“Hey, how do we climb the mountains?’ asked Dhruv. “We’ll fall if we try and that too, we have to reach Victory Point.

“This is our last zone, let’s use the bubble.” I said.

“First, let’s try climbing” Kiko said. “If it is really necessary, we’ll use the bubble. Remember, we have only 2 more chances left and we need one to return to the base of Cone Mountains or Trio-Transit. Let’s not waste our chances ok?” she said.

“Ok” I said, impressed by her intelligence and logic. “Ok”

“Enough of Ok’s” she said, though I had just said two.

“Ok’ I said, making her laugh. “Come on!! We got to keep going!”

So we walked higher and higher along the footpath on the mountains mainly built for trekkers. We held onto big rocks frequently for support and also stopped a few times on our way to take rest. It was a good climb. Kiko also pointed at few flying quigglys that zoomed past us.

 We reached the Grand Canyon. It was humongous and also very steep. This time we had time to say careful.

“Dhruv, don’t peep” I said. “You’ll surely fall if you do.”

“Ok” he said obediently.

Then I warned everyone about the dangers of falling into the Grand Canyon. Before we could warn Madeline, she peeped out of curiosity, turned back,  tripped on a root and fell deep down into the Grand Canyon. My heart thumped. It nearly stopped beating.

“Madeline, Madeline” we shouted together.

But I realized that she had fallen deep inside and couldn’t hear us.

“Oh no Madeline” I told the others, almost in tears. “I told her to be careful”

 Excerpt from Madeline’s Diary after she learnt English-

I don’t know what was happening to me. I felt myself falling and falling and falling. I was sure I was not going to survive the fall. Luckily a twig saved the day! My dress got caught in a twig and the twig held me in mid-air, suddenly breaking my fall. Woh! I was lucky! It scratched my hand a lot and it bled too. But I knew that this was all the fruits of my own actions. I had disobeyed Siso and out of curiosity, peeped. Somehow, I had to get back to my friends, but how? Just then, I saw the tree of which the branch had saved my life. It was quite close to me. I put one arm on the trunk and slid my leg onto the branch too, and started climbing. I held on for dear life until I reached the top of the tree. It was leaning against the edge of the Grand Canyon. It was quite close to the surface but not easy enough to climb. It consisted of sharp, jagged rocks that stretched out in layers.

Just then an idea struck me- Why don’t I call my friends? So I called- Rishi, Dhruv, Siso, Kiko. Hear me? I said. I was overjoyed to hear a scream back “Where are you Madeline?” “Here” I said, because I hadn’t learnt so much English to say exactly where I was. But they found me. Before they could do anything a tail slid down the Canyon edges like a rope. It looked strong enough. So without hesitating, I held onto it and tried climbing up. I did my bit at climbing and creature of whose tail it was did its best of holding my weight and pulling me up. Later I found out, when Rishi told me that the creature which led down its tail was a monkey Quiggly. He said that before he could react, the monkey quiggly, hearing my panic-stricken voice had jumped from the tree and let down its growing tail for me. He said that he saw the tail growing right in front of his very own eyes! I thanked the Quiggly so much. It said that it was its duty to protect everyone. The next 10 minutes, I was the centre of attention and covered with hugs and kisses.

“We thought we’d lose you” Kiko said.

I was so happy to be back with my friends. I was even happier to know that they cared for me so much .At the end we all had a group hug! I never knew I had such good friends.

 I learnt one thing that day- Language wasn’t a barrier to friendship!!