Isra veered herself around a dried, thorny branch and carefully crossed it, entering into the thick and lucsious forest that shouldered the camp house site.
The forest was nothing short of breathtaking, this deep in the mountains, nature had grown unobstructed,
From herds of sparrows and other exquisite birds nitpicking through all the similiar branches for their nests to the mesmerizing, ancient ground that was covered with thick overlapping layers of moss and dragonflies,
'It looks like a local version of the grove' Isra thought to herself as a sly smile appeared on her lips, as she made her way deeper into the forest,
'the air feels completely different from the grove though' she mumbled to herself as it was her habit,
Then she answered herself slightly changing her voice, taking the tone of her elder sisters.
'Yes it does, the air feels bland here, i mean we can smell the forest, but somehow in the grove, it felt like as if the wind itself was a dear friend looking out for you all the time, it brought a sense of security along with it'
Isra stopped,
'Damn, did i really think that up' she took a few moments to herself for the brilliant analogy and then moved onwards, exploring the forest.
Thick godrays pierced through loosely formed curtains of leaves, as they rustled together in a melodious dance,
Each step brought forward much needed escape and freshness she so badly craved for after coming back from the harrowing yet rewardful journey of Sehra,
They had not even discussed it among themselves even once, first the business of the bangle, then feeling Khadija drift away from her slowly and Haniya coming back to her old self
'I mean its natural, she has other friends too' Isra thought as her mouth pricked into a humble yet stingy expression.
'I really wonder if i can shoot electric bolts willingly now'
This was one of the reasons she had decided to embark upon the journey, to harrass her sisters, she felt like she was getting closer to the objective.
By now Isra had veered extremely deep into the forest, almost covering an entire kilometer, leaving behind a trail of colorful thoughts, some deep blue, some bright as the sunlight.
She had crossed two streams and a magical looking puddle aswell which made her dwell further into the thoughts.
'But it was surely dangerous,' her expressions sombered as she traced her fingers over the brutal but calming texture of an old tree stump.
'I wonder how much would it be changed now if we go back'
Then she moved onwards, by now she had wandered into the areas that were seldom touched by anyone, each cranny and crook looked as ancient as thousands of years, and the air felt alot denser than before.
'I do miss Aatish aapi'
'She was such a nice person to be around'
the time It was past noon already,
Passing through this part of the embedded deep reverence and humility into her heart, making her take each step with utter consideration.
Soon the woods parted, revealing a view that made Isra gasp with surprise.
There was an enourmous lake of deep blue water infront of her, bordered by arrays of bending trees, the lake vaguely looked like a tear drop,
sunrays danced upon its calm surface, drenching parts of it in deep yellow light and shying away instantly, it was as if the sun was trying to shroud the blue lake with a golden robe of majesty, but the lake simply had other plans in mind.
Struggling to digest the view infront, Isra took a step back and looked around thoroughly, there was not a single flaw in the composition of anything, this was for sure not a dream,
Then she walked to the edge, it was only some metres wide after the trees, there were pearls and opals stacked under the water, shimmering with the sunrays.
Isra bent, uncaring of her clothes and picked a round opal in her right hand and saved it in her bag,
Then she picked another one and threw it over at the lake and her eyes widended further as she shrieked,
There was absoloutely no sound of impact at all, which reminded her that there was no sound in the jungle either, except for the rustle of the tree leaves.
It wasn't like there weren't any animals, the birds were there, so were the dragonflies but Isra was so lost in her thoughts, unraveling, that she completely missed the fact there was not a single sound except that of the pure nature, like wind howling through the leaves and the rustling.
This made Isra rush back to the trees, suddenly the whole scape felt more sinister than relaxing, with her enhanced hearing, she should be able to hear thousands of annoying chatters of all kinds of bugs and birds by now but there was nothing, only the calming sound of water.
Isra turned around, but before she did, right in the middle of the lake she saw something extremely unusual, there was a tiny mass of land with what looked like a giant door resting upon it, then her eyes wandered to her left where there was a canoe waiting still upon the water.
Isra took a brief pause then decided to call it a day, gather her sisters and come back and investigate further, she turned around and almost entered the trees again but she stopped.
Over the hushing sound of the lake she thought she heard a sound,
"Cowar-"
Isra turned around, throwing her bag down and went back and sat near the edge of the lake to listen more carefully, then it hit her.
There were words upon the wind, more like interlaced with the sound of the lake.
'Cowr- usele'
'Coward and useless find some'
'find someone new this one is cowar'
Isra paled at the words and then gradually reddened.
'cannot do i-'
'She cannot do it cowar'
Isra lifted her head up, adrenaline pumping through her veins and her sense of reason was slowly being overcome by her emotions like pride and there was a hit of revenge in her eyes aswell.
Then she did what any sane person would not do in that scenario, she picked up a pebbel from the depths of the water and hit the water with it in anger, and perhaps the most surprising thing was when the pebble actually struck the water with voltage as electricity crackled, soundless, upon its beautiful and sinister surface.
The whispers changed
'Scu-'
'usless pathetic scu'
'pathetic scum girl wishes to destro' the whispers grew more loud and angry.
Then Isra stood up, looked at the canoe, sunrays illuminating her silver beautiful eyes and in the heartbeat of time, she made an irreversible decision, she tightened the strap of her bag and walked toward the cannoe.
**************
Shortly after the battle of the titans, that was what the crowds had started calling it, Empress Golden and the Queen of light, Lara, departed to the underground gateway with the royal escorts, they had left the sharghis without any speech of victory or words of encouragement, because the victory was not yet won.
