23 Chapter - 23

When Sussan and Brenda along with Robert and Elly reached Secare forest, they saw other than James everyone else was lying down on the floor. Brenda and Robert rushed towards James to hold him tight. They couldn't imagine what would have happened if anything went wrong to him.

Sussan hurried towards them to check if everyone is still alive. Once, she confirmed that she breathed a sigh of relief.

"What happened?" She looked at James and asked.

James just stared at her but did not give any response. Brenda looked worried and tried to shake him out of his state. But the more she shook, the more she felt that only his body was here but not his mind.

Sussan went forward and examined him. She looked at Brenda and shook her head. She stopped Brenda who was about to bawl, and said,

"He is unconscious like all others but he can still hear us. He just could not respond to us yet. Looks like his consciousness drifted off to some other place."

"You are correct! He is not alive nor he is dead. He is not supposed to be here in the first place" a voice spoke but how much ever they searched the nearby forest area they couldn't see anyone.

"You cannot find me with your naked eyes. I want you all to leave my forest" the voice said.

Elly ran towards her mother and pulled her towards the lake which magically appeared minutes after they arrived. When they all looked inside, they saw all the soldiers who had fainted in front of them.

They were tied to a magical vine and they all looked drunk. Everyone was present except James.

"Where is James? Where is he? You better let my husband go or else I will burn down this whole forest" Brenda shouted at the top of her lungs.

But all they heard back was just a laugh! The voice just laughed for a few minutes before it sent a wave of the storm towards them. They were all lifted in the air and were being pushed inside the lake.

Sussan took the last remaining petal and a little of Asher powder to throw it at the storm. But before it could even reach the storm, it disappeared into the lake.

As they were waiting to be swallowed by the lake, all of a sudden everything returned back to the time they just arrived. The process just repeated multiple times and at one point Sussan shouted "STOP".

"Let us try some other method! We are just going on indefinite loops and we do not know what this forest wants from us" Brenda suggested.

They all sat in one place and waited for the voice to appear but as they did not do anything, they did not hear anyone speak anymore. Elly slowly moved towards a bush and caught an insect.

Before Sussan could run towards her and stop her, the insect already jumped down from her hands and enlarged in size.

"You finally found me, little girl! I am the guardian angel of this forest. No one must enter this forest! You all must leave the forest at once" Ectoproda insect spoke which made everyone speechless.

"Then why did the magic stream kidnap my husband and his team? We did not come here willingly and we do not wish to come to such an insecure forest. Let my husband and his team go, then we would never come back here again" Brenda almost went to hit the insect's head.

Sussan and Robert held her back and tried to calm her down. But she was not ready to listen as she was now feeling worried for James. Looking at the way Brenda was behaving, Ectoproda lost his patience and took the magical rod he was holding to hit her head slightly.

Brenda lost consciousness like everyone else and fainted. Her soul moved inside the lake and got locked by the magical vine.

Sussan held Brenda's unconscious body and made her lie down next to James. She looked at Ectoproda and then at the lake which had everyone's soul tightly tied to the magical vine.

"Alright, what do you want from us?" Sussan asked, looking at Ectoproda directly.

"Correct question! I want you all to leave this forest right now" Ectoproda said.

"We will leave but we need everyone's soul back to them, then we can all leave" Sussan answered.

"Wrong answer! I want you all to leave this forest right now" Ectoproda said.

"How can we leave without them?" Sussan asked.

"Wrong question. I want you all to leave this forest right now" Ectoproda said once again.

"Ok. what should we do to make you release them?" Sussan asked.

"Wrong question! I want you all to leave this forest right now" Ectoproda said.

Robert then pulled Sussan and Elly away. At first, Sussan thought they were going out of the forest but Robert actually brought them even deeper into the forest.

"Aunt Sussan, I don't think that insect would do what we ask him to! Daddy was still conscious and he signaled me to take you both away. He was just acting to be like everyone else so as to find a way to escape from that insect. And that is why we did not see his soul inside the lake."

"Thank Goodness, at least he is still ok! I am sorry about Brenda, darling! I should have stopped her but I failed" Sussan said while patting Robert's head.

"It is ok Aunt Sussan. We all know how my mom is! She always acts first and then thinks. So do not worry, let us just try to find some way to help dad rescue everyone!" Robert said.

When they looked around, they saw a completely different world around them. The place looked like it was formed of multi-colored crystal rocks. The magic they felt was too extreme, so Sussan asked the children to not enter that place.

So, they all hid behind a huge crystal to monitor the insect. Soon, it became dark and the crystal behind them started to shine brightly. It made them feel like all the crystals had just come to life.

And they were not wrong, few of the crystals extended their arms and yawned.

"How many times have I told you not to yawn in front of our guests?" a crystal which sounded like a lady scolded the crystal man behind her.

Few tiny shaped crystals ran around the three in circles. Elly knelt down and tried to lift one of the crystal kids up but he escaped through her fingers to hide behind his mother.