chapter 11-new friends!

When our eyes met, I felt a curious but lovely sensation that reminded me of flying. This moment lasted only for a second but while it lasted it was wonderful. Now I knew That this dragon would not harm me. In that moment I learnt everything about her. True, I had read about this phenomenon in many books  but experiencing it first hand was a whole knew thing. I had bonded! Now I know that most of you don't know what bonding is. So here is a brief explanation. Bonding is a phenomena wherein a human feels an instant connection towards some creature.This can happen between any human and animal. The animal needn't  be a mythical creature but the human has to believe in magic for it to occur. Animals already know about magic. So anyways that happened to me and I was on cloud nine. Now we could read each others thoughts.

I asked her why she had attacked Aisha and she said that she hated intruders. While this went on Aisha was looking up at Emilda{For that is my dragon's name) and me in an expression which was a mixture of fear and awe. After chatting with my bonded animal telepathically. I got off and explained everything to Aisha.
She just nodded her head but I knew that she hadn't understood a thing by the dazed expression on her face.

My friends had joined us by the time I had finished explaining everything to a dazed Aisha. As soon as I saw them come into the clearing. I decided to leave A

Chapter 10-An express visit to the 7th floor

Dorothy

Ah! it felt so good to finally share my secret with my bffs. In a way This invasion wasn't all bad. Just look at the good the  that came of it. I made a new friend, I got to meet Luna Lovegood and her husband Rolf Scamander, we resolved our fights, we bonded and the last but the best I finally got to share my secret with my bffs.

I now truly believe in the saying 'every cloud has a silver lining'. 

So anyways I was leading them through the forest to my aunt's palace and regaling them with tales of my mini adventures in this forest when I was distracted mid sentence by my aunt who was at the gate. I hadn't even realised that I had reached her palace! None of us had. My aunt had  been waiting for the past five minutes for me to stop talking .as soon as I stopped talking,My aunt started. While  she talked we followed her into the castle. 

Once inside she told my friends to sit in the lounge and asked me to follow her,I immediately obliged. 

"Where are we going?" I asked  "the library,I  think I found some info on the sous aliens." Aunt said. By this time we had reached the library. We walked to the elevator and got in. My aunt clicked on the button which read 7th floor. I was excited. 

Never before had I been allowed to visit that particular floor! not that I hadn't tried,but the security was very strong. So anyways we reached the 7th floor and my aunt just walked in. I followed but was stopped by a troll. The troll said " You cannot enter Dorothy, if you try to force your way in I will curse you."  I said " aunt Lena gave me permission, go ask her."  but  Teeta (the troll) did not budge. Not until my aunt came out and said " Let her in Teeta." .   Once inside my aunt said " Now Dorothy stay close to me. This floor does not only house books you know." I nodded my head in assent  and continued following her.

The 7th floor had  7 rooms.  three on either side of the passageway and one at the very end. 

here's the floor plan for your understanding

My aunt took me to the room at the far end (the maroon area). On the way I tried peeking into the rooms but was stopped by my aunt . She said  " You do not want to look into any of these rooms.  The things you see will disgust you."  but when I did not give up,she  blind folded me using  a neat spell. My aunt was the only forest spirit that could cast spells. Her predecessors could only manipulate the elements of nature like wind,water and fire.  So anyways I was blindfolded all the way to the room at the far end, which was the library of this floor. Once I reached there  she removed the blindfold and  took me to the sitting area. " Now Dorothy wait for me right here." said my aunt, "Ok " I said and waited there patiently. 

My aunt came after 5 minutes and sat next to me. " after you told me about the sous aliens, I came here to find a book about them and thankfully found one. "  As she said this she  flipped through the book " Ok here it is : Satus Reptus or as most people know them  Sous aliens are one of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy. They once lived on Earth but were driven out by humans.  They now live on Pluto and  are the only surviving creatures who possess the  famous book called 'Repto  canis familiaris'. This book when in the hands of  evil causes destruction. This book has helped the sous aliens to develop 'the gidget' . This gadget manipulates memories and establishes mind control. "   said aunt Lena, I looked at her expecting more but when she didn't answer I said " How will this info help us ?"  " It helps a lot. Now the only thing you have to do is find this book.  Once you do, you can find a way to destroy the gidget "  said my aunt " if we destroy this gidget will their control break?"  I asked  " Yes, it will. Now lets go back down and join your friends." said my aunt .  On the way out I was blindfolded once again. Once we left the 7th floor, she removed my blindfold and we walked down together. 

