ASRAN SERIES- ACROSS THE BORDER

Chapter - 17

The Tiny man slowly opened his eyes and looked around him. He noticed that the two kids were happily whispering and jumping in joy.

At first, he checked his pocket for the Renlow Powder to make sure that it did not go missing. He became relieved to find the bottle and its content to be the same before he got paralyzed. He then realized that he might be running out of luck in laying his hands on Asran’s dust. 

'I need to come up with some other plan to get the Asran star's dust from these nasty kids later. Right now,  I have to pretend that I am defeated by them and surrender to them,' He thought and then kneeled on the ground.

He kept his head lower and said, "Fine. I accept my defeat and you both won this time."

The minute the Tiny man started to talk, Robert and Peter stopped jumping around and looked at him.

"Good that you know when to accept your defeat. You are too clever for your own good." Robert mockingly said and scorned while looking at the Tiny man with disgust.

He was angry that this little man would use the miracle plant to attack them. If they didn't get in touch with Nameless then by now they both would have become a meal for this carnivorous plant. Just that thought made Robert's rage reach sky high. 

When Peter saw Robert's face turn red from anger, he pulled his hands and stopped him from hurting Tiny man. He then whispered in Robert's ears,

"Leave it... Anyway, he was punished enough for his mistake. We will be more cautious from now on."

Robert shook his head and clenched his fist. He then asked,

"How could we leave him? If Nameless did not help us then we both would have gone into the digestive system of this tentacle plant..."

Hygelnewl plant saw their hostile behavior towards it and sulked away. It hopped and hid behind the tiny man after shrinking its body. The Tiny man looked at the frightened plant and then at the two young men in front of him. He then said,

"If you kids are not okay with giving me Asran’s dust in exchange for Renlow powder, it's fine. But I want you to promise me that you would keep us with you throughout the journey and feed us as much food as we want...”

Before he could finish saying his demands, Robert received a message from Nameless saying they could not send ‘Renlow’ powder. He informed them that the fence security was too tight and Felician could not cross the border. So, he hurriedly made a deal with the Tiny man without consulting with Peter.

"Ok deal. But you have to promise me that you won’t try to pull any more dirty tricks on us and try to lay your hands on Asran’s dust.”

“I promise! I promise on my guardianship of this miracle plant that I won't lay my hands on Asran's dust without your consent." The Tiny man announced and made Peter get a little relaxed around him.

But Robert instantly caught on to the tricky words in his promise and said, “Oh! Not so fast. I want you to swear on the Hygelnewl plant itself. Then we will think about whether we would really take you both with us or not.”

As he noticed the Tiny man was hesitating a lot after hearing him speak, Robert encouraged him by saying, “Come on. Go ahead. It is not so difficult... Anyway, I am sure you know that no one in this world ever goes back on their promises as the consequences would result in their soul turning dark. And then they would lose their ability to reach Asran star for the afterlife.”

Even though Peter wanted to say something very badly, he stopped himself on time as he knew that he's a little naive and it would be better if Robert dealt with the Tiny man instead of him.

The Tiny man kept on looking at Peter for some help as he looked a little more innocent and helpful than the kid with the five eyes. But even after waiting for a long time, Peter did not say anything about the deal. So, with not much of an option, Tiny man was forced to agree to Robert's demand.

He pulled the Hygelnewl plant in front of him and made a line on top of his finger with his nail. A drop of blood fell on top of the miracle plant and then it disappeared immediately after it burst into several colors. 

“Alight. I swore on the Angel plant which I guard with my life that I won’t try to get Asran’s dust from you even if you offer it to me out of your goodwill.” The tiny man took an oath much to his dismay.

He wanted to take back his words but then it was already too late and the blood pact was formed. So he handed the Renlow powder to Robert with his hands shaking in frustration. He wanted to pull the bottle and keep it safe inside his pocket but then it would only make him look like a disgrace to his clan after he took that oath.

 Robert with a smirk pulled the bottle from the Tiny man's hands and asked, “Angel plant?”

“Yes, we call them that...” The tiny man uttered through his gritted teeth.

He still wanted to take back everything he said and did just now. But then when he could not think of any alternative, he could only sigh and feel sulky just like the miracle plant.

“So, are there many more of them? or is this the last of its kind,” Robert questioned him more about the Angel plant as his curiosity piqued around the plant's nature.

“I am so sorry, kid. Some rules were set by my clan and we all need to follow them very strictly. I cannot satisfy your curiosity as I am in a bind to follow those rules as well. Also, I could not say anything about the plant or its nature or if you could get one if you try as your pet,” The tiny man said. 

He almost caught Robert in action while staring at the new sapling which gave him the purple flower. 

Robert shrugged his shoulder as if he did not care about the plant anymore after hearing his response. He opened the bottle of the Renlow powder and then added a pinch to the previous mixture. He then shook the clay pot a little while saying a few magical words with his eyes closed.

'Robaina... Windoo... Elly... Scentarntoos... Maricana... Willo... Willo... Vooo... Viloa... minora... Kabinosaurs... asparayys... Minota... Wadaloo... dianoora... placetiala.. moroanoa..." Robert chanted and shook the clay pot vigorously.

"On the name of the Asran God, I order you to take us to Elly..." He shouted with all his might.

The pot broke and the mixture inside it made sparks all over that area. Then the boys started to fly in the air and were lifted high towards the sky by those sparks. Hygelnewl shrunk instantly itself once again and jumped into Peter’s bag while the short man held on to the plant while thinking,

'Whatever... I don't care about this Angel plant and neither do these kids. All I want is to get my hands on Asran’s dust and then I could live a carefree life without being stuck to this plant forever.’

Peter and Robert held on to each other's hands tightly so that they would not get thrown at different locations when the sparks ended. The magical storm created by them rotated them several times before they reached the place where Elly was hiding.  

The sky had once again turned dark and the place where they reached looked very creepy crawling with a lot of homeless kids. The minute they noticed the newcomers, they darted towards them in hope of getting something to eat.

But when they noticed the carnivorous plant, they immediately scurried away from there. After looking at them, Peter's heart ached. At least he was lucky to have his mother with him and never worried about food even though they were living in the desert for some time now.

Robert saw those homeless kids running around looking for food or anything edible to eat. He thought of the luxurious food his mother gave him all the time and all he did was waste most of them. They both sighed and regretted taking everything for granted.

Meanwhile, the Tiny man looked at the dirty kids and scrunched his face. He hated being brought here by those kids and almost hid himself inside the miracle plant hoping to escape from those hungry eyes of the dirty homeless kids.