Gnaria smiled, perhaps realising that I was being shy. And then she suddenly placed her head on my shoulder. I felt a chill ran down my body as her skin contacted mine. Somehow I willed myself to wrap my arm around her.
Gnaria made a small giggling sound and then she kissed me on the neck. I planted a kiss on her forehead, as the shyness slowly left me.
“Will you marry me someday?” I said to her.
“We just accepted that we love each other and you are already talking about marrying me?” Gnaria said with a smile, looking up at me. I just shrugged.
I caressed her arm. Suddenly my parents and my brother flashed in my mind’s eye. Gnaria didn’t know about my true identity yet…
“You look troubled,” Gnaria said with concern.
“There is something that I have not told you yet,” I said to her. Gnaria had been honest with me and I felt compelled to be honest to her.
“What?” Gnaria said with a small frown.
“I… I am a prince,” I said.
It was as though a bolt of electricity had gone through Gnaria’s body. She sat up straight, removing her head from my shoulder and looked at me with wide eyes.
“What?” she said.
“I am a prince of the kingdom of Abhaya,” I told Gnaria and observed her face as she looked at me with great disbelief.
“But how?” she said.
“Well, my father is a king and my mother is a queen,” I stated matter-of-factly before realising how stupid I must have sounded. Gnaria grimaced appropriately at my words.
“What I am saying is why did you leave your kingdom and come chasing the goat king and his treasure?” Gnaria said.
“I hated being a prince,” I said to her. “Hated just about everything about being a prince. All my life I have wished if I was born poor so that necessity would force me to do adventurous things to survive. Then one day I came across the quest of the goat king and decided I should take my life in my own hands.”
Gnaria kept staring at me as though I was the biggest idiot in the world of Arun. I stared back defiantly at her. And to think that just a few moments back we were caressing each other and feeling as though we were deep in love for each other.
“You should have told that to me before,” Gnaria said.
I shrugged.
“I thought about it, but I didn’t know how you would react,” I said to her. “To be honest for the past few days I have felt little like a prince. That life is way behind in my past and I have little to do with it.”
“So you are never going back to your kingdom?”
I shrugged again.
“I don’t know.”
Gnaria stared at me, and then she looked up at the stars and chuckled.
“My life surely is going an interesting path,” she said.
Chapter 33
Cragor.
The place was a desert by the sea. Even as the island approached the place, we could feel hot winds coming towards the sea from Cragor. There was barely a tree or a plant in sight. There were rolling hills in all directions about the place, but they were all barren.
“Interesting place, eh?” Gnaria said to me, who was standing beside me. The cats were behind us and they too watched the mysterious land where another of the wives could be residing. Gnaria had told the others about who I truly was, and they too had reacted as though I was an idiot for having left my kingdom just because I thirsted for adventure.
Everyone told that we should pursue our dreams, and when we actually pursued our dreams people would look at us as though we were total idiots. Perhaps the cats and Julia didn’t understand that if I had not taken the decision to leave my kingdom and come on the quest, then they would still be under the Catmen. For a couple of days Gnaria, Julia and the cats had seemed unsure if they should treat me more like the prince I was or if they should treat me as they had been treating me from before, but then with time they had taken to their old way of treating me and I was glad for that.
The island came to a halt just a few metres before the shore of Cragor and we were able to jump into the water and wade our way to the other beach.
“Who lives here?” Julia wondered as she picked up some sand from the beach and made it fall from her fingers. “There is nothing to eat and no freshwater to drink…”
“Perhaps the area beyond the hills hosts more vegetation than here?” Gnaria said, looking at the rolling hills. I wondered if that was true. But since we had come so far, it would ultimately be wise to explore a bit.
I turned at the cats.
“We are going further inland, do you want to come with us or will you stay in the island?”
“We have stayed in the island for decades,” one of the cats said, “I for one want to stretch my legs a bit. What do you say, brothers?”
The other cats said that they would come with us. So it happened that we all advanced towards the hills. Soon we were climbing the rather steep slope of a great hill. It was proving to be a hard limb. The loose surface was hard to keep a footing on and there were many times when I nearly slipped and fell down.
As we were climbing a cat appeared at the hilltop. A male cat, one carrying a staff. He looked aged, the kind of age that come just before natural death. He wore a very tribal attire and his face was marked with white paint giving him a somewhat aggressive appearance.
He waved at us and I hoped that whatever tribe he belonged to would be friendly to us and not attack us.
The male cat clapped his paws and welcomed us when we reached the top of the hill.
I panted hard reaching the top. My legs ached and I was down a good chunk of health.
“So many males!” the tribal cat sat. “Oh, praise the gods, I have never seen so many male cats in a long while!”
I exchanged glances with Gnaria. She didn’t seem to understand the words of the tribal cat either.
The tribal cat came to me and held my paws.
“I am Nerok, and I welcome you to our great country of Cragor,” he said.
“Thank you for the welcome,” I said to him, “I thought you said that you haven’t seen so many male cats in a long while… why is it so?”
At these words of mine, Nerok’s face contorted in a pained expression.