When we reached the lounge,we saw my friends being served drinks by our waiters who were pixies.  I sat next to Shreedha and  took a glass too.  " Yummy! What do you call this drink ?" asked shreedha  " Tis is called  'desirus'. It tastes different to each person." said my aunt "Wow!" exclaimed Aruni  "Wow indeed, now lets get down to business. Do any of you know when you were capped?"  asked my aunt "  two or three nights before,I think." I said  " Good, That means you have a lot of time ." said my aunt mysteriously "Dorothy I would like you to accompany once more?" said my aunt, I  looked longingly at my drink but got up to leave anyways. As soon as I started walking I heard a scream. A scream that sounded uncomfortably like Aisha's, I looked around  hoping to see her safe and sound having a drink with us. When I didn't see her my heart sank, I asked my friends if they had seen Aisha but they shook their heads . It was my aunt who said that she had seen Aisha walking towards the pink forest. Even though I had proof  it took a
 long time for that fact to sink in but when it did I immediately sprang into action.  I ran and ran faster than the wind towards the pink forest ,hoping and hoping that the dragon hadn't got to her before me but when I reached there I saw the dragon getting ready to burn Aisha , who was crouched low and seemed to be protecting something. The next thing I did was both stupid and brave.  

In panicked mode I wasn't able to think properly so I did something stupid but brave. I jumped onto the beasts back and managed to direct it's head elsewhere. Instead of burning Aisha it burnt a few flowers instead. I was relieved  and let go of  it. Now it turned it's head towards me. It obviously wanted to attack me. I had lost all of  my strength now and waited for that fatal blast but just as it was going to burn me I opened my eyes hoping to have a last look at my surroundings before my certain death. Thats when  our eyes met!

chapter 9- My first visit

Aisha

We reached the enchanted forest in just 5 minutes but to get there fast we had to endure a very disorienting journey.  All of us were ruffled, all except Rolf, Luna and of course Dorothy. I figured Dorothy had travelled this way many times, hence the feeling of pure pleasure. This way must have been very similar to floo powder and Thus Rolf and Luna weren’t frazzled.  So anyways we reached the enchanted forest and saw a very happy and excited Dorothy. I laughed remembering the only other time we had seen her like this. That time was way back in 1^st grade and our moms were taking us on a surprise trip to fantasy land to celebrate Shreedha’s bday. Everyone in the group except Shreedha knew of this plan and Dorothy was the most excited among us. She couldn’t keep quiet and finally told Shreedha all about this trip and ruined the surprise. After that she cried a lot because she never liked ruining surprises. We were furious at her and didn’t attempt to console her. Shreedha took initiative and went over. She wasn’t upset in the least. Typical Shreedha!

 As soon as I remembered this a dozen other memories came. I was so happy. I was normal again! Though I hadn’t told Dorothy this but I overheard her conversation with Rolf back at his shop. So anyways Dorothy was excited and was leading us.  We were following her and listening to her narrate her adventures in this forest with her aunt and dad. To tell you the truth, I was a little envious of Dorothy. I mean who wouldn’t, that girl had an aunt who was the queen of a magical forest!

Ok back to the story, Were, was I? Ok got it.

So, we were following Dorothy who was leading us and telling us about her adventures in this forest when we neared a clearing. On the right side of the clearing there were those same green trees which we saw throughout the path, but on the left, there were baby pink trees. I was fascinated by those trees and felt my legs unwillingly moving to that part of the forest, even though I knew it was dangerous. Dorothy had warned us about this as soon as we had entered the forest, but the meadow was so appealing. I finally gave in and went in. This part was by far the strangest part of the forest. The deeper one went, the darker the color pink became. Finally, I reached the end of this pink expanse, when I felt a small furry creature bump into my leg. I quickly looked down getting ready to scream but the scream never came. It was no scary vicious creature that bumped into me but the cutest one ever. It was a ‘koalanda’ (I named it myself). What is a koalanda you ask. Well it’s a small koala which is black with white polka dots. It was attacking me. “Who are you little one?” I asked that creature making it look up at me. As soon as our eyes met, I felt a bolt of electricity pass through me followed by a floaty feeling. It was like an invisible connection was binding us together. After this the moment finally ended and it spoke. I wasn’t surprised, cause no normal koala was black with white spots and violet eyes. It said “Hi, I am Pandora and we’ve got to get out of here!” “Why?” I asked “Because you have entered the pink dragon’s land.” Said Pandora “Ok let’s go.”  I said but just as I turned to leave, I saw it. So did Pandora and we both screamed together and ran, faster than the wind but then Pandora fell and I turned back to help her. That was what that dragon was waiting for and finally she fired. I jumped on Pandora and tried to shield her.        

chapter 8-The solution

All night I thought about a solution but to no avail, I finally decided to quit and get some sleep. When I woke up in the morning, I was all set with a plan and all. After getting ready, I went back to my room and took out my notepad. There I scribbled in a bunch of numbers and symbols and then copied the numbers and symbols onto five identical sheets. I was all set.

