It was sometimes since Mia was gone underwater. Lin and the rest of the waited eagerly for her to resurface. Roe and Xie kept exchanging strange looks while they waited. Lin had his fists clenched. Boshu circled the horizon once and then around Lin once. After what seemed like quite a long time, Mia swam back tot he shore. Lin rushed to help her out of the water. She sat leaning against Lin, facing the others.
“I tried taking to the creature. It is down there. But it refuses to take us all to the tree of knowledge. It said it can only take me there. However is does agree to take the rest of you back to the stream at the ridge. ”
“What ridge? ” Roe asked. Mia looked at Lin.
“The one in our world. Precisely it agreed to take us back home. But only Mia can go get the answers from the tree of knowledge. This is messed up. Mia can’t it take me instead of you. ” Lin was very frustrated.
“I tried. It said no. ” Mia said. ” Well you can tell me what to ask. ”
“It’s not that simple Mia. The tree of knowledge talks in riddles. Moreover it asks for sacrifices to give out answers. It’s very difficult to negotiate with it. I do not want you to got there alone. It’s too risky. ” Lin said holding unto her hands tight.
“But what other option do we have? ” Asked Roe.
“We can take another day and try to figure our way out if we can. ” Boshu tried to sprinkle sone optimism.
“There is no point waiting. We only have two options. Either we persuade the creature to take atleast one more of us with it or we give Mia all possible information that we have and then trust her to do the rest on her own. ” said Xie.
“Mia, take me along underwater to the creature. Let me try one last time to persuade it” Lin said.
Mia stood up and held his hands “Ok, let’s give it a try”.
They dived underwater and swam. But no matter how much they swam, they could not find the creature. It was as if it was gone. Mia tried concentrating hard to communicate with it through her mind. It all attempts failed . They finally swam back as both were nearly out of breath.
They had another round of discussion after taking some rest. They had no other option but to let Mia go alone since the creature wouldn’t even appear before them to negotiate. They told her whatever they knew about the Tree of knowledge. They narrowed down on some of the questions they needed to get answers to, like the origin of the curse, it’s source, it’s nature, the offenders, how to combat it etc. But since they were having a group discussion about the issue , Lin and Mia could not share their personal views. They already knew who it concerned. Mia knew little bit about it’s history. But they all narrowed down on the fact that the most important thing to know was how it could be countered.
“Mia it will ask for sacrifices for each of the three answers, but choose wisely. ” Lin held her shoulders in a firm grip and said. He then hugged her and whispered in her ears ” You know what our priorities are. ” Then he drew back and said “be careful. We will be waiting here for you. ”
They all stood in anticipation as she disappeared yet again under water. After she was gone, Xie came up to Lin and asked “now that we have so much time to spend and nothing to do, why don’t you share your and Mia’s story with us”
Lin was expecting something the like of that from the two of them but he didn’t expect to get asked directly or so soon. He played along and said “What about us, Xie? ”
“Mia didn’t appear like a fox to me” Xie said bluntly.
“No she isn’t” Lin confessed.
“How did you make your family accept her? ” Roe asked.
“They don’t know about her yet” Lin was being honest.
“Oh! I see. But how did she manage to come here? Do you know anything about why the creature only communicates with her and none of us? Moreover, what sort of creature is it? ” Roe asked it all without being able to suppress her curiosity any further.
“Honestly, no clue. ” Lin wasn’t lying either. He too did not know anything about the creature or why Mia was the only one to talk to it. Or why it only agreed to take Mia to the tree of knowledge. It was all beyond him .
“Well I guess we need to wait for Mia’s safe return to get our answers then. ” Boshu put in.
They all nodded and then dispersed, looking for a spot to sit and wait.