Aru Shah and the Soul Trident

This Girl is on Fireeee

Mini looked like she was really close to losing it. And despite her small stature, Mini could be really scary when she was seriously angry. Aru had learned her lesson a long time ago. She had once accidentally spilled orange juice on Mini's favorite medical textbook, and hadn't noticed until much later, when it was all dried up. Aru remembered herself panicking, and had tried to run it over some water. That was definitely not a good idea. Now, not only were some of the pages stained with orange juice, but the whole book was soaking wet. Aru had tried to blame it on the sprinkler outside, but it was no use. Despite being pretty, well, Mini, she surprisingly had a large set of lungs and could scream like anything when she wanted to. It took five blueberry muffins and a pack of Oreos to somewhat calm her down. Mini wouldn't talk to Aru for nearly two weeks, until Aru had gotten her a new textbook.

She shuddered at the memory, and peered up at her sister, who looked like she was about to burst from frustration any moment now.

Mini took a deep breath and shook her head. "Now, Aru. Why don't you start from the beginning, hm?"

"Sure," Aru said, not quite looking into Mini's eyes. She explained everything, her vision, how she saw the Sleeper and Kara, about Pathal-Loka, and their current predicament. At the end of it, the Potatoes seemed depressed (well, except for Rudy. He was humming to himself and playing with his gemstones).

"So," Aiden started. "We need to get into Pathal-Loka, but we can't because the only way is to read the guide. But, the Sleeper has the book and now we don't know the way."

"Or we could ask Vishnu, Brahma, or Shiva, but there's basically no way to do that." Brynne added.

"And, now we're probably gonna die trying," Mini whimpered.

"Yep, that about sums it up," Aru chirped.

Everyone let out a huge collective sigh. Except for Rudy. Instead, he asked a Rudy-like question. "What's a McDonald's?"

Another collective groan.

"Nothing your Royalness needs to know about," Brynne muttered. Then she got up and hauled Rudy to his feet. "Come on, guys. I dunno about you all, but I'm starving. It's past midnight, and I haven't had anything to eat since lunch, except for a granola bar and some marshmallows."

Aiden agreed. "Let's go start the fire."

Mini, Rudy, and Brynne got out of the tent, but Aiden lingered behind and faced Aru. He held his hand out, and Aru gratefully grabbed it and pulled herself up.

"Thanks, Wifey," she said, smiling.

"Sure," he responded. He hesitated and added, "You're okay now, right?"

Aru wasn't sure why, but the thought of Aiden staying back to ask her how she was feeling made her feel all giddy inside. Yep, now that you asked.

"What?" Aiden asked, his voice going up an octave.

Rising horror built up in Aru's stomach, when she realized that her inside-voice became her outside-voice. Again.

"I-uh-I mean-um, I'm fine!" She yelped, her cheeks flushing. Then, she promptly pushed past him and rushed outside.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned. Mini was gazing at her with a look of pity in her eyes. "Aru, your thoughts are a little too loud,"

"Well, at least we didn't have to watch it. That would give me some real secondhand embarrassment," Brynne snickered, appearing on her other side.

Aru scowled and stalked off as her sisters cackled behind her.