A Collaborative Story

In the suburbs of Delhi, lived three best friends Tara, Rahul, and Arjun. All three of them loved mysteries and loved to go on interesting adventures. They were all 14 years old and lived near a forest adjacent to the capital city. They came from middle income families and studied at a government school. Rahul was the level-headed one, always cautious and keeping them out of danger. Tara was a brilliant girl, full of innovative ideas and fun science challenges to take up.

Arjun was a very avid reader, and consumed knowledge and information from a variety of fields. He was always well read and won all the quizzes in the district. Sometimes they went to the edges of the forest to play. One day, while approaching the forest, they heard some weird and uncommon sounds as if some slithery voice was whispering to them “Come over here, ahhh, here, come..” Intrigued, they followed the voice, although Rahul was a little wary and warned the others that it is probably not safe. But their love for adventure was too great, and they went right into the forest following the voice. As they walked a considerable distance, they saw a largish figure standing there, and to their shock, they saw a creature the likes of which they have never seen before – a man’s body with a large eagle head! Looking at each other in muffled gasps, “it’s a bird-man!” Arjun whispered. Tara quickly shushed him, her eyes peeled wide in disbelief.

The bird-man hadn’t appeared to notice the children and kept walking further. The same weird sounds continued around him. They went  deeper into the jungle when suddenly they were unable to take another step forward. They looked around at each other, each one grasping to reach the other. Suddenly they realised that they were in quicksand! Had the bird-man tricked them into a trap? But before they could speak, they were getting dragged into the mud. Knee deep and then waist deep, and a suction appeared and quickly, they were all sucked into the earth and landed gently – fully clean – on a clean metal surface under the earth! They blinked their eyes and shook their heads and found themselves in a secret science lab! There were dangerous chemicals in the science lab, of all colours, and they saw different machines and glass objects. Nobody appeared to be there.

They decided to look around, thoroughly confused about what is happening, but going along with the flow. On the bulletin board at the entrance to the lab, they saw some pictures of three children that said “HELP FIND MISSING CHILDREN” The three missing children were
Lakshman, Viraj and Shubham. “Don’t they look like us” Tara asked. Rahul nodded in solemn silence. “We have to find them” said Arjun, echoing each of their thoughts. Suddenly, as if a light bulb went off in his head, Arjun added in an excited and scared tone, “Listen! I just read in a magazine last week that one hundred children have gone missing in this forest over the last many years. Every year, children disappear and nobody knows why!” Tara and Rahul gasped in shock and dismay, but breathed deeply to calm themselves down. 

As they discussed how to go about it, and how to first get out of this underground secret lab that the bird-man had led them to, and who the bird man in fact was, a tall scientist walked up to them. With surprisingly strong hands, he rounds all three of them up, and puts them on a stand. As they protest and try to escape from the scientist, a web made of white silk cobweb-like material descends around them from a point in the ceiling and traps them completely. from outside the web cage, the scientist said to them “if you don’t tell me why you came here, i will set you on fire.” They were really scared, and they decided to tell him the truth. Tara said, “We saw the bird man and heard the noises, and followed him, and we ended up here, we don’t know why!” The scientist did not believe them. So, they said, “Follow us, we will show you!” The scientist reluctantly agreed, and the three of them looked at each other, trying to assess if the scientist was a good guy or not. Since he had posters of the missing children out in the notice board, he probably did not kidnap them, they thought.

The scientist led them out of the secret lab, still keeping a grip on all three of them. Coming out, he pressed a secret button, that cleared some space in the muddy wall in front of them, and a transparent glass elevator appeared, that took them up towards ground level. As the elevator was rising, the children through eye contact made their escape plan. As soon as the elevator doors opened, the three of them nimbly dashed out and made a dash deep into the forest, leaving the scientist panting and tripping behind them in the distance. They ran deeper into the forest and came to the edge of a large, beautiful and serene lake.

They stopped to pant heavily and catch their breath. On a large tree near the water, they saw a very interesting looking golden nest, and Rahul said, “Maybe it belongs to the bird man!” To try and trap the bird man, the children brought down the nest and kept it near the lake. They waited. After 3-4 hours the bird-man came swooping in, took the nest and went away so fast that they couldn’t chase him! But as he left, a piece of paper fell out of his pocket. They opened the paper and it was blank. What were they going to do? Tara being a smart science student, she smelled the paper and said there is something on the sheet. “Maybe it is invisible ink,” she continued, rubbing a stone on another stone to generate heat. They placed the stones on the paper and they found a rough map of the forest, in which a river and a cave are marked. “I think that’s where all the missing children are!” exclaimed Arjun. On the way to the cave, they found a house. They were hungry and thirsty by now and in this house, they were met by a botany researcher. He spoke to them and offered them some water
and snacks. He told them that he too wants to find this elusive bird-man, and he was very surprised to find out that he had made himself visible to the children. The researcher explained to them that perhaps he was the one who takes the children and that he has heard that metal could be lethal to him. The researcher unfortunately cannot walk for too long as he has weak health, but he advised them to touch him 3 times with metal.

Thanking him, Tara, Arjun and Rahul continued on their quest and reached the cave near the river. In the cave, there were some markings and some strands and materials from the same golden nest that they had found by the lake. Tentatively, they entered the cave and found 100 children inside the cave, sitting along the walls, their bodies still and unmoving, as if they had been frozen in time! They ran out of the cave when they saw the bird man’s silhouette blocking the entrance of the cave. The bird man’s strange sounds surround him. Brave as ever, Tara puts out her hand, and Rahul hands her his pocket knife. Without another word, she charges towards the bird-man and stabs him three times on his hand with the metal pocket knife. Unable to take the metal, this mystical bird-man’s body evaporates into smoke, leaving golden strands and wisps of smoke on the floor. In front of their disbelieving eyes, the 100 children wake up slowly, wondering what happened!

When the three children talk to them, their last memory is of before entering the cave, and it was as if time had actually stopped for them. Not a minute seemed to have passed for these one hundred children since they entered the cave! But they knew a lot about the bird-man, even though they could not explain how. They explained to the three kids that the bIrd-man wanted revenge against the scientist in the secret lab for creating him the way he was, and that the bird-man wanted to turn himself into a human by experimenting on the children. But he had not yet succeeded and thanks to the three children, everyone is now free! Taking the hundred children along with them, Arjun, Rahul and Tara make their way silently across the forest, to come out into the open world again. All in a day’s adventure!