A big sized eagle flew over a huge waterfall, scaling up its height, it flew up higher into the clouds. On top of it were Aarav, Kiara and village merchant. Aarav's face was ecstatic as they were upon the clouds. The scene was ethereal. Kiara, on the other hand, had squeezed her eyes as soon as garud had flapped its wings. She was too terrified to look down.
"What? Are you scared", Aarav laughed at Kiara's timid behaviour.
" You are not going to keep your eyes closed the whole way, are you?", Aarav further added.
"I….im fffffine, don't bother me", Kiara stuttered as she responded. " it's alright you won't fall. Don't look down then. Look around. You are going to miss it. It is really amazing. It feels like we are in heaven"
Kiara peeked slightly with one of her eyes. She slowly opened her eyes. What met her eyes was heavenly. They were flying among the clouds. She could feel the wind passing through her. She felt the cool wind touching her face, filling up her lungs. It filled her with ecstasy. She somehow got the courage to look down.
The island they were in, looked tiny, yet so beautiful. It was covered in a lush green forest and huge waterfall that was in the middle. It felt like heaven. A place where gods would live.
As they move ahead, there was another land. It was much bigger, with no end visible. It was the continent that Sanka was part of.
They could see a few human settlements along the sea coast. Many villages, small and big appeared in their sight. They looked like normal villages on earth, but with no electricity. It is not like they need it. They get sunlight all round the year and at times the plants illuminate. And for most of the work, they use magic or magic crystals. These magic crystals were quite costly, the natives used them sparingly.
After some hours of flying, they decided to rest. The garud flew down near a gorge. Nearby there were beautiful flower beds, making the scene mesmerizing. When they had first arrived on this planet, they didn't notice the beauty of this place. Living all their lives in a concrete jungle, this Jaiti planet felt like heaven to them. It was hard for such a place to exist on earth. Ironically, the civilisation in this place had existed at least twice as old as the earth. The calendar year here was 20345.
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Well, it's either development or nature. Kiara had been thinking about all this while soaking her legs in the water in the nearby gorge.
Aarav was, meanwhile, picking flowers! He had read or seen pictures of some valuable herbs. He felt them to similar. He was thinking about selling these herbs after reaching the city.
"What are you doing?"
"Picking herbs, this looks useful"
"It's just grass"
"…"
"Well whatever, I thought maybe we could get some money, we are dirt poor", Aarav had a difficult expression.
" I know, we have only a few coins with us. Not just we are poor, we are illiterate. I don't think I would even get a house-cleaning job", Kiara sighed.
"So true. Hm. Business. Maybe we could do any business. Let's ask Modong about the market situation here"
Aarav went back towards the garud to look for Modong.
"Hey, what're you doing?", asked Aarav as he caught Modong, the village merchant shuffling through his back.
Modong was caught off-guard, he dropped the bag, as he heard him. He was grabbing an amber locket, the same locket which he was supposed to deliver to Janhvi's friend. Modong panicked and jumped on to garud, ready to fly away. Aarav tried to take away the locket. He grabbed on to Modong's leg, but he was shaken off as the garud flapped its wing and flew away.
" F@#$", Aarav swore as loudly as he could. He was just robbed and worse abandoned in an unknown place.
"Back to square one", Kiara spoke from behind Aarav. She had a frustrated look.
Seriously, how bad their luck can be. Well, at least they know jewellery could be of value. However, they had no idea what they lost was their only ticket back home.
Frustrated, they moved ahead, they were hoping to find a way to a nearby village. Things were going smoothly. Now they can only facepalm. How could they be careless with their belongings?
After, walking some distance, they were having a headache. Before them, was two paths. They had no idea which would take them where. " Take your pick", Kiara started mumbling something while pointing towards both the way.
"So, we're leaving it to luck"
"What do you suggest then, Mr Soldier"
He could clearly hear the taunt, not only he got robbed but they were lost too. He was human too. He can have bad days too.
"Fine, let's take the right one"
They moved ahead taking the right path. The next day, they came across a group of people. They were pilgrims. They were going to the Jaiti village where the temple of hilidingira was.
Hilidingira in Sumerian language meant the grace of God. They believe that all their wishes would come true after praying in that temple.
The pilgrims were happy to let them join their group. They saw that they were in clothes of Healer tribe of Sanka. According to a legend, the healer tribes or those affiliated to them never get attacked by the wild animals of that jungle. So, they won't have to worry about any animal attacks until they reach Jaiti village.