An exclusive excerpt from Arunima Verma’s Avanipur- Gateway to the Worlds (Treeshade Books, 2024).
The Dark Land
The screeching, foul creature flew down the well, along with the three of them who were screaming and wailing all the way, pulled by an invisible power. If only someone could hear them, one’s heart would bleed. Such were their cries in the face of unimaginable fear. At times, they could see scrawny arms with bony, long fingers reaching out to them from the sides of the well, accompanied by wailing voices.
After what seemed like forever, they found themselves falling into some dirty muddy water. Before they could understand where they were, they felt a pull and were dragged out of the mucky water by some unknown energy. They were standing on some grassy land, dripping wet and shivering. It was dark all around with a strange, sickly smell in the air.
The thing was eerily standing right in front of them, flicking her forked tongue and breathing heavily. She was much taller than what she seemed on earth. Her bony hands with long fingers and nails moved as they peeked out of the sleeves of her soiled white robe.
“Mmm, you delicious little humans. Your smell makes my belly rumble,” she cackled loudly.
The three of them couldn’t even cry. They huddled together, shivering with fear. From somewhere came the sound of a whistle, followed by the arrival of hordes of shadows. These shadows didn’t have any particular form but had yellow, serpentine eyeballs.
“Okay, alright. I am supposed to take you to my lord’s palace. Maybe I can snack on you after?” She cackled again wickedly.
The army of shadows threw shackles on the kids which wound itself up around Moni, Shikha, and Govind. The three of them were dragged by the army across the grassy land onto a dark, muddy path, which would eventually lead them to the palace. They could see a vague structure somewhere on top of a mountain ahead.
A light shone from top of the structure, illuminating the path a bit. The shadow army was right in front of them, pulling on the shackles, and the screeching thing floating right behind them, flicking her forked tongue, and drooling heavily.
There was dense forest on both sides of the path they were walking on. They could see some creatures hanging from the trees, making hissing noises. Slowly, very disturbing, vile creatures started climbing down the trees; some slithery creatures crawled out of holes on the ground. All of them tall, just flesh and bones with sparse or no hair on their heads and big, beady eyes.
Some crawled on all their fours while others walked like the living dead. The foul smell was everywhere. The three of them were terrified. Poor little souls hadn’t seen such evil ever before. The only thing they could do right now was pray, and that they did with all their heart. But their prayers would not be heard.
The Dark Land was so dense with feelings of dread, despair, death, and all things evil. Such prayers didn’t even have a chance of escaping this land. Everything around obstructed them. Yet, around the same time, in the Other Land, Vidwaan, while taking a walk over the beautiful stone bridge, felt something.
There was fear, extreme fear. He stopped walking and concentrated on the feeling. He felt death and all kinds of evil. He heard a few faint voices but couldn’t understand what was being said. He realised that the children were in a lot of danger. Their prayers were being blocked by something.
The voices which reached him, although feeble, were so very earnest. This could only mean one thing. They were taken by Asatbuddhi. Only the Dark Land could block their prayers from reaching Other Land. He had to act immediately. He called out for Medhavi in his mind, and she appeared instantly.
“Where is Nish?” he asked.
“With the children, Vidwaanji,” she answered.
“No Medhavi, he isn’t. Something has happened to him and the children,” he said, shaking his head, looking down. “It is Asatbuddhi. How did he manage without any one of us getting to know? This is a deviation from the actual event. We are usually prepared for small changes as the situation unfolds. But this is a big deviation. He has gained more powers, or he has help from somewhere. Nevertheless, you need to find the doorway to the Dark Land right away and get them out of there.”
“But you know how difficult that is. Even if we find the gateway somehow, for us to enter the Dark Land is dangerous. Our energies are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. We become unstable there and sometimes, lose all our power,” said Medhavi.
“But we have to find a way to get there. The children need us, and we need to find out what happened to Nish,” said Vidwaan.
“Okay, I need to conceive a proper plan,” said Medhavi.
About the Book
Moni, a curious 8-year-old girl living in a quaint, beautiful town called Avanipur, suddenly encounters a person from another world known as The Other Land—a realm quite different from ours—when she ventures into a secluded part of her town. In this astounding Other Land, she learns of an impending doom threatening her world. Moni, along with her friends and a few others, has been tasked with preventing it. This catastrophe is set to be unleashed by an evil, vile entity named Asatbuddhi from the Dark Land—a place teeming with despicable creatures devoted to destroying human lives.
Where exactly are these unknown lands? What secrets does Avanipur, a seemingly harmless town, hold? What is the impending doom they must prevent? What supernatural perils will the children face? And will they succeed in defeating the dark forces?