ASRAN SERIES- ACROSS THE BORDER

Chapter - 45

“And he is the most powerful person in this universe. The militants' power is nothing in front of him. If we have him on our side then we can get back whatever we lost... without a war!” Sussan told them.

“But, Sussan…” David tried to speak but Sussan looked straight into his eyes and said, 

“I am hoping that you would stand on my side and support my decision as always.”

David folded his hands twice and then released them. Once, he was sure that his emotions were in check, he nodded his head and said, “As always, my queen!”

“Now, I want all the help I could get from you all, in finding the Ashes Lord…” Sussan announced and looked at the crowd with expecting eyes.

The crowd was silent for a second and then they cheered and shouted, “We will be at your service, Commander. Please tell us what we need to do and we will follow your lead.”

Sussan smiled at them and nodded her head. She then called Brenda near her and started to make proper plans. Instead of a small team, they formed earlier, this time they decided to make it a big team.

“Children and elderly people will stay behind and we will leave a few fine young people to guard the campsite; Remaining of them we will use for the search,” Brenda suggested.

“Yes, that’s my idea as well!” Sussan agreed with her.

“What if we cannot find him? What if your assumptions are all wrong?” David asked in a low voice.

“We will just hope for now that my assumptions are not wrong,” Sussan said in a stern voice.

She was already confident that Ashes Lord has come here, also he’s quite close to them. It’s only a matter of time before they find him.

“Still, we need to think of the possibility of what if we could not find him? Are we going to search throughout our life for him or do we stop at one point and realize what a big mistake we are doing,” David murmured.

Sussan heard him clearly, so she replied to him, “All I am asking from you is just one day. I am confident that I will find him before this day ends.”

David lifted his head and gazed at her. He then shook his head in disappointment and said, “We are going on a wild chase. This desert is too wide and we cannot make heads of where it starts or where it ends.”

“The end of this desert is our country’s border,” Brenda wittily said.

When she got a look from everyone, she shook her shoulders and relaxedly said, “What! At least one less problem to solve as I already found the end of the desert or should I say the beginning of our desert life?”

“All right! That’s enough off-topic. Let’s see…” Sussan said and started to draw lines on the ground.

She then said, “Until now, we have covered all the area within two hours range from the campsite but we found nothing. Our next step must be to go further and search for Ashes Lord. First, we will shift the campsite to a much more secure place.”

“What about food and water for all these people? We cannot let them starve while searching for him. We did hunt enough animals for a day but water would be an issue.” David said.

“Don’t worry about it. I will take care of all those issues on my hands,” Brenda declared and took out her secret pouch.

“Are you sure James would be able to feed a whole clan? This is too much to ask of him even on a normal day,” Sussan expressed her concern.

“Oh! Don’t you worry! Using this bag we can take food from anywhere… even the militants' cafeteria,” Brenda said with a wicked smile.

“Are you going to steal food from the militants?” Sussan asked her and opened her mouth wide in shock.

“Let’s just say it’s borrowing for the time being. Moreover, it was all because of them, we were ostracized and got kicked out of our home,” Brenda said in a grating voice.

She then said in a low grunting voice, “Anyway, they deserve it!”

After lunch, they got ready for the almost impossible hunting of Ashes Lord in the wide desert. The Asran star was just above their head and suddenly a cold breeze passed them on the hot desert.

They made five separate teams and each of them was led by Brenda, Sussan, David, Sommer, and one more older member, Wallace from the clan. Each team went in different directions and decided to come back before the Asran set down tonight.

“Alright, do not roam around after dark and never try to go alone if you find anything interesting. Always stick with the group and be careful. If you sense any danger then retreat. If you sense an alarming sound in your mind, then retreat. If you feel any threat then retreat,” Sussan started to list one by one rules for when the team should back off and return.

“We get it! We get it! Let’s go now… We will retreat if there is an issue, do not worry,” Brenda patted her shoulders and strolled away from there.

Each group swiftly went in the directions they had already decided to take so that they could cover as much distance as possible before dark falls on them. They searched for several hours and most of them could not find a single trace of Ashes Lord.

One of the groups headed by the elder member decided to move a little further to find a better-hidden place and take shelter for some time before continuing their search.

They were all already too tired and also dehydrated from walking on their feet for so many hours. The further the group strolled, they noticed that the vast land they had traveled until now suddenly turned into golden yellow from the usual red color. 

“Leader, what’s going on? How could the land be golden in this part of the desert? This is totally unheard of and I fear that we should return and inform Sussan,” One of the members from Wallace’s team said.

“No, we should move forward and check a little more distance. Did you not hear what Sussan said earlier? If we find the Ashes Lord then we can stop this war. Let’s go,” Wallace, the leader urged them to go further into the land.

As they moved quietly, suddenly the whole place looked like it was on fire. It actually started to feel too hot to stand on the yellow ground and everyone started to sweat profusely. They could not understand why the situation had changed so much within a few steps. 

“I think at least now we should report this to the leaders. We cannot travel further as we don’t know what awaits us,” Again the member tried to convince their leader.

“Victor, but we still don’t know the exact location of the Ashes Lord yet. I am already getting a feeling that we are very close to him. We should persuade further and find out if this land was occupied by the Ashes Lord or not,” Another person argued with him.

“But Sussan said that if we even sense a bit of threat we should retreat and not continue further,” Victor tried to convince them that they should not travel any further.

After arguing for some time, Victor finally convinced them but not all of them were ready to go back just because one of the members of the team felt danger. The Asran star was still high above their head and a few hours were left before the set downtime.

So they discussed among themselves and decided to send a team of three forward while one of the fastest members will go back to inform the other leaders of their findings. Also, the remaining members will stay put in the same spot until others reach here after finishing their work.

“So, once they come back and report the situation, we would decide which direction to go further or should we take shelter at our current location. Is that fine with you all?” Wallace asked his team members. 

“Yes!” They all folded their hands and hit their chest twice to give their approval.

“Victor, are you fine with this decision?” Wallace asked Victor separately again.