Swaliti
Megha had never seen snow before. And here she was now, staring at a vast expanse of white buds fallen from the sky— or maybe white powder. She didn't know. She would know, only if she could touch it. There was a tingling urge in her to feel the snow below her feet. But she couldn't. She was standing on a raised platform of a cage, tied to one of its bars.
One thing was sure though, the blanket of white beneath her feet was snow; sitting there with all its grace.
As the trance of the first snow of her life wore off, Megha noticed the incongruity of her condition. Moments ago, she was cuddling her pillow inside her blanket, breathing its warm air. And now, she was standing amidst a snowy land. Did she have a memory loss! Did she forget her travel to this beautiful place!
She heard some creaking sound coming from behind. Turning back, she saw two more cages being dragged ahead on their wheels. How were the wheels gliding on top of the snow, when the men dragging them walked while digging their legs up to their knees into the snow! Was it even possible! Isn't the snow needed to be cleared first? What did she know, by the way?
The cages held one prisoner each, tied to the bars, like Megha was.
The dragger men wore iron helmets in the shape of a cone. It looked so peculiar and unusual that Megha couldn't stop a chuckle from escaping. After a few seconds of blank bafflement, the probability of the reality dawned on her.
There was a myth in their city about people vanishing in the murk of the night. Some people had claimed of experiencing such incidents. Obviously, they were scoffed at by others. But now, their description of the place where they said they had gone after vanishing, matched Megha's present dimly lit surrounding. Unfortunately, the description of the cage draggers and their clothes matched too.
The more serious matter of concern for her was that, some people had, reportedly, never returned back after vanishing at night. "What if I don't return home too!" She shuddered at the thought.
She looked around. There was nothing except white, for miles.
The cages halted, and one of the dragger men approached Megha.
Megha stared at him.
"What are you looking at girl? Do you like my hat?" The man said grumpily.
Megha tittered and immediately realized she was so bad at timing. Seemed like that was her curse— giggling at the wrong moment.
"This one laughs." The grumpy man said in a gruff voice. "Let's see how the other two react. Shall we?"
He looked at the other two cages.
One of the men near those cages removed the clothes covering the prisoners' faces by pulling them through strings. Those clothes vanished after exposing the faces. But that's not what caught megha's attention—she knew one of those prisoners. He was a television star she had had a crush on for a very long time. It all seemed very surreal—Saurabh standing with his eyes closed like a magnificent sculpture.
The other prisoner was a male too.
Suddenly, both of them opened their eyes and gasped at what they saw.
The prisoner beside Saurabh screamed to the highest of his lung's capacity. It was time someone did.
One of the draggers pulled out a knife and levitated it with some hand gestures. Soon he directed the knife in the air to go to the screaming man. It halted just an inch away from his neck. The prisoner gulped back his scream instantly.
"What's your name?" The grumpy man hollered.
"Mihir", the guy replied trembling.
"And what's yours?" He asked Saurabh.
"Saurabh." Saurabh's voice evinced his fear.
"I am Megha." Megha said unprompted, and gave the guys a little wave with her free hand.
They seemed to be the least interested in greetings.
"Now listen up. No shouting, no tantrums on our way to the queen. Don't try to escape. Because you can't. You cannot cross the portal without help. This is not your world. It's our realm. You can never go back home."
"I knew it." Megha blurted out.
The grumpy man grumbled, "Why do you talk?"
"I was just saying that I had already figured out about your vanishing trick." She knew her mouth was betraying her today.
She smiled sheepishly.
Luckily, the grumpy man decided to ignore her disobedience after just an angry snarl.
He signalled the other men. Nodding their head, they dragged the two cages forward to keep beside Megha's cage in a row.
Megha wasn't that happy with the arrangement though.
Mihir's cage was placed in the middle.
As the cages were dragged, somehow rather smoothly, other than the creaking sound, the breeze touching Megha's face intensified its strokes a bit. And now Megha noticed that she had been clad in winter clothes from her closet. Did the draggers fetch those clothes—a sweater, a jacket, pair of socks, and a cap—and dressed her before snatching her from her world. "Quite considerate of you. Thanks for my sweater." Megha said sarcastically. No one paid any heed to her.
On their way, a magical thing happened at that moment of despair.
It snowed.
Fresh snow crystals descended from the sky. Megha had never witnessed such a sight of pure bliss. She was captivated by their alluring flair. The way they seduced the ground before touching them, amused her.
"Have you ever tasted snow? How does it taste?" Megha asked Mihir.
"How else would it taste? It's ice, you stupid." Mihir thought but controlled himself, just in time, from speaking those lines aloud. Because, there had been times when he too had asked nonsensical questions or questions with obvious answers to people. People had jeered at him, making him feel humiliated. He knew that feeling very well.
But then, those times were different. Nothing could hurt their self-esteem at this time of total helplessness. There were greater things at risk. So maybe he could speak a derisive line or two and no one would take it to heart.
Megha seemed so out of her head that she was smiling even in that situation. Maybe a scornful remark would tie her back to reality.
Mihir opened his mouth to speak but soon paused, as he remembered that he did not wish to get on the dragger's nerve.
He gestured Megha not to speak.
Megha wouldn't look away. Her gaze demanded an answer.
Mihir raised his free hand and hovered his tongue above his palm to demonstrate a licking action.
Megha understood his reply.
She faced her palms towards the sky and stole some of the snow crystals. Then she rubbed them between her fingers. "Powdery." She ascertained.
Then she licked those crystals off her palm.
"Ice." She muttered and beamed, "It's cold and refreshing."