I directly went to school; Thankfully Aisha was the first at the gate. I gave her the piece of paper, I observed her carefully looking for any signs of recognition and thankfully she remembered. The piece of paper actually held a friendship code one which Ania, Aruni, Shreedha, Aisha and me had made long back in 4^th grade. I had written the following message: Send a telepathic message to Shreedha, Aruni and Ania to meet me tonight at my house. You come too, tell Rolf and Luna too. Do not tell Daphne.

she nodded her head. Just then Daphne came. Thankfully she came after our conversation and was clueless. Our first lesson was arms and ammunitions. We learnt about the different types of weapons.  Lessons here were like no other lessons I had ever attended. Though I hated to admit it I actually enjoyed them. But telling you about it will only waste time so let’s skip them. So fast forward to…. after school got out. So, after school got out, we went for our customary visit to Rolf’s. It seemed that they already knew about our plans. This was confirmed when Shreedha winked at me.

That night I impatiently waited for them, eager to move on. Finally, after what seemed like an hour, I heard our doorbell ring. My mom went out to answer it. I heard a few moments of discussion and then finally she let them in. When they came to my room, I asked them “What did you say to my mom?”  Aruni answered “We told her that we were your classmates and Rolf here was one of your professors who wanted to give us group tuitions. Now hurry we’ve got to head back to Rolf’s.” “okay, just wait one moment.” I said and took my pink shiny backpack which contained my magic diary, water bottle and adventure treats. “Let’s go.” I rushed downstairs and said “Bye mom.” “Okay sweetie you take care now.” I shot a thumbs up at her in answer. After that Aruni, Ania, Aisha, I and Rolf got into Rolf’s car.

It was a five-minute ride to Rolf’s, once there we immediately settled into a couch each and I told them “Lets go.” “Where?” asked Aisha “over to my aunts of course.” I said “How will your aunt protect us?” asked Shreedha “Just trust me okay.” I said and launched into the spell that would transport me there. After a few minutes I felt that familiar sensation and knew that I had succeeded.

Hey readers,

Hope you enjoyed this chapter; the next chapter will be from Aisha’s point of view.

Chapter 7- A solution and a new problem

After academy got out Aisha, Daphne and I Went over to Rolf’s to check on Aruni, Ania and Shreedha again. They were quite happy and I noticed that slowly Shreedha, Ania and Aruni were recovering. Shreedha was getting her sense of humor back, Aruni had thrown her Sudha Murty hater bag in the dustbin and Ania was no longer the nerd, but they hadn’t recovered completely yet. Shreedha was still a bit serious and her jokes were lame, while Aruni wasn’t crazy about Sudha Murty like her original self and Ania still loved reading story books. I now trusted them. I asked Rolf “How are they getting back to their old selves so quickly?” “They weren’t implanted with the permanent chit yet and the magic around here is slowly clearing their heads. If they were implanted with the permanent chips, they would never ever have recovered.” Said Rolf.  “Will they ever snap?” I asked Rolf again “Yes, there are still chances that they will default to the bad side. They need more magic to recover, more than is there in my little shop.” I let out a sigh of relief. “The secret place I will take them to has a lot of magic.” I said “Where is this place by the way?” asked Rolf “Can’t tell you before my friends. Will Aisha be okay?” I said “Only if she stays here which isn’t possible, the longer she stays in the academy the more under their control will she be.” I was scared, I had to take her  there. I was interrupted by Luna coming in with a plate of cookies.

