Netra’s PoV

I called for the blue bird and she flew straight to my hand. The forest has many blue birds just like the one that came to visit me with messages. The blue bird wanted me to find my mom’s journal. But then, I strongly believe it was my dad who wanted me to find the key. He talked to me through his ring that I wore on my finger. So my grandma was the one that sent the bird! Why? 

I remember Ambuli uncle told me that before every catastrophe, the blue bird was seen. So she has been trying to warn our people before dad strikes? But why would she warn them instead of stopping her son? Why is this forest forbidden? What other secret is hiding in this darkness?

“Aira, I think we have to go out before Giza wonders where we are.” I told her but she never moved an inch. 

I jumped down from her and started walking around. The glyptodon that we met outside this forest came to me and nudged my legs. I looked down at it and it started rolling further deep into the forest and I followed it. Aira followed me and I was completely taken by surprise to see a cavern glowing with crystals. The top of the cavern is open like a volcano top and different colored crystals are hanging on the ceiling and growing on the floor like icicles. 

“Wow!” I exclaimed at the sight. The glyptodon nudged me to move forward and go in. I am not sure if it is a good idea to go in further. 

“No! Wait!” I tried to stop it but it pushed at the back of my knee and I lost my balance. I stepped in the cavern and got a hold of the crystal that was growing on the floor. “God, what is in here? What do you want me to see?” I asked him but he stood out of the cavern and looked behind me. He is trying to tell me something and I trusted him. I walked further inside passing the green and orange crystals. The wall and the floor of the cavern is wet and slippery and I had to be double careful to not end up dying falling on the sharp icicle.

“Mmm uh…” I heard a weak moan from deep inside the cavern and a ball of fear gathered in my tummy. I held my tummy with my hand and walked further in towards the moans. My babies were wriggling inside my tummy.

“Isfe! Let us go! I know you are here. How long do you think you are going to have us here as captives? This damp place is agony to us. Let us go, please!” I heard a weak man talk. 

“Just kill us! Why are you torturing us like this?” another man asked.

“We are wrong. We agree with everything we have done. We did it out of ignorance. We are ready to succumb to death, please, kill us!” another! How many people are there? I fastened my pace and reached the crystals that had grown from the floor to the ceiling in an orderly fashion. It was like a sealed gate.

“You!” the man who stood near the gate stumbled behind after seeing me. There were four men on the other side of the gate and they were all pale and thin. They were taller with big eyes than usual and they are not very human-like but they are humanoid with a little elongated head at the back and they were beautiful! Everyone feared me! 

“Who are you all? Why are you here?”

“Go away!” a man who was behind in a corner yelled.

“You don't remember us?” the  man who stood near the gate asked me and I shook my head in a no!

“Maya?” He asked me and I shook my head in a no again! They think I am Maya? Why? Do I look like Maya? Isn't Maya the god? Why are they terrified of Maya?

“Don't try to trick us Maya. Kill us. Send our souls to space. Erase our memory. We are tired of this life.”

“I truly don't know who you all are and I am not Maya. I am Netra. Who are you? Why is my grandma holding you all here?”

“Your grandma?”

“Yes, Isfe is my grandma.”

“You are Maya’s daughter?” their eyes widened in shock.

“No, I am Maayon’s daughter. Enough of me. Tell me about you.” I cut short the conversation. 

“We are here serving for our sin. These are radioactive crystals. It is giving us all sorts of ailments on this indestructible body. We are suffering! We are longing for death but death won't come at us. We are tired of trying to die. Whenever we are hurt to death, this serpent will bring Isfe and she will heal us only to let us rot in this cell. Kill us.”

“So you are immortal! Why is my grandma holding you all hostage?”

“We were the group your grandma created! She called us rebels! Our people called us coven leaders!”  

Wait a minute! The rebels and the coven leaders are the same people!? But I thought differently or I was told differently by my grandma. No one is trustable. I can never trust anyone but my instincts. Something tells me to stay away from these people and I decided to follow my intuitions.

“So you were the ones that killed my grandpa and tried to kill my grandma and my family? You are the ones that banished my aunt Maya from her home! You are the starting point to all the catastrophe that followed! Your greed and impatience! This punishment serves you right!” I told them and walked out without heeding their pleas to release them from that place. 

“Aira, I have to get out of here. I have to go to my dad.” I told Aira and she grunted in response to me. “Tonight, after everyone sleeps. We have to sneak out before Giza gets alert. Just me and Thuriga. Leave us where you picked us up.” I kept talking to Aira while bidding my bye to the glyptodon and other animals that nuzzled their snouts near me. 

“Princess, where did you go? We were worried for you. Are you alright?” Giza asked me just when I entered the home.

“I am fine, Giza. relax. I just went for a little walk with Aira.”

“Our leader wants to see you.” He said.

“I am very tired, Giza. My body needs a lot of rest. I am going to sleep. Can you please tell her that I will meet her in the morning?”

“Sure, Princess! Take a good rest.” He bowed and went out of our hut.

“I will send him off and come back, Princess.” Thuriga ran behind him and I smiled at her antics. 