A smile seemed like a permanent resident on her face. She raised her face to the sky now and let the snow settle on it like on a pedestal.
After a few minutes of travel, a magnificent palace came into sight. Mihir and Saurabh looked at each other to greet their amazements. Then Mihir looked at Megha.
She was still lost in the snow's magic.
As their cages approached nearer and nearer to the palace, its grandeur overwhelmed them.
As they entered the palace now, finally Megha considered looking at the palace, as snow was left behind, out of the gate.
Soon they reached a large hall and leaving the cages there, the draggers exited the hall. The door shut behind them and blended into the wall like it was never there. The three of them tried to look for a way to open their cages. But they couldn't find a door. So they tried to break the bars with every inch of power they had in their muscles. But it was all futile.
A sudden realization struck Megha. She thought she understood something now.
"They cannot teleport within their world. They just teleport to and from our world." She spoke. "Why else would they drag us all this way?" She put her speculations out in the open.
"Maybe, they wanted to take a stroll," Mihir said.
"I don't think so. I am telling you. They, definitely cannot teleport in this world."
"I know that they can not teleport. Didn't the guy say that they brought us through a portal? It's a door between realms. It doesn't count as teleportation. The guy never said that they were teleporters. Why did it even cross your mind? I am stuck with stupid people here." Saurabh said, irritated.
Megha lost her foot on her confidence for a moment, hearing sentences of disapproval from the man she admired.
And moreover, what he said seemed to be the fact. She didn't know much about teleportation, and portal theories. She felt embarrassed a little.
She didn't want to be at odds with Saurabh but something itched her to speak, “If they are not teleporters, then they are not as mighty as I thought."
"They are mightier than us. Didn't you see how that man moved a knife in air?"
"Yes, but we still have a chance. If we can find a way out of here-"
"Shut up.”, Saurabh interrupted rudely. "We are doomed."
"No. I am not." Megha whispered her resolution to herself.
Now she was pretty glad that Saurabh's cage was not placed in the middle.
He wasn't that charming for her when he talked. "He is so arrogantly pessimistic. As if that's a virtue." She thought.
"He has got a point though. How are we going to return when we don’t know how to cross worlds? We don't even know where the portal is." Mihir said.
"Why are you even so sure that we were brought here through a portal? They said and you believed! Maybe, they physically transported us here." Saurabh said.
He brought forth a valid point, but Megha wouldn't agree with him that easily. She wished she had something very smart and logical to say as a reply. But she didn't.
"It, certainly, was through a portal," Mihir said.
"How can you be so sure? We weren't awake." Megha said.
"I was. I saw and felt the portal. It upset my stomach in a very strange way. It took a few seconds for us to be here. And then they put that cloth on my head to stop me from screaming. "Mihir said.
A certain door clanked open at this moment and some people barged in on their conversation.
"Hello, puppies. Time to get to work." A beautiful lady in a beautiful tailing gown spoke while almost slithering in front of
Mihir's cage. Another woman and a man followed her closely behind. The woman in the front pushed Mihir's cage back a little to make space for herself.
"Wh-....what work?" Mihir stuttered.
"Oh. I haven't told you yet! My apologies. I have been in a hurry lately." The lady said, "My name is Avirva. I am the queen of Sehool. And I am the most deserving queen on this planet. But there were queens and kings of other nations who didn't agree with me. They wanted my elder sister on the throne. I had to protect my country. So, I searched for the travellers and asked for their help. They told me about you gentle folks. You people have magic in you."
"No, we don't," Saurabh said.
"Tch tch....you do...you do....don't interrupt me. You do." Avirva said. "You people look just like us, speak like us. We have so many things which are common between our planets. Yet you are so different. You people can sniff and tell what's in front of you. With eyes closed. Isn't that magic?"
"You levitate things in the air. That's magic."
Megha said.
"That's not magic my lady. That is nature."
"You pull carts with wheels on knee depth snow."
"That is science."
"If you are scientifically so advanced and mother nature lets you do amazing things like levitating, why can't you help yourself!"
"Stupid girl. Just because we can do many amazing things, doesn't mean we can do everything. You can walk. Can you fly? I mean, without any gadgets. Like you, we too have our limits. Yes, some of us can levitate metals. But that's not going to work everywhere. Can it? So, we will make you do whatever we can't do. Now shut that mouth of yours....I was saying.....so, I started bringing as many of you as possible to politely ask you for your help."
"So, you kidnap us to ask for our help?" Megha wondered.
"And she is still speaking....yeah. That's right. People before you were very generous in lending us their help." Avirva said. "Very generous people. One of them even didn't scream while we took his red liquid."
"He was dead." The woman beside Avirva whispered to her.
"Shut up, Moiri." Avirva growled at her and then looked at the terrified faces of the prisoners, who had caught the whisper.
"It's amazing how you ooze liquid when we cut you up." Avirva said.
The hall juddered with the ear-piercing screams of the prisoners. This time they
tried to break through the bars more fiercely.
Avirva summoned three sharp glistening knives with a hand gesture and flying those in the air, leaned the knives near the prisoners' throats. The hall went noiseless in a few seconds. The prisoners stood still. Only their streams of tears moved.
"Seems like you love your red liquid too much. Fine. I won't take it. If you listen to my problem and help me, get out of it."
"Okay. We will. But remove these knives first." Megha said sniffling.
Avirva agreed and called those knives back, of course, just with a hand gesture, without touching them.
