Where The Mind Is With Fear

Part 3

The car pulled into the driveway and I hurriedly woke Aarya up. She rubbed her tiny hazel eyes, and as soon as she realized we were nearing a mansion, she sat up. God, Aarya I tell you. She gasped. We had never been to a 4 storeyed building, let alone a mansion. And to think of it, this was going to be the home of our new step-mother. Who, honestly, I din't really like. 

The chauffeur got out and opened the car door. Aarya and me got out, gaping at the gate itself. It was huge, much huger than Sister Athena's belly from our orphanage. The gate was sprawled with carvings. Carvings of dragons. It should've scared Aarya but boy, did she get scared? She ran to admire the beauty of what lay beyond those gates. An old man, of about 60 years age opened the gate for us. He was wearing robes. Peculiar, much? The robes were designed skillfully with yellow threadings, which looked like random curves and twists to me but I soon found out they were dragons. 

Anyway, we entered and found ourselves in a beautiful garden-like structure. The garden was also big. It was two times the size of my own house, as far as I could remember. But, instead of grass, it was just the normal mud. Yes, THIS sight appalled me. There was no grass, not even artificial, in a garden so huge. And there were these goblins roaming around everywhere. They wore the same robes, but with green threadings on purple robes. There were many of them. Instead of flowers, we saw, to our surprise, plants. Not the green, leafy plants. We saw plants that grew THINGS. All sorts of things. I spotted a goblin pouring brown liquid on a plant that grew some pointy star-like things. Aarya and me, both looked at Mrs. Russo with a confused expression.  Was this some kind of joke? Was I dreaming? 

Mrs. Russo said, "Welcome, my honey bunches. Yes I know you are surprised. Well, this is my little secret. I live in a mansion, which has a garden that grows defense items. Defense items it is children."

So. This was the game. I was amazed actually and too tired by now to question her "secret". I had to live with it, probably for the rest of my life. So. 

We enetered in the house. The main door too was large and had dragons on them. Mrs. Russo should have called her mansion "The Dragon House". I chuckled at my own little joke. Inside the mansion, I almost died. It was beautiful. As beautiful as can be!

There were hundreds of men, all in robes this time with blue dragons on yellow robes. Mrs. Russo liked dragons and colors, I figured. I had expected that inside there would be midgets with flying powers but there was nothing new inside. Just a regular house furnishing. A big television set was fixed on the walls, which were also wallpapered with dragons. Haha. And there was also a sofa big enough to let 6 people squeeze, five people if you din't want to squeeze and four people if you wanted comfort. The walls had many pictures on them. They all had men and women on them. Most of them looked like Mrs. Russo. 

"My ancestors", Mrs. Russo replied with pride.

"Oh", I said, not able to think of something better.

"You must be tired children. My hagons will show you the way to your rooms."

"Hagons?"

"Ah, I never refer to them as servants. They are my hagons."

Wow. Was she weird or what? Anyway, one of the robed men approached us and started walking with a nod. We followed him. We climbed stairs. They were grand. The top floor had many rooms, all with closed doors. At the far end, was our room. We went inside, thanked the "hagon" and once again found ourselves marvelling.

Our room too, was big. Okay, I change the name of the house to "The Big Dragon House". The walls were painted with animed dragons(duh), and there was a huge wardrobe there. The big bed in middle had 4-5 small pillows and two big ones. There was a window on one side of the walls from which the garden could be seen. On the window sill, was scribbled "Welcome, whoever is staying here. Welcome to hell."

I did not want Aarya to see it. I put few things on it and sat on the bed. It was soft and springy. Aarya said,  "I want to wash", and scampered away to the bathroom. It had a bathtub in it, and all those magnificient showers, basins, etc. I didn't bother much. Was already getting used to luxury. 

I fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow.

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