That night as soon as my mom was asleep, I took my diary out and sent a message to my aunt Lena. Yes, I sent a message all the way to Pennisota through my diary for it wasn’t an ordinary diary. It was magic. My aunt Lena lived in the forest near Pennisota. Everybody in Pennisota had separated the forest into two parts the illegal portion- The dark forest and the legal portion-The moon forest. Little did those Pennisota people know that the dark forest and the moon forest was one forest and that it was inhabited by fairies and all kinds of mythical creatures. My aunt Lena so happened to be the queen spirit of the forest and the queen of fair folk. I and my dad Ajay were the only one who knew about this. So anyway, I sent a message to my aunt through my diary and she promptly answered inviting me to come to visit her. I immediately obliged and said the spell to transport me to the forest. I reached in a few minutes and headed to my aunt’s castle. My aunt was waiting at the gates. I loved my aunt dearly. Whenever I visited her, she told me stories about her adventures before she became queen spirit, but today I had no time and couldn’t listen to her wonderful stories. My aunt sensed that and took me to the castle library. As soon as I entered, we made a beeline to the elevator that took us to the 10^th floor of the library. After we were seated comfortably my aunt asked me “What is wrong Dorothy? Are you worried about your dad? If so, don’t worry he Is safe.” “No Aunty, I am not worried about dad. I came here to seek your assistance.” I said “Okay go on.” Prompted my aunt. Without wasting a second, I launched into my tale. I told her everything from the fight to the Sous aliens attack and so on. When I was done, I was out of breath and frustrated to see that my aunt wasn’t perturbed in the least. “She waited for a moment and then said “You can bring all your friends except Daphne. You can even bring Rolf and Luna.” “but why can’t I bring Daphne?” I asked “because I don’t like her name and her attitude. I can’t handle overly excited people.” Said my aunt. I rolled my eyes at her; my aunt could be very picky sometimes. My aunt was very stubborn, so I had no choice but to listen to her.  After another hour of conversation about topics ranging from my father’s latest mission to the latest gossip among the fair folk. After the conversation I felt at peace. After the conversation, I bid farewell to my aunt and went back home the same way I had come. Now there was a new problem. How do I take my friends to the forest without Daphne’s knowledge?

chapter 6- The escape

Hi, good to see you all again. So glad you came. Now enough of small talk, lets continue with my journey. So……Where was I?  Ok got it. So, as I said time had stopped, and I looked around for the person who stopped time and to my surprise it was Aisha. I never expected Aisha to do this, especially after that awkward conversation but nevertheless I was happy. I walked up to her and asked her “Why did you do that?”   she turned to me and said “Dorothy, I am so so sorry for being rude to you. “and then hugged me, I hugged her back. “Okay, enough of sentimental things. Now we’ve got to save Shreedha.”  Said Aisha “We will, but first why don’t you unfreeze the rest of our friends, including my new friend Daphne.” I said “Ok, I will unfreeze Daphne but how do you know that the rest of our friends are normal again.” Said   Aisha, “Just trust me ok.”   I said. “Ok.” After saying this she unfroze them and I heard Aruni and Ania scream “Shreedha!”. They were back!   As soon as they unfroze, I took charge. “Aruni find a convenient place to escape from, Ania Take the gun away from Shreedha, Aisha hold the charm.”  Aruni and Ania did try to interrupt but understood once, they heard the tone of my voice.  After that I turned to Daphne and said, “Once Aisha unfreezes Shreedha check for injuries.”  Daphne nodded her head and joined Ania.  I went to help Aruni. After we were all set, we congregated in the hall once again. Shreedha was okay but positively shaken. I had to take charge once again. “Here’s the plan girls, Aruni and Ania will take Shreedha through the tunnel in the games room, can you stop time till then?” I asked Aisha “Yes.” Said Aisha, “Good, so once Aruni, Ania and Shreedha are out, they will telepathically send a message to Aisha, Aisha will then unfreeze everybody. After that the sous aliens will call a search for Shreedha and Aisha, Daphne and me will go in different directions but leading to the ice cream shop, where Aruni, Ania and Shreedha will be waiting invisible courtesy of Ania’s powers. Is the plan clear?” I asked everybody “Yes, but what will we tell Newt?” asked Shreedha who was sitting up now, “Don’t worry Daphne tells me that Rolf is not capped.”  I said “okay.” Said Shreedha doubtfully. I wasn’t worried, I trusted Daphne. As soon as This conversation got over Aruni and Ania left with Shreedha. After a few minutes Aisha unfroze everybody.  It took a few minutes before the headmaster understood Shreedha was missing. He immediately called a search and Daphne and me volunteered to search the food shops. As expected, they chose Aisha to assist us because of her power to read minds and manipulate minds, Aisha made a show of rolling her eyes and getting angry to be in my team. It was lucky that Aisha was the only one who had that power. We went outside the academy and made a show of questioning all the shop owners, until we finally reached the ice cream shop. Now the challenge started. We had to meet the girls without letting the sous aliens know Shreedha’s whereabouts. But we shouldn’t have worried because Rolf was every bit as smart as Daphne told me during our search. He had hidden Shreedha in a box upon which he had put an expansion spell. He was the only person to have powers without being capped.

“Daphne don’t worry Shreedha is safe.” “Thank you so much Rolf for assisting us.”  Said Daphne “My pleasure, but she won’t be safe for long here. Ever since my grandad made a time machine and used it, sous aliens have come to check my shop to ensure that I am not up to any shenanigans. It has really affected my wife Luna.”