"So, where was I? Oh yes. I was telling you of your people's generosity. Everything was nice and smooth. I defeated my enemies with your people's help. Until a very nasty man arrived and put a curse on our land. Earlier we had twelve seasons. Now we are left with only one season, snow. It has been snowing ever since. It snows and snows every day. We have become snow shovelers from warriors. Other nations too do not want to have a war with us due to the snow. So, now all our hopes are attached to the travellers and you."
"The people who brought us here. Were they the travellers?" Saurabh asked.
"Those grumpy idiots!..no no...they are not the travellers. The travellers live deep in the forest. They love the forest. I don't know what is there to love about the forest."
"How do you want us to help you though? I can't even shovel snow that fast." Mihir said.
"Oh no, silly." Moiri chortled amusedly.
A derisive look from the other two cut her laughter short.
"You develop a new power as you step into our world. All you need to do is check, if you have the power of finding someone's location. Meditate. And find me that cruel disgusting Mehul who destroyed our world." Avirva said. "Don't try to look for other types of powers. Just concentrate on finding Mehul. You will be punished if you try something else."
"What if we cannot find him?" Mihir asked.
"Then I keep you for further help. If you are useful in any way and serve me willingly, then you can have all the riches of the world. If you are useless, I give you a painless death... The problem arises when you refuse to co-operate. That will make me very very angry. And I can't help myself from torturing you before your death. Up until now, none of the previous humans have dared to defy me.......don't be the first ones to do so. Bye bye." Avirva said and went sliding out of the hall.
"What are you waiting for? Concentrate." Moiri screeched.
"Why me? Huh. Why me?" Saurabh asked.
"You had a halo behind your head. You were sparkling from head to toe." The guy with moiri said.
"Really! Am I special?" Saurabh looked at the guy's expressionless face. Three seconds passed.
"You stupid. Kath is kidding." Moiri said.
A malicious smirk crept onto Kath's face.
"You were picked randomly. You are random people. Wherever the portals opened, you were just present nearby."
"Why don't you go and bring more people?" Saurabh said.
Megha and Mihir looked at him, appalled.
"If you bring more people, don't you have more chances of locating Mehul. I can work for you. I can bring you more people. I can select the better ones for you. Why bring random people when I can tell you who is better? You, evidently, have a problem with selecting people. Why else would you bring these two? Do they look like they would be having any power? I will help the teleporters choose better people and in exchange, you can let me go."
Mihir and Megha exchanged looks condemning Saurabh's audacity and agreeing on confronting him later.
"No." Moiri said.
"Why not?"
"Because the travellers will be taking a long nap now to regain their energy."
"How long?"
"Very very long."
"Tell me days, months or years?"
" We don't use units to describe time...we just say very very long."
"What if it takes longer than that?"
"We say very very very long."
"So how many verys?"
"Twelve verys."
Megha sniggered, and teased Saurabh, "Did you get your answer?"
Saurabh scowled at her and Mihir suppressed a peal of laughter with his palm.
"Why didn't you bring more people at the chance you had?" Saurabh said, irritated, almost intimidating Moiri.
"We couldn't. We have only three travellers. Three people for three travellers." Moiri said, unaware of her apologetic tone.
"They could have brought more."
"They are people. They are not carriages. How many can they carry at a time." Moiri tried to justify.
"They could have done some more rounds then."
"One round drains their energy completely."
"Shut up and meditate." Kath blared, fed up with the questionaries.
With his loud commanding voice, Moiri
regained her power in her voice.
"No more questions. Just meditate. Close your eyes now."
"Don't we need to sit to meditate?"
"Stand and meditate.", Moiri said.
As if it was a spell, Megha suddenly stood in a blank space. There was nothing around her. No cages, no hall, no people, no floor, no roof...pure blank nothingness. Terrified, she started to run. She tried running in all directions but she was getting nowhere. The blank space wasn't ending.
A man appeared in front of her, " Hello, Megha." A handsome, alluring man. "Don't worry. You are not in any danger. You are not present here physically."
"What does even physically mean?" Megha wondered. She had lost clutch on her reason a little bit.
"I mean you don't have your body here." The man said.
"Wha-....whhatttt?"Megha exclaimed and looked at her hands. She tried to hold one hand with the other but it went right through it. She panicked.
"Don't worry. You are not in danger." The man said.
"Alright. If you say so."
"This is a space where I could contact you."
"Why though?"
"I am Mehul."
"You are the one who destroyed their seasons."
"No. I didn't. All I did was discover my power and turn formless to escape Avirva."
"What's your power?"
"I just said. Turning formless. I can move everywhere. Even through objects."
"Oh."
"Just oh. It's wow."
"So how did their seasons end then. It's because of their unnecessary inventions.
Their environment is filled with toxic materials. Their environment had been long degrading slowly. But after I vanished, it accelerated and the seasons were no more. It's all just a coincidence that it happened right after I vanished."
"Why didn't you tell it to the queen. You could easily infiltrate the palace. If you did, she wouldn't have kidnapped us."
"I did. I explained it to her a thousand times. She doesn't want to accept it. I even made a broadcast to the whole country. They are in denial. The only person who can save them all is Avirva's elder sister Aranya."
"Then, help her get the throne. You are invincible."
"Pheww.....when I am formless I can only observe Avirva, and when I come to my form, she tosses me around like a coin. These people have strong arms."
"So, this is it for me? Am I going to die here?"
"No....I am going to tell you how to escape. It's Mihir. He can open the portal to your world. He can also lock it so that Avirva can not send anyone to fetch humans anymore. You just have to tell Mihir about his power."
"Why didn't you contact him?"
"I couldn't."
"What's my power by the way?"
