Chapter Twenty-six: WRAITH

"You are a vegan and a cleanliness freak," said Aarav, who was sitting under a tree.

"No and yes," Kiara replied. "I'm a bit conscious about cleanliness but I'm not vegan."

"No way. You always said no whenever I asked you about hunting some animals. You said they were cute. How can anyone eat them?"

"Yeah, they were cute furry animals. The kind you do not eat. Anyway, I would lose appetite if I saw all that blood,"

"Okay now, my turn", Kiara further added. "You're atheist and also an only child,"

"Correct. Now, my turn. You are the oldest child and.."

"Wrong, I am an only child too"

"That can not be. You do not look an only child at all. You have younger cousins,"

"Nope, I have many older cousins. Now. My turn. This one, I am cent per cent sure about. Here it comes,"

Kiara cleared her throat and spoke, "You and your best friend fell in love with the same girl. And you were the one who lost."

"How did you know?"

"Umm. I saw that photo in your wallet," Kiara further added, "That was such a cliché love story,"

"A photo of three friends and still you assumed I was the one who did not get the pie,"

"No. You look like the kind of guy who still believes in bros before h… girls,"

"…"

"So is it true or not,"

"I'm not playing this anymore," Arav responded with raised hands.

"Wait, I have a whole list,"

"Nah. Not listening."

Aarav and Kiara were guessing about each other and Kiara was winning the game. They were waiting for the day to end as they had a wraith to kill. They had spent many days after the wraith. They had inspected all the place it could live in. It was quite difficult to find its hideout. It only came out at night. They had zeroed down to a cave deep into the jungle. It was the place it lived. They just had to wait for it to come out.

The night fell. After a few hours, a black animal with azure eyes came out of the den. Aarav had borrowed a device from Shula that could hide presence.

The wraith had not suspected that it was being spied on.

It came out and roamed in the jungle. Aarav and Kiara were on its tail. They were waiting for the right opportunity to attack it.

It was very vigilant. One mistake and they would alert it.

When it entered into a blindside, from where it can not find a way to escape, Aarav attacked it. Kiara was ready with her silver leaf to entrap it into her whirlwinds any moment.

However, the wraith escaped from them in a blink of an eye. It turned into black smoke and disappeared.

Both of them were dumbfounded.

They were prepared. Their plan was foolproof. They had not anticipated that it could vanish into thin air.

They tried to catch it again the second day. Kiara had entrapped it in her whirlwinds, it still got away.

"It is impossible,"

"Yeah. I think so too,"

"Why would he give us something impossible to do? Now you know, why it is the only monster in Taiba. Because nobody could kill it. It is unkillable," bellowed Kiara.

Aarav was deeper in thought.

"Maybe we do not have to kill it,"

"What do you mean?"

"We should capture it?"

Aarav told his plan to Kiara. They had been trying to catch it during the night. They knew its location. They could go into its cave and try attacking it there. There must be a reason why it never comes out during the daytime.

Next day, when the sun was above the head, they entered the cave. The cave was stinking with rotten meat. It was nauseating. So disgusting that it was a bad idea to get inside. However, they had already entered it. Might as well do the deed. Kiara bound her nose and mouth with a bandana. Aarav did the same.

Kiara was not looking at the ground. There were things she did not wish to see.

They got deep inside the cave. Inside, a snoring sound was coming out. The monster was peacefully sleeping.

Aarav took out a jar. Kiara was supposed to attack it. As it turns into smoke, Aarav would capture it into the glass jar.

They were careful not to alert the monster.

"Cackle"

Kiara stepped on something which sounded like something snapping. The monster was awake. It fled towards the mouth of the cave.

"Shit"

They both chased after it. Kiara was using her powers to accelerate their speed. They caught up to the wraith in no time. It was daytime. The wraith was standing on the doorway and not getting out.

It looked scared.

"Hey! What do you think would happen if it stepped out?" Kiara asked.

"Burn into ashes like the vampires, I guess,"

"Plausible. Should we…Um, Chase it out,"

"Yeah… Are not we supposed to kill it?"

"Yeah…But. Do we have to? We can just capture it,"

"What if we can not capture it and it attacks us?"

"We will see that when that happens. That jar is magical. Shula said it could capture anything into it. This should work."

Kiara had long prepared many silver leaves. Each leaf made many small whirlwinds and blocked all the paths except for one. Aarav was on that path, prepared with the magic jar.

The wraith was cornered from every side. It grew ferocious and attacked Aarav.

