Across the border – Book I - 22 Chapter

When Draven came back, he had a huge smile while shaking the hands in the air with the copied address on the small digital monitor. Peter looked at him and smiled back.

“So, let us go” Draven started the flying machine but Peter did not hop on.

Draven looked at Peter who was just staring at him with no intention to get in.

“What now?” Draven asked impatiently.

“Your disguise!” Peter replied calmly.

“Seriously? Right now! Is it really important?” Draven asked.

“Yes,” Peter said.

“Ok fine! I did not know that you had this weird interest in seeing a man wearing girl’s clothes! Awesome! Just Awesome!” Draven complained.

“I never asked you to disguise as a girl! It was you who chose that costume!”

When Peter saw that Draven was almost back to being a girl, he got in and they both flew together. Within minutes they were at the place where the elder lived.

Once they got down, Draven shrunk the machine and put it in his backpack. Peter signaled Draven to stay behind but he did not listen and followed Peter with some distance.

Peter checked the area and realized that he was getting a familiar feeling about this place. When he turned around, all of a sudden he realized that they came to the place where he met Elly before.

The kids running around the street, it all looked real. He stopped a kid only to notice that he had no eyes. When a bunch of kids saw that Peter had stopped a kid, they started to disappear into the dark alley.

Peter felt something unusual about the kid, so he asked, “Who are you?”

The kid did not say anything. He just stood there and in seconds, before Peter could realize what had happened the kid melted away. The other kids came out after watching that with fear.

“You are our savior! You have finally come back to save us all! Long live Ashes! Long live Ashes Lord!” a group of people out of nowhere jumped in front of Peter and took him away.

Draven who looked at this felt his jaw drop. Ashes? Ashes Lord? Why do these people belong to Ashes on our planet? And why did they say that Peter is their savior?

Before Draven could get confused by himself, Peter came running towards him while pulling him away.

“We need to fly now… Make it fast, I do not have enough energy to stop everyone who is chasing us now” Peter said in a hurry.

“What do you mean by us? It is you! They are after you!” Draven said.

But still, he opened his backpack only to realize that it was empty with nothing in it. No! How is it possible?

“What happened? Hurry!” Peter urged.

“Hmm… Even if you want me to hurry, I cannot! As someone emptied my backpack completely.” Draven finally understood the severity.

“Are you sure?” Peter asked.

“I am sure but there is a way to stop them!” Draven stopped halfway and said with a smile.

“What?” Peter got irritated as he could not understand what Draven said.

“Look at the kid behind you,” Draven said.

Peter tried to look behind him but could not find any kid. He looked at him questioningly. Draven just shook his shoulder and lifted the tiny kid who was holding onto Peter from behind.

“Oh! Let me go right now!”, the little kid shouted.

Peter looked at the tiny kid and then back at Draven, as he still could not understand what Draven was trying to say!

“Ok… All we need to do is make this kid pretend like you!” Draven said.

“How? We are not the old witch who can change the appearance as we want” Peter said irritatingly.

“No! All you need to do is ask him. And he will change! Won’t you do that for us Elder?” Draven said.

The little kid immediately changed into an old man and stood before them.

“Draven, my son, you are as clever as always. You have become brighter and sharper than the last time we met. My son!” Elder said in an excited voice and even tried to hug him.

Draven pushed him away and said, “You are not my father! Who are you?”

“I am your father! How can you doubt that? Without me, you could have not survived” Elder said.

“I do not care! Stop those people right now and ask them to return all my things back” Draven ordered.

“So now you have even grown up to order me? Your Father?” The elder shouted angrily.

“You are not my father! He died as a hero! He became a legend who will be remembered for his good deeds. But who are you? Why do you want to spoil my father’s name?” Draven asked.

“So, Elder is your father,” Peter asked while looking at both of them in astonishment.

“Yes! He was! But I do not know the person in front of us” Draven said.

“Then who are you?” Peter asked the Elder once again.

“I am Draven’s father.” The elder replied once again.

“How can you be my father? I sent my father to Asher by myself. My father sacrificed himself to protect everyone on this planet. But you, on the other hand, came here to destroy this planet and the whole Asher system.” Draven grunted.