The shark was big. For all his bulk, Rudra looked small before it. The shark was almost twice as tall as Rudra and just as wide. Its body tapered down in the distance into an equally massive tail. At the sight of the shark, Rudra’s grin widened.

“I was not hiding runt. I was waiting.”

“Waiting? Under the sand for us to cross the boundary so that you could pounce on us immediately catching us unaware?”

The shark's mouth spread into a grin revealing tall impossibly white sharp teeth, “Yes.”

“So you were hiding.”

The grin faltered. “No… uh… that’s not hiding that is strategic positioning. I have nothing to fear from…” His reply tapered off at the mirth in Rudra’s eyes.

“Suck on a tit.”, the shark huffed.

Amita cracked up in laughter, “Oh, trust me he does.” A red-faced Suvi clamped her palm over Amita’s mouth to shut her off.

The shark was puzzled, “You do? How? Those tiny yellow birds have sharp beaks and claws, and their crest is ticklish. Your mouth is so tiny. I bet you can’t even fit a grown one in your mouth.”

Amita was choking up. Satt giggled. Suvi was red-faced, but a smile cracked her face. Rana was embarrassed and couldn’t believe what was happening. This was a Guardian.

Rudra replied straight-faced, “Yes, my mouth is too small so your barb fell flat. Try again.”

“Suck on a porcupine.”

“That’s easy. I can hold it face forward, pressing its quills down facing back. No, this one also doesn’t work.”

The shark deflated. Rudra asked, “You need help with comebacks?”

The shark flared in indignation, “I don’t …”

“Oh, come on, you are a Guardian and clearly you’ve not been around a lot.”

“Fine. Got me when I was a baby didn’t they. Guard this place they said, the world will come here they said. Nothing’s happened for thousands of years.”

“I understand. How about this one, ‘Suck on a sea-urchin’?”

“Sea-urchin”, the shark rolled the name in its mouth, “What’s that?”

“Sea creature, somewhat round like a ball, covered in sharp spines all around, cannot be flattened like with a porcupine.”

“Hmmm. Ok.”, the shark sounded pleased, “Suck on a sea-urchin.”

“Oh, that would hurt, if it fit in my mouth.”

Even Suvi couldn’t control herself this time. Rana was aghast. The shark had a hunted look in its eyes. The shark tried to shift blame, “But it was your idea.”

“Just a suggestion, which you accepted and acted upon. Your choice, your fail.”

“What if it is a baby sea-urchin? Tiny enough to fit in your mouth.”

“Doesn’t work. Its spines wouldn’t have grown much or hard. So which way do we go?”

“When you enter, go straight, the entrance portal will appear a few kos back.”, the shark replied absentmindedly. It seemed to mull over a possible comeback.

“Ok, thanks. We’ll be on our way. We’ll check on you on the way out to see if you’ve got something good.”

“Great, thanks.”, the shark nodded, still lost in thought.

He turned to his friends, the shock on their faces made them look comical. He made his unit take a snap to use with them later, then said, “Come on let’s go.”

Suddenly the shark jerked before the party could move, “You can’t just go there. Defeat me first.”

“But I did.”

“When? We didn’t fight.”

“We traded words, that’s as good as a fight.”

“How did I lose?”

“None of your wits landed, you even took my help and failed. So you lost.”

“Oh, I lost. It's been a long time since that happened.”, the shark appeared sad and its snout drooped, before snapping up, “Wait a minute. It needs to be a proper fight. Words won’t do.”

“Says who? Rana, what is a Guardian?”

Rana snapped out of his funk, a bit flustered, and answered, “A Guardian is a guard construct or beast that allows access to the worthy. Unlike a regular guard, a Guardian’s levels scale to be a stage above that of the party seeking access, up to a cap set by the masters of the place it guards. Any party seeking access needs to defeat a Guardian to be granted access.”

A smug smile spread on the shark’s face, “Got you there. My guiding principle is specific ‘Allow access to only those who can defeat me in combat or those with access tokens or those with special marks’.”

“So we have to beat you individually or as a team?”

“Are you a Party?”

They had not yet formed one, but their units easily did this for them once instructed. Suvi started it, setting the name of their Party to “Tiny Mouth Seekers”. All accepted quickly with tittering from the other two girls.