Aarav was prepared for it. He was nimble on his legs and avoided its attacks. Also, Kiara was not letting any of its attack land on him. Aarav baited it by giving him a bit of space to get out. The wraith caught the bait and turned into dark smoke. As soon as it turned, Aarav opened the jar and it was sucked right into the jar. He then put the lid over it, securing it.

"It is done," Kiara jumped up elatedly. She stepped on something and looked down. It made her stomach churn. There were bones, rotten flesh everywhere.

"Let's get the hell out of here."

Shula was outside the cave

"Congratulations Kids. You passed with flying colours,"

"Yeah. We did it,"

Kiara vomited everything she ate before.

"Can we get out of here before I threw up even my internal organs,"

"Yes, let's go."

Shula transformed into his dragon form and they went out of that place.

When they were above in the air, Shula said," Remember, I said that Valenthia had similar abilities like you. She wants to meet you. I will take you there."

"Um… Do we have to?"

Aarav was reluctant to go.

Very soon, they reached the place. It was deep inside the jungle. It was very beautiful with flowers of various kinds laying on the path. There was a waterfall with many small animals around the stream. There were many big and small, silver and white, wolves laying and basking in the sun. The place looked magical and beautiful.

"Welcome to my humble abode,"

A voice of an old woman came from behind them. They turned around to find the spiritual beast as big as a mountain. She looked intimidating.

She moved forward and sat down near the waterfall.

"I brought the children as you asked,"

"When did I ask for that?"

"We are already here. Do not be shy,"

"… They do not look like they wanted to meet me."

Shula turned around to see them with pale faces. Was Valenthia that intimidating. She was just a kind, old lady.

Shula whispered into Aarav's ear, "if you want to learn about your ability, Valenthia is the only teacher you can get. She is the only one with the same ability as yours in the entire galaxy,"

After getting a pep talk, Aarav tried to step forward. He tried to forget the memory of the night when he first saw her.

"Hello. Mrs…Val…Valenthia. I'm pleased to meet you"

Aarav stuttered his way through the greeting and Kiara simply folded her hands to do a namaskar and ran behind Shula.

"…Here comes the moment of farewell. I'll be leaving you guys here. From here, I won't be able to travel along with you guys,"

"Wait, what are you talking about?"

"I did tell you that I will take you to Caito. But I'm afraid I won't be able to. I have to leave. The work I had to do here, had been done. I need to leave,"

"…"

"…"

"Guys, don't be upset. We might meet again, someday or some thousand years later,"

"You know we can't live that long,"

"Then, it is goodbye. Take care,"

Aarav and Kiara were upset from Shula's sudden declaring of departure.

Shula took out a black token. It looked like an obsidian stone more than a token. He gave it to Aarav since Kiara was not even looking at him.

"Take this. You can use it to call me in times of emergency. It is a one-time use only. So use it wisely,"

"You do not like us, do you?" Kiara asked

"You know that is not true. I have some responsibilities. I need to take care of them. And both of you are capable. You were able to capture the only monster of Taiba that has plagued the world for ages."

They had spent so much time together that they did not want to separate. Kiara had tears brimming her eyes. She knew someday, they had to separate but did not perceive that day was so soon. She hated being attached to people as they will leave you someday. She was always cautious while making friends. She was friendly but there was a wall that people can not cross. Shula was allowed to cross the wall. She never felt there was even a wall between them from the beginning. She trusted him more even when she knew him for only a few days.

Aarav was similar to Kiara when it came to trusting people. He too found himself to be attached to him even though he tried to distance himself from him.

And now he was going to leave them. He felt hurt and betrayed.

Shula transformed back and flew into the sky. He disappeared in the sky.

"…Shula…That guy never changes. He was the one who raised me up and then abandoned me on this planet when I was still a cub,"

Aarav and Kiara looked back. They had forgotten that they had come to meet Valenthia. She looked intimidating, but her voice was warm.

"He was the one who raised you?" Kiara asked her back.

"Yeah. How long was it? Forty, maybe Fifty thousand years back. I do not remember. He came back to meet me after ten or twenty thousand years. I can even count the number of times we met after that on my paw,"

Shula did not come off as heartless as Valenthia was saying.

"He is not heartless. As he said, he does have some responsibilities. He does not get time to visit some children he picked up on his way. In your human life, it might be impossible to meet him back. But who knows. You do not know where fate will lead you to"

The initial fear they felt towards Valenthia was reduced after she talked about Shula. She revealed a lot about the mighty dragon. Things like; how he gets petty with some things, how he holds grudges for even small things. He had never killed any beings as he treats all life equally. He had injured many of his pursuers but never killed them. He was a rather unique existence. He was a dragon but was not like a dragon at all.