“We need to leave here tonight after everyone sleeps, Thuriga. Be ready.” I told her as she entered the hut after sending him off.

“But, Princess, Giza?!”

“We will come back, Thuriga.” I told her and she nodded her head. We both stayed in the hut until everyone fell asleep. We waited for Aira’s signal for clearing and when we heard her grunt, we both left the hut and walked behind our hut to the place where Aira was readily waiting for us. Thuriga wore the suit that we brought and I have already stolen the suit of Giza. Though big, it served its purpose. We climbed on Aira and she started walking into the forest. 

“Why are we leaving now, Princess? Where are we going?”

“To my dad!”

“But you ran away from him! Why would you want to go to him?”

“I need to see my mom, give my babies safety to her! I am having contractions, Thuriga. I may go into labor anytime. I need my mom!” I told her. My babies are my precious. I cannot sabotage their safety.

“I understand!” She patted my shoulder and as we neared the edge of the forest, Aira picked up pace and started running towards the tornado’s wall.

“Here we go!” I murmured crouching on Aira. We held onto Aira’s fur and she ran at the speed of light. She emerged out of the tornado and started running to the tunnel from where she picked us from. 

“Thank you, so much Aira. Go back to Giza. stay with him. I will come back to you when it is the right time.” I told her, getting down from her. She ruffled her fur and nuzzled closer to me. I kissed her forehead and we started walking into the tunnel. 

“I am scared, Princess. What if your dad gets angry at me and punishes me?”

“Don't worry, Thuriga. I will protect you.”

We came out of the tunnel and started walking towards the home I was trapped in. but as we neared the main road, we saw people clamoring together and watching something. Curiosity got the best out of us and we tried to mingle with the crowd and see what is so interesting that everyone is watching. But as soon as I saw what was in front of me, I lost my cool.

“Let him go!” I screamed at the top of my voice and everyone who were near us gasped in shock and moved away from me. The whole town bowed their heads and the ones that were carrying the cage set it down and bowed. 

“What did you do to him?” I ran towards him. My Dyan! 

“Dyan!” I opened the cage and went in.  I shook him but there was no movement from him. The very scene was making my stomach twist in fear.

“What happened to him?” I asked the people who were carrying him.

“We have put him to sleep, Princess. He is just sleeping. He will wake up soon.” one man said. 

“Wake him up, now.” I came out of the cage and ordered the man.

Before the commotion settles down, the crowd murmured again and in came my dad and mom! My mom came running to me.

“Netra!” her eyes were flowing and she looked so young! She looked just like my friend. No one would believe me if I say she is my mom! She hugged me and I hugged her back. She looked at my tummy and rubbed it with her hands and my babies jumped in joy at the caress of their grandma! 

“Omg!” She kneeled down near my feet and kissed my tummy. “How are you Netra!?” 

“I am good, ma!” I told her and looked at my dad.

“Wake him up!” I told him.

“It was a tranquilizer, Netra. He will wake up in an hour. Come, let's go!” He said as if nothing bad had happened. Taking in the eyes of people on us, I walked along with him and my mom. My dad ordered the militia to bring Dyan home and they followed us.

He walked me into a room and the militia set Dyan on the bed and they left. My mom and dad stood there looking at me without even blinking their eyes. We have so many things to talk about but nobody knows where to start. The feeling of mom and dad didn't make me as emotional as anyone would expect but my mom was literally melting in tears. My dad’s eyes were trying to express an emotion that definitely hit the pit of my stomach in anxiety and anticipation. His looks are not deceptive, his eyes held genuine emotion but what exactly he is trying to convey is beyond me at this point.

“Take some rest! I know how much you guys missed each other. It is his perseverance that brought him to you in this short span of time. Here, wear it. Call me when you both are ready to talk.” He gave me a ring, same as the one I was wearing before. 

“This is to manipulate me just like you did when I was on earth?”

“No! I tried to talk to you to bring you here. I didn't manipulate you.”

“Why did you not want Dyan to know anything?”

“Because I wanted him to stay apart! I didn't want him near you.”

“Why? He is my mate!” I knew it was him from the start. The blue bird didn't talk after all! Grandma just tried to warn my Lycan people of the coming catastrophe and she just did the same to me. But in my case she tried to tell me about my mom. So every hundred years, my dad had been trying to impose a threat on them. Why?

“Relax! We will talk about it later.”

“I heard a girl's voice!”

“I thought you would freak out if you heard a man! So I used a female voice to talk to you through the ring.”

“What did the Lycan’s do to earn your hatred?”

“They have my sister’s blood!”

“So?” I don't understand anything!

“We need to talk, Netra. You have to trust me. I am not a bad man. Just like Ellavan is not bad, I am not bad either.”

“But you are the one that made him look bad! You spoiled his life! Why?”

“You will not understand if I tell you why I did what I did. We need to talk. Take some rest. You can talk to me through this and you can hear me talk through this. It is not new to you, it is like your cell phone! Call me when you guys are ready!” He left us in the room along with my mom. My back was killing me because of the weight of my children and I badly wanted some rest. I laid beside the huge black wolf, hugging him for my dear life. 

Oh, how I missed him! Sleep embraced me as soon as I cuddled with him!