The phase two was still considered the most dangerous phase of the war, the core was extracted, not it was time to protect it, and the Empress knew she could handle only a handful of sovereigns at best, but there were others who could kill her in a heartbeat, apart from kehkashaan.
This was also one of the reasons she deemed direct involvement in combat too dangerous for her, Not because she feared death itself, such petty things did not bother her, it was her absence that bothered her, the hope she had instilled in the creatures, diminishing yet again if something were to happen to her.
But sharghis were uncaring about such deep and complex mechanics of war and politics, they were simple creatures, they won the battle, now it was time to celebrate, Empress or not. Today the long dead planet would howl with a mighty fury of passion and joy.
For now, they were all silent, it was precisely like the moment of calm before the storm, the battle hardened beasts, some missing eyes, some their tentacles and some with burned wings, were trying their best to show proper ettiquettes and remain as modest as they can be.
Then through the back the of crowd, a sole jeer resounded over the entire herd of beasts and that was all it took, for the dam of passion and glorious celebrations to explode.
All unified in a single grand show of pure happiness, they had indeed defeated a sovereign of their own, after two years of life threatning rebellion.
They deserved this.
Every single being celebrated in its own fashion, from the limpish worm soldiers that looked like a mix of hydra and a ground worm, to the the tiny legions of flying monstrosities, each painting the sky with linings of shimmering colors that they excreted from their bodies.
The scenes were a bit more modest at the camps of the Shomaalis, who were judging their counterparts with furitive glances, by now the whole arena had transformed into a wild devouring sea of joy, contrasting starkly to what it was just mere hours ago,
this showed how serious the sharghis were about their festivals and celebrations, above them the sky was slowly amassing deep grey clouds, preparing itself for a terrible outpour,
and in between the linings of fluffy thunderclouds were thousands and thousands of thunderbirds flying towards the south for some reason,
they usually did not migrate at all, dying at the same place where they were born but amidst the haste of celebrations, everyone seemed to completely overlook the weird phenomena.
Aatish stood above a cliff overlooking the whole scene below, shargh was her planet, she had lived most of her life here, she felt as if the whole planet itself was celebrating, relaxing, the sound wasn't that of a single being, or two, it was as if every single particle of dirt and air was rejoicing with all it had.
'Breathe free my land' Aatish thought to herself, then she climbed down the hill she was standing upon, nimbly landing upon the ground.
And just as her feet touched below, the celebrations dimmed then in few minutes they stopped altogether, suddenly she felt as if millions of gazes were drowning her in pure reverence,
Aatish enjoyed recognition, she did not mind at all, instead she smiled,
'I deserve this' she thought to herself,
Suddenly the creatures parted, making for her a long walkway, she adjusted her cape and entered it, smiling wildly, like the old Aatish would do in such situation,
Everywhere she looked, she saw eyes filled to brim with hope and longing,
from the butcher of shargh to the hero of shargh, and now something even more, she felt utter obedience and respect that not even the Empress was shown by sharghis, but at what cost
An unexpected hiss of grief tore through her mind when she tried searching for familiar faces among the soldiers,
a part of her was telling her that they must be far away, in the crowd, living and rejoicing but that part was lying,
they were dead,
this sudden realization made her expressions flutter for a second but she quickly regained her composure,
Despite the internal struggle, she reacted with equal courtesy and good heartedness, waving and nodding here and there.
Then after she reached the outermost boundary,
she turned around and delivered a short and heartfelt speech, which made more than a single soldier tear up, and then asked to be excused and flew away.
But shortly after taking flight she felt as if something was coming undone inside her, it was taking over her mind, her heart felt heavy, suddenly she did not feel like flying, so instead she descended down simply walked,
'Damn it'
and as she covered more and more distance away from the soldiers, from their happiness,
her legs started trembling,
and her breathing changed into hoarse and ragged gasps,
The clouds roared above,
She limpishly walked over to an edge that gave an open view to the entire battlefield, and just then it started raining, rushy streams of water fell into open crevices in the cracked ravaged land which looked beyond recognition, it looked torn open like some mere fabric
With a sigh she fell back, her back resting against an uneven stone, the tip dug into her skin but she remained uncaring.
'I'm tired bhaijaan' she mumbled, as her usual expressions faded, the stoic mask shattered and below it a trembling and frightened, exhausted Aatish appeared,
her right hand resting on the scabbard of her sword which she had placed to her right.
for a few seconds there was nothing but silence and the sound of droplets hitting the ground,
but then a familiar voice resounded in her ears from the rightside, it was Qatan's, it was as if he was sitting right beside his little sister to console her, but she knew better than to believe that he really was,
for past few months she had started imagining his apparition,
'How much more do we have to lose' she spoke, her voice uncharacteristically low, remembering all the deaths as invisible pain broke through her chest.
'I'm tired bhaijaan' she spoke again, this time the pain was audible in her voice, making it crack in the end, as a stream of tears rolled down her cheeks.
No sound came from her right side,
'I never wanted to live like this, I am not a good leader, I am not good at anything, yes we have won the battle but at what cost!' Aatish weeped, her right hand formed into a fist as she struck the land below in utter frusturation.
'And you're not here anymore, what should i do' the last sentence tore her apart further.
After a short pause,
'I'm always here' Qatan said, then disappeared into mist,
'No you're not...'
Aatish stood up groaningly and raised her right hand over the drenched cape and unclipped it from the both sides,
Took off her armour and placed it beside the cape,
Then looked to the sky.
It was raining furiously but that didnt matter,
She ignited herself as the raindrops evaporated before even touching her body,
Then took off, melting the stone below.