The next day the Aarav and Kiara along with their new dragon companion Shula moved ahead. Along the way, the dragon told them many stories. Slowly they loosen their guard against him. Although the almighty dragon can flick them into the blood pool, he wasn’t a bad companion. He was nothing like his appearance. He was talkative, a continuous chatterbox. Aarav considered him as a radio that cannot be switched off. Kiara seems to be enjoying the conversation. Well, who wouldn’t? A mighty being, who has lived, don’t know for how long, has many tales to tell.

When asked about his age, he said, ”My age. I don’t remember. I have lived almost for 5000 years in Taiba, which will be almost equal to 500 years in Elysium. Time moves so much differently in this world that it confuses even me. Anyway if you want to live longer, you can stay in Taiba.”

They have already stayed in Taiba for more than a month. It means few days passed in Elysium. Then what about Earth? How much time passed there? The longer they take to find a way back, the more uncertain their situation becomes. What if when they return, the place they want to return is no longer there. Wouldn’t that be a waste? Anyway, even there is tiny a chance they don’t want to ignore that possibility.

After two days when the injury of Shula’s arm almost healed, he turned into its dragon form and flew them to the temple town. After getting into the sky, he turned invisible along with the passengers. He got down near the entrance of the town and turned back into his human form and all three of them turned visible again.

His magic was amazing. It felt like a fairy tale.

“Genre changed all of a sudden. Earlier it was survival in the wild, now its fantasy,” Kiara whispered to Aarav with a chuckle.

“I would prefer modern if I’m living in it”

“True. Me too. This looks fun”

Temple town was a town with ten million population. Eight million of them were pilgrims and tourists. It was an open town where you don’t need any token to enter. The town’s gate was only visible. People were standing in queue for the security check. People were going through the gate and disappearing. They were entering the town that was not visible because it was in a pocket dimension.

Sanka village was also in a pocket dimension. One cannot enter it without having the village medallion. Most villages were like that. You would not know even if someone passed one.

The trio did not have any problem while going through the security check as they only check for weapons or harmful substances. They do not bother with identities, as most people who come are destitute or are robbed midway. The temple accepted everyone regardless of caste or creed. Many times fugitive gets in and live freely in the town. One such fugitive was with them.

On a wooden bulletin board, showing various posters of wanted men, was a poster of a black dragon. Shula stood in front of it and said, “I don’t look this ugly,”

“If we report you, we will be rich,” Kiara said while pointing the reward of 10000 gold coins on the poster.

“You will make an enemy out of a dragon for a mere gold”

“You are strong. I believe you can beat them to dust. Think about it. It’s a win-win situation. We will get money. You can have fun toying those city guards”

Shula opened his eyes wider and pointed to Aarav.

“You should stay away from my innocent little girl. You are corrupting her”

“What did I even do”.

Aarav was baffled. He was being blamed for something he had nothing to do with. The idea wasn't bad. Shula was fugitive. If he gets caught, they will be doing a favour to the world. But taking in the fact that he was their benefactor, they will be wrong. Now they desperately needed money. And as Kiara said, he was damn too strong. The people who managed to injure him were superhumans. They were entirely different species of humans. They evolved from homo sapiens and became more resilient and more powerful. The people of Taiba are ancient humans. They are physically strong and have magic powers. According to Shula, the Earthlings were in between ancient humans and superhumans. They are neither physically strong nor have magic. They are in the junction because they can evolve into superhumans but they can’t regress to being ancient humans. In short, they were useless. They had a lot of potentials. For now, they are empty shells.

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They moved further in the bustling town. There were a lot of stalls, shops, restaurants. It was a busy town. And everything was expensive. They looked for a cheap inn where they can rest. After a month in the wilderness, they were desperate for a shower and clean bed to sleep.

Aarav went to messenger office from where he could send message to Sanka. It was over a month. Rest of their companions must have been worried about them. They had placed their hope on them. He had to tell them they were alive and will go to Caito soon. And also he had to warn them that they cannot reveal that they were from Earth. Shula had informed them what trouble their identity could spur for them. Earth does not exist in this world. They were from a different dimension. And the way they got teleported was not known even to them. They will only turn into lab rats if their information gets into wrong hands. They looked similar to humans of this world but they were an entirely different species.

