Aru Shah and the Soul Trident

Aru Falls in a Puddle

Aru Shah really wanted to murder the prince of the Naga-Loka as of this moment. She had pleaded to use regular public transportation, but noooo. Rudy just had to insist on using the magical option that had exploded a couple seconds ago, and now the Potatoes were free-falling in the air. Wind whistled in Aru's ears and her hair flew wildly around her in the braid she had put it in. Tears formed in her eyes and she flailed her limbs wildly, trying to stop her fall.

"Vajra!" she yelled, and immediately felt stupid. Vajra, her shape-shifting thunderbolt, wasn't with her anymore, after the giant fiasco at her birthday party. None of their magical weapons were with any of the Pandavas anymore, except for Kara's, who had disappeared with the Sleeper a day ago.

"AGHHHHH!" With great difficulty, Aru turned her head to the direction of the scream, and saw Rudy falling down head-first and yelling so loudly that Aru thought that her eardrums would burst.

"Aru! Grab my hand!" Aru looked up above her to see Brynne slowing her fall down with her magical sky-blue jacket, with her arm outstretched. Aru tried to grasp it, but she couldn't reach it.

"Somebody do something! Or we're going to die!" Mini yelled unhelpfully. She was keeping both of her hands firmly on her face, trying to keep her glasses from slipping off. Despite her mind screaming at her to not look down, Aru looked down to see a huge forest of trees below to greet them and gulped. She did not want to become an Aru-pancake. Well, at least they weren't going to fall down on a highway or something. Aru looked around them, trying to think of a way to save them, when she suddenly got an idea.

"Brynne!" she yelled, but Brynne didn't seem like she heard Aru. Brynne, Aru tried again through the Pandava mind-link.

Yeah? Brynne responded.

Can't you turn into one of those huge flying dinosaurs or something?

For the thousandth time, she told Aru frustratedly. I can't turn into extinct animals! But, I can turn into this!

Aru glanced up and saw a gigantic blue bird above her. Brynne squawked once and swooped down and took Aru in her humongous claws.

"AHHHHH!" Aru yelled as her stomach flip-flopped due to the sudden change. She closed her eyes as Brynne flew around, catching the other Potatoes on her back, and she descended gracefully (well as gracefully a big bird can with four other people on it) to the ground.

Aru landed on the ground with a thud as Brynne dropped her. Just Aru's luck that she happened to land in a large, muddy puddle. The rest of them hopped off Brynne's back without any problem and landed on their feet. Aru scowled and got up. She shook herself off and tried to squeeze as much water out of her hair as possible, but she still felt like a drenched rat.

"Brynne!" she complained. "Seriously?"

Brynne shrugged, as if she didn't really care. Rude! She waved Aru off and looked at the rest of the gang excitedly. "Did you guys see that! I turned into an enormous albatross, courtesy to my new and improved powers! And did you know that an albatross is literally one of the largest birds in the world! You all can go on and praise me no-" She was abruptly cut off as Aiden shoved a granola bar in her mouth, stopping her from bragging even more.

"That's enough, Bee." He sighed and looked around them. "Where exactly are we?" As the rest of them began observing their surroundings, Aru stared at Aiden. She knew that she had other, more important things to worry about, like her half-sister going rogue, the world ending, the usual. But after Aiden had kissed her at her birthday party, a part of her mind kept thinking about him. Aiden looked great as usual. His dreamy, dark eyes diligently scanned their environment, and even though they had just fallen from the sky, his hair looked amazing. His long fingers rested on Shadowfax, his camera.