“I am the only male of my tribe,” he said, “and the other cat tribes that dwell in Cragor have few male cats as well.”
“But why is that so?” I asked Nerok.
“Some years ago the young males of our tribes set out to the sea in search of a land that was riper than Cragor. The ship sank and only a couple of survivors returned bringing the tragic news. The few remaining males died during an epidemic that swept our villages last year.”
“I am sad hearing what has happened to your people,” I said to Nerok.
“I figure you and your men must be tired,” Nerok said, “why don’t you come to our village? I’ll ask the lady folk of our village to prepare a grand feast for you.”
Grand feast? In the desert?
Nerok seemed like a cat that could be trusted, and we decided to follow him to his village. Along the way he told us that he often prowled the hills searching for a certain lizard that was considered a delicacy by the people of his tribe, and he had come on such an expedition when he had seen us. One thing I was glad for was that Julia’s island could not be seen from the particular hilltop and hence Nerok had missed it, otherwise I didn’t know how I could have explained to him the sudden appearance of a new island near the shore of Cragor.
Nerok led us at least a few miles further inland. The heat beat down on us and I thirsted for water. The terrain was not a good one to move on. We had to keep an eye on the steps we were taking or risk tumbling down a slope or falling into some crevice.
We had crossed at least four hills when Nerok’s village finally came to sight. It was located at the foot of a hill, near which the only stream that I had seen in the entire region flowed. As a result there was some vegetation about the place. The sight of green plants was
sweet to my eyes. Nerok’s tribe lived in small huts that were scattered about the foot of the hill. I could see quite a few female cats going about their daily chores. Some were at the stream trying to catch a fish or two, while others sat huddled in a circle apparently peeling the coats of some edible seeds.
As we approached the village, the female cats looked up at us in awe and wonder, not having seen so many males in a while.
“Who are they?” one older female cat asked when we reached the village. I wondered if the older female cat was the wife of Nerok. Nerok explained about us and told the ladies to serve us food and water. Nerok whispered something into his wife’s ear that I didn’t hear at which the wife immediately ran to the females rather hurriedly.
Nerok led us all towards his own hut. It was surrounded by a number of palm trees that created plentiful shade. I had never enjoyed shade more. I reckoned the absence of something always made you appreciate how beautiful it was.
All the hut contained was a couple of beds. The cooking was done outside. Nerok brought us water in wooden cups. The water felt like an elixir to my throat as I drank it.
“Have you come here for any specific purpose?” Nerok asked Julia, Gnaria and me.
I exchanged looks with the other two. I was not certain if we should tell our real reason behind our trip to Nerok. The three of us hesitated and a frown came over Nerok’s forehead as he observed us.
“We come here seeking adventure,” I finally said to Nerok. “We are explorers.”
“Ah, I see,” Nerok said, his frown disappearing to an extent, though he still didn’t seem convinced that we had come to Cragor simply seeking adventure. “There is plenty of adventure in our barren land, if that is what you seek. Not much of fighting or any action of that kind, because the tribes here have been dwelling in peace for hundreds of years. But… there are other things that you can do.”
“Sorry, we didn’t get you,” Gnaria said, who had been observing Nerok intently, “what things?”
“A number of kilometres from our village, there is a great pyramid. It has only one entrance, but it’s no longer open. You might like to explore it if you seek the thrill of adventure, because nobody really knows what lurks inside it. There was a time when the cat tribes would worship it and take offerings to the pyramid, but after a while the practise died out. There might even be treasure inside the pyramid. As a youth I wanted to explore it. Once I even ran away from home to the pyramid. But I could never get inside the pyramid. The one apparent entrance is closed.”
“Who built it?” I asked. A pyramid in the middle of a desert might have some connection with one of the wives of the goat king, you never know.
“Butterflies,” Nerok said with a smile, “at least that is what the legends say, even though it sounds ridiculous. But then, all legends sound ridiculous.”
Chapter 34
Nerok went out of the hut. When Nerok had mentioned about butterflies, my mind had immediately gone back to the butterfly woman with giant wings that I had seen after eating the fruit from Julia’s magic tree.
“This pyramid sounds interesting,” Gnaria said to Julia and me.
“The goat king had a butterfly woman wife, didn’t he?” I asked Julia who seemed to be lost in thought.
Julia nodded.
“Dragonia, her name was,” Julia said. “If she happens to be inside the pyramid then we can get the second part of the code.”
Then and there we decided that that day itself we would set off for the pyramid. It was our best bet at finding another wife of the goat king and we had to play the bet.
After a couple of hours of resting at the village, Julia, Gnaria and I set off for the pyramid after taking directions from Nerok. His wife and the other women of the village didn’t seem particularly approving of us going to the pyramid, but Nerok was very excited and told us that if he had been a younger cat he might have accompanied us.
We left the other cats at the village. In the very short time that they had been in the village, they had bonded rather well with the females of the village, who seemed eager to please them brining them whatever they wanted to eat and engaging them in conversations. Plus, we didn’t know what lay inside the pyramid, suppose we were indeed able to get inside it, and we had risked the lives of the cats enough and didn’t want to risk their lives anymore.
