Do magical beings only exist in story books?
The story of a heartwarming friendship between a child and a lonely baby dragon.
[ONC 2020]
[Prompt No. 2]
Time starts passing like sand through the hourglass. To be honest, both Meara and WuJi feel that it's passing faster than usual. After all, the two had been having lots of fun, and as is usually the case, time flies when you are having fun, right? And within no time, twenty-five days have passed.....flown away... poof...like magic!
With happy, albeit a little heavy heart, on the twenty-sixth day, the two friends once any find themselves on their now usual spot on Darakt.
The magical bowl floats down and lands on WuJi's open palms. Though the water is dancing at the edge of its brim, not even one drop spills out. WuJi and Meara watch, the shiny cup rise out of the magical bowl, and floats over to Meara. The bowl hovers in front of the little girl's face, till she hesitantly takes it in her hand.
"It's beautiful!" Meara gushes excitedly, showing it to WuJi.
"So, what next?" WuJi questions, taking a deep breath.
"I guess...I will go back and bid farewell to my parents. I mean, I don't know how long the journey might take...and if something goes wrong..." Meara trails off.
"Nothing will go wrong. If I ever feel like something is going to go wrong, I will make sure you get back to your parents safely." WuJi promises, more to himself than to Meara.
Meara's heart grows heavy, "But what if that means you can't meet your parents?"
"Then so be it. You are my best and only friend, and I can't let you suffer the same fate as I did... No. Never." WuJi answers resolutely.
The two friends hug, both in tears for very different, yet somehow, the same reason.
After what seems like hours, Meara lets go of WuJi. She cups her friend's baby blue cheek, and announces, "Let's do this, partner!" before climbing down and going back to meet her parents, one last time.
"Hey sweetie, what are you doing back so early?" Mayura enquires.
Meara runs and throws herself in her mother's arm, almost making her topple over, "I love you, Amma." She says, her voice cracking.
"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" Mayura asks, feeling alarmed, "Did something happen? Did someone say something to you? Are you hurt." The concerned mother bombards her daughter with questions.
'I need to control my emotions.' The little girl realizes. "Amma, nothing's wrong. I just realized that I don't tell you enough how much I love you." Meara answers.
Right at that moment, Som enters the room and hugs the two most special women in his life, "Looks like I was wrong in thinking that you love your cool Appa more, sweetie pie."
Meara turns and hugs her father, "I love both of you equally. Appa, stop trying to get me in trouble with Amma." The little girl chirps.
"Okay okay, I get it," Som whispers, before breaking the hug, and winking at his daughter.
"Appa, Amma, I will get going now. I will see you before lunch." Meara informs, placing a kiss each on both their cheeks.
"See you soon." She yells, walking out of the door. As soon as she is out the door, with her fingers crossed, she whispers, "Hopefully."
When Meara arrives at the base of Darakt, she finds WuJi waiting for her. He has an almost transparent, backpack like thing hanging from his shoulder.
Without making it seem like she is following someone, Meara starts following WuJi, who confidently makes his way towards the beach.
None of them speaks till they have reached an almost secluded part of the otherwise crowded beach.
"Meara, are you ready for an adventure?" WuJi challenges, handing over the shiny magical cup filled with water, to his best friend.
"As ready as I will ever be," Meara answers resolutely, before lifting the cup to her lips, and gulping down its entire contents, in a go.
Almost immediately, Meara starts to feel her body change. She looks at her bare feet and finds that her toes are webbed together. It doesn't hurt her. It just feels strange.
She feels a tingling sensation behind her ears and she guesses what is happening, "WuJi, the water is changing my body to help me breathe underwater!" She informs excitedly touching what she thinks are gills, at the back of her ears.
"Ohhhhhh." WuJi yelps, checking out the changes taking place in Meara's body.
Then all of a sudden, the tingling sensation stops, "WuJi, I think I am ready. Let's go. Lead the way." Meara informs.
WuJi nods and starts taking confident steps towards the sea with Meara following close behind.
The two friends, thread the water till it gets too deep. Then, with a sharp nod, WuJi dives underwater.
"Please help us in this mission, Jai Bappa." Meara looks at the sky and whispers, before diving in behind WuJi.
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