majestically.
Haniya knelt further into the pond, the fish came closer and greeted her.
"Did you write that yourself?" It said,
"Yes i just made it up"
"Its so lovely, how lovely you are. I am completely amazed, please will you spend the night here talking to me?"
"Why not" Haniya said.
Justuju was still speechless. Somehow she could not mutter a single word.
They talked for some fifteen minutes until the beautiful fish asked
"How come you wrote this poem?"
"Oh, you see that tree behind me, the one that looks extremely like like a granny, it asked me to"
On this the fish's eyes widened and it immediately jumped out to strike Haniya on her neck, but chomped on air only, haniya grabbed it under her arms as it tried to wrestle free, Haniya kept it under a choke, until it suffocated and twitched violently, then died.
Haniya dragged it across the land and hung it upside down on the tree.
On this the Granny tree spoke again noticing tears in Haniya's eyes.
"Oh well done dear, dont feel baddd.. She asked you to stay for the night so she could eat you when you doze off even for a second"
Haniya looked at the granny tree, her eyes widened, then she looked at the mushroom giant who nodded in approval.
"Wow.." she mumbled..
"So Naani amma, what will you do with her now?"
"Thats none of your concern my dear, now look around and dont loook backk or i'll knoww haha"
Haniya turned around as sound of chomping and munching came from behind her, mortfying her. The chomps and crunches were followed by slurping sounds and satisfactory moans.
After some ten minutes, the granny tree asked her to turn around to which she did.
she then said.
"Slither core hmm... That old cursed thing.. Well let me tell you. Half of it is held by the lineage of serpentus, king Salazaar, and half of it is in that cursed being, Amawas, Watchout for that one, she is the most devious being i've ever seen."