Mia went under water and swam to the spot where she had last seen the creature. She was half it to still be there waiting for her after she broke its trust and brought Lin along. But it was there. It was going round and round in a circle as if agitated. It turned around as as Mia came near. It swam fast towards her. Mia halted at its sudden advance. She tried explain the situation to me. But it wasn't interesting. It came towards her, grabbed her hands pulled her along. By this time Mia was able to communicate with it fluently through telepathy it was only under water. The creature was a little preoccupied with something. She didn't what. Nevertheless they went on across different waters. High and low, dark and , strong and weak, the waters all had stories and lives in them of their own. Mia wanted to back a little and marvel at them a bit more, explore them a bit more. But they didn't have for that. It was quite sometime that they were swimming non-stop that Mia started feeling . She left the creature's hand and stopped for a bit. The creature immediately sensed her and swam back to her. It started circling around her tummy and touched it with its hand a limb. Right at that time Mia felt a kick. She was immediately taken aback. Did the creature that she was pregnant? How could it know? But the kick she felt. What was that about?
Could her baby feel the creature too? Could they communicate? She wanted to stop all the of thoughts coming in her head . She didn't want to risk the creature knowing everything her and her condition. Especially since she didn't know anything about it.As if responding this thought of Mia, the creature swam Mia's face and closed her eyes with its hand like . Images started flashing in front of her eyes.They were as if in fast forward so it was for them to concentrate on any of it. Finally it started slowing down and her eyes started adjusting to the images.
What flashed in front of her eyes was a world she had never seen. It was a beautiful underwater , scattered with brilliant colors and decked with magnificent palaces. It looked like a dream . There were fine looking men and women, but their limbs were differently modified. It that of a fish or dolphin. They glided elegantly throughout the place. Wherever they , they left behind a beautiful glittery trail. As Mia admired their beauty, the image shifted to scene where everyone was in a frenzy. The beautiful palaces and places were still there but beautiful creatures were replaced with severely disfigured ones. Everyone was running from something. It immediately reminded Mia of herself. The scene shifted again. Now the landscape remained the same. The beauty had been restored. But something was . It took Mia a little while to realize that there were no male in the scenario. The then zoomed in and she was looking straight inside the queen's bedchamber. A lady, possibly the queen, had given birth. There was much hushing instead of rejoicing around matter. Her vision zoomed in more. She could now hear bits of their conversation as well.
"It's a boy. It's a boy" they were saying in a whisper.
"Quick, bring in my cauldron with the cloaking spell" instructed the lady who had given birth.
The creature resembled the one accompanying Mia , only much tinier in size. A huge cauldron brought forth, veiled in a pitch black curtain. The lady stood up with the boy in her hands, in the state she was in, without dressing up.
"Bring forth the sacrifice" The lady ordered. By this time, Mia was pretty sure it was the queen her sheer aura and tone of voice.
Five maidens hurried out at the back of the chamber and dragged in a human looking person. It couched in fear. The queen forced it to lift its head. The moment it did so, Mia was so she moved back. All the scenarios vanished from her eyes. She was still underwater her tiny friend. Her heartbeat rose rapidly as she panted. The person they had pulled in an inhumane way looked very much like her strange friend, whom she had named Anjana.
But his eyes were red with fear. It was a very difficult scene for Mia to take in. The creature gave
Mia sometime to catch her breath, then moved forward as if asking for permission to continue.
When Mia nodded it again put its limbs over Mia's eyes.
The queen took a very ancient looking sword out of its sheath with engravings all over it. She it directly at the person's throat.
"How can you do this to me? I am the father of your children. We have so many daughters we together. Now that a son is born, are you really going to kill me with your own hands? "
He questioned with bright red eyes.
The queen hesitated a moment at these words but a maiden from the back put in "My Lady this above love and kinship. It is about the survival of our kind. Whatever has been happening is our fault. It's the fault of the Heavens. It's because of the joke it has played on us. We do not any room for emotions my lady. "
The queen closed her eyes shut and with a sharp blow of the sword, the lifeless head of the rolled over. The rest of the people present totally ignored the fact and quickly concentrated collecting the spilling blood in the cauldron. Right after it was full, it was brought in front of queen. She cut her wrist and dropped a few drops of her blood in it as well. However it 't red. It was back as charcoal. She then closed her eyes and summoned what looked like which were also black, dark. The child in her arms was completely submerged in that . Brought forth and then wrapped in a silvery, glittery leaf like sheet. It was then promptly away by one of the maids.
The queen looked at her handmaiden after the entire fiasco was over, with eyes that now looked and full of sorrow.
"It's over. You did it my Lady. Our generation will live on for yet another generation. " The said, patting the queen's head as she laid it down on her shoulder.
