It was night.

Rozy watched as the walls around the castle grew higher and higher, curving in the process and ultimately met at the top forming a dome. They could no longer see whatever was going on in the castle grounds.

After they had reached the heavens using the great bamboo, they had moved in a random direction and found the castle after wandering about the heavens for a couple of hours. Once while moving through the mist, Dani had spoken of seeing the silhouette of a humanoid shape with a very large head and she had fired an arrow and the shape had disappeared.

Ian had said that the castle could only belong to gods, perhaps those of the barbaric realm and they had decided to approach it and take a look.

Rozy herself had climbed one of the walls and right away she had seen the giant rabbit that could only be Rabbi, digging a hole in the solid clouds, the evil sorcerer Mintuk standing near him and observing him. Rabbi had gone on to dig many holes. Rozy had wanted to run to him, as did Lia, Dani and Slia, but Ian had warned them that doing so might end up being a terrible decision. Mintuk was there. And within Rabbi, there was Mintuk’s father Xoris.

So they had just observed Rabbi. If only Rabbi had turned his head in the direction where they had climbed the wall he would have spotted them. Rabbi had also by sheer magic created ten humanoid forms of electricity that bore a striking resemblance to his human form. These electricity beings had come towards the gate and Rozy and the other wives had climbed down from the wall, not wanting to be seen by the electricity beings.

“I think they are preparing for some kind of battle,” Ian said, looking up at the dome. “Why else would they create a dome around the castle and create concealed holes all about the castle grounds?”

“But we are in the heavens,” Slia said, “the gods live in the heavens. Who would even attack Rabbi?”

Ian shrugged.

“The gods perhaps?”

“But why?” Lia asked.

“Xoris was making Rabbi dig all the holes in the castle grounds, I doubt they were doing that with permission from the original owners of the castle,” Ian said. “The castle owners could only be gods and if they have taken the castle from the gods then the friends of the gods would be coming to fix things. The friends of gods could only be other gods.”

“But we cannot let Rabbi be involved in a battle with the gods, can we?” Slia said. “I am sure he doesn’t even want to be in such a battle!”

“We’ll have to get inside the castle grounds,” Rozy said. “We’ll have to take Rabbi away from here.”

“We will have to go inside that is for sure,” Ian said, pulling his beard, “but the question is what will we do once we go in?”

“We will have to deal with those beings of electricity,” Lia said.

“And Mintuk as well,” Rozy said.

“But do you have the skills to deal with the electricity beings or Mintuk?” Ian asked.

That question felt like a slap on Rozy’s face. Rozy and the others had successfully worked together as a team and they had been able to chase away the Bamboo Eaters, which had turned out to be giant pig-like monsters with beaks. They had all gained better versions of their abilities. Rozy had seen how powerful Slia could be when she had exploded into flames when Dani was about to be trampled by the hooves of one of the Bamboo Eaters. Ian had accidentally dropped his rusty sword earlier and Slia’s explosion had shot the sword into the head of one of the Bamboo Eaters, killing it on the spot. This had scared the Bamboo Eaters and they had fled.

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After levelling up, Rozy could now create stronger and longer chains. All the same Rozy was well aware of Mintuk’s powers. Rozy had faced his powers and knew that they could never win against him. She recalled how Mintuk had kidnapped her. Rozy had been alone only for a moment and she had heard a chuckle. She had turned around and seen the villainous sorcerer, ready to shoot a dart at her. The moment she had been hit by the dart, everything went black. When Rozy next opened her eyes, she found herself tied by chains.

“We do not,” Rozy said presently. She met Ian’s eyes. “But we cannot abandon Rabbi just because of that, can we?”

“Even if we die in the process of saving Rabbi, I am okay with that,” Lia said.

“We’ll go in,” Slia said to Ian, “but we understand if you do not accompany us.”

Ian looked away, as though considering whether saving Rabbi was really worth dying. Rozy was well aware that what she and the other wives were saying to Ian sounded near suicidal. Then Ian let out a sombre laugh, shaking his head.

“I would still be in the temple lost in fake ecstasy if not for Rabbi,” he said. “I guess regardless of whatever happens, we all must go inside the dome.”

They entered the dome. They took each step with extreme care. Inside the entrance they were surprised to find that two of the electricity beings that looked very much like Rabbi were stationed as guards … except they were sleeping.

“Are they growing in size?” Lia asked, frowning hard at the sleeping beings of pure electricity.

“They are,” Ian said, “at a very slow rate… but they are growing in size.”

“What’s the point of having guards at the entrance if they fall asleep?” Rozy said, though she was happy they were sleeping. They could have never been able to deal with the electricity beings. In fact, luck couldn’t have been kinder to them.

“Maybe Xoris was given an exact time of attack?” Ian said, “So he decided that the guards could sleep and grow until then.”

They kept moving. It was dark and they were wary of the fact that there were holes dug into the solid clouds all about the place. If they stepped over any of the concealed holes then they would fall straight down to earth to their deaths. As such all of them moved at some distance from each other, such that no particular area was subjected to their combined weight at the same time. They saw other electricity beings in the castle grounds, but these ones were also asleep.

There was a dim light coming from the castle. Rozy realised that the massive castle door was open. Their group began to move towards the castle, when Ian hissed, pointing at a different direction.

“Look!”

In the distance, at the base of a large cloud tree, a person was sitting inside a circle that he had made on the solid cloud below him. The circle was glowing red and the person seemed to be repeating words under his breath.

“That’s the evil Mintuk!” Rozy found herself saying. Curious as to what he was doing, their group moved towards him softly so as not to alert him. They stopped some metres behind him. Rozy saw that there were several intricate patterns inside the circle that Mintuk had made. Mintuk had also created certain symbols on the trunk of the tree which were glowing red as well. Mintuk’s back was turned to them. Rozy abruptly realised what Mintuk was doing.

“He’s performing a ritual,” Rozy said.

“Ritual?” Lia asked.

“I think to acquire a spell or something like that,” Rozy said. When Rozy had been in the Lazaki fort, she would see Mintuk everyday creating a large circle inside which he would sit and repeat things under his breath. Nobody was allowed to come to the fort when he was doing that. At the end of each such ritual Mintuk would smile at Rozy in his villainous way and say that he was just preparing himself for the main ritual in which she would be sacrificed. Thankfully, Mintuk had never been able to perform the main ritual.

The ritual that Mintuk was performing right now seemed to be some kind of a smaller ritual as the circle was small. He was repeating something about merging things with himself.

All the tortures that Rozy had had to face under Mintuk repeated in her mind’s eye. She took a step forward. Mintuk was unprepared. This was her chance to take her revenge. She turned her hands into iron chains.

Lia saw this and caught her arm.

“I know you want to deal with him, but can you do so after we find Rabbi?” she said with imploring eyes. Rozy gritted her teeth and looked towards Mintuk. What if he escaped her chains somehow? He would make it difficult for them to take Rabbi away from this place. It would be best if they found Rabbi when Mintuk was busy and distracted with his ritual. It took Rozy much effort to swallow her anger and to turn her hands back into normal ones.

The castle door was open, and there was every possibility that Rabbi was inside it.

“Let’s go to the castle,” she said. Their group moved away from Mintuk and towards the castle. Rozy couldn’t help but let out a gasp upon reaching the door, for Rabbi was sleeping on the floor of the main hall of the castle in his monster rabbit form.

***