After learning all of this he was getting suspicious of the Sanka villagers. They have a vast knowledge of the human body and medicine. And they know they were a different species. There was a lot of information they hid from them. First was the channel of communication. Why did not they think about it before? Even in ancient days, people communicated via pigeons and birds. That was lack of foresight in his part. Whether it was from desperation or tiredness or he just wanted to hang on the thread of hope they suddenly found. He could only hope for their well being and hope his letter reaches them.

The next morning they went to pray to the temple. Aarav was atheist. He was only going for sightseeing.

After crossing a myriad of shops and stalls, they saw a large golden cathedral. It was shaped like a cathedral without a Cross at the top. It had a white flag on the top.

The whole cathedral was magnificent making it the fourth richest temple in the entire galaxy. What hypocrisy. Taiba was the poorest planet but had one of the richest temples in the galaxy.

Aarav was checking his money pouch, thinking how much he was going to lose in this sightseeing. They were going to join the queue to get into the temple when Shula stopped them and guided them to the back of the temple.

“That is a fake temple to fool people. The real temple is not open for ordinary people.”

“You are saying millions of people that have come here are being scammed. What is a real temple anyway? It’s not like a real god is sitting there”

“That’s true. You will know when you see it”

Shula took them further ahead. They passed through a garden path. It was a beautiful garden with many beautiful flowers on it. As they moved ahead, very few people were there. There was a gate made out of two trees. It looked like it was made naturally without any interference of humans. People dressed in priest robe moved through the gate.

Shula stopped and turned to them.

“Only the worthy can enter through the gate. It will depend on your luck. I am going in”

While saying that Shula went inside the gate and vanished. Aarav and Kiara followed the cue went in. As they passed through it they felt a soothing sensation. A warm feeling encompassed them, it was like they went back to a mother’s womb.

Not only there was a warm sensation but they could feel the air nourishing their soul. Few people were sitting in a meditation position.

The place felt like heaven. It was the garden of Eden. Beautiful and surreal. Beautiful trees and plants. Small and furry animals moved around everywhere.

There was a white tree in the middle of the garden which had an otherworldly charm. It was elegant and aloof. Its trunk and branches were all silver and its leaves were all white. If you set your eyes once on it, you would not be able to take it away. It was charming and elegant like a goddess.

Being in that place was shattering Aarav’s belief. He felt if god truly existed then it's in front of his eyes right now. He could not help but deeply bowed in front of the deity.

Kiara was entranced by the scene. She felt deeply attached to the place. She was brought back to senses after Shula waved his hands in front of her face. They spent some time in the garden, without talking, they spend their time in the garden in deep contemplation.

Hilidingira- the grace of goddess … That was what the tree was called.

They went back to the inn to rest for the night. Because of their limited budget, they took a room with three beds. The facilities were not great but they could manage.

Aarav was thinking about his life. What he has been doing all this time. He felt after going to the temple, that he could let go of all his regrets and dissatisfactions. He was deep in his thoughts when he realized Kiara was not in the room nor the washroom. He saw the doors slightly opened. He got down the bed and got out of the room. He caught the silhouette of Kiara in the corridor.

“Kiara”

“…”

He called out to her but she didn’t respond. She moved ahead. He hurriedly followed her. She got down the stairs.

“Kiara. Where are you going? Hey!”

He called her many times but Kiaraa just moved ahead without responding.

“Is she sleepwalking?”

Aarav decided to follow her for the time being. As he knew it was not good to forcibly awake sleepwalkers. He didn’t want to give her a shock.

Kiara kept walking.

She moved past the various closed shops, trudged throughout the road.

She was walking towards the mystical garden.

She entered the garden in her sleep. Aarav having no choice just followed her.

She went towards the mystical tree. She got closer to the tree. Aarav was shrouded by a sense of nervousness when he saw Kiara approaching the tree. He felt fear. He felt he was going to lose something. His heart beats fastened. He called out

“Kiara. Stop”

Kiara's already raised hands, were now touching the tree. As soon as she touched it, tiny and shiny white particles from the tree-shrouded her. Aarav ran towards her but got blinded by the increasing glow from the tree. He covered his eyes and moved back.

Kiara was engulfed in the dazzling white light. More and more tiny white particles flew towards her like a tornado and she was in the eye of it.