(Book 4) Hayden Mackay and The Fest of Vrindahina

30.1 Gate 11- Rake Over the Past

"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?