The sun was setting, when our weary eyes finally saw the marvel that was the pyramid after having climbed to the top of a hill. It was big, almost the size of a small hill. The stone slabs that formed it were gigantic. It must not have been easy to build the pyramid.
Our weary limbs were begging for some rest, but so excited were we at finding the pyramid the three of us immediately ran towards it.
“Nerok said there was an entrance,” I said to the other two as we approached the great structure, a wave of insignificance hitting me as I felt puny compared to its size.
“An entrance that is closed,” Gnaria said.
“That doesn’t look closed,” Julia said, pointing a finger towards what looked like a tiny hole at the base of the pyramid.
The hole turned out to be an entrance of considerable size at the base of the pyramid when we reached it. Near the entrance there was a massive slab of stone lying on the ground that could have easily blocked the entrance had anyone been able to place it on the entrance.
“But didn’t Nerok say the entrance was closed?” Gnaria asked, as I peeked into the darkness of the inside of the pyramid and saw nothing, despite the fact that I was a cat and was more or less adapted to seeing in the dark.
“Someone came here,” Julia said, “before us.” Her eyes were wide and thoughtful.
“Glosis?” I asked.
“Perhaps,” Julia said, “she wanted the second part of the code after all.”
That made my heart sank. If Glosis had indeed gotten the second half of the code then she had probably already found the goat king. She must have also harmed the wife that we believed was inside the pyramid. And then, like a ray of hope, a thought pierced through my cloudy mind.
“Glosis couldn’t have possibly known that one of the wives is in Cragor,” I said, “she doesn’t have the part of the map that shows that Cragor is one of the places related to the goat king’s quest.”
“She might have got to know about this location through some different means,” Julia said. The clouds blocked the ray of hope again. That remained a possibility for sure.
We entered the castle. It was pitch black. How could anything be so dark? There was the big entrance after all; light had to come in through it…
I turned around to look at the entrance. It was gone. I said about this to the others and they gasped.
“How are we going to get out?” Gnaria asked.
“By finding the wife, I guess?” I said. “If she indeed is here.”
We kept moving forward in the direction that we reckoned was forward in the void of darkness. The only sounds were of our feet moving over the stone floor and of us respiring, taking nervous breaths.
A few minutes passed and then I felt my feet touch something cold. A liquid of some kind.
“Is that water?” Julia said.
But there was something about the liquid that was quite unlike water. It felt more viscous.
“I don’t feel like it is water,” I said. A peculiar odour reached my nose, probably from the liquid. I didn’t like the smell at all. The further we moved the more the liquid rose up our legs, such that by now we were knee deep in the liquid. I felt a certain drop in the temperature. After a moment a chill caught me. The temperature must have gone down by at least ten degrees in the last few seconds. And then I was shuddering before I realised it. The clatter of the teeth of Gnaria and Julia reached my ears.
“It sure is cold here,” Gnaria said.
“I do not like this,” Julia said. The liquid had reached our waists and I did not like it either. The smell was biting my nose while the cold gnawed at my skin. Had we done a mistake in enterin
g the pyramid?
The liquid was slowly freezing as well and as I moved the top surface of the liquid became crusty. Despite everything, I had not really been afraid so far, despite the fact that the entrance had disappeared and we were essentially trapped in the pyramid. We had gone through way too many dangerous situations in the past and maybe this was the reason why I hadn’t been scared of the pyramid. But now, fear dug through my skin deeper than the cold. I had become way too proud of the powers that I had acquired and had believed myself to be invincible. Now I was going to pay for it, not with my life alone but with the lives of Gnaria and Julia as well.
The liquid had reached my chest and all three of us were violently shivering.
“We need to do something fast, or we are going to die here!” Julia said.
But what could we do? What spell could I use that could save us? The rope spell was useless as there was no enemy here I could throw ropes at. The Long Hand spell wasn’t much of use as there wasn’t anything that I could shoot my paw at to grab it and pull us out of the liquid and save us from a possible death. Air arrows were useless as well. The rage barbarian spell would be pointless.
“Use some spell,” I said to Julia. She had to know some spell that could save us, right? She knew a lot of spells after all. The curst on the water surface was by now getting thicker. I could barely move my legs. My privates were below the water too and felt like they had turned to ice.
“I … I don’t know, what… I can use,” Julia said in gasps, as she struggled to stop her teeth from clattering.
“Hu… ug me,” Gnaria said.
“Wh.. aat?” I asked her, not understanding her.
“Hug me,” Gnaria repeated.
“Why?” I said.
Gnaria didn’t respond. Instead she grabbed me by the waist with her arm and pulled me close to her. She also pulled Julia close to her in a similar fashion. Gnaria seemed to know what she was doing, so I wrapped my arms around her in a hug as did Julia.
Gnaria mumbled some spell. The next moment, I felt my feet leave the cold stone floor, even as a sense of weightlessness came over me. Why, the night we defeated the catmen, Gnaria had received a flying spell!
Catheroes Page 42