Viriya stood in the middle of the bridge once more, there was no tree, no flower. In the water something was floating. And some sages were around it.
After observing from there for a while, Viriya went down near the water body. Sages were looking at her a little weirdly. Jealousy? Respect? She was not sure. But she knew it was because of the flower incident last night.
In the water body, six vibrant red fruits were floating.
Viriya thought Shouldn't there be seven? After the flower? I guess someone took it? she sat there a little while.
A while later from the top of the building Makriva called, "Viriya, come up, finish eating. We will be leaving."
After going up, Makriva handed her a container with something greyish-white mashed together.
"What this?" Viriya asked.
"Roasted sweet potato and boiled grains mashed together." Makriva said.
Viriya remembered she was given similar looking food in that house on the second day here.
With judgmental eyes she took a bite, and yes the texture threw her off. She stood there slowly swallowing it. On the other side Makriva was eating it easily.
She thought,
What happened to the festival foods?
Do I have to eat it?
After deliberating for a while, she started eating it. At the end it wasn't as bad as the start.
After she finished, he said, "It was good wasn't it?"
"Yeah, for sure better than my situation right now." Viriya replied.
While leaving Upavana, Maam Khanti came and talked a little.
Viriya asked,
"what your num—"
Between conversation she remembered phones didn't exist there, or did they? She didn't know by then.
She then asked,
"Maam, what communication method use here?"
"Don't worry Makriva will re-teach you." Udaya Khanti replied to Viriya. And looking at Makriva, "Right Makra?"
Makriva said "mhm."
Viriya asked,
"Where is Un—ty?"
"Umm.. Kavith? She is inside."
Viriya didn't say anything at first, before going out she yelled, "BYE AUNTY, AND THANK YOU"
After a moment of silence a male voice yelled, "DON'T YELL BASTARD."
Right after Kavith yelled, "COME AGAIN. MAYBE NEXT YEAR."
The male voice yelled, "NO, DON'T COME BACK NEXT YEAR."
Maam laughed a little hearing the conversation.
She called a man to carry some of their luggage until they reached the train stand. They already had three luggages when they arrived, now one from Kavith. And the glass container, which is now padded with some clothes. Maam gave Makriva some token like things. Viriya asked about those, turned out to be letters.
Maam and some other person came to the door to accompany them. They then left the Dibbanandassa Alankata Upavanam for the train stand.
___
After walking a while, they reached the train stand.
The place was not that crowded, as much as she had thought. While walking she remembered the starting areas, which wasn't much developed. But the area near the stand was more developed.
The stand had a weird mechanical smell. The carrier was still with them, carrying some of their luggage.
"Why we no vehicle take?" Viriya asked.
"We have time in hand, and walking is free." Makriva replied.
The person with them was still standing, with their luggage.
Makriva told him to place the luggage in a side, and he could leave if he wanted.
The man dropped the luggage in a side of a wall and talked with them a little and left.
Makriva thanked him, watching him Viriya thanked him as well.
Viriya asked,"Couldn't we have brought him with us? So helpful."
"He has work here, can't come with us."
She then asked,"Ok. But many luggage."
After waiting a bit she asked again,
"Now what? Wait?"
"Yes, pretty much"
After looking around a bit, she noticed a name was written on the walls in big letters, she tried to read,"R-N-A."
She only learnt the pronunciations, still can't read the letters.
Seeing that Makriva told,"Ramarana. Stand Ramarana."
After a bit of silence Makriva continued,
"You wait with the bags here, I will be back with tokens for the trains." Makriva said before going towards a relatively small line.
At the station, most people were wearing good enough clothes. She heard some people were talking about some kind of animal. They were describing that as two legged horse. Viriya was interested. But did not get much information out of it. Just got to know that it once appeared from nowhere and disappeared.
Viriya thought [evolved horse? Or new animal? Well horse from the memory's time is fossil now...]
While hearing— thinking, a child no older than 10 came in front of her, and told,"Great maam, some Sha please."
Viriya was a bit confused hearing that. She asked again what that kid said,"Maam, some Sha please."
Viriya asked,"What Sha?"
The kid said,"MriSha? Maam."
Viriya said,"I, don't know."
Hearing that the kid just started moving away towards another person. While walking, he tripped over and some coins scattered on the ground from him.
The kid was about to cry out loud, tears were dropping from his eyes.
Seeing that, Viriya moved over to help him. His dirty clothes got even dirtier. While she was helping that kid, she heard Makriva's voice, he yelled something like,"... Touch."
[Hmm? Touch what?]
And Viriya heard some running sound from her behind. She saw some teenagers and young adults ran away from near their luggage. And the kid stopped crying completely, then grabbing the fallen coins ran towards the same direction.
After Makriva came closer she asked, "what that?"
"A begging scam,
Hmm..
