Mars Underneath The Sceptre of Eternity

Wandering Princess

When Deodara opened her eyes, she saw, she was resting on a red rock; but was not feeling any pain or heaviness. She saw a brightly lit area full of red, orange and yellow crystal pillars with great carvings. These carvings were neither depicting animals, nor depicting birds or human faces, they were neither geometric patterns nor flowers or any known objects. She could not describe what these carvings were all about. Some were resembling spikes, some were balls and some were looking like human faces with three horns. The place was looking like a palace chamber; but it was not full with expensive furniture or decorations. The chamber had many crystal pillars; dripstones looking like curtains and dividing the chamber into two parts; she was lying on a big rectangular stone slab placed on a round stone pedestal. If she wished to get down, she had to cross fifteen stone slabs placed loosely as stepping stones. The stone slab, where she was lying was looking like a big bed without a pillow, mattress and bed cover; but it was clean and shining brightly. The blue stone slab in the midst of red and orange crystalline stones had brought a nice contrast. She saw, a circular red stone slab just beside the bed; on the top of the stone slab, she found some white and grey coloured stone pots of varied shapes and sizes. A cylindrical shaped stone container also had some liquid. She thought, it was water and tried to drink some. But as she opened up the disc shaped cover from its top; she got a bad smell and found a thick, blue liquid inside.

'Oh, no, I am thirsty, but I cannot drink this.' She thought and kept the container on her bedside table. She looked around the cave chamber; it had no lamp or torch; but well lit; the stones around the cave were glowing brightly, and creating a nice shade of red, orange and yellow rays.

The cave had many hollows, which could be used as racks or storages. It was full of big stone chests, containers and some looked like decorative pieces, but she could not understand either those pieces were depicting animals or human replica. Suddenly, she heard a peculiar noise; as some woman with heavy jewelleries were entering her room. Her assumption was not wrong; she noticed, a stone door slid aside and a circular hollow or cave entrance was revealed. Someone entered the cave chamber; the person had shining yellowish skin tight garment of some unknown material resembling scales; he or she had a long garland of colourful crystals; a circlet crown of green crystals and armlet and bracelets of red and orange crystals. The person was too skinny, but when she came near her; Deodara realised that, the creature had two breasts.

'She is a woman.'

"Please listen, where am I?" She shouted, but the woman did not reply.

'She might be deaf or foreigner; cannot understand my language; but in this planet, we all use Aquilla as the common tongue.' She thought.

The woman came close to her and revealed sharp teeth; Deodara felt a surge of cold wave inside her spine; the woman had a skeleton like figure full of yellow scales; she was not hiding her body behind a cloth; but she had scales like fishes. Her face was nothing but a skull; without hairs and ears; she had a small hollow in the place of her nose; but her eyes were red and had yellow coloured eyeballs in the middle.

"No; don't advance." She screamed; but the woman did not mind.

"Hello; I am neither deaf, nor ignorant. I heard that you are thirsty. So I came. How are you, dear?" She asked affectionately.

"Who are You?" Deodara asked.

"I had kept blue water for you; please drink it." She said.

'Why she is not answering my questions and asking whatever I was thinking?' Deodara thought.

"My dear; you are in the land of Oggadians; if you speak with your mortal tongue, I cannot hear out; but if you think, I can answer. My name is Spigola; my father is the chief of the clan. I found you in the river, while roaming on its bank with my friends and fiancé. You must be from the surface of the planet and must be a prisoner sent by the Eagle King to please his Dark Lord; but you are fortunate enough to have a red rainbow crystal with you. It has saved your life; otherwise, I would find your ashes." She said all those words in one breath.

'I am not dead, but I am in some unknown world. Are they Firephenys?' Deodara thought.

"No, we are Oggadians; we live inside Mount Oganaka's Dark Caldera; but we call it Red Caldera. You are a human, are not you?"

'Yes;' Deodara thought, 'I am a human; but are you my friend or want to imprison me?'

"No, No, I am not in a mood to lose a friend like you; I'll keep you safe here; my father Grusxo will not know anything. My fiancé has promised me that I can keep you even after my marriage." Spigola sat on the bed like stone slab and took a big jug like container. She poured the smelly bluish substance within a stone mug and said, "Drink it."

"It is too smelly." Deodara said.

"If you like to stay here, you have to drink this instead of red surface water." Spigola gave the mug in her hand and smiled broadly.

Deodara took the mug and tried to finish the liquid substance as quickly as possible. It had a bitter taste, as she was drinking some poison; her tongue and neck started itching pathetically; she was feeling retching after some time. Suddenly she felt that she could not breath. Spigola was smiling to see her reactions; "My mother was right, you'll have these symptoms after having the potion, but don't worry, very soon you'll be one of us. Look at your hands."

To her horror, Deodara found that her fair skin was turning into red and scales had already appeared on her palms and arms. She found her hairs were falling rapidly and felt teeth were changing.

"NOOO" She screamed; Spigola could not hear her scream.

"You wanted to take revenge on the Eagle King; I'll give you the opportunity."

tions/Redu;\5