ASRAN SERIES- ACROSS THE BORDER

Chapter - 19

When Peter did not get any response from his grandmother, Rose even after apologizing so many times, he felt hopeless. Still, he was not ready to accept his defeat and so, he continued to explain why he could not warn them about the miracle plant before.

“Grandma, I would have definitely informed you about the angel plant and I swear that I didn't mean to hide it from you all. I just did not get an opportunity to explain everything after we arrived. I am sorry, Grandma… I will be very careful from now on. So, please forgive me for the mistake that I made... this one time... Also, the Angel plant is so scary, if you get to know it.”

Peter was almost on the verge of a breakdown as all of them stayed silent and only his weak voice echoed throughout the vast main hall. He conveniently hid the fact that the plant tried to eat them on the Tiny man's orders. When he still did not get a response from anyone even after saying so much, he became dejected.

Also, he was afraid that after seeing him with the angel plant, his grandmother might not agree to let Elly go along with him. 'No, I need to make sure to convince everyone, or else we could not succeed in bringing Elly with us,' he thought and with determination, he lifted his head to say, 

'I once again apologize for my rudeness and if Angel plant being here made you all uncomfortable then we would leave from here along with Elly.'

Just before he could tell them his intentions clearly, Grandma chuckled and said, “Peter, my dear little boy. Please do not worry about that at all. First of all, I am sorry for yelling at you without knowing the trouble you had to go through for coming here. Look around you, everyone is touched by your bravery and no one is blaming you anymore for frightening them.”

Peter then turned his head around and saw the people in the room. The elders were not staying away from them any longer. Slowly, one by one moved closer to him with tear-stained faces with a sympathetic expression. After hearing his story, they were all moved to tears and were feeling bad for letting a young boy go through so much trouble to find his sister.

The elders understood that all these kids were suffering because of their stupidity to let the unknowns into their territory. In turn, the militants took over the power and made them split amongst themselves into dark ones and sabers.

They were fighting among each other until now to push the blame to one another. But after hearing the story of Peter, it seemed like no one was living a better life after the power went into the hands of the militants. Now they understand that the revolution is the only way to save their planet from the hands of the militants.

Robert inched close to him and whispered in Peter's ears, “I thought you would fail miserably in trying to convince them and I might have to use magic to change their opinion of you. But then I didn’t know that you had such a talent hidden inside you, loser. You made everyone cry including the miracle plant... Wonderful job.”

After hearing Robert's praise, Peter's cheeks turned red in embarrassment, and he uttered in between his teeth, “Shut up, Robert.” 

He then looked at his sister, Elly, and dropped a weak smile. Elly dashed towards him and hugged him. She then said,

"Brother, I am sorry... I wanted to contact you soon and let our parents know that I am safe. But Grandma Rose said that it might alert the militants and we would all get caught."

"It's ok, Elly... Am I not here to take you back now? Let's leave from here as soon as possible," Peter said to her and patted her back.

Robert then hugged them both and asked, "So when are we leaving?" 

…..

David turned around and was surprised to know that the mirror Nameless broke was the exit to the cave of mirrors. He was astonished at this discovery and hurriedly ran outside before anyone else.

Sussan smiled at his enthusiasm and said, “If you have admired the outside world enough, why don’t you help us carry Brenda outside.”

“I am sorry… Right away,” David lifted Brenda and brought her out of the cave of mirrors.

Sussan and Nameless followed behind him and jumped out of the cave. Once they were outside, the mirror once again raised and a mud wall now covered the place where the mirror existed.

David placed Brenda on the ground and examined the place they had entered. There were a lot of paintings on the sides of the wall and a small light had been entering the place from the long stretch of the pathway in front of them.

“I will go ahead and check if it’s safe for us to leave or not. I don’t want us to get into trouble like the cave of mirrors once again,” David informed them and left.

Sussan looked at Nameless with a scrutinizing gaze and asked him, “Nameless, how did you find out which mirror you need to break to get out of there?”

Nameless sat next to his mother and held her hand. He then lifted his head and looked at Sussan.

“What are you hiding from us, Nameless? Your powers are immense and the ability you have shown until now is too exceptional. I am sure to use such a power, you must be losing a significant amount of time in your life,” Sussan said in a low voice and glanced at him with saddened eyes.

 When Sussan urged him to tell the truth, Nameless could not decide if telling her about his real powers would be good or not. Robert had always insisted to him that he had to hide his full power from anyone as it would create issues regarding his identity and people might try to use him for doing evil things.

His silence made Sussan slightly irritated. Even though the boy looked weak from the outside, he had shown immense strength when inside the cave of the mirrors. Nameless had broken those mirrors like it was nothing to him.

But when she and David tried to do the same thing, they couldn’t even scratch a little on the mirror. After realizing that even after so many pushes Nameless would not open his mouth to say anything to her, Sussan decided to let him be for the time being.

‘I would have to find another way to get him to tell the secrets he is hiding from us,’ She thought and walked near Brenda.

She kneeled in front of Brenda and said to Nameless, “Let go of your mother’s hand. I will wake her up now.”

Nameless didn’t want to let go of Brenda’s hand but then, since Sussan insisted, he unwillingly left his mother’s hand and moved a little away from them.

Sussan pulled out another potion from inside her infinite pouch and sprayed it all over Brenda. Then she continued to mumble a few magic words which woke Brenda from her unconscious state.

Brenda sat up straight and checked around her surroundings. She then asked in a shaky voice, “What happened? Where are the mirrors? Did we all get pulled into one of them?”

“No, Brenda. Relax! Nameless helped us all escape from the cave of mirrors,” Sussan said and patted her shoulders.

Still, Brenda could not believe that they were out of that horrible place. She scanned around them once again to confirm that there's no wall of mirrors near them.

“Why don’t we try to find an exit from this place as well? It gives me creeps by just thinking about those mirrors,” Brenda said and stood up from the ground.

She then pulled Nameless’s hands and started moving towards the place from where they came out from earlier. At that moment, David appeared from the entrance and suddenly pulled Nameless another hand which in turn made Brenda lose her footing and she fell on the ground. 

Before Brenda could react, David explained his action immediately to make sure that he did not upset her for the way he pulled Nameless’s hands. 

“That’s a hidden mirror where you are headed to. We had just come out of that place and I have no intention of entering the cave of the mirrors once again.” He informed her.

Even though Sussan found his action strange, she did not say anything to confront him for his behavior towards Brenda.