The special creature-

The masked man walked casually. It wasn’t as if anybody would follow him, nobody in their right minds would venture in this part of the forest- he breezed through the woods with footsteps as light as air. He must have been nearing his destination because he slowed down. One look to the right, another two his left and then he passed through the bushes.

There it was right before him -Zozugi. From a long distance, it appeared like any other mountain. But if you get close enough you can see a thin strip between the rocks. A path, right into the heart of the mountain. High cliffs were overlooking the doughnut-shaped lake on either of our sides and just a straight path ahead.

Suhani hissed as a twig crunched under my feet, “can’t you look where you are walking”, she snapped, right before she stepped on one herself.

She grumbled something and moved on.

The man took a rowboat to the other side of the lake and passed through the thin strip inside the mountain.

“Come on”, Suhani spoke, hopping onto another.

“But-”, I began, then automatically changed my mind when I saw her scowling at me.

Poor me, I had to row us across the lake while Suhani sat opposite and continued to glower at me.

By the time we arrived at the other end, there was less water and more Piranhas under the boat. I shiver passed through my body as I looked at them.

“Please tell me we are not-”

“-We are going inside”, Suhani concluded, drawing the bow off her shoulder and priming it.

Great!

The cave had an orange glow coming from the insides, which was visible as we went closer. The source was burning flame lamps on either side of the cave. There was the sound of stone striking metal and roars echoing through the cave.

“Lions?”

Suhani agreed, “this must be where they organise everything”.

“Shouldn’t we be a hundred miles away from this place?”

“No”, Suhani replied with rounded eyes, “why?”.

“Yeah, why?”, I exclaimed, “-because I don’t want to be big cat food!”

The resounding roars made me somewhat anxious, sweat trickled down my brow as I imagined lions running after me. As we got further we approached a trisection. “Where-"

A sudden shrill yell cut me off, my heart turned cold, I turned to look at a man sprinting at us from behind, "Hey", he yelled, "stop".

Like he expected us to listen to him!

I would have stayed there frozen with alarm if Suhani hadn’t pulled me away.

“Come on here”, Suhani wheezed, hauling me into the darkest of the three tunnels.

We raced blindly, I earnestly prayed for two seconds, hoping I did not smash into a wall and have my insides out.

There were sounds of shouting behind, “where did they go?”

The cave turned wider, I stumbled and almost tripped over a huge rock.

“Hide here”, Suhani whispered as I joined her behind the rock.

It was dark, and I couldn’t see clearly. The air inside the cave seemed stale and had a faint stench of dung in it. My knuckles scraped on the pointy edge of the stone, I had to grasp them tightly to stop the throbbing as blood oozed out. Sounds of footsteps came closer.

“Think they came here?”

“No, I don’t think so”, the other man replied.

“Even if they did, they wouldn’t be alive now”.

Suhani let out a gasp.

“Who!”

“SHHHH”, the other man hissed, “you’ll wake her up”

“I thought there was somebody”.

“No, there isn’t see, come let go. If the boss asks we can say it was probably a monkey”.

I heard the footsteps fade away as I was busy fidgeting with the sharp edges of the rock, and I realized it had a pattern.

“We’re alive aren’t we?”, Suhani questioned.

“I guess”

Suhani nodded, and then her eyes began to shine like flashlights.

I looked around the softly illuminated cave, it was more or less empty. The walls were slanting and sharp, the roof wasn’t very high either.

Everything was excellent, until my eyes fell on the ‘rock’ ahead of me.

This was probably the closest I had ever come to a heart attack. Suhani realised it the same moment, “Oh shit”.

The only respite I probably had, was the fact that the creature had a single tail and not four of the. Though I doubted it would make a difference, a razellair is a razellair, which I presumed was the special creature the masked man had been speaking about.

The creature grunted and moved, the golden scales on its body shined. I placed my hands on Suhani’s eyes, “turn off the tube light”, I muttered.

She stood transfixed for a moment and then pushed my hand away, her eyes weren’t glowing anymore. Not that I could see her eyes now, which obviously meant they weren’t glowing, just a faint grey outline of her figure.

And then the creature hissed.

“Run”, Suhani bawled.

I didn’t need motivation, the hiss had filled me with it. Adrenaline rushed through my veins and the rest was a flash. I remember racing through the no more dark-tunnels, the Razellair did not give any chase, probably it was tied up.

