How can we find him now?

Cassadrei's POV

I fell on the ground, hugging my shoulders with my face between my thighs, and wept. I didn't remember the last time I had cried, it must have been before I came to Earth. I hadn't thought that I was capable of feeling so strongly, that grief can be so overwhelming that it threatened to consume my soul. 

The irony was, I shouldn't be crying. Rather, I should be rejoicing because my worst fears have not yet come true. Michael is alive, he must have dropped his phone in the bushes while he was being kidnapped, and it set us on a wrong foot. However, it is true that Michael is still missing. We don't have any clue about his disappearance, and the only source we had of finding him is now in Sofosys' hands. 

"Get up, Cassie! Don't you dare cry, you have to be strong!" Linda's voice sounded surprisingly firm. 

"Yes, we can't give up hope now, now that we have come so far. We have to find him. I have a feeling that he isn't far." Jake replied. 

I looked up, surreptitiously brushing my tears away and trying to find a steady voice, I said, "But how can we find him now? What if that flying creature took him somewhere else…. somewhere far out of our reach. I don't know…. it's all my fault! I should never have involved him in my messy life."

"This is no time to ponder upon our past mistakes Cassadrei! We need to deal with the problem at hand. I have a tingling feeling that they are not far. Afterall, only a few minutes ago, the signals from the cellphone seemed to be moving. After that, it was dropped into the bushes. They can't have gone very far!" Sofosys nodded sympathetically. 

"There's a thousand places he can be at!" I almost shouted in frustration, "he can be hidden among any of these buildings, or alleys and we would never know! How can we look for him when the perimeters are so large!"

Silence greeted me as everyone turned towards Sofosys, looking for counsel. Cookie was painfully silent, he had stopped chirping way back and he seemed to be in a peculiarly meditative mood. I tried to ask him questions, but he only let out a soft growl. I looked away in frustration. 

The night sky was velvety purple, and a cool breeze blew rustling our hairs. I got up and sweeped the dust off my knees, then turning to the nearest alleyway, I said, "Let's begin there, shall we?"

Without waiting for a reply, I trodded on, closely followed by the brooding Petrywinkler. I had a thousand thoughts running through my head, trying to remember any snippet of conversation I had with Michael that might disclose his location. All of this was futile, I thought….. obviously if Michael knew he was going to be kidnapped, he would never have been kidnapped in the first place.

Suddenly, the Petrywinkler started chirping vehemently. I turned around quickly, then searched the entire perimeter looking for clues regarding his sudden behavior. There were none to be found, the surroundings were like the calm before the storm. 

"What can he be shouting at?" I muttered. 

"Michael...close….chirp chirp" The Petrywinkler said suddenly. 

I turned sharply to look at him.

"Cookie! Did you just talk to me?" I exclaimed.

The Petrywinkler chirped once again, trying really hard to communicate. 

"Did you hear Sofosys? Cookie just... talked to me!" I was tranced. 

"Did he?" Sofosys frowned slightly. 

Ofcourse, Sofosys can't understand what Cookie is saying, but he did say something to me. I am sure of it. 

"He tried to talk, I could distincly make out two words. Cookie said Michael is close! But he's not being able to communicate properly." I said rapidly, adrenaline surging through my veins. 

"Wait….you said that your powers amplified in the presence of Michael, he's some sort of key to your powers, right? Then, probably the proximity to Michael is causing a surge in powers!" Jake suddenly exclaimed. 

It hit me with a jolt, Jake was right. How could I ignore the obvious? The very reason for Michael's predicament. He was the key, he is supposed to increase my magical powers when I am close to him. And just now, I was able to talk to Cookie….which means, which means that I am closer to Michael than I had anticipated!

"Maybe, if we moved about a bit…. trying to gauge our proximity to Michael by the rate of amplification of Cassie's powers, we can easily find him this way! Let's get moving fast." Jake jumped in excitement, and started calculating quadrants in his head. 

We stood on the highway, stretching out broad ahead of us. I turned in each direction, trying to engage in a conversation with Cookie the whole time. 

"North! He's north. I can decipher Cookie's words when I am facing north!" I almost jumped, but took a step back in trepidation. 

"Let's go North then, see where it takes us." Sofosys remarked. 

We walked for a few more miles, and I could feel my connection to Cookie growing stronger and by accurately measuring the directions which enabled me to talk to Cookie efficiently, we could compute a trajectory to follow. It lead us deeper within the city, and this time I followed in excitement, not dread. I could still communicate with Cookie, which meant only one thing. 

That Micheal was still alive.