Pupandaka 2

Chapter 7 - Last Hope

The next morning after the boat trip with Queen Tearlach, Drele woke up in a dizzying nausea. His entire house felt cold. When he got out of bed, he quickly stumbled into the hallway to check the thermostat - it was 4 degrees Celsius. He then looked out the window, there was a blinding white in every direction. Snow, he thought, snow and ice in the middle of summer. He wondered why he felt so nauseous. He entered the bathroom and threw up twice into the sink.

There was a sudden knock on the door as Drele left the bathroom. He opened the door and Queen Tearlach was standing there, looking straight at him with a concerned look. “No offense, but you don’t look so good today,” Tearlach said as she examined him. “Of course not, my house is freezing. What’s with the sudden change in weather so early?” Drele asked. Queen Tearlach leaned closer to him, whispering as if to make sure nobody else hears. “It’s Sapta. It broke past the border. It’s here.” Drele’s eyes widened.

“Come with me and we can discuss this situation. I don’t want anybody to go into a spinning frenzy just yet,” Tearlach said. Drele followed her without saying a word. He wanted so desperately to get rid of this drastic turn of events and stabilize everything. Can it break through the primary defenses? He wondered what would happen exactly if Sapta were to swallow the whole village.

When he followed the queen to the top of the Orienda Tower overlooking the kingdom, he froze in shock. The entirety of the kingdom was white, as far as the eye could see. “Look beyond the mountain range,” Tearlach pointed. As soon as Drele looked to the area Queen Tearlach was pointing at, he froze again in terror. What he sees is the shattered secondary border, and below it, a dark mist. The mist of Sapta itself. 

“If it breaks through the primary border, the kingdom is doomed. There is no easy way to defeat this insentient form. We must alert the surrounding nations,” Queen Tearlach said. As he continued looking out into the area, Sapta seemed to be wandering, it seemed to be trying to figure out a way past our last line of defense. Then it looked directly at him. His whole body seized with shock. He couldn’t look away. It sees me, he said to himself.

“It sees me,” Drele whispered quietly. 27 kilometers away, Sapta is looking directly at Drele and Queen Tearlach. It seemed enraged, it wanted to kill the nation and even the queen using nothing but its elimination power. “Come now,” the queen waved over to Drele. They made their way back to the base of the tower and to the palace. 

Back at the palace, Drele couldn’t help but wonder how exactly Sapta would get past their strongest defense. The borders are made of subatomic gravitational forces. The primary border is made up of 3 layers of atoms, each layer acting on another using their own gravity. This reaction creates a shield strong enough to break through a collapsing building. It can even withstand tsunamis. 

This reaction is what repels alien forces such as Sapta from entering. It also repels any fast-moving objects traveling at an adequate speed to cause extreme damage. The second border is made up of only one layer of atoms acting unto itself. Instead of repelling, it can deflect anything that may be a threat. But Sapta broke through this with ease.

Now the strongest border is our last hope. If Sapta breaks through this, that’s it, the kingdom that was home to dragons would be gone. Drele now has an urge to make one last meeting with Tanark over the Garden of Dragons. “Queen,” Drele said, “I have a request to make.” “What is it?” “I’d like to encounter Tanark again about this situation. I’m sure she can handle this,” Drele explained. Tearlach looks bewildered. “And how can she fix this? It took many years for her to contain this thing,” she said. “Just take me there and I’ll see what I can do.”

Queen Tearlach orders a boat ride back to the Garden of Dragons to meet up with Tanark again. As they close in, Drele stares in both shock and amazement. “The island is also white,” he said. “I know, and it somehow looks so beautiful with the colors and whiteness blended in,” Tearlach said, facing the island. 

As they reached the dock, they boarded off the boat and touched the ground. It crackled as they made little imprints in the snow. They easily spotted Tanark out in the open, shivering. When she spotted their approach, Tanark simply huffed. “Tanark, Drele has something he wants to discuss with you,” Tearlach said. “We’ll talk about it in my cave. It’s so cold out!” Tanark said as she shivered.