Mia opened her eyes and looked at the creature with eyes full of questions that she needed answers to. But there were no words to articulate them. She kept staring at it when it jumped at her and hugged her tight at the waist, as if like a little child waiting for . She patted its head for the first time. It felt very strange. But silent tears fell from her as she caressed it's ears, shoulders and eyes. The creature too, seemed to shed tears as he was sobbing.
*******
The tree of knowledge
Lin was having an uneasy feeling as he sat waiting for Mia to return. He couldn't sit very long . He stood up and started patrolling the perimeter. Boshu joined him.
"I don't have a good feeling about this? " Lin confided in Boshu.
"About what? " Boshu asked.
"Mia . I am having a strange feeling about it. " He said.
"Well, if you say so, everything around us right now is strange. What do you think is normal around here. " Boshu had a practical answer.
Mia on the other hand was trying to make sense of the things she had just seen. She had the to have a glance at the very core secret of the mer-witches' survival, a mystery well from the outside world. After the extinction of the male population, the mer-witches no other option than to resort to dark forces for their survival. The dark forces allowed their to have one male child at a time. That child would then be cloaked in dark aura so it hidden from the rest of the world till it reaches maturity. Once mature , the queen would down and a new queen was appointed. The male would then enjoy conjugal life with the and procreate. As long as there were females born, the male would be safe. But once the delivered a boy, the male would then have to be executed and the newborn be cloaked it, infused with dark powers. The new born would then be abandoned far away from the territories and left to explore and exploit the waters of the other worlds. Once it maturity, it would then be taken back to the mer-world in the South . There it would be off to the new queen and kept in her chambers as a mating toy.
The realization struck Mia very hard. It meant her friend Anjana and this new found friend were both doomed. However she failed to understand why she was able to see them . She tried asking that to the creature, but it too had no clue as to why Mia was the one they communicate with. Mia went ahead and grabbed the creature's hand and gave it a right . As they continued swimming towards their destination, she made a promise to herself. Of three questions she had, she would use two to find an answer to survive the curse and the one she would use to help her mer-friends. With renewed determination and boost, they forward.
As Mia reached near the surface, the creature left her hand and asked her to stay put in her . It swam swiftly towards the surface but banged hard against some invisible wall. It off a bit. Then prepared to bang it once more, but this time with its back where it had a like protruding part. As soon as it hit the water surface, there was a severe blast, whose wave made Mia go flying away a mile. The creature swiftly swam to Mia and grabbed her and pulled her out. The water surface was covered with lilies. As many colors as our eyes imagine. It covered every inch of the surface except the place they had blasted off. The leapt out of the water and landed on the lilies. It then extended its tiny limbs to help Mia . She laughed but did reach out her hands. Surprisingly, it was easily able to pull her out.
As Mia stood there admiring the place, which was amongst the clouds, she noticed her dress completely dry, even though she had just come out of water. The water gave way directly to sky which was sprinkled with cottony clouds. They had to leap from one to another to move . Though they were clouds, the landing was soft like grass or bushes. Without wasting more time, they started looking for the tree of knowledge.
They searched here and there. Across the entire stretch of clouds. But they could not find the . There were in fact gardens with shrubs of weird kind all over the clouds, but the tree of or any tree for that matter was not too visible.
"! What do we do now? " Mia sat down with frustration in her voice.
The creature peeped to have a look at her face and made a whimpering like voice . Its eyes felt as if trying to tell Mia that there was nothing it could do. Though their conversation was underwater, communicating on land was a bit difficult for the creature.
Mia touched its face and said " You have helped me a lot. Don't worry anymore. It's up to me to the rest of the work done in this mission. " With those words Mia stood up and concentrated.
The creature too, jumped back in the water as if with the cue.
Mia this time walked slowly, carefully examining every cloud she jumped on. After traveling across most of the clouds, she found herself facing a clearing. She stopped. There was shining from a far away spot in the clearing. She strained her eyes to take a good . It looked as if it was a reflection from a huge mirror. She moved a bit closer. The distance herself and the mirror-like thing was quite great. It would be a sharp fall. She leaned as as she could and finally saw it. There was a tree inside the mirror. It was perfectly its surroundings except the fact that there was a huge tree inside which wasn't there . No doubt it was the tree she was looking for, the tree of knowledge.
"Finally, I made it. '' She thought to herself. But the thought made her more nervous than . Here comes the real test, finding it was just part of the job. It was time Mia got a grip herself and handed out clearly thought out answers to the riddles from the tree of and negotiated wisely for its sacrifices. She needed the correct answers that would her to save more than her own life. She needed to be able to do this not for herself but for more. She cleared her head and throat and made the steep jump below, landing feet first.
She looked up and was immediately greeted by the ancient tree with a voice that was hollow.
"Welcome my sweet child, Mia, what brings you to me this day".Mia kept staring as her ears not believe that she had just now heard a tree send her greetings. When it sunk in, she up, dusted herself and replied " Thank you O! the great Tree of Knowledge. I come with burdens to you today. "