"You can control swaliti crystals."
"Swa- what?"
"It's the form of snow which falls at night here. It's colorful in the air but loses color after touching snow."
"Wow."
"It's night already. You can use it to protect yourself if needed before Mihir is able to open the portal. And remember you have to be within a distance of fifteen feet to him while he opens the portal."
"Okay....what's Saurabh's power?"
"The one you have a crush on?"
"How did you know that?"
"When I pass through a person, I see their thoughts."
"Don't do that again."
"I had no bad intention. I just wanted to know if I could trust you."
"What else did you see? What's in Saurabh's head?"
"He thinks you are stupid."
"Why did I even ask!"
"The other one likes you. He thinks you are beautiful and cool."
"Who? Mihir?"
"Yup."
Megha blushed.
"Snap out of it, girl. You have got things to do."
"Tell me what Saurabh can do." Megha
couldn't think of anything else to divert attention from her bashful eyes.
"His power is related to animals. But there are no animals nearby. So, his power is of no use to you."
Mehul explained to her a little more about Mihir's power and then whispered, "Go now. Hooooshhhh."
Megha was back in her body. She opened her eyes. Everything was still. Mihir and Saurabh seemed to be deep into meditation. Kath and Moiri weren't around.
"Hey. Wake up. Hey." Megha muttered.
Mihir looked at her.
The glint in his eyes made her feel butterflies in her stomach. But now was not the time to act coy.
"I know how to get out of here." She spoke.
At this, Saurabh opened his eyes. "Impossible."
"I spoke to Mehul." Megha said, "He says, you can open the portal to our world. You just need to close your eyes and focus your brain on finding the energies for it. You can open it right here and you can close it forever."
"Me?"
"Him? Ridiculous." Saurabh mocked.
"Don't listen to him. Look at me." She looked into Mihir's eyes," I am telling the truth. If you don't believe me, that's totally fine. You don't have to believe me. You just have to check it for yourself."
Megha's words filled him with confidence, while, ironically, Megha wasn't that confident herself.
He closed his eyes, after few seconds of thinking about his power he felt the energy.
"I found it. You were right." Mihir looked at Megha and said jubilantly. "I can take us all out of here. I know what to do."
"As if." Saurabh scoffed.
"I just need a little time." Mihir said.
With a loud thud, the hall door flung open and Avirva entered, as conceited as ever, followed by her minions.
"You have been chattering. I saw it all." She thundered.
"You have a camera in here!" Megha looked around to spot a device.
"You won't find it. Don't tire your eyes."
Avirva said.
"What's the use? We couldn't listen to them though." Moiri said and was glared at by Avirva.
Moiri went numb.
After scaring Moiri, Avirva turned to Megha, "By the way darling. I need a little of your blood."
"How little?"
"You will know. Give me your hand. Struggling might be catastrophic for you." Avirva took out a knife.
"Stay away from her.", Mihir yelled, startling all.
"Goodness. Don't yell like that when I am cutting her vein. I might cut deep. You will end up killing her." Avirva said.
"Take my blood instead.", Mihir said.
Megha looked at him, her eyes filled with admiration. He looked stunning at that moment.
"Don't worry about me. I will survive." Megha said and willingly extended her hand.
As Avirva walked closer to her, Mihir grew restless.
What people in the room were unaware about was that Megha had already summoned the Swaliti and it was rushing towards her crawling on the roof. Megha could feel their advance.
Soon, she could smell a fragrance. It was Swaliti's fragrance.
Saurabh sniffed confusedly.
Mihir was distracted.
Avirva, Moiri, and Kath were oblivious of the fragrance. They had no smelling power.
Soon, Megha, Mihir, and Saurabh could see the colorful snow towering behind the queen.
Megha thought it was safe now to let out a sneer.
As Avirva was about to cut her vein, Megha brought the swaliti down to blind the tyrants’ view. She surrounded Avirva, Moiri, and Kath with colorful, vibrant, dancing swaliti. It glided around them continuously. The three of them screamed and screeched and cursed. They staggered around the hall with the Swaliti following them.
"It's your turn now. Take us out of here." Megha said to Mihir.
"But-"
"Don't worry. I brought those things here. That's my power."
"What's my power then?" Saurabh asked.
Megha didn't give him a reply.
Mihir closed his eyes and concentrated and just as the knife, hurled by Avirva in a random direction, advanced towards
Megha, Mihir succeeded in opening the portal. It zapped them all. A little feeling of nausea, a little discomfort later, they landed in a park. It was done. They were back to their world.
Megha, Saurabh and Mihir shrieked with joy at the sight of an open green field.
Surprisingly though, there were three colored figures standing in front of them. It was Avirva, Moiri and Kath. They cleared the remnant of the swaliti from their faces and squinted their eyes.
"Welcome to our world." Mihir teased.
Disgruntled, Avirva started looking for the knife. She spotted it inside Megha's cage. As she hurried to grab it, Megha figured out her intention and stepped on the knife and stood on it.
Kicking the ground, angrily, Avirva gestured to levitate a nearby metal rod. But it didn't move an inch. She couldn't pull the rod distantly. Laws of physics were different in this world.
"What are you doing? Rush. Put your hands to work. Bring that rod for me." Avirva commanded Kath and Moiri.
Before they could follow her command, a police officer shouted at them from a distance. "Hey. What's happening there?"
The police officer wasn't alone.
Avirva held her gown, raised it a little, and beat a hasty retreat, rolling away, with her people running behind her. And now, Megha noticed the wheels in Avirva's shoes.
The police were baffled at the absurdity of the whole situation.
