Hell burrow
"Dadi—Zoya—" Shivani called again, this time moving closer. Putting both her hands on the mirror, felt the semi solid texture of the wall in front. She, then slipped her hand into the gel like substance, finger tip first but instead of letting through, the mirror stretched inside with the pressure of hand like a rubber sheet.
Pulling away, she examined the mirror from the corners.
"Just a wall." She told herself.
She, again tried to pass her human hand through the mirror but it again stretched like a rubber, which was weird cause it wasn't a rubber, it was more like a gel, making every possible effort to deny her entry through it.
Again she looked at the picture in front, Zoya and Dadi exchanged laugh about something that she couldn't catch, others were still walking, entirely unaware of the fact that the person they were looking for, is look at them through some magical mirror. She further noticed a wolf waking at the end of the group, poise and confident, occasionally giving a subtle look around, probably to check for any threat to his humans.
Other than the people she knew, there were three humans and an animal. Even though one of them looked too much green to be identified as human and her feet and hands were long and wavy. Hairs braided into multiple braids reaching her mid thighs and with dart arrows and mini blades in the waist band, she looked no less than a medival extraterrestrial assassin.
"We are here." Shivani heard someone say, it was the first man in line who turned to others. Hilt of the sword was visible above his left shoulder as he stood in menacing posture, scratching the right ankle with left boot.
Everyone stared at him in confusion as all they could see around was, the jungle they've been walking by for past hours. The only scene out of place was, for the first time since arriving inside this forest, they actually laid eyes on an animal.
Sitting on a banyan tree with wide trunk, in front, was an owl, a brown barn-owl, his eyes fixated on the guests.
"We see nothing. Are you going to use some spell? Say yes, say yes." No one's seen Dadi this excited before, except the times when Imam used to come to her with his trivial queries on space and aliens, as a kid.
"Thankfully grandmother, today I'm in mood to grant wishes. Although we ain't going to be able to enter without the use of revelatious spell." Hendoor said.
"Started using disappearon spell on self house Hendoor dear, smart step to hide from your own friends." Sol mocked.
He walked forwards leaving the group staring and approached the tree with barn-owl.
Pulling out the sword, he traced a few feet long rectangular configuration in air which illuminated green blue in colour.
Within the lines of light, revealed a single door made of wooden planks with a broken lock at left side. Next, in a span of 2-3 seconds, a whole house emerged out of thin air around that wooden door. The 'hell burrow' was not a giant residence and it had no more than the ground floor to live on. Hendoor gestured everyone to follow as he led them towars the gate.
The front view of the house was as simple as it gets, door with half of it's sized window to right, hanging form it's top were some battered piece of cloths that didn't cover even the half of the window but provided a look of curtains to the outside eyes. Another window was at the forehead of the house, revealing a faint sliver shelf, facing the other side, through it's larger surface area. The shape of the house was like a cuboidal bothy with pyramid top, though inside of it was a mystery till now.
"Your lock is broken Hendoor." Mikesh peeked from behind Ariem who was now beside Sol, murmuring something that none of them, not even Hendoor and Fonjuar are supposed to hear.
"You think I need a lock?" Hendoor said, wax of confidence dropping off his smug face. He turned back towards the door and pushed it open, disappearing the luminous light around it.
"I think it's safe to put this gospel thought of yours in open Ariem. Hendoor won't be offended." Sol encouraged. Hendoor turned to Sol and Ariem with enquiring look.
"I know I did no renovation or designing of this house but it looks exactly the way it did the last time you visited. Well....in another location." Hendoor joked, he was charmingly enthusiastic and friendly now, with rebirth of hope and excitement to embark on much awaited journey back.
"I guess so and not that I doubt your wizardry skills but this place is not hidden. Any spellcaster can located it within seconds," Ariem said with no apology or guilt, but this didn't lower his spirit.
Hendoor smiled before speaking while everyone entered behind him.
"My old green friend, I had long lost hope in any sort of usual living. Everyday, every moment, all I waited for, was some enemy predator to turn up and drag me back to the world I left. Now that my friends did that job for me, I'll soon shift to a more concealed area." Hendoor said, to which Ariem nodded with a sigh as she too enterd the door followed by Hendoor himself.
"You live here? I mean it's okay for you but one extra creature and it already feel like hole." Fonjuar startled Zoya who was standing right beside him but didn't realise when he took back his human form.
Much to her relief, no one noticed her jump except Hendoor who raised his eyebrows before giving out a subtle giggle .
"You scared me Fon..." Zoya complained and moved away to have a better look around the house.
"Will you give me a minute, I know you haven't been here before but have a little trust buddy." Hendoor took a deep breath and with a flip of his two index fingers on either side of his head, the walls around and ceiling on top stretched four times.
"There you go Fonjuar," Hendoor patted his shoulders with pursed lips and Fonjuar gave a look of utter amusement and shook his head in disbelief.
"Sometimes like these, I wish I were a wizard rather than a werewolf. Hardly anyone's scared of sharp teeth anymore."
Interior of the house was full of multicolored bulbs which looked more distant now with expansion.
Floor was pretty much empty except a grey mat covering the entire floor, blue-coloured three people couch and and two wooden stools in the corner.
Through the square hole in the ceiling, passed an attached wooden ladder with last of it's step broken from one side.
"What's up there?" Diya asked.
"My personal library and bar."
"My favourite area of this dump." Sol said, already half up the stairs, "Come, It's not so personal."
——
Shivani, after watching her family disappear beyond an illuminating rectangle, sat there waiting for the mirror to give a way to reach them but none came through.
Even with the hope that she wasn't alone anymore, she had no other option but to turn to her mother for help.
And that's what she did.