My Rambles

Swoosh! Niya was running through the forest at blazing speed, leaving all the trees far behind in a blip of a second. It was a breathtaking sight if only the circumstances had not been so dire. The forest was a vivid canvas of bright colors with bright green trees laden with flowers and fruits of all possible colours. It appeared like someone had increased the contrast and size of everything. The mangoes were bright orange -size of a small football, apples were perky red bigger than any other apples and guavas were vibrant green shining like stars. However, there was a strange eeriness to the air. Not even a single leaf was rustling and all birds seemed to be hiding in their nests with their families..not daring to make even the smallest sound.

Niya was a 10 year old naughty young girl living in a small town Humour Land. She used to stay in a cosy red and green coloured house just beside the lake. Her mother was the minister of Home Affairs in the town and used to work in the Palace. Humour land was a peaceful happy town well governed by the monarch Azirah, the elected queen. Niya was known for her mischievousness and storytelling.

It was a regular day, Niya was passing through the forest with her friend Jeh, when they heard a loud sound. BOOM! They noticed blinding light emanating from the tree. On looking up they were shocked to see a small Mountain on top of the tree and the object disappeared as soon as it had appeared. It had quickly camouflaged itself into the tree. Only from underneath the tree, the trap doors of the object were visible. They quickly hid behind nearby tree and noticed illuminated creatures, half as tall as Niya deboarding the object. About 5 such creatures got off, each with different colored hair with matching shining eyes- yellow, green, blue, red and orange. Their bodies were translucent and had the surprising power to camouflage with the surroundings. After they had vanished further into the forest, Niya and Jeh were about to leave their hiding place, suddenly another creature appeared which was even shorter and had bright indigo blue eyes.

Niya and Jeh were dumbfounded and were quick to realise that these beings must be from a different land perhaps ‘Aliens’, the controversial creatures they had read about in stories. They gathered their courage and stealthily followed the last and the smallest alien which was almost as tall as a puppy. They drew courage from their size and numbers.

Even from distance, they could see the indigo eyes take various hues as the Alien absorbed in the surroundings. The Alien kept walking through the forest, crossed the deserted pathways and reached the lake, paused for a minute and then again kept walking. The lake had a steep bank and the alien fell in the lake. Splash! Alien looked traumatised and splattered the water all around! Niya and Jeh realised that the alien was probably seeing water for the first time. 

No one was around, after a fleeing thought, they ran to save the alien. Alien was drowning and seemed to be fading with each passing second.  After frantically searching, they found a stick and extended the same to the alien who immediately latched on the stick and climbed the bank with great difficulty. Indigo’s eyes were pale with fear and shock.. almost mirroring the water.

Gradually alien regained its original colour. They felt a mutual comfort looking in its eyes and felt an instant connection. BAM! Its eyes turned into a plasma screen with clear audio and video. Looking into the eyes they found out that the alien was named ‘Indigo’ and was the youngest in the group. It had celebrated it’s 100^th birthday few days back. He was from a planet named ‘Dearth’ located about a million light-years away. Dearth had exhausted most of its natural resources like food, clean air, and minerals because of centuries of thoughtless over-exploitation. After years of research, they had narrowed down ‘Humour Land’. They intended to funnel resources from Humour Land to Dearth through a dedicated corridor.

Niya and Jeh were shocked as the Humour land was small compared to Dearth and not capable of supporting the population of Dearth. Alas! They ruminated and concluded that if aliens succeed Humour land will quickly become like Dearth.. barren with no resources or maybe worse with everyone dead.

They dashed back through the forest at lightning speed to inform Niya’s mother, crossed the forests oblivious of the surrounding, scratches, sounds and the surroundings. On reaching home, they found mother was at the palace so they made a run for the palace. At the palace, they narrated their experience to Niya’s mother, who unfortunately assumed that it was another of their yarn and chided them and asked them to run home.  They still didn’t give up and caught hold of her uncle who also was a ranking official but he also just ruffled their hair and asked them to play outside. 

Niya and Jeh were at a loss, what next they both wondered. Jeh wanted to give up as as ultimately they were just 10-year-old kids who nobody was going to take seriously. Niya wanted to fight it tooth and nail and save her mother and motherland.

Niya was in a fix- if she gives up, her beloved Humour land can be in danger including her friends, mother, grandmother and if she decides to fight the aliens then she had no idea how to go about it.

‘She stood by the palace window, tall and still, gazing absently at the blurred distance. She had two choices: both unattractive, out of which, she would have to take a decision…’

She recollected the bedtime stories told by her grandmother when she was young. All had a brave warrior willing to fight till the end for the greater good. She had often imagined herself to be that warrior and had dreamt of herself fighting with a sword and a cape. As she grew, she had been enchanted by the mysteries and always daydreamt, herself saving the world through her resourcefulness and courage. Famous Five was her favourite book series where 5 kids of her age save the world from smugglers and looters..repeatedly.

She gritted her teeth and resolved to save her land. This was her moment to be the brave warrior and a resourceful courageous kid. She convinced Jeh to follow her.

They retraced their path back to the forest and saw the alien group huddled near their space ship deep into a discussion. They also saw the young alien ‘Indigo’ they had saved earlier loitering around. Niya focussed on Indigo’s eyes, she established a connection and overheard and saw the entire conversation through Indigo.

The aliens were planning to create an invisible corridor, 100 meter wide from Humor Land to their planet. The corridor would take 3 days to construct and then over the next 10 years, through the corridor, they would suck all resources like soil and atmosphere and replenish their planet. In the process Humour land would become barren. They had accomplished similar feat with several other lands.

Niya was frozen with terror; she realised that it was now or never, she has to stop them in these 3 days before it was too late.

She had seen in all stories that there were always clues hidden in plain sight. They just had to be identified and leveraged. She quickly discussed events of the day with Jeh starting from when they had first noticed the blinding light, ship, aliens and then when they had saved the young alien.
Suddenly her eyes met with Indigo. Bingo! And she knew what had to be done. She went back home with Jeh and planned for the battle.

She invited her gang over to the forest for a game two days later. They had to come prepared for the battle with their ammunition. She also read all about how to start a controlled fire in a forest. In the meanwhile, she also gathered slightly damp timber, fuel, and match box.. She also enquired from her mother casually about the emergency response time of task forces.

On the decided day she along with Jeh reached the spot couple of hours earlier and about 100 meters away from the aliens, cleared a small patch of forest. They lighted small fire designed to grow gradually and produce a lot of smoke but not become dangerously large. She was scared, tensed and she knew she was taking a risk but she had no other option. Jeh ran back towards the home. Time was running out. Tick Tock Tick Tock!

Then her friends also started gathering and hid behind the tree lines. From their vantage point, they had clear sight of aliens and then at Niya’s signal, they all started spurting water from their water guns. Aliens were taken by surprise and by the time they could understand what was happening, they started fading away and losing their strength. It was after 10 mins of water attacks that Niya finally heard the siren of fire brigade. Jeh had managed to alert the authorities and fire brigade came bombarding the area with powerful jets of water. The fire was doused, kids were drenched and BOOM! Everyone suddenly heard a loud sound, saw a bright light and was flabbergasted to see a mountain suddenly appear on a treetop, rise quickly and disappear into thin air within a matter of seconds. POOF!

Niya silently thanked Indigo and couldn’t help thinking of her Granny who always said that a good deed always pays back.

Niya and Jeh narrated the entire story to authorities and were awarded by the monarch Azirah with their own Sword and Cape for displaying bravery and resourcefulness to save ‘Humour Land’ and from that day Aliens no longer remained just a myth in Humour Land.