And Megha, Mihir, and Saurabh were now in a pickle about how to explain it all to them. Their story about their journey to the land of colorful snow was unfathomable.
One thing was sure though, the blanket of white beneath her feet was snow; sitting there with all its grace.
As the trance of the first snow of her life wore off, Megha noticed the incongruity of her condition. Moments ago, she was cuddling her pillow inside her blanket, breathing its warm air. And now, she was standing amidst a snowy land. Did she have a memory loss! Did she forget her travel to this beautiful place!
She heard some creaking sound coming from behind. Turning back, she saw two more cages being dragged ahead on their wheels. How were the wheels gliding on top of the snow, when the men dragging them walked while digging their legs up to their knees into the snow! Was it even possible! Isn't the snow needed to be cleared first? What did she know, by the way?
The cages held one prisoner each, tied to the bars, like Megha was.
The dragger men wore iron helmets in the shape of a cone. It looked so peculiar and unusual that Megha couldn't stop a chuckle from escaping. After a few seconds of blank bafflement, the probability of the reality dawned on her.
There was a myth in their city about people vanishing in the murk of the night. Some people had claimed of experiencing such incidents. Obviously, they were scoffed at by others. But now, their description of the place where they said they had gone after vanishing, matched Megha's present dimly lit surrounding. Unfortunately, the description of the cage draggers and their clothes matched too.
The more serious matter of concern for her was that, some people had, reportedly, never returned back after vanishing at night. "What if I don't return home too!" She shuddered at the thought.
She looked around. There was nothing except white, for miles.
The cages halted, and one of the dragger men approached Megha.
Megha stared at him.
"What are you looking at girl? Do you like my hat?" The man said grumpily.
Megha tittered and immediately realized she was so bad at timing. Seemed like that was her curse— giggling at the wrong moment.
"This one laughs." The grumpy man said in a gruff voice. "Let's see how the other two react. Shall we?"
He looked at the other two cages.
One of the men near those cages removed the clothes covering the prisoners' faces by pulling them through strings. Those clothes vanished after exposing the faces. But that's not what caught megha's attention—she knew one of those prisoners. He was a television star she had had a crush on for a very long time. It all seemed very surreal—Saurabh standing with his eyes closed like a magnificent sculpture.
The other prisoner was a male too.
Suddenly, both of them opened their eyes and gasped at what they saw.
The prisoner beside Saurabh screamed to the highest of his lung's capacity. It was time someone did.
One of the draggers pulled out a knife and levitated it with some hand gestures. Soon he directed the knife in the air to go to the screaming man. It halted just an inch away from his neck. The prisoner gulped back his scream instantly.
"What's your name?" The grumpy man hollered.
"Mihir", the guy replied trembling.
"And what's yours?" He asked Saurabh.
"Saurabh." Saurabh's voice evinced his fear.
"I am Megha." Megha said unprompted, and gave the guys a little wave with her free hand.
They seemed to be the least interested in greetings.
"Now listen up. No shouting, no tantrums on our way to the queen. Don't try to escape. Because you can't. You cannot cross the portal without help. This is not your world. It's our realm. You can never go back home."
"I knew it." Megha blurted out.
The grumpy man grumbled, "Why do you talk?"
"I was just saying that I had already figured out about your vanishing trick." She knew her mouth was betraying her today.
She smiled sheepishly.
Luckily, the grumpy man decided to ignore her disobedience after just an angry snarl.
He signalled the other men. Nodding their head, they dragged the two cages forward to keep beside Megha's cage in a row.
Megha wasn't that happy with the arrangement though.
Mihir's cage was placed in the middle.
As the cages were dragged, somehow rather smoothly, other than the creaking sound, the breeze touching Megha's face intensified its strokes a bit. And now Megha noticed that she had been clad in winter clothes from her closet. Did the draggers fetch those clothes—a sweater, a jacket, pair of socks, and a cap—and dressed her before snatching her from her world. "Quite considerate of you. Thanks for my sweater." Megha said sarcastically. No one paid any heed to her.
On their way, a magical thing happened at that moment of despair.
It snowed.
Fresh snow crystals descended from the sky. Megha had never witnessed such a sight of pure bliss. She was captivated by their alluring flair. The way they seduced the ground before touching them, amused her.
"Have you ever tasted snow? How does it taste?" Megha asked Mihir.
"How else would it taste? It's ice, you stupid." Mihir thought but controlled himself, just in time, from speaking those lines aloud. Because, there had been times when he too had asked nonsensical questions or questions with obvious answers to people. People had jeered at him, making him feel humiliated. He knew that feeling very well.
But then, those times were different. Nothing could hurt their self-esteem at this time of total helplessness. There were greater things at risk. So maybe he could speak a derisive line or two and no one would take it to heart.
Megha seemed so out of her head that she was smiling even in that situation. Maybe a scornful remark would tie her back to reality.
Mihir opened his mouth to speak but soon paused, as he remembered that he did not wish to get on the dragger's nerve.
He gestured Megha not to speak.
Megha wouldn't look away. Her gaze demanded an answer.
Mihir raised his free hand and hovered his tongue above his palm to demonstrate a licking action.
Megha understood his reply.
She faced her palms towards the sky and stole some of the snow crystals. Then she rubbed them between her fingers. "Powdery." She ascertained.
Then she licked those crystals off her palm.
"Ice." She muttered and beamed, "It's cold and refreshing."
A smile seemed like a permanent resident on her face. She raised her face to the sky now and let the snow settle on it like on a pedestal.
