EXAMINATION

Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

They all stood frozen, unable to move for a long minute. Then Shad spoke up.

'Let's go back to the tree. I have a feeling we will find the real Khizar there."

"Yeah." Asbar said quietly.

When they looked back down at Afreeth's body, it was fading away.

"An illusion?" Sehr asked.

"Probably." Mah-Rukh replied.

They walked back to the tree in silence lost in their own thoughts. They were all a bit shaken by this experience.

On reaching the tree Khizar had went up, Shad and Asbar quickly climbed it. Mah-Rukh and Sehr waited patiently by the base.

The tree was larger than it seemed from the ground. Its truck was thick and rough with a lot of footholds. About 3 feet from the ground the tree divided into five main branches. They found Khizar a little higher. His shirt had been torn into strips and used to tie him to the tree. One was around his mouth gagging him. Shad and Asbar quickly got to work removing the bonds. Khizar gasped and spluttered. Thankfully they weren't too well tied. Whoever tied him up was in a hurry. They had an idea why that would be.

"How did you guys know that wasn't me?" Khizar asked them, rubbing his wrists, the surprise evident in his tone.

They both grinned at each other. "Let's head back down, the girls are waiting. Then we'll tell you."

They started climbing down quickly.

"Oh! They found him!" Sehr exclaimed.

"Khizar! Are you okay?" Mah-Rukh called.

"He's fine! Just a little shaken up, but otherwise unharmed." Shad replied for him.

They landed on the ground beside the girls.

"So?" Khizar said, turning a questioning glance towards Asbar and Shad.

"Oh! Here." Sehr said, handing him the shirt Afreeth had taken off.

"Thanks." Khizar said. "Wait...is this..."

"Yeah this is the shirt Afreeth was wearing." Sehr said, guessing what he was about to ask.

"Okay that is kind of creepy you know." Khizar replied with a disgusted face. But he wore it anyways.

They laughed.

"Well you see..." Asbar started, answering the question Khizar had asked before. "The fake Khizar...or Afreeth...when he was Khizar...or, well u know who I mean, anyways he was leading us off the path. I'm pretty sure if there was a tower, we wouldn't have to get off the path to get there. That would be against the rules."

"Yeah, I was suspicious too." Shad agreed. The other two nodded their heads. "Then I realized Asbar felt the same. Oh, and he also said Mahads' name with such hate, you would never say it like that. It was just weird."

"Oh...so that's why you signaled Asbar to throw water on you. I thought there was something going on." Sehr said.

"Yeah, I had to create a situation where I could have an excuse to get his shirt off, without his suspecting anything." Shad replied.

"So, you decided to check that mark Mahad told us about?" Khizar said, grasping the situation.

They nodded.

"Whew that was scary though, that moment he showed his real form..." Mah-Rukh said putting a hand on her heart.

They grinned at each other relived they had overcome another test.

"Oh, which reminds me, did you see anything when you climbed up?" Asabr asked Khizar.

"Yeah, the tower is close by, since I could see it from there," Khizar said, then paused.

"But?" Shad asked, urging him to continue.

"But it was weird, I couldn't tell from my position, since it's not too close, but it looked like the tower was..pink-ish. Like it looked like it was painted pink..?" He finished, pursuing his lips in confusion.

"It looked pink? That is weird." Shad said

"Oh well! We'll know what's up when we get there. No use worrying beforehand." Asbar said lightly.

Khizar laughed quietly. "That's true. Let's go then!"

And they set off once again.

"Wonder why the tower was pink though..." Shad said.

"You're really curious aren't you?" Asabr teased.

"Well it's weird! Why pink?"

"Maybe it's painted pink so we can put the pink coloured flag on it?" Mah-Rukh suggested.

"There isn't a pink flag." Sehr replied.

"There isn't?"

"Nope."

"Huh. Then-"

Whatever Mah-Rukh was going to say was cut of by a bright light ahead.

It felt like the light engulfed all of them softly. When their eyes adjusted, they saw that they were in a small clearing in the forest, filled with bright green grass and soft sunshine. At the other end of the clearing, they saw the tower. What they saw made them gasp in wonder.