A CLUE

On learning what was going on, Aurora and her lover decided to put the wedding on hold until they had found Araxie. Although Trion was so powerful, most of his powers worked only in water but shockingly his all powers weren't working except that he could only teleport.

"What's happening with me? I..... it feels like someone has tied me up. None of my powers is working. Do you know why this is happening Mother."Trion asked after trying to swim at a magical speed and failed.

"I'm afraid you're son is in grave danger. This means he's trying to use all of his and your powers to fight the attacker.

We need to find them soon otherwise something bad...."

"Don't say such things Tia.

Nothing will happen to my daughter and my grandson. I won't allow it."Marina who was walking on water intervened in Tia and Trion's conversation after all it was all about her daughter.

"You can walk on water? Wow! I didn't know that witches can do this."Tia who looked surprised seeing how Marina walked steadily on water, asked.

"Look there Mother, Neel and Andie are doing the same."Trion said pointing at the two brothers who seemed to be carrying something on their shoulders.

It didn't take long before they reached the shore where they carefully laid Araxie down whom they found unconsciously stuck in the mud.

"What happened to her. Where did you find her, tell me please.

D-did you check properly.... isn't my son also stuck there...

Say something please Neel."Trion was asking frequent questions without breathing. Everyone could see that he was sick worried for his son but they had nothing to do about it.

"Don't worry too much.

We'll surely find him."Andie said in a comforting tone but it made no difference to Trion's mood.

The next time Araxie opened her eyes, she was laying on the ground, surrounded by her family whose looks quickly reminded her of what happened few minutes back.

She remembered she was following the shark which had abducted their son.

"Sha.....rk. Shark!"she spoke in a low murmur whisper as she could hardly breath.

"Sharks! Did you see sharks?"Tia's heart bounced in fear on hearing Araxie mention the sharks.

"Open your eyes again my dear.

Tell us exactly what happened. "Marina said while she rubbed mud off her daughter's face.

"I don't think she'd talk.

I mean... it would take her some time to catch her breath back."

"But...

Why did she get stuck in the mud. Why couldn't she use her powers?"Neel who looked confused asked.

It was indeed a good question but his timing was bad. And moreso, I think he missed what Tia told Trion awhile ago; - their son was using all their powers to fight for himself and the little ones that Araxie had left with after forgetting her bead behind, was also taken away by her son.

"Where's her bead. Give it to her and let her command the sharks to return back your son."

On checking almost everywhere, Trion realized that the bead was missing. He didn't have it anymore. He always kept the most important things under his tongue but surprisingly he never felt it was necessary to keep it there.

"What! How can it go missing?

Something is fishy. First Araxie forgot it behind and now... you've lost it!

There's surely some creature that's behind all this. It can't be accidental."Tia tried connecting the dots but couldn't bring herself to understand what was happening till they saw one of the sharks floating on water which was next to impossible for the living shark to.

"It must be dead- that's why it's being washed away by the waves." Tia who had lived for more than thirty years, ruled the sea for twelve years and stayed in water in form of a bird for ten years more, had enough knowledge about every creature in the Sea.

They were from confirming that the shark was indeed dead when they saw three more dead sharks.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know either. I've never seen anything like this before."Wait! Did Tia ran out of ideas as well? Trion realized there wasn't any hope left but only to dive into the sea again and look for his son. "Don't worry child, your darling dad is coming to save you."he breathed and without saying anything, he quickly transformed into a merman before throwing himself into the Sea.

Meanwhile in the palace, the guests started to leave one by one after waiting for Andie's return but in vain. They had thought they'd find Araxie and her son very soon and return to the wedding venue as soon as possible but it turned out to be like forever so they had to leave.

Such a disappointment left many of them gossiping and some threw words at Aurora saying that she was unlucky that her wedding was put on hold. Although she tried not to listen to them, their words hit straight to her heart which left her heart torn into pieces as she wondered if it was indeed true that she was surrounded by misfortunes like how the women said.

"Ohhh. Why's my daughter crying now.

I hope you didn't take their words to be true. People are always there to discourage you because they're not like you, your thinking and way of doing things are very different from theirs.-They'd always put a question mark on every decision you take but that shouldn't stop you from doing what you feel is right.

I know that this shouldn't have happened on your wedding day which is supposed to be your happiest day ever but I think you've done the right thing and no one should convince you otherwise.

I don't know how I'll start thanking you, had you stopped Andie from going to find my grandson and daughter... I'd have been hurt the most but you didn't do that.

I may sound selfish to you and I'm sorry if it's so. Anyway, I came here to check on you... and;-

I don't know what I ever did to deserve living with angels in real life and my daughter in-law, Araxie.... she's the luckiest person in the world to have sensible and selfless friends like you. To be honest... today you've done what no one in a million people would ever have done for a friend.

I know that it's every girl's dream to walk down the aisle with her beloved that's why I'm making you a promise to get you married to Andie today itself so I request you to stop crying,hmm!"king Beryl said while tears rolled down his face.

"Do I really have misfortunes, sir?"Aurora finally spoke.

"Of course not.

How can my daughter be unfortunate. You're a good soul Aurora and those who aren't seeing the goodness in you shouldn't be part of your happiness and because of this.... your wedding would be attended by a few people tonight.

Do you like my idea?"

"Thank you sir."

"You can all me father if you don't mind cos for me, I don't have any issue with you addressing me that way. But this 'sir' thing, it suffocates me.. hahaha..."

"Sure sir..."

"Again!"king Beryl chuckled before he left the room after cheering Aurora up.

"All thanks to Araxie who introduced us to this amazing family."Mrs Judith breathed after eavesdropping on Aurora and His Highness's conversation. She had too come to cheer her daughter up and then stopped on the doorstep when she heard the king's voice inside.