Yep you heard it right Rolf Scamander and Luna Lovegood for the Potter heads.  His grandfather if you remember is the one who made the headlines, the night after the attack. So, anyways I was worried about Shreedha, but then it struck me. The perfect place to hide Shreedha.

“Don’t worry, I know the perfect place to hide our friend, but It will take time.”  I said “Where?”  asked Aruni. “All in good time Aruni, all in good time.” I told Aruni. After this conversation. Me, Daphne and Aisha walked out of the shop and headed towards the academy. We decided to leave Aruni and Ania at Rolf’s with Shreedha because if we suddenly arrived with those girls, it would arouse suspicion.  Daphne and Aisha pestered me with question, trying to get an answer but I didn’t answer. Finally, they gave up. I felt bad hiding the secret from my friends, but I couldn’t tell them not just yet. Heck They were still capped, they were still under the sous alien’s control. They must have fought it now, but I didn’t know when they would snap. Daphne was an exception but Aruni, Aisha, Shreedha and Ania were my first friends and it was my duty to tell them before anybody else.

chapter 5- The game

Have you ever played a game called chor police? Well I have.  Let’s take the no. of players to be 10. Here’s how the game goes, since there are 10 -people we will make 10 chits. Out of the ten chits, 4 chits will be special chits containing the police, the king, the queen and the murderer. The person who gets the police chit has to find the murderer before he or she kills the king. While the police try to find the murderer, the murderer tries to find the king.  When he does the murderer calls out the name of the king. If it is really the king, the detective is expelled from the game. If the murderer gets the wrong person, he is expelled from the game. If the police gets the wrong person, he too is expelled from the game. The queen has the right to stop the expulsion of any player.  The rest of the chits are blank. Chor is thief in Hindi, Thus the name. Now these aliens followed a similar method to expel the people, But without the chits of the queen and king. They just contained chits of the thief and the police. The police had to find the thief. If the person failed after three chances, he was terminated, literally. This was no game but a matter of life and death. If you failed you were told to kill yourself, but if you refused, they did it themselves. So said our headmaster during his speech, but before the speech there was a whole lot of drama, which I will tell you about in a moment.

This drama happened just as soon as I had finished meeting my friends Ania, Shreedha and Aruni.

 Here’s what happened: I had just seen Aruni’s bag and after seeing it I felt discouraged to approach her and went back to Daphne. There I filled her in and she pushed me no more. Just as I finished filling her in, I heard a high-pitched scream. Me and Daphne turned towards the source abruptly and saw a fair girl, about our age   screaming and struggling “No, I will not get capped.”. I looked fearfully at Daphne but to my surprise she wasn’t scared, in fact far from it. She was as cool as a cucumber. “Don’t worry Dorothy, come with me to the washroom. I will give you a fake cap. That will fool those foolish sous aliens.”  By now I trusted her and asked our supervisor whether I could use the washroom. He showed me the way, after sometime Daphne followed me. Once we were in the bathroom, she gave me a pink colored cap which was very similar to the ones the sous aliens shot. I immediately wore it and went to join the rest of the explorers. After I had reached my camp mates, Daphne came out.  After this our headmaster David gave us the speech I mentioned earlier and then the games started.  The games were conducted by sous aliens. Now I want to make this clear that sous aliens aren’t your ordinary aliens with antenna and all but far from it.  They looked just like us except for the fact that they had white pupils.  Creepy right!  Now here’s the thing the games were conducted with all the groups not just only the explorers on one side and a separate group on the other. Now the first round went smoothly, I only got a blank chit. The second round however was very bad. No, it was not that I was expelled but I got the police chit and had to find the culprit which I did. The hard part was announcing the name, I neither wanted to die nor did I want be responsible for anyone’s death but I was saved by Daphne who knocked me over. I pretended as if I was hurt and was taken to the infirmary for treatment. There I sat till the end of the second round. How did I fool the nurse you ask? Well along with healing powers Daphne could also cause injuries. After the second round ended, I went back to the hall.  The game wasn’t very eventful after that (for me at least) That is until the last round of round 3. The person who was the police was a girl named Marie and the thief was none other than Shreedha. Marie promptly discovered Shreedha and Shreedha walked towards the loser’s corner almost immediately. I was worried for my best friend. After the sous aliens collected all the chits, came the death of the losers.   The people around me were excited all except Aruni, Daphne, Ania, Aisha and me. I could understand Aruni’s concern but not Aisha or Ania’s. Just as Shreedha took the gun to shoot herself There was a bang and time stopped!