"Woohoo! This is so much fun!" I yelled in excitement, "I want to do it again."

"Hayden Mackay," Karka said, irked, but his voice was too mellow reminding me of a low vocalized foghorn, "Don't forget, even a Constellia feels the pain. My claw-hand is dying here."

"This game is awesome!" I exclaimed, ignoring his grumble and trotted towards the end of this floating island to begin walking upside-down.

"Challenge. IT'S-A-CHALLENGE!"

I chucked silently. He must have tried to scold me, but his voice sounded too funny that I refused to see myself anywhere near a chicken.

This feeling of seeing myself as a winner was exhilarating. The Gates remained open for a while ago. Nonetheless, I deliberately delayed jumping over it. I just needed some time to steady myself, before seeing it- the realm where he lived. Spending my time, enjoying the game of inverted mountaineering seemed the best opportunity to calm my growing nerves.

This miniature spherical realm of Karka was similar to that of a billion time shrunken earth. It floated in the space, with brightness and darkness battling to take over the entire land. Sun's rays fell scattering at one side and the moonlight at the other, chain of hills ran across the circumference, and center part of the realm was covered with a neatly mowed field of grass. Vrindahina trees, with its leaves, turned in the shade of yellow, were existing as well, more than a hundred in number. The most shocking part of this realm, that also made it entirely unique was definitely the trees grown downwards at the opposite side of the realm, gravity acting in reverse.

Our hut was located right in the middle of the realm, crouching amidst the shadows of the hills. Nazira was sitting at the threshold, and occasionally shaking her head in annoyance. She was getting vexed watching me play this game for more than a couple of times.

This challenge was another competition between me and Karka - a humanoid crab, short in height, wearing black shirt and trousers stitched in a manner to fit his three pairs of legs. All I had to do was to search for five Vrindahina golden-yellow flowers hidden among the autumn leaves.

The bottom portion of the realm was divided in two, with each of us getting a part containing an equal share of the sun and moon's radiance. I was concerned more about beating the gravity. One wrong step and I might have ended up floating in the space myself.

Little did I know, that I was allowed to upturn myself to walk over the whole realm, in a three-sixty degree. The topsy-turvy feeling had immensely elated me. Running all over the hills, up and down and all around the trees - at some instants, I even forgot that this was a challenge where I was supposed to get worried about winning.

Locating the flowers in the bushy leaves was difficult. It demanded the power of my vision and consciousness. There were also a few hindrances created artificially -these trees were covered with huge thorns in a shape of a claw as that of Karka's. They had pricked me, deep gashes and bruises appeared all over my upper body, accompanied by random blood leaks. On top of it, it was the deity and I wasn't allowed to use my stone under any circumstances. Even though Karka defeated me quite a few times, I never once let down myself. Ignoring the pain, I had kept my focus more on the enjoyment, losing the challenge for several times intentionally just to seek more merriment out of it. But I made sure that before the positions of the sun and moon swapped, as per Karka's instructions, I picked up the five flowers before he could have.

"Hayden Mackay, if you do not come to me right now, I will take my hand off," Karka warned, "And then you can keep running for next two years."

"Alright, I am coming," I said, kicking my foot against a small rock, in disappointment. I just wished to have finished the challenge sooner. I might have had more time to do what I intended. One last time to tour through the realm - was it too much to ask?

Letting out a huge sigh, I walked over to him and before reaching nearer, I beckoned to Nazira, letting her know that we were finally moving on.

"Thank you so much," Karka said, "You shouldn't be wasting your time here. Do you even have an idea what's coming up next to you?"

"Yeah, yeah I know," I said watching Nazira walking over quickly with a determined stride, hand swinging wildly like never before. I guessed if she was about to punch me in my face for making her wait. "I was just preparing myself." I continued, laughing inwardly.

"Quite understandable," Karka said, a pair of his legs tapping on the ground, "But time is precious. The day after tomorrow will be your finale challenge with Singh and then later, after two full days, it's the fight with Shaytan Rup. You are almost there, Hayden Mackay. Don't ruin it now. Good luck!"

I nodded, smiling at him. Nazira approached, her eyebrows furrowed and lips perked. Before she could literally punch me I greeted her nicely in a hope that she would calm down.

"Hi!" I said, offering my hand expecting her to take it.

"Bye," she replied fiercely, ignoring my hand and raising her chin up as she walked past me.

Sniggering at her newly developed feisty attitude, I followed her and we both jumped one after the other to reach the realm I had been waiting to see since I stepped into this Parallel Universe.

