BACK IN REALITY

CHAPTER 3

The four of them seemed to have understood their problem and one of them closed the door of the little hole, while the other lighted a lantern. Now everything could be seen clearly. There were four tin boxes of sardines which were filled with cotton to make them usable like beds. A broken glass cup, again filled halfway with cotton, made a couch. An old radio for entertainment. It was huge, but doable. As the two were admiring all this, they heard the loud clearing of a throat. They turned in the direction of the sound and saw the four girls in front of them clearly.

They looked just like humans, only their ears were longer. One of them said "Who are you?" Samira said "My name is Samira and this is my friend Urvi. May I know your names?" The first one, whose hair was up to her knees, said her name was Hita. The second one whose hair were up to her waist introduced herself as Anaya. The third one's hair were only till her shoulders. Her name was Sara. Both of them found the fourth one's name really stylish: Jacqueline.

Having introduced themselves, two of them sat on the couch, and the rest, on the ground. The ground was carpeted by a big piece of cloth. Urvi said to them "We don't know anything about this place. Nor do we know where we are. Can you tell us about this place?" Sara said "Hita knows every nook and corner of the house. She'll tell you." Hita began, "Right now, you're in Warp house. I have no idea how you landed up here, but this house is owned by a fat monster......" As soon as Hita said 'monster' the other three girls started to laugh.

Hita controlled her laughter and continued "He has a wife and a daughter. The ladies are good I suppose. We never had an encounter with them, so we don't know much about them. The cat's name is Tommy. People of the house call him Tom. And along with these people, we live here. Tell us about yourselves." Samira said "I can't tell you how exactly we came, because even I'm not sure. I can just say that we're from Bengaluru. We live in an orphanage. We are not aware of anything about this place."

None of the four gave any reaction. After a while of strange silence, Jacqueline finally said "Are you telling the truth?" Urvi said "Yes. Really." Jacqueline looked at the others whose faces had started to light up with a smile. Urvi said "What's the matter?" Anaya said "The old woman prophesied the right thing. Earthlings really came up here." Samira said "Can you explain?" Sara said "Eons ago, an old woman approached this house for a place to stay for the night. and the owner's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather refused out of ego. He said he wouldn't have pitied her even if she were an earthling. So, this lady cursed him that he will be reborn in his clan and would be defeated by the smallest creature - earth humans. And you guys have arrived here."

Urvi said "Aren't you earthly beings too?" Hita said "No. We were born up here in the skies. It is under your guidance that we can defeat that guy. All the details about you guys are mentioned in our scriptures." Urvi then noticed their long ears. Samira said "But we know nothing about this place. How do you expect us to lead you?" Anaya said after a short pause "You literally are the one the woman prophesied about." Hita said "She mentioned that they will have this kind of mind-set once they arrive. They'll first explore everything and then will effectively guide us to victory." Samira looked at Urvi. They exchanged looks.

Urvi came closer to Samira and whispered to her "What do you think?"

"I don't believe it. How can it be? It has to be a myth."

"But we can't go back either."

"Do you want to help them?"

"They want us to."

"So should we?"

"We at least won't die of hunger here. And most of all, they trust us."

"So shall we say yes?"