BOOK 2

Even though the sun was shining brightly and the weather was fine, after an hour or so it gradually started to get cloudy and cold.

Vihaan didn't wear any thick clothes to come during the funeral and he started to feel a bit chilly. The thin clothes that he was wearing, wasn't helping at all. On the way to the funeral, he met up with his father along with his mother and sister. Vihaan was still bothered by the comment his father had made regarding the mat in his room.

𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘵? 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵?

All of a sudden a light pat came on his back. It was Saul who had also come to the funeral as his parents were close to Saul and his family.

"You are feeling a bit cold, aren't you?"

Easter came in front of them and said, "No, he has been like this since this morning. He wouldn't tell me what is up with him?"

"Are you fine, Vihaan?"

Vihaan shrugged Saul's hand saying "I was fine until Easter spilled the beans to Mother!"

"She told her about you wanting to become a Wanderer, didn't she?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"I haven't told you all this but I hope, I too can become a Wanderer or some sort like that if possible."

"R͓̽E͓̽A͓̽L͓̽L͓̽Y͓̽?", both Vihaan and Easter said in unison with a sense of astonishment in their surprise in their faces.

"I never expected you to say that but why all of a sudden?" Vihaan asked for a response.

"I was hoping to tell both of you but I never got any motivation to say so. When Easter told that his parents had known about his path, I too wanted to tell everyone."

"But why do you want to become one?"

"Look who is talking." Easter had a smirk look on her face.

"I think you might know already," said Saul. Vihaan finally realized and said "I get it now, only Wanderers are currently allowed to explore beyond with exception of some higher-ups. It is surprising that only now I got a gist of it. I never asked you this directly but why do you want to know more about it?"

"I guess it would only be fair to tell you but a year ago, during one of our class breaks I was walking down the hallway and heard a reinforcer and Mr. Smith talking about wanting him to remove some books from the Bibliotheca. After eavesdropping on them for a while, it seemed that the reinforcer wanted a list of books to be burned. Mr.Smith gave him the books but accidentally I got my hands on one of the books when he dropped one."

"You know Saul, you could get in trouble if they were to find out."

"Yes I know, and then I went to my home to read it and found some something. First of all, the quality of the paper was so good. I had never seen such kind of paper even in governmental places. The next thing is regards to the content in the book. The book was describing the places beyond the edge and how people used to live there. It was like the book had been full of some kind of riddles. In the last pages, there were some writings I couldn't understand but at the very last page something like UTOP... was carved ."

Vihaan was shocked to hear this and said, "Wait a minute, a book in my house had the same thing written in the back pages."