But we had more important things to worry about. Four men in dustbins were running after us, two of them carried guns.

We had been told not to use our occults lest they recognize us.

I pulled the gun out of the holster.

And blindly fired shots behind me. Then I realised, we wouldn’t make it, the men were stronger and faster.

I looked straight and an immediate wave of trauma passed through me. The end of the cave was visible, but Suhani wasn’t.

I felt a hand on my ankle and then somebody yanked me to the side.

It was a small hole which I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

I heard a muffled tone, “Suhani?”

She nodded, but no sound came out. I realised there was a hand on her mouth, it took awhile for me to recognise whoever was holding her because the face wasn’t visible. Then I realised it was because it wasn't a face, but a mask!

“You”, I snapped.

“You’ve been stupid boy”, the man replied thickly, “follow this hole, it will take you out”, he then realised his hand from Suhani’s mouth. Whose face was read- she gasped like a chicken, taking in deep breaths.

“We have friends out there”, I rattled, “they will come for us-”, then realisation set over me, “wait, you’re letting us go?”

“Don’t ask questions, we don’t have time”, the man snapped, he pushed the two of us further, “go now”, and then he crawled out of the hole.

Then I looked at Suhani, who was still too shocked, “le- go”, she rasped and wriggled down the hole.

“YOU WENT THERE YOURSELF?

“Yes”, Suhani spoke calmly, “anything wrong?”

“No nothing- WELL YES YOU COULD HAVE DIED!”

“STOP SCREAMING”

“Okay-okay”, Alph spoke softer than ever, “You could have died”.

“I wonder why the masked man let you go”, Brio mused.

“Let us know once you figure out”, Suhani exclaimed, “till then let me catch an eye”.

We woke up the next day to an early morning parade, our whole tent was shaking due to the noise. There were about a thousand men and women walking down the path excitedly waving triangular green flags with a golden outline that they held in their hands.

“The prize reveal”, Alph gurgled, “it’s about to happen”.

“Wha-”, Suhani spoke getting up with a start, then as if realisation set over her, “let's go”, she spoke jumping out of the hammock.

Brio handed each one of us a flag. Alph happily marched out waving the flag. Suhani stared at him and I expected her to smack him at least. Instead she just sighed loudly and followed the rest of us out.

The amphitheatre was crazy-packed once again. Two and a half minus thousand minus five, crazy people howled their lungs out, Alph included. I wondered how much longer Suhani could control herself. The five of us continued staring at Alph who continued to wave the flag and yelled, completely unaffected. Finally, to all our relief Suhani pulled the flag out of Alph’s hand and broke it into two.

“What?”, Alph spoke, surprised.

After what seemed to be a few hundred thousand years the trap door creaked and an instant silence spread through the crowd. People looked on with their mouths half open, but no sound was coming out.

The masked man walked out first and half a dozen men in dustbins followed him. In his hands he held a round object wrapped in a white cloth. Even from a long distance off, I could not help but notice the slight orange glow coming out from it.

“Competitors”, the masked man roared, “who wants to see the prize?”, he spoke, holding the cloth high above his head.

The crowd went wild- people were screaming all sorts of words, I could swear I heard a lady call out, “Marry me!”

My first thought was who would want to marry him?

But when I saw the lady I decided, even the masked man was way out of her league. She had long green hair, coming down till her waist. She covered more area than a fully grown African elephant. The look in her eyes was that of a wild boar, but the most noticeable part of her was her lipstick, Dark Green!

I closed my eyes and wished there was a way to unsee the last few seconds.

Unfortunately there wasn’t and I would have to live the rest of my life with a big photograph of her in my head. The masked man was almost at the point where he was going to reveal the prize.

And then he did- he pulled the cloth of the stone and the audience gasped.

Suhani seemed shocked, so did Alph, Dream, Yui and Brio. But seriously, why?

The masked man stood in the centre holding a shiny orange gemstone in his hand.

“Is that what I think it is . . . .?”, Dream questioned.

Alph, who looked too shocked to speak, just nodded.

“Guys, I’m new- remember?”, I spoke meekly, raising my hand.

“Topaz”, Alph spoke, the words barely coming out of his mouth.

“So . . . . what is so great about it?”.

“Not just a Topaz, it is ‘The Topaz’”

“What is ‘The Topaz’?”, I questioned, adding special emphasis.

“GODDAMMIT”, Suhani spoke furiously, “do you have to so moronic?”