After a few minutes of travel, a magnificent palace came into sight. Mihir and Saurabh looked at each other to greet their amazements. Then Mihir looked at Megha.
She was still lost in the snow's magic.
As their cages approached nearer and nearer to the palace, its grandeur overwhelmed them.
As they entered the palace now, finally Megha considered looking at the palace, as snow was left behind, out of the gate.
Soon they reached a large hall and leaving the cages there, the draggers exited the hall. The door shut behind them and blended into the wall like it was never there. The three of them tried to look for a way to open their cages. But they couldn't find a door. So they tried to break the bars with every inch of power they had in their muscles. But it was all futile.
A sudden realization struck Megha. She thought she understood something now.
"They cannot teleport within their world. They just teleport to and from our world." She spoke. "Why else would they drag us all this way?" She put her speculations out in the open.
"Maybe, they wanted to take a stroll," Mihir said.
"I don't think so. I am telling you. They, definitely cannot teleport in this world."
"I know that they can not teleport. Didn't the guy say that they brought us through a portal? It's a door between realms. It doesn't count as teleportation. The guy never said that they were teleporters. Why did it even cross your mind? I am stuck with stupid people here." Saurabh said, irritated.
Megha lost her foot on her confidence for a moment, hearing sentences of disapproval from the man she admired.
And moreover, what he said seemed to be the fact. She didn't know much about teleportation, and portal theories. She felt embarrassed a little.
She didn't want to be at odds with Saurabh but something itched her to speak, “If they are not teleporters, then they are not as mighty as I thought."
"They are mightier than us. Didn't you see how that man moved a knife in air?"
"Yes, but we still have a chance. If we can find a way out of here-"
"Shut up.”, Saurabh interrupted rudely. "We are doomed."
"No. I am not." Megha whispered her resolution to herself.
Now she was pretty glad that Saurabh's cage was not placed in the middle.
He wasn't that charming for her when he talked. "He is so arrogantly pessimistic. As if that's a virtue." She thought.
"He has got a point though. How are we going to return when we don’t know how to cross worlds? We don't even know where the portal is." Mihir said.
"Why are you even so sure that we were brought here through a portal? They said and you believed! Maybe, they physically transported us here." Saurabh said.
He brought forth a valid point, but Megha wouldn't agree with him that easily. She wished she had something very smart and logical to say as a reply. But she didn't.
"It, certainly, was through a portal," Mihir said.
"How can you be so sure? We weren't awake." Megha said.
"I was. I saw and felt the portal. It upset my stomach in a very strange way. It took a few seconds for us to be here. And then they put that cloth on my head to stop me from screaming. "Mihir said.
A certain door clanked open at this moment and some people barged in on their conversation.
"Hello, puppies. Time to get to work." A beautiful lady in a beautiful tailing gown spoke while almost slithering in front of
Mihir's cage. Another woman and a man followed her closely behind. The woman in the front pushed Mihir's cage back a little to make space for herself.
"Wh-....what work?" Mihir stuttered.
"Oh. I haven't told you yet! My apologies. I have been in a hurry lately." The lady said, "My name is Avirva. I am the queen of Sehool. And I am the most deserving queen on this planet. But there were queens and kings of other nations who didn't agree with me. They wanted my elder sister on the throne. I had to protect my country. So, I searched for the travellers and asked for their help. They told me about you gentle folks. You people have magic in you."
"No, we don't," Saurabh said.
"Tch tch....you do...you do....don't interrupt me. You do." Avirva said. "You people look just like us, speak like us. We have so many things which are common between our planets. Yet you are so different. You people can sniff and tell what's in front of you. With eyes closed. Isn't that magic?"
"You levitate things in the air. That's magic."
Megha said.
"That's not magic my lady. That is nature."
"You pull carts with wheels on knee depth snow."
"That is science."
"If you are scientifically so advanced and mother nature lets you do amazing things like levitating, why can't you help yourself!"
"Stupid girl. Just because we can do many amazing things, doesn't mean we can do everything. You can walk. Can you fly? I mean, without any gadgets. Like you, we too have our limits. Yes, some of us can levitate metals. But that's not going to work everywhere. Can it? So, we will make you do whatever we can't do. Now shut that mouth of yours....I was saying.....so, I started bringing as many of you as possible to politely ask you for your help."
"So, you kidnap us to ask for our help?" Megha wondered.
"And she is still speaking....yeah. That's right. People before you were very generous in lending us their help." Avirva said. "Very generous people. One of them even didn't scream while we took his red liquid."
"He was dead." The woman beside Avirva whispered to her.
"Shut up, Moiri." Avirva growled at her and then looked at the terrified faces of the prisoners, who had caught the whisper.
"It's amazing how you ooze liquid when we cut you up." Avirva said.
The hall juddered with the ear-piercing screams of the prisoners. This time they
tried to break through the bars more fiercely.
Avirva summoned three sharp glistening knives with a hand gesture and flying those in the air, leaned the knives near the prisoners' throats. The hall went noiseless in a few seconds. The prisoners stood still. Only their streams of tears moved.
"Seems like you love your red liquid too much. Fine. I won't take it. If you listen to my problem and help me, get out of it."
"Okay. We will. But remove these knives first." Megha said sniffling.
Avirva agreed and called those knives back, of course, just with a hand gesture, without touching them.
"So, where was I? Oh yes. I was telling you of your people's generosity. Everything was nice and smooth. I defeated my enemies with your people's help. Until a very nasty man arrived and put a curse on our land. Earlier we had twelve seasons. Now we are left with only one season, snow. It has been snowing ever since. It snows and snows every day. We have become snow shovelers from warriors. Other nations too do not want to have a war with us due to the snow. So, now all our hopes are attached to the travellers and you."
