As Mia sat meditating in the sacred lands, a glow radiated from her. Anjana saw it with open and wondered. The glow flickered around her for a while and then flew swiftly away . In her trace she was back in the realm of dream once again. But this time she was . She walked around for a while and then all of a sudden the glow that was emitting from body appeared there. It enveloped her completely. Then with a sudden jerk it pulled her . Mia opened her eyes huffing but the glow was still engulfing her in the real world. It her and then blew her above the land. Anjana sprang up from his position and followed
Mia. The glow moved her from one place to the other till it brought her back to the ridge.
"Oh no. What just happened?Am I back at the ridge? No. No. '' Mia wondered. The glow still had left her. It flew here and there. To the place where she treated Anjana ,to the stream , to the she used to eat those storage but delicious fruits. As she went past that spot she noticed pair of tiny eyes blinking through the leaves. It was perched on the fruit tree. This time Mia on top of it so she had a full and clear view. It was a weird creature. Its body was covered shiny scales . It had small curls for hair. Its ears were tiny but the eyes were huge and shiny.
It almost sparkled. As Mia marveled at the creature, it looked up. As soon as they saw each the glow vanished and Mia fell straight in the stream she used to collect water from. Mia thought it was so deep but she was literally struggling to stay afloat. There seemed to be current pulling her down. The creature jumped right beside Mia and took a dip. Mia thought it help her out of the water but instead it started pulling Mia further down.
"What a vicious creature" Mia thought helplessly. But the force was too huge for her and she not hold on any longer.The water surface closed above as she went down. Mia was . She was literally throwing her hands and legs around grasping for breath until for a . Then she understood she was doing that in reflex. She did not have any trouble . The creature had morphed with a very colorful, cute little baby with fish features. It holding Mia's hand with its fin-like hands and pulling along. Mia gladly followed this time.
"You are not weird at all. You are kind of cute. " Mia thought. The fishy baby giggled. Mia was aback "What? Do you understand me? You read minds? " She wondered. It giggled again nodded. "Wow.That is crazy. Wait till I tell Lin about you. He would go nuts. But... " Her trail thought was cut as tears welled up her eyes "but where is he? How do I find him? I even got out of the sacred lands. How do I find him. " Her thoughts were getting melancholy as got reminded of him yet again. As they swam she could not help thinking about their time in human world. How they used to swim in the stream there. Splashing each other and madly, lost in each other's eyes. Mia smiled at the creature as it came up to her, held cheeks with its tiny limbs and looked into her eyes. It twitched it's head a couple of times then grabbed Mia's hand and started pulling her up. Mia followed suit reluctantly.
"What is that! Look Lin look! Is that a mermaid! " Boshu exclaimed as Mia's head popped out of lake just in front of which they were sitting.
"Mia! No way! What is this! Mia? " Lin stood up with disbelief in his eyes. Roe and Xie looked Lin to Mia and then back. Soon as Mia resurfaced, she started to drown again. She could hold on to the water surface and started gulping and yelling for help .
"Mia?Is it Mia. Not possible. '' Lin was still mumbling as he walked towards her. Seeing that Lin not make it in time to save Mia, Xie jumped in the water. As soon as he jumped, he there was something weird about the undercurrents in the water. With great , he managed to reach Mia. But he too was exhausted by then. He could barely hold
Mia up. Seeing their struggle Boshu changed to his original bird form and flew on top of them, Xi to hold onto his legs. But carrying the two of them would not be possible for Boshu on form, at one time. So he pulled Mia out of the water and thrusted her onto his back. Boshu swiftly back to the place Lin and Roe was. He dropped her in Lin's arms and flew back for
Xie. He was almost drowning himself when Boshu reached just in time to pull him by his neck his beak. He flew back with him and they both fell on the ground exhausted.
"Never imagined I would be saving a wolf using my original form. " Boshu panted as he with a wink at Roe.
She was bent over her brother, checking for his pulse and breath.
"He is alright" She announced and went over to Lin and Mia.
Lin was patting her cheeks calling out her name, but she could barely open her eyes.
"We need to get the water out of her chest" Roe said aa she took Mia from Lin's arm and laid on the ground. After a few quick compressions water gushed out of Mia's mouth and nose she woke up breathing heavily. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Lin beside her, filled with tears of shock and joy. Mia laid there herself, unsure if it was one of her thoughts and dreams of him or was he really right in front of her.
*******
Hectic reunion
"Mia ! Mia are you alright? How did you... " Lin exclaimed, picking her up but he was shuttering, problems articulating his speech "How are you even here? Is it really even possible? "
"Lin.Its really you " Mia whispered with her voice so feeble it was barely audible.
"Ahhhmmm! If we are all alright here, can somebody explain what is going on here" Xie .
"Uummm, this is Lin's wife" Boshu interrupted as he looked at Lin with a meaningful glare. Lin . Boshu continued "But how she ended up here we have no clue, maybe she can us about it. But let her catch her breath first. And we might as well give the couple a bit of space. "
"Yeah! Right. Right. Brother, Birdie, let's go take a look over there" Roe pulled the two of them .
