Bonds, Negotiations, and Royal Encounters

Enveloped in the thick blizzard Roop and Shahrukh traveled as far away as they could from the onslaught of Queen Golden. 

Roop had a hundred questions pending to ask Shahrukh but the defeat had left her wordless, never before had she seen a sovereign and a being like Shahrukh handled in such a manner before.

It boiled her blood but peeked her curiosity at the same time, She felt threatened but deep within there was a singular spark of liberation and hope aswell. She quickly extinguished before it could blaze up.

"How many did you give them?," She said, breaking the silence as they both slowly glided above cracked empty deserts of Sehra.

"Three in total, I gave them to Aatish" he replied, without looking back.

And that was it to their conversation,

After that they both flew forward in complete silence, until they reached a tall mountain that was cut straight in half, and on the plain side it had a gigantic gate that reached up to its height.

In the middle of the stone gate, a magnificent relief of the ancient tree was sculpted, its branches bended away to the edges completely covered in moss and grime.

The scale of things made the whole scene look extremely surreal.

Roop looked back at Shahrukh for a brief moment, then placed her hand against the stone gate. Then, with a push, an invisible shockwave carpeted its entire surface, blowing off accumulated snow and grime.

And the gate slowly opened, shaking the entire mountain as its hinges creaked under its enormous weight.

They both entered and found themselves standing before an enormous hall that looked like it had no end, there were hundreds of tall pillars carved out of the same stone that led up to the top of the hollow mountain.

Shahrukh walked forward and in the darkness, a pair of menacing yellow eyes shone. Adawat sat aboard his corrupted coatyl, infront of them, he had somehow regenerated all of his limbs along with reviving his ominous pet.

Shahrukh took a step forward toward the menacing Coatyl as it opened its sleek maw and let out a horrible screech that reverbrated inside the entire mountain, Shahrukh took another step forward and the screech dulled.

Another step and the Coatyl stopped and looked at him, his eyes filled with black and yellow corruption were struck to Shahrukh.

Shahrukh took another step and clenched the staff in his right hand and the coatyl along with Adaawat took a step back, the primal fear overcoming his almost absolute obedience for his sovereign master.

"Useless piece of scum," Adaawat gritted his teeth and jumped down, his stature was shorter in compare to Shahrukh, something silently shifted in the darkness that none of them noticed except Shahrukh. 

Roop walked forward and pushed at Shahrukh from behind, as he fell to his knees, his staff dropped infront and then Adaawat placed his hand on his head, something malicious shone deep within Shahrukh's azure and violet eyes. 

Then he spat near where Shahrukh was knelt. 

"Cut off your hands" Adaawat said, 

A thin blade of frost passed through Shahrukh's hand as they bled.

"Get up now and follow like a dog" Adawat picked up Shahrukh's staff and tossed it to Roop.

Then they all walked straight until they reached the supposed end of the hall, it was completely shrouded in darkness and had hundreds of tiny faraway orbs floating in it. It looked like as if the hall ended directly in middle of the nightsky.

**********

The next day, everyone woke up late. Isra opened her eyes and saw two bulb-beaks negotiating with Gimpi about the amount of their payment. 

She had fallen sleep right at the dastarkhwaan and woke up covered in blanket with a bowl of soup besides her. Isra yawned and then walked and stood beside Gimpi, she knelt besides him and started listening to their conversation with extreme interest.

"Sir Gimpi we agreed to bring thirtyone legions for a total of nine thousand kibblers, how can you give us seven thousand only now. It is completely unfair" The floofed up bulb-beak said, carrying a tiny satchel on him.

"Yes we agree when you show extra brilliant lightshow but it was ordinary, i give seven thousand five hundred, last price" Gimpi said, crossing his tiny arms.

The bulb-beak turned red in anger, and then turned to his companion who was standing some distance away, and then they started whispering to each other.

Isra knelt by Gimpi and whispered.

"Insist on seven thousand five hundred, then raise the price to eight thousand suddenly, they will say eight thousand two hundred next. Tell them eight thousand one hundred, they'll agree" Gimpi looked at her and nodded.

The bulb-beak came back and said, 

"Please sir Gimpi this ammount wont do," Almost crying at the last word.

"I know market price Gleam, Seven thousand five hundred good price" Gimpi remained inistent, and Gleam kept disagreeing, eventually Gimpi raised the price to Eight thousand and the game played exactly like Isra told him.

They settled on Eight thousand One hundred, the bulb-beaks bitterly accepted the amount and when they took flight, Isra and Gimpi looked at each other with mischievous eyes and smiled.

"My Abbu has a bakery, i know how to deal with insistent clients" She said.

"Your abbu has what" Gimpi asked

"A bakery, he make bread and cake and jams" Isra replied

"Ohhhh... i know bread yes, what is cake?" 

"Well... it is sweet extremely soft bread that has cream on it" Isra said.

"Sounds very delicious, will you bring me cake from your abbu?" 