"The people who brought us here. Were they the travellers?" Saurabh asked.
"Those grumpy idiots!..no no...they are not the travellers. The travellers live deep in the forest. They love the forest. I don't know what is there to love about the forest."
"How do you want us to help you though? I can't even shovel snow that fast." Mihir said.
"Oh no, silly." Moiri chortled amusedly.
A derisive look from the other two cut her laughter short.
"You develop a new power as you step into our world. All you need to do is check, if you have the power of finding someone's location. Meditate. And find me that cruel disgusting Mehul who destroyed our world." Avirva said. "Don't try to look for other types of powers. Just concentrate on finding Mehul. You will be punished if you try something else."
"What if we cannot find him?" Mihir asked.
"Then I keep you for further help. If you are useful in any way and serve me willingly, then you can have all the riches of the world. If you are useless, I give you a painless death... The problem arises when you refuse to co-operate. That will make me very very angry. And I can't help myself from torturing you before your death. Up until now, none of the previous humans have dared to defy me.......don't be the first ones to do so. Bye bye." Avirva said and went sliding out of the hall.
"What are you waiting for? Concentrate." Moiri screeched.
"Why me? Huh. Why me?" Saurabh asked.
"You had a halo behind your head. You were sparkling from head to toe." The guy with moiri said.
"Really! Am I special?" Saurabh looked at the guy's expressionless face. Three seconds passed.
"You stupid. Kath is kidding." Moiri said.
A malicious smirk crept onto Kath's face.
"You were picked randomly. You are random people. Wherever the portals opened, you were just present nearby."
"Why don't you go and bring more people?" Saurabh said.
Megha and Mihir looked at him, appalled.
"If you bring more people, don't you have more chances of locating Mehul. I can work for you. I can bring you more people. I can select the better ones for you. Why bring random people when I can tell you who is better? You, evidently, have a problem with selecting people. Why else would you bring these two? Do they look like they would be having any power? I will help the teleporters choose better people and in exchange, you can let me go."
Mihir and Megha exchanged looks condemning Saurabh's audacity and agreeing on confronting him later.
"No." Moiri said.
"Why not?"
"Because the travellers will be taking a long nap now to regain their energy."
"How long?"
"Very very long."
"Tell me days, months or years?"
" We don't use units to describe time...we just say very very long."
"What if it takes longer than that?"
"We say very very very long."
"So how many verys?"
"Twelve verys."
Megha sniggered, and teased Saurabh, "Did you get your answer?"
Saurabh scowled at her and Mihir suppressed a peal of laughter with his palm.
"Why didn't you bring more people at the chance you had?" Saurabh said, irritated, almost intimidating Moiri.
"We couldn't. We have only three travellers. Three people for three travellers." Moiri said, unaware of her apologetic tone.
"They could have brought more."
"They are people. They are not carriages. How many can they carry at a time." Moiri tried to justify.
"They could have done some more rounds then."
"One round drains their energy completely."
"Shut up and meditate." Kath blared, fed up with the questionaries.
With his loud commanding voice, Moiri
regained her power in her voice.
"No more questions. Just meditate. Close your eyes now."
"Don't we need to sit to meditate?"
"Stand and meditate.", Moiri said.
As if it was a spell, Megha suddenly stood in a blank space. There was nothing around her. No cages, no hall, no people, no floor, no roof...pure blank nothingness. Terrified, she started to run. She tried running in all directions but she was getting nowhere. The blank space wasn't ending.
A man appeared in front of her, " Hello, Megha." A handsome, alluring man. "Don't worry. You are not in any danger. You are not present here physically."
"What does even physically mean?" Megha wondered. She had lost clutch on her reason a little bit.
"I mean you don't have your body here." The man said.
"Wha-....whhatttt?"Megha exclaimed and looked at her hands. She tried to hold one hand with the other but it went right through it. She panicked.
"Don't worry. You are not in danger." The man said.
"Alright. If you say so."
"This is a space where I could contact you."
"Why though?"
"I am Mehul."
"You are the one who destroyed their seasons."
"No. I didn't. All I did was discover my power and turn formless to escape Avirva."
"What's your power?"
"I just said. Turning formless. I can move everywhere. Even through objects."
"Oh."
"Just oh. It's wow."
"So how did their seasons end then. It's because of their unnecessary inventions.
Their environment is filled with toxic materials. Their environment had been long degrading slowly. But after I vanished, it accelerated and the seasons were no more. It's all just a coincidence that it happened right after I vanished."
"Why didn't you tell it to the queen. You could easily infiltrate the palace. If you did, she wouldn't have kidnapped us."
"I did. I explained it to her a thousand times. She doesn't want to accept it. I even made a broadcast to the whole country. They are in denial. The only person who can save them all is Avirva's elder sister Aranya."
"Then, help her get the throne. You are invincible."
"Pheww.....when I am formless I can only observe Avirva, and when I come to my form, she tosses me around like a coin. These people have strong arms."
"So, this is it for me? Am I going to die here?"
"No....I am going to tell you how to escape. It's Mihir. He can open the portal to your world. He can also lock it so that Avirva can not send anyone to fetch humans anymore. You just have to tell Mihir about his power."
"Why didn't you contact him?"
"I couldn't."
"What's my power by the way?"
"You can control swaliti crystals."
"Swa- what?"
"It's the form of snow which falls at night here. It's colorful in the air but loses color after touching snow."
"Wow."