"Birdie? Birdie Boshu was heard protesting as they went.
Lin kissed Mia on the forehead and pulled her close. "Tell me Mia what happened. How are you out of the barrier? "
Mia shifted a little bit into a sitting position to narrate the events that after he left. Lin listened as she started talking about the injured person outside her barrier. How she forced out.
"But Mia, no mortal or immortal dares venture in that ridge. Who was that person you treated. "
He was really worried.
"I don't know Lin but he was really weird. He said nobody could see him. I was the first one, he when we met again a couple of days later. In fact he even flew me to the Forbidden woods.
Were you there Lin. He said he saw you go that direction. We searched for you but he said your vanished. I even meditated for help in the sacred lands but got thrown away. " She about playing with Lin's hair.
"What are you saying Mia? Really? " He looked at her with eyes that had too many expressions to come out at once.
"Really? Really what? " Mia could not understand his question.
"Never mind. Tell me what happened next. How did you even get here? " Lin suppressed his for the time being trying to take in more information from Mia before others joined them.
"I.. " Mia was going to explain how she came there when suddenly she remembered her visit to dream realm "Lin"
"Yes"
"Do you have someone in your family called Nanako? " Mia asked.
"Yes.How do you know? " Lin was really surprised as Nana had near to no outside contact .
"You won't believe Lin but we met. In another realm. " Mia said sitting up and reaching his ears, somebody might overhear "Lin said she has answers for our baby's future. She asked me visit her as soon as possible. We need to go see her. " Lin could make out that Mia was very from the look on her face.
"Listen to me Mia. Do you know where we are right now? " Lin asked.
"No"
"We are in the land of lakes beyond which is the land where there is the Tree of knowledge. I there to find answers for us. I don't know how you came here, but it took us a lot of to get this far. We are so close Mia. Let's get it done, and then I will take you to Nana.
Alright? " Lin tried to reason. But Mia was having a gut feeling that she was not able to explain.
"I don't know Lin. I hope we are not too late in reaching her. " She said.
"What do you mean?" Lin asked. But before she could answer Roe, Xie and Boshu returned.
"We should be going. The daylight will be fading soon. If we are not able to find a way of getting of here by then, we need a place to spend the night. " Boshu announced.
"Did you find out how she got here from the lake Lin? " Roe asked, sitting down beside Lin.
Mia looked up immediately. "Doesn't it look too close" Her brain was wavering but she hit herself the head and smiled.
"What happened? " Roe asked, puzzled.
"Oh! Nothing. Nothing" Mia smiled sheepishly again " Ahh! How I got here you asked. Actually I 't explain it much myself. But I will try to put it exactly like it happened " Mia continued. She them about the tiny creature. Her fall in the stream by the ridge. How she found out that she breathe underwater. She is thinking about finding Lin. And finally the creature escorting here.
There was no reaction when she finished her part. Everybody looked at the other.
"Could you describe this creature? Can you summon it? " Roe finally broke the silence.
"Summon? No. It just came to my rescue by itself. Describe. Well, I will try " She went on to a rough sketch with her fingers on the ground as they hurled to get a better look.
"Don't you think this is the creature we were looking for to find our way out? " Xie said. They all .
"So how do we or rather what do we do now? " Roe asked.
"Do you mean you need it to guide us out of here? Should I try to get in the water and see if it ? " Mia volunteered.
"No! No! It's too risky. The undercurrents are really strange. I can't let you go in there alone. "
Lin said.
"Like really? She came out of there all alone" Roe smirked.
"What if it doesn't show up this time? " Lin came up to Roe to answer her mockery.
"Do we have any better ideas? " Boshu intervened.
"I will go," Lin said as he unbuttoned his dress and jumped right in before anybody could react.
"Lin! Are you alright? Mia yelled, running after him. He popped out of the surface and waved his in the affirmative. They looked on as he dived and swam for a while, but then all of a Lin yelled. It was as if something was pulling him. He panicked gulping a large amount water as he fought to stay afloat. Boshu and Xie both started undressing for the rescue when heard a loud splash. Mia had already jumped and was steadily swimming towards Lin.
Whatever was affecting Lin, did not bother Mia. They looked amazed. But as soon as Mia Lin, she dived down under. They all expected her to resurface soon enough because dived without any struggle. It was as if she was checking something out. But, it was talking long for her to come up.
"Should we follow? " Roe anxiously tapped her feet.
Just then they saw Mia, pulling Lin back on the shore. They all rushed to check on them .
"You guys alright? " Boshu asked.
"Alright.Alright.We are alright. " Mia was a little out of breath "The creature is there. It's in the . " She said.
"That's great then, we can finally get out" Roe chirped. But Mia looked up at her and nodded her , as if saying no.
"What do you mean? " Roe asked.
"It won't help us," Mia said.
What? Why? " They asked together.
"I don't know. Give me a minute. I need to get back in the water. " Mia said. Taking a deep as she prepared to make yet another dive.