Forgot to warn you about it." Makriva said matter of factly.
Was, I really about to get scammed here?
At first she just stood there not saying anything then with a slight gasp she asked, "I see, it common here?
Well, not like I have anything to rob of... Other than this jar. And maybe the bags... Whatever.
And what sha? Currency?"
"Yes" Makriva said dropping a coin in Viriya's hand, "That's a Trisha." Makriva continued.
Viriya observing the coin noticed, it had two lotus petals drawn on it. And the back had something written in Thamaily.
Viriya asked,"Value? Of it?"
Makriva said," Tra Mrisha— ahh I will explain later. Now let's go towards a resting area."
They went towards a room with almost empty chairs, few people were there. But mostly no one.
"Now, tell what sha." Viriya asked after sitting down.
Makriva took out a token and put it in a octagonal metal object. The token had a distorted line, that vanished and converted into a paper.
Viriya thought, cool tech, easily compacted information. Wait encoding?
"What that was?" Viriya asked.
"It was, big information was compacted in a single vibration."
Advanced encoding?
"Tell about sha." Viriya said again.
Makriva gave the paper to Viriya to read a specific part. It had numbers in Thamaily. And numbers in Hindi.
0 is Han
1 Is Mri, 2 is Tri, 3 is Mra, 4 Is Tra, 5 Is Mru, 6 Is Tru.
Viriya didn't read more, and asked,"Trisha meaning—" showing two fingers, "sha?".
"Yes and no, as I said, four mrisha is one Trisha. Like that, four trisha is one Mrasha. So on and so on."
"For how long?"
"Till Tren."
Viriya looked again at that paper, 6 is Tru, 7 Is Mren, 8 Is Tren.
So eight levels ok..
"you have trensha?"
Makriva looked at Viriya a little amazed and said,"We are not that rich..."
"Well, ok. The flower?" Viriya asked, showing the petals drawn on the coin.
"Sha means, Sha— ripped flower. One of flower." He showed the petals on the coin. "so Mrisha is one petal, Mrasha is three petal and so on."
"Hmm, flower currency.
Anyways, when the train coming?"
"At evening"
"Why we so early then?"
"to be safe?"
Still this early? thinking this, she didn't say anything.
They sat there looking outside the rail line and past that empty land.
Makriva was fidgeting with something in his hand for a while. Viriya asked "what it is?"
"A pendant, I got for you earlier." Makriva said with little hesitation.
"So, give?"
Makriva handed it over to Viriya after some more fidgeting and watching it.
After seeing both side of it she said,"A decorated Mrisha?"
"Yeah, it's considered lucky here…" Makriva said slowly in a dim voice.
To lighten the conversation a little Viriya said,"My perfect Thing. Days was unlucky. Now lucky." as she tried to put it on.
Makriva helped with it. With no visible expression he asks, "You like it?"
Viriya says,"It good.
but...
Uncomfortable Neck." scratching around the necklace.
Viriya opens it up and told Makriva to wrap it around her wrist. Which he does without any questions.
"Now better.
Right Makra?"
He looked at the wrist of her and a slight smile formed on his face as he said,"Better than necklace."
___
It was almost evening, their train arrived. After watching all the things here, she thought the train would be like old days, coal powered. Then she remembered that, it's the future. Humans might have just... Used them all by now.
After both got up on the train, Makriva kept the bags under the seats. Viriya sat down beside a wall. She kept the glass jar at the wall side.
The train wasn't too much crowded. Some compartments were open from the top. No shade, some were shaded. They were in shaded ones.
Viriya asked,"What power for train?"
Makriva hearing that had a blank confused look for a while then he said,"It's, a power storage thing. The thing stores the power, and train uses it."
Hm, Battery? But power in that..? Whatever
"Ok got it.
And. How long journey?" Viriya asked.
"After eating, just sleep. Our destination for this train will end in the dawn."
"This train? There more?"
"Mhm" Makriva said smiling.
Some people got in the train, but it wasn't still that full. Maybe people were on other compartments. But theirs was pretty empty.
They shared that row with another man. They talked a little. The man noticing the pendant on Viriya's wrist he asked,"Why the lucky necklace on the wrist dear?"
"Uncomfortable on neck." Viriya replied.
The man showing a similar pendant, said in a little bragging tone,"I also got one for my future wife. A lucky Trasha."
Viriya just looked at it and nodded. Then looking at her own wrist she said with a little too much enthusiastic tone,"Yes my brother got it. So beautiful right?" putting hand on Makriva's shoulder.
The man was clearly expecting some kind of acknowledgement about it. Without much response about his clearly superior trasha, he just shut up and sat there silently.
After a while the train departed. It was already night time, so Viriya couldn't see much outside.
Sometime she saw some trees from the door, bathing in crimson moon light.