Avalanche (Part two)

Isra dreamt of being at home, then playing badminton with Miraaj in the street, she dreamt of her mother's scolding and her father's kind words. She dreamt of fresh smell of donuts that would enchant the whole bakery every morning. 

She dreamt of peace and safety and Japanese plums, her worries were completely forgotten and replaced with deep tranquility. 

Currently she was walking to her school in the dream, she passed by the same lamp post from where she had turned back in the beginning and decided to catch Qatan, from where all the bad things had begun.

With each step she moved further away from the damned post, she felt her heart getting lighter and lighter and after a while, when the lamp post looked tiny from the distance, a familiar old weight settled upon it. 

Confused by the sudden sadness she clenched her heart and saw her arm glowing faint blue, and then it struck her. The realizations were merciless, she remembered what happened. She remembered seeing the awful creature and being grabbed by it. She remembered the grove and the gateway incident. 

and that woke her up.

**********

Isra opened her eyes and saw khadija's face right Infront of her, Her breathing was heavy and her reddish brown hair had leaves and trinkets adorned on them. She looked like as if she had run a kilometer straight through the thick forest. 

"Diji, what happened?" Isra got up rubbing her eyes.

"Hira found you and brought you here, she took care of the executioner. You're safe now Isra, I came as fast as i sensed it." Khadija said as she hugged Isra.

"Dont worry me like this" she added and it warmed Isra's heart.

"Okay i wont" isra hugged back.

"Between Diji, how can you sense their presence when even #212 cant?" Isra was still holding onto her, she really needed a hug. 

"Oh i forgot to tell you, when we were being kidnapped in the gateway, the dark thing that was trying to take me away, i bit it and tore off its chunk, then it pulled me away with so much speed i accidentally ate it... ever since then, i think i can sense forthcoming danger, also look here" 

Khadija extended her arm and beneath it slithered a menacing looking snake, right around the elbow. It darkened her light brown skin and filled her veins with dark liquid like material.

Isra grabbed her

"How could you keep something like this from me, are you dumb?" 

"I wanted to tell you but the bastard rarely appears, and i don't exactly know how." Khadija smiled sheepishly.

"Fine, we have to tell #212 and Qatan about it"

"Not #212, he's got a lot on his plate right now, he didn't even notice me running away, let's talk to Qatan when he comes back" 

*****************

Qatan found himself hanging upside down from a tall cliff, he was caged in thick bars of flowing water. He hated the water, part of him wanted to hiss at it but he would not stoop so low, he had seen house cats doing obnoxious things like that but he was a sophisticated legendary warrior. 

He felt lethargic, it had been hours since a sovereign himself had caught him trying to sneak into his personal citadel and sowing chaos with the guards.

The sovereign had then built a special cage with his mysterious powers and left a whole garrison of creatures, each having unique powers to keep an eye at him. 

Things weren't looking good for the baadal billi and that's exactly what he wanted because the upcoming hours would be written in history for what he was about to attempt. 

Qatan had it all calculated.

Few things immediately happened after he was captured, due to being a creature of legendary status, he was made into news. Magical societies from far away corners now knew about the incident.

He was then classified as the most high level prisoner the sovereign had, which was bound to get attention at the highest level of hierarchy. Infact, Qatan knew that the sovereign had left in hurry for that exact reason. He was counting on it.

The last thing was Qatan had purposefully left his core and carried only a small fragment of its energy. It made his reflexes slow and dull and his speed diminish greatly. 

He squinted his eyes and looked beyond the convulsing rods of water, to the distorted raging ocean. 

'Any moment now' He thought to himself. 

A yellow light blinked somewhere far away upon the raging ocean.