Love At Last

A Bird's Eye View

She had seen different shades of brown in her life. The coffee brown eyes of her father, the beautiful, light brown curls of her mother's hair, the dark brown bark of healthy trees, the reddish brown soil of her land... But none had repelled her. And none had looked so unnatural.

Such a brown, was the dry and barren land. It was parched, and longed for water. Even though she was seeing it from far above the ground, she could tell that no one could walk barefoot on that land without burning their feet. The sun shone brightly upon the barren land, daring any seedling, resting beneath the ground, to poke it's head out into the world. She was sure it wouldn't, lest it be burned to death.

Death...

That was the reason she was here.

She couldn't believe what she had gotten herself into. She had spent half her life learning to anticipate what he would do to lure her people to him, and how to defend his every move. She had taught her people to stand united against his evil force. She had sacrificed her brave soldiers to fight him. She had even asked some of her men to blend well among mortals, so that she would know if he chose to attack them. And she was glad that she did the right thing. He had struck there as well. But her men couldn't do anything to stop him.

And inspite of all those speculations being right, here she was, being drawn to this evil trap of his.

His ominous voice and harsh words rang in her ears as if she had just heard it.

"You will come to me, Dheera. If you value your land and it's people, you will not ignore my call. And I believe you won't do anything stupid before you bow to me. Because the life of your people are in my hands. Only I alone can save them."

"Cut it short, Czar. What do you want?" she had asked.

"Ooh! Still brave after all that happened?" he cackled. "I want your life, Dheera. And thereby, luck."

She hadn't understood what he meant by 'luck'. But nevertheless, she had prepared her folk more vigorously to guard themselves against Czar's army, if she were to surrender herself to him. She couldn't take any chances with him.

She looked down once more. The parched land stretched in every direction, and she couldn't see where it ended. But then, something in the distance caught her eye.

A lone tree stood in the middle of the desert, it's gnarled branches casting eerie shadows on the sand, its murky brown colour blending well with its surroundings.

As she swooped down towards the tree from above, her wings longing for a well deserved break, a searing pain shot across from her shoulder to her right wing. It was pain beyond measure and she couldn't move her right wing one bit.

Then she saw an arrow sticking out of her shoulder. But there was no blood staining her feathers.

She had been trained to withstand almost all kinds of pain. During the training sessions with her mentors, she had been shot multiple times on her left and right shoulder to train herself to withstand pain. But this was strange. The arrow hadn't drawn blood, yet she couldn't move her right wing at all.

She tried to stay airborne by flapping her left wing, but in vain. She was losing altitude at an alarming pace...

The pain blinded her. She knew she would lose consciousness any second...

But she couldn't give up. The fate of her people were in her hands. She couldn't give up so easily...

"Zaara! Wake up!"