Jhon Burston. The demise of the Nainka heir

The Flower of Aridya

The flower itself comprised a spring that didn't escape its petals: attractive, of course, flamboyant and docile in its movements like the leaves above us; a delight in combination with the fear of exposing our humanity to disbelief intensifies, especially when it is more the intrigue driving us to continue than the responsibility an adult would've assumed in agreeing to go to Viena. Jake was the closest thing to what I understood as adulthood among us. Jhon and I... well, we were more like a jest that became more and more abstract and forceful as the days went by.

We stood at a distance watching, believing that we had fought an intense battle against mother nature believing that we had outplayed complexity, and the truth was that we had just arrived at the least pleasant place... so far.

Hidden on the other side of the rocks we found what appeared to be a flower, showing off its extraordinary size, and surrounded by intimidatingly restless branches. Unbelievable! The yellow of its petals, as attractive as plates of gold, gradually changed in a descent to the pistil, where an orange hue was lost among the deep red of the seeds that were hidden from view. A few rays of light bathed the spongy surface of the petals; dozens of winding branches tangled and untangled fearfully making contact with the flower, seeming to protect the defenseless but beautiful plant from curious onlookers. We agreed, we had to be careful when approaching it. We also celebrated because no wonder we had just found what we had been looking for.

We strive to get in our gazes the answer to the only logic question: "What to do now?"

None of us moved, we had to wait for an obvious plan. Jake kept whispering to be cautious as Hendor had advised us, and meanwhile, we kept looking for solutions to something we didn't know. Jhon let out the first doubt, which, by the way, I had forgotten: —How do we find the seba? —he said. —What about Aridya? —I answered with a second question.

With two important questions, but no clues that could help us find what Hendor had asked us, I let them know that hiding behind the trees wasn't going to give us the answer either. Between impatience and anguish, I took courage and came out of the hiding place. I saw the flower carefully, then studied the surrounding, there were no signs of risk, which made me more uncomfortable, at one end I noticed a battered space between the rocks where we could approach. I did so. Jake left the hiding place to follow me. Jhon stayed behind the tree, guessing that something this strange couldn't be so helpless, his anxiety lessened as he saw us approaching. I had already reached the passageway, I stopped to wait for Jake. After nearly slipping off the cliff, I was wary of any of my abilities, and as soon as I knew I was approaching a beast like that, I chose to give Jake the honor. Jake caught up with me. We took a closer look. The look of the branches was unpleasant. Jake went ahead. I followed. We made sure that his every step was replaced by one of mine, kept our eyes open to make sure nothing strange took us by surprise. We got to a point where we could see the core of the flower, we noticed something flickering and glowing in the sun's rays, we didn't know exactly what it was or what it looked like, but Jake thought it might be the seba. Jake was quite convinced that the glowing object was what Hendor had entrusted us with. He cleared his throat and called out to Jhon to let him know that we had found the seba. The instant the name came out of his mouth the branches shook menacingly. We later learned could sense us, and it was the vibration of the scream that upset them. We panicked, and when we hurried to get out of the place... It was too late! The branches grabbed us by the feet. Jake was yelling at Jhon to stay out of sight, but the screams made the plants more upset.