"Yes i will!, I promise!" 

"Come now, i take you to others" And they started walking, 

the way back was long, homals had already returned to their nests and they werent going to appear twice in a week due to some strict policy, so they walked and walked, passing by the mushroom giant who was snoring loudly, his bubble blowing stick placed beside his fat tummy, and the old daadi amma tree, Isra and Gimpi talked and talked, sharing stories. This was the first time she had the opportunity to talk to Gimpi like this.

On her way to meet everyone she realized something.

Those few words of Qatan popped up in her mind, when she had asked him if there would be any money, he had told her that she'd get something better, she wondered if this family that she had made in the grove, was that 'something better' Qatan had been talking about.

Isra crossed the trees, jumped over tiny water streams, poked tiny creatures and annoyed them, and then reached the lair of the Dark Queen, sunrays illuminating her light grey eyes and the scene that she saw infront of her reaffirmed her emotions, everyone gathered around each other, having a late morning breakfast.

Queen Golden looked at Isra and asked her to come and sit by her, and she did.

"I noticed slight worry in you last night my child, is everything okay?" she asked in a motherly tone.

Isra thought for a long few seconds and said 

"Everything is fine, my Queen, its just that I expected that by the end of this mission, I'd be able to help my father financially, it was the main reason i had come, but.... I think, i've found something more valuable than money." This was the first time Isra had bared enough courage to say such words, she looked up at the Queen, sunlight dancing around her golden crown.

"It feels like... I have found a family and a new home instead" she said,

The Queen softly smiled at that, the sheer brilliance of her smile putting even the brightest of flowers to the shame. 

**********

It was past afternoon and today the bees were going to invite the leaders of all the other free societies, and hopefully propose the idea of forming a coalition of resistance, so the day was going to be extremely hectic. Queen Golden and Hira had dedicated thesmelves into furnishing the entire grove, from laying out a carpet for landing and preparing various fields.

The Queen had also ordered a large chunk of her army, dedicating an entire batallion to patrol the skies above the grove and currently there were hundreds of birds of preys streaking through the clouds, the new Nector#1 was solely kept for patrolling extremely important official royal figures and escort them safetly until they reach the borders.

Following the mission, there were huge chances of retaliation from the sovereigns at any given time and that was where the never seen before intelligence unit came into play, tens of elite units of extremely tiny bees that reflected the sky behind them, completely camouflaging them raced through the far edges of the grove, relaying instant information back to the established head quarters.

Queen Golden called #212 and his squad and some moments later he arrived.

"We have just received a report from the Fido, King Falidoo and Queen Falidaa will be arriving at any time, you are to take some of your best birds and escort them both until they reach here, there's no room for error in this one #212, cloudflouds are respectable allies, and dont get annoyed. Listen to their stories if you must" 

#212 frowned remembering the encounter with mooooong, then nodded in affirmation and took off.

The girls were officially done with their assignment with the bees but none of them felt like leaving the grove so they ignored the topic completely, submerging themselves in other activities. 

Khadija was helping the bakers bake bread, she was kneading the dough, her entire clothes were covered in flour and Haniya and Justuju were overseeing the decorations.

Isra was hanging out with Gimpi, following him and talking to various creatures and negotiating with them, so far they had succesfully managed to save fifteen thousand kibblers. Their duo was formidable when it came to negotiations. 

***********

#212 reached the boundary and saw an escort of thirty huge cloud-flouds slowly traveling through the land, their necks protruding through the clouds made them look like enormous upright walking worms.

The king and the Queen walked in front followed by a gaunt looking wormish cloud-floud on their left, and an extremely buffed one with a huge cut on his neck on their right.

A few flying creatures that looked like huge slender mosquitoes flew around them, feeding the royal escort balls of premium compressed clouds from time to time, They looked actively disgusted at the quality of the clouds that surrounded the grove.

A moment later, #212 flew up to them and stopped right infront of their commander.

"Queen Golden bids you all a very warm welcome, I hope the journey has remained pleasing." A few spy-bees who had been along with the cloudflouds since the start of their journey flew away to the grove, upon seeing #212. Their job was done.

The gaunt wormish one spoke, spitting actively with its each word.

"Disgusting little pathetic bird i remember in my time we would chew one of you out and spit-" 

"Mother please!" The Queen interjected and then bowed her head down

"I apologize, yes the journey was tiring but i'm glad its over" She said, her voice extremely friendly.

#212 looked at the king, expecting him to add something but to his happiness and pure joy the king remained silent just when he thought there would be no story coming, the grandma wormish cloudfloud noticed #212 and spoke, 

"Back in my days before the destruction of riverleaves and ravenbeak, I had a pet that looked like you, let me tell you what happened to that poor little disgusting flying mouse-" 

#212 closed his eyes and groaned from within, then opened his eyes, he had been given a mission and he was going to complete it nomatter what

"Oh please do my lady" he said, flying alongside the wormy cloudfloud grandma, as they all slowly moved forward.