"It's night already. You can use it to protect yourself if needed before Mihir is able to open the portal. And remember you have to be within a distance of fifteen feet to him while he opens the portal."
"Okay....what's Saurabh's power?"
"The one you have a crush on?"
"How did you know that?"
"When I pass through a person, I see their thoughts."
"Don't do that again."
"I had no bad intention. I just wanted to know if I could trust you."
"What else did you see? What's in Saurabh's head?"
"He thinks you are stupid."
"Why did I even ask!"
"The other one likes you. He thinks you are beautiful and cool."
"Who? Mihir?"
"Yup."
Megha blushed.
"Snap out of it, girl. You have got things to do."
"Tell me what Saurabh can do." Megha
couldn't think of anything else to divert attention from her bashful eyes.
"His power is related to animals. But there are no animals nearby. So, his power is of no use to you."
Mehul explained to her a little more about Mihir's power and then whispered, "Go now. Hooooshhhh."
Megha was back in her body. She opened her eyes. Everything was still. Mihir and Saurabh seemed to be deep into meditation. Kath and Moiri weren't around.
"Hey. Wake up. Hey." Megha muttered.
Mihir looked at her.
The glint in his eyes made her feel butterflies in her stomach. But now was not the time to act coy.
"I know how to get out of here." She spoke.
At this, Saurabh opened his eyes. "Impossible."
"I spoke to Mehul." Megha said, "He says, you can open the portal to our world. You just need to close your eyes and focus your brain on finding the energies for it. You can open it right here and you can close it forever."
"Me?"
"Him? Ridiculous." Saurabh mocked.
"Don't listen to him. Look at me." She looked into Mihir's eyes," I am telling the truth. If you don't believe me, that's totally fine. You don't have to believe me. You just have to check it for yourself."
Megha's words filled him with confidence, while, ironically, Megha wasn't that confident herself.
He closed his eyes, after few seconds of thinking about his power he felt the energy.
"I found it. You were right." Mihir looked at Megha and said jubilantly. "I can take us all out of here. I know what to do."
"As if." Saurabh scoffed.
"I just need a little time." Mihir said.
With a loud thud, the hall door flung open and Avirva entered, as conceited as ever, followed by her minions.
"You have been chattering. I saw it all." She thundered.
"You have a camera in here!" Megha looked around to spot a device.
"You won't find it. Don't tire your eyes."
Avirva said.
"What's the use? We couldn't listen to them though." Moiri said and was glared at by Avirva.
Moiri went numb.
After scaring Moiri, Avirva turned to Megha, "By the way darling. I need a little of your blood."
"How little?"
"You will know. Give me your hand. Struggling might be catastrophic for you." Avirva took out a knife.
"Stay away from her.", Mihir yelled, startling all.
"Goodness. Don't yell like that when I am cutting her vein. I might cut deep. You will end up killing her." Avirva said.
"Take my blood instead.", Mihir said.
Megha looked at him, her eyes filled with admiration. He looked stunning at that moment.
"Don't worry about me. I will survive." Megha said and willingly extended her hand.
As Avirva walked closer to her, Mihir grew restless.
What people in the room were unaware about was that Megha had already summoned the Swaliti and it was rushing towards her crawling on the roof. Megha could feel their advance.
Soon, she could smell a fragrance. It was Swaliti's fragrance.
Saurabh sniffed confusedly.
Mihir was distracted.
Avirva, Moiri, and Kath were oblivious of the fragrance. They had no smelling power.
Soon, Megha, Mihir, and Saurabh could see the colorful snow towering behind the queen.
Megha thought it was safe now to let out a sneer.
As Avirva was about to cut her vein, Megha brought the swaliti down to blind the tyrants’ view. She surrounded Avirva, Moiri, and Kath with colorful, vibrant, dancing swaliti. It glided around them continuously. The three of them screamed and screeched and cursed. They staggered around the hall with the Swaliti following them.
"It's your turn now. Take us out of here." Megha said to Mihir.
"But-"
"Don't worry. I brought those things here. That's my power."
"What's my power then?" Saurabh asked.
Megha didn't give him a reply.
Mihir closed his eyes and concentrated and just as the knife, hurled by Avirva in a random direction, advanced towards
Megha, Mihir succeeded in opening the portal. It zapped them all. A little feeling of nausea, a little discomfort later, they landed in a park. It was done. They were back to their world.
Megha, Saurabh and Mihir shrieked with joy at the sight of an open green field.
Surprisingly though, there were three colored figures standing in front of them. It was Avirva, Moiri and Kath. They cleared the remnant of the swaliti from their faces and squinted their eyes.
"Welcome to our world." Mihir teased.
Disgruntled, Avirva started looking for the knife. She spotted it inside Megha's cage. As she hurried to grab it, Megha figured out her intention and stepped on the knife and stood on it.
Kicking the ground, angrily, Avirva gestured to levitate a nearby metal rod. But it didn't move an inch. She couldn't pull the rod distantly. Laws of physics were different in this world.
"What are you doing? Rush. Put your hands to work. Bring that rod for me." Avirva commanded Kath and Moiri.
Before they could follow her command, a police officer shouted at them from a distance. "Hey. What's happening there?"
The police officer wasn't alone.
Avirva held her gown, raised it a little, and beat a hasty retreat, rolling away, with her people running behind her. And now, Megha noticed the wheels in Avirva's shoes.
The police were baffled at the absurdity of the whole situation.
And Megha, Mihir, and Saurabh were now in a pickle about how to explain it all to them. Their story about their journey to the land of colorful snow was unfathomable.