“So what….?!”

“Remember the gemstone on Davidina Hybliss’s armour?”, she spoke, ignoring me.

No way! It couldn’t be.

“Is it that?”, I blurted out.

“Similar”

“There are just three of them”, Alph added, “the golden one was destroyed long ago, purple hasn’t been seen for thousands of years and well . . . orange also hadn’t been seen until now”.

“So how did they get it? Is it real?”

“No clue- and I’m guessing it is real. It’s one of the only seven magical items on the planet so it is impossible to copy”.

“Magical items?”

“Well there is the Flame, of course, the Nioplese Pillars and the Zion Diamond- you must have heard about it?”

“Zion- no I haven’t”

“Oh, you must know the human name- what was it Konipoor, no-no Kotipoor”

What?

“Koh-I-Noo-ooor”, Brio, spelled out.

“Koh-I-Noor?”, I blinked

“Yes Zion”, Alph nodded, “It’s got teleporting power”

Kohinoor- teleportation?

No, I wasn’t believing it. However I didn’t let any of the other know that

Once the organisers left, the place went into chaos. The five of us sneaked past a couple of snoring guards.

“The orange Topaz can show you whatever you want”, Alph explained, “wherever it might be”.

Back in the tent a serious discussion took place.

“So basically we win the competition, take the prize and go back happily?”, Dream spoke, summarizing the whole conversation.

“Yup”, Alph spoke.

Something told me it wasn’t going to be as easy as they were expecting it to be, but I decided to keep quiet. A while later Alph and Dream decided to head out for barbeque, “you coming?”

“What- no, I’m tired”

Alph nodded, “Suhani?”

“Nah, I’ll pass”,

Suhani lay down on her hammock, slowly swinging it with her legs. Then I cleared everything from my head, and concentrated on my Occult. A tingly feeling appeared in my stomach, I raised my hand slightly. I knew what I wanted-

I pulsed, slowly and carefully taking only controlled bursts and delicately molded the ice in my hands, feeling every bit molecule as it slowly appeared in my hands. Once I was sure I had done exactly the way I was expecting, I opened my fists only to find a snowball in my hand. I shoved the snow off my hand and prepared to start again.

The tent zipped open, Brio and Yui walked in, “Alph, Dream not back yet?”, he questioned frowning.

“Not yet”.

Brio nodded and got himself a magazine.

After numerous failed attempts a small sharp ice shard appeared in my hands. It lasted just for a few seconds and then melted- and the water slid down my palms and dripped to the floor, but at least a start. A whitish coat of snow had begun to form on the sides of my hands- but for some reason I could not feel it.

I closed my eyes this time and felt the ice form in my palm. I pulsed slowly and carefully molding the ice at the same time. It was working- I could feel it.

“Ice cream head!”

Startled, my whole body shook and ice exploded in my hands.

“What was that?”, Suhani spoke, eyeing me like a circus clown with a smug on her face, “anyways”, she continued, “Alph and Dream should have returned. It's been over two hours”.

I removed the ice from all over my face, “Yeah”, I spoke realising, “wonder what’s taking them so long”.

“They’ve gone to get barbeque”, Brio said, joining the conversation, “so what? A monster barbeque got them? Or they suddenly decided to spend two hours non stop eating- give them some time they should be back”.

The more time we waited the more impatient Suhani seemed to be getting. She paced up and down the tent then sat down on her cot. Within a minute she was up again, pacing up and down the tent and then went back to sitting.

Yui was calmly sitting on her bunk lost in thought as she fidgeted with the side post of her bed. She caught me looking at her and raised her eyebrows.

“What was that?”

I turned to look at Suhani who had stopped in her tracks. Brio leaned ahead and closed his magazine, “what?”, he frowned.

Suhani placed her fingers on her lips, “listen”.

For a moment there was nothing, and then a soft repeating sound entered my ears. Crunching of twigs.

Footsteps!

Suhani pulled out her bow and Dream picked up her boomerang from the side table. The footsteps stopped right outside our tent, A dark figure pulled the zip open, Suhani stretched her bow simultaneously.

Two people rushed inside

“Alph, Dream! What took you so long”.

The two of them looked at us, sweat was dripping from their faces. They’re expression gave it all out, something had gone horribly wrong.

“What?! say something”, Suhani prompted.

They seemed to be at loss for words, Alph fumbled as he wiped off his brow, “they’re coming after us”.