The Accidental Pet ✔️

Chapter 13

Meara returns to her family's holiday cottage, only to find that her parents had barely moved from where she had left them, almost half an hour ago. Pleasantly surprised, she once again checks the time on her wristwatch. And once again, she notices that her watch had not taken into account the time she had spent inside Darakt. It was as if, her watch had reset itself as soon as she had stepped out of Darakt.

"Meara, what's the matter? Did you forget something?" Som asks, not having expected his daughter to return so soon.

"Appa, I was feeling thirsty," Meara informs and drinks the water from her pink unicorn water bottle.

"Sweetie, why don't you just take the bottle with you?" Mayura suggests, to which Meara nods, and picks up the bottle before once again rushing outside.

She knocks on Darakt, and WuJi opens the door with a curious look on his face.

"What happened?" He asks as the window transforms into a door, and Meara walks inside.

"WuJi, I know why you are still a baby dragon even though you are thousands and thousands of years old!" Meara pauses and adds a little hesitantly, "At least, I think I know partly why you have not grown over the years."

WuJi scratches his head.

"WuJi, time doesn't move inside Darakt," Meara explains.

"Mn?" The baby dragon cocks his head, and looks at Meara with a dumbfounded expression, "What do you mean? I can assure you that I sleep an hour after sunset, and wake up an hour before sunrise. And I do it every day. So why do you think that the time doesn't move inside Darakt?"

Meara pulls WuJi to bed and explains what she had observed about time not passing when she was inside. They talk at length about time, and how it was logical to assume that it moved differently inside and outside WuJi's home. And by the end of it, WuJi nods his head in agreement.

"WuJi, you said that I can help you get home, right? Tell me how I can do that?" Meara asks, excitedly.

WuJi goes to the tiny cupboard next to his bed and returns to Meara with the Book of Answers.

This time though, the cover is devoid of LongMu's moving image.

WuJi hands over the book to Meara, "Mommy said that the way to get home is written in this."

"Tell me the way." Meara requests. She takes the book but doesn't open it.

Why?

Simple. Because books scare her. They were a constant reminder of the fact that she was different, that she could not read these books, that was the reason for her parent's sadness.

WuJi's face falls, "I can't tell you... I.. I can't read it." The little dragon mutters with tears in his eyes.

"Aigooo WuJi!" Meara exclaims, and hugs WuJi, "Don't cry. Your mother was sure that I am the one to help you get back home, right?"

WuJi nods, sobbing soundlessly.

Meara let's go of her friend, and closes her eyes, 'Please Jai Bappa, help me so that I can make my friend happy.' She prays to her favourite Deity, Lord Ganesha.

She looks at the thick but lightweight book in her hand, and takes a deep breath, before opening it. Almost immediately, a wide smile stretches across her face, and she blurts out, more to herself than to WuJi, "I can..I can read this!"

"Really!? Please tell me what it says." WuJi says, clapping his hands.

"It looks like a poem," Meara informs and starts reading.