200 decades back...

The burnt evening sky gets filled with life as the tired birds return to their nests. While crossing over a deep, dark green forest, a sudden rush of energy grasps them. The forest has a thick blanket of fog letting it impossible to see beyond the top layer. The lazy wings of the birds are fluttering, cutting the air with some urgency. Their tiredness get replaced by eagerness to cross the forest as fast as they can.

When all are busy moving faster, one dives into the forest. Like a moon in a cloudless night sky, a pearl white body flies deeper and deeper into the forest. Chirping of evening birds along with crickets are echoing throughout the forest. Cutting those symphony are the flowing sound of a river. Together, the usually calm forest is seeming like to talk about something important.

"Roar..." The bird halts and lands on the grassy ground hearing a roar somewhere close. She scurries towards a nearby tree and hides behind one of the leafy branches. Her scared brown eyes widen as she peeks from behind the leaves. The piece of her favourite olive branch falls from her beak on the ground and gets lost in the darkness of the high grasses. She nods her head while closing her eyes shut and cranes her neck sideways to look at her right feather. The pink strokes on her feather are glowing amidst the shadowy figures of the trees.

The bird heaves a sigh of relief and closes her eyes with an ease. She opens her eyes and gets ready for her flight but halts again. She takes another glance at the feather. With fear evident in her eyes, she stares at her now milky white feather which was pink even a few seconds ago. She keeps on staring at the feather as the last tint of pink glow fades in the air.

"Roar..." Realizing that the roaring is much nearer than before, she takes off without wasting any more time. She flies towards the foggy layer which is hiding the deepest part of the forest from the outside world.

The closer she gets, the thicker the fog becomes. The colourless fog is now having a pinkish glow as the bird enters into the fog. The moment she enters, all sounds cease to exist, as if they never existed. The bird soars swiftly through the thick fog as if the path is very familiar to her. Soon she comes out of the fog and stops in front of a huge tree.

In the darkness, the tree is standing all alone in an empty open space and the full moon is shining right above it. Its brown trunk has branches spread in all directions. The leaves closer to the trunk have pinkish glow but the ones away have got darker shades as if black colour has been splashed on those leaves.

The bird gazes at those darkened leaves for a few seconds before moving towards the lowest portion of the trunk. She pecks at the base of the trunk for four times and waits while looking here and there.

Soon the whole tree splits into two halves and a white door with pink glow comes into existence out of nowhere. The door gets ajar and all that can be seen is a dark abyss. Flapping her wings, the bird rushes towards the door. As soon as she gets lost in that darkness, the door shuts making no sound and vanishes into the air. With no delay, the halves come together letting the tree regain its previous form with moonlight shining on the tree.

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Words in this chapter: 608
Total words: 608