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At the age of five, I had an innocent dream to travel to the planet Mars. Now I was twenty and lucky I might be that all my dreams were successively coming true. The girl, with who I developed feelings even before I met, was standing right next to me, accompanying me through these realms. Currently, the one I had entered was nothing shortage to that of the planet I had fantasized myself to explore.

Red and rocky. The earthy smell of autumn wind-swirling, howling and unchilled- whipping the red colored powdery sand into the atmosphere. The sky wasn't as usual, it was filled with myriads of orange hues. Sun shining bright, it's rays threatening to sting like that of an uncountable sharp arrow, but the temperature wasn't soaring, unlike my spirit. The relaxed, pleasant ambiance, without a doubt, was alerting me to the imminent storm.

I blinked and turned aside to watch the rest of the realm. The one and only one steep mid-sized hill captured my interest. I stepped forward and stared at the cliff-top. A single tree of Vrindahina came into my sight. It provided enough shade at the edge of the cliff. Corners of my lips curled as I beamed. To my mind's eye, the top of the hill looked like a throne of the King.

Apart from the hill, there was something else that had grabbed fullest of my attention. There were large logs of wood dig into the ground surrounding the hill, with their tops burning with friendly fire. As the wind blew, the intensity increased. I raised my eyebrows watching them, Singh certainly has a decorated his throne in a way too noticeable fashion.

I was still looking around, when I suddenly heard a whimpering sound. Nazira was tapping her feet at the same spot, with hands over her hips and moving back and forth. She was expressing her discontent. And why not, after all every realm we had seen, expectations of this particular last one must have raised too high.

"I want to go inside," she said, her face hung in disappointment. She looked back eagerly at the hut resting exactly at the opposite side of the hill.

"Yeah, I know," I said, and sighed heavily, "Realm isn't too catchy enough, is it?"

"No, it's not that," she said, her voice strained, "I just don't feel good."

I frowned. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," she said, shaking her head, "My hands are itching and I want to paint a lot. Please let's go in. And by the way, in case you haven't noticed, there are wounds all over you."

The rest of the day Nazira kept herself busy finishing up painting the previous realm. I watched her paint, feeling amazed by her observance of the details that even I had failed to notice. I studied her facial expression, it was grim and distant, as if something important was running through her mind. She stayed quiet, slept for a while on the floor and then hurriedly woke up to resume painting. She told me she wasn't feeling good, and that worried me a little. On my repeated inquiry, she sticked to the same answer that she just wanted to finish painting all the realms before they returned.

I lazily woke up the next morning. Everything inside the bedroom felt blurry. It took a few seconds for my mind to process the reality, where I was and what I have been doing. And then it reminded me of the fact that I was so close to my extension. I began taking heavy breathes intentionally to calm my racing heart. I was excited and scared at the same time. I might have met him only a few months ago, but the impact that his relationship with mine had caused was too intense and acute that it surprised me to the core. I tightened my jaw thinking it over and over again. Besides Nazira, he was the only one with who I desperately wanted my bonding to be strong and permanent.

And then curiosity diverted me to pry over Nazira's state of mind. She was feeling too uncomfortable the day before, and I had left her alone for a quite a while now. I hurriedly walked out, my eyes doing its job. I let a sigh of relief finding her stand at the door, leaned over to the wall, her face bent down and eyes staring blankly at the ground.

She seemed lost, probably thinking deeply about ...wait a second, is she thinking about me? The sudden thought cheered my heart. I walked up front towards the table, my eyes stuck on her, in a hope to have her notice me. She didn't. I drank a glass of water and coughed dramatically, shaking my whole body, only so that she would notice me. She didn't.

An autumn early morning breeze blew inside the door, her hair waved backward, but she didn't even blink. Although I hated to disturb her, I even wanted to know about those private thoughts that probably involved me. I walked over and stood beside her. I raised my hand and cleared my throat forgetting she was disabled. Yet, she didn't move an inch, her eyes staring blankly down. I was bugged. I sighed heavily with an annoyance. Unable to resist, I snapped my fingers right before her face. A growling Singh emerged and now he successfully made her startle fully back to the present.

"A penny for your thoughts?" I said, sarcastically, raising my eyes.

Nazira gave a faint smile, slowly turning towards me. She kept looking at me, without uttering a word. She was still lost, her face clouded with indecisiveness.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked, giving her a fake smile, and wanting her to say it before I did. That would mean the world to me!

Is it about me? Tell me, tell me. Am I not all over your mind?

"I..." She finally tried to say it, but faltered, and bent her head down. She pushed a strand of her hair back and said, "I think I'm ready to tell you what happened with your grandmother."