Across the border – Book I - 4 Chapter

“Are you sure we are going the right way?” Peter asked Robert with doubtful eyes.

“Don’t you worry, as per my sixth eye we are right on our way to find Elly faster” Robert joked.

Peter gave a light punch on Robert’s shoulder and said, “For the nth time I am saying this, you don’t have the sixth eye and there are only five eyes on your head”

“Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!” Robert held his chest and sat down on the mud and struggled to breathe.

“What happened, Rob? I did not hit you on your chest but shoulders. So stop overreacting” Peter kicked him on the butt now to make him get up from the ground.

“Ok, six more times left and if we calculate duration we will return home before my fifth attack,” Robert said jovially.

Peter hit his head and hugged Robert, “I want you to go back now. I don’t want to risk losing you and your twin nameless. I know we planned it well but now I am not confident anymore”

“No way, this is our adventure and you promised. Are you going to break your promise now?” Robert smirked.

“I am not breaking any promise. When did I even promise you? I promised Nameless and not you. You can give me the map and I can go by myself” Peter tried to download the content into his digital system.

“Hell, no. I am not giving anything to you. First of all, you can not even go to the bathroom without help and you want to go alone on this adventure? Who do you think you are, Great Maple?”

“I am not Great Maple and I know that. He united our nations but we fight against it now. Where we are going is more severe and it’s a war out there. And I worry about you. I do not want to lose my best friend”

“You won’t lose anyone and as per my calculations we are already halfway”

When they tried to move faster, they saw some weird plant hopping towards them and jumped on them. They shouted and ran faster.

But the plant jumped at them even more hurriedly and held them together with its tentacles.

“Easy boy, easy” Robert patted the plant and saw Peter almost on the verge of kissing the plant, so he started laughing loudly.

‘Hygelnewl’ plant started running in circles around the boys and suddenly shrunk and jumped into Peter’s bag.

They both looked at that plant and understood it wanted to come along with them. They patted the plant and fed the snack which Robert got along with him.

Even they fed the saplings attached to it. One of the sap gave Robert a purple flower, looking at it he jumped up in joy.

“Do you know what this flower is? Oh my goodness, it’s a treasure! A TREASURE”

“I do not see a treasure and all I see is a flower which has a common color of purple. Aren’t almost all the flowers in this country carry some level of purple color?”

“Ignorant is bliss. But let me tell you my dear fool how valuable this flower is! You can find your sister in less than half the time using this flower”

“Really? Does a small flower like this have such super magical powers?” Peter exclaimed.

“Lower your voice, do you want the whole sleeping city to wake up and offer yourself as a dish flavored with desert mud? Listen, just with this flower we cannot do that but with little more ingredients it is definitely possible”

“What nonsense are you blurting out? If we keep this slow pace, we can never reach the heart of the city even by next month”

“We don’t have to do that, we can just transport to your sister’s location from here.”

“What are you talking about? I am not understanding anything”

“That’s why I said you need to read the books your mother gives you instead of pushing all the hard work to me. In one of the book, it is written that a little purple flower from Hygelnewl combined with the right amount of dust from Asher star and a pinch of fine Renlow powder along with your sisters’ scent will make us travel directly to her place”

“Here is my sister’s scent, do not use it completely if your technique doesn’t work then we need to use it for our next one. But I don’t have the remaining ingredients”

“Who said you don’t have anymore? Take out the dust from Asher star”

Looking at Peter’s innocent eyes and getting irritated at his ignorance, Robert took the necklace from Peter’s neck and opened the cap of the tube pendant.

He took a pinch of the pink dust and added the flower into a small mud cup along with a pinch of Elly’s scent and closed it with a lid tightly. All that is left out of the mixture is Renlow powder.

He looked around and asked Peter if he had them but all he got was a shake of his head and Robert really lost it. “Ignorant! Ignorant! Ignorant!”

“Come on, you never said I would need all these before leaving and even you did not bring them” Peter complained. After thinking for a second he asked, “why don’t we feed the plant again and ask to give us the ingredient?

“Good idea, my brainy boy” Robert took a small piece of a snack from his pocket and tried to feed the plant but the plant just opened and closed its eyes and started sleeping.

“What now ?” Peter asked.

At that time a small voice was heard from inside the plant which made them jump up in surprise.

“I can give you the powder but what can you give me in return?” asked a small figure who climbed out of the plant.

“Who are you and why are you coming from the plant?” Peter asked.

“Are you the guardian of this plant? And why are you so small?” asked Robert.

“Yes, I am. And I asked you questions first which neither of you answered yet”, Short-tempered short man asked.

“We only have snacks with us, if you want them we can give you that” Peter answered.

“No, that is not what I want. I want a pinch of the dust of Asher in exchange for a bottle of the Renlow powder. Can we consider it a deal then?” Short man asked impatiently.

Peter was almost reaching for his neck but Robert stopped him and said “What you are asking is impossible! This is no deal”

“But it is just a pinch he is asking…” Before Peter could protest, Robert kicked his legs and silenced him with his eyes.

Then he turned towards the short man and said with confidence,

“We are not interested in this deal, so take your plant and move away from here”

Feeling the distraught around it, ‘Hygelnewl’ jumped from the bag and took its original size.