Rudra replied, “Yes we are.”

“Then as long as one of you beats me or some of you or all together, you can pass.”

“Ok, we’ll do what we must.”

“You really want to fight? Those foxes were annoying, but they were tiered and more in number than you. Taught them a lesson. None of you is tiered and your Party size is small.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”, Rudra responded as he retrieved something from his storage ring and clasped it in his hands behind his back, leaning back to limit the shark’s view of the object.

“You want this, so don’t resent me if I hurt any of you.”, the shark responded evenly. It wasn’t concerned about the fate of this trickster and his friends.

“You mean kill?”

“Yes.”, there was a sinister smile on the shark’s face that gave way to curiosity, “What are you trying to hide behind your back?”

“Hide? No, no. I am just strategically positioning something.”

“Tell me what is it or I won’t go easy on you.”

“Would you have gone easy on us if I had nothing?”

“No.”

“If I tell you, then?”

“Maybe.”

“You realise my dilemma here.”

The shark glared at the boy. It seemed to mutter something, then said, “Fine. If not for boundary restrictions that don’t let me sense anything beyond that line and the last few times someone pulled a secret yantra on me, I would not do this. I will…”

“Oh. Did they win?”

“What? No. I still defeated them, but getting bits of my body blasted off still hurts. Don’t interrupt me. I will give you a straight fight. One on one duel with any of you. Not to the death. You win, all of you pass. You lose, all of you leave.”

“Those are fair terms. I agree. I’ve got this.”, Rudra brought forward a massive metal cylinder capped with half a globe on each end.

“What’s in it?”

“Gas.”

“Poison? Anaesthetic? Explosive? Corrosive?”

“None of the above. Just air.”

The shark looked puzzled as it examined it carefully. “What would you do with it?”

“I don’t. You will. Bite it.”

The shark’s eyes narrowed as it asked, “How much air?”

“Plenty. Enough, I think. I saw a make-believe story about a man and a shark, and there was such a cylinder in the end. I just want to see if that’s how it would go in real life.”

The shark’s eyes narrowed even more. Then they suddenly opened wide, and it shuddered.

“That is nasty. I am not opening my mouth at all”, a muffled sound came from behind the teeth of a closed mouth.

“Oh, look at those big teeth and look at all those gaps.” Rudra remarked as the cylinder in his hands shrank to the size of a marble, “I wonder what will happen if it went off in the middle or at the end of the tail. In fact, how about two of these.”, he was now tossing and catching two metallic marbles.

The shark backed up a bit before it realised what it was doing and stopped. But it didn’t come forward. Its eyes were tracking the marbles.

Rudra stepped into the shark’s domain, “So shall we get on with it. One on one duel. Not to the death.”

“No crippling and blowing off body parts. How about this we form a ring and the first one to be thrown out loses?”

“Yeah, right. As if I’ll last long in that sort of fight. And those were not the terms we agreed to.”

Panic was visible in the shark’s eyes. If Rudra had turned around, he would have seen the shock in the eyes of his friends. Suvi broke through first, “How are you so afraid of this? We saw you fight the foxes, and they had hurt you bad.”

“I am not afraid.”, The shark bristled, "I just want to avoid unpleasant experiences. Nicks and pricks are fine. They hurt too, but have you ever got parts of you blasted off? And then survived to have it happen again? And again? And again?”

“But you will be a stage higher than us, and our bodies are hardened enough to handle such blasts.”

“From the inside? Sure you can weather external explosions with your body and armour, but can you handle an explosion inside you?”

“…”, Suvi’s protest trailed off.

“I am a beast and a guardian. At tier one, my body won’t be tough enough to take a blast of this magnitude from inside. A beast would need to be a tier two or three, depending on its bloodline path, to have a body tough enough for that.”

“We are all inside the boundary now. The challenge is on, with this you are just trying to avoid the challenge.”

“No. I am just negotiating the terms of engagement. I don’t need to fight immediately, just ‘Allow access to only those who can defeat me in combat or those with access tokens or those with special marks’. Let’s walk and talk. We can fight near the entrance portal, it won’t work till you defeat me.”

“Wait, you mean to say that I can use these against any beast under stage three?”, Rudra was thrilled. Shakti hardened bodies were very tough. At a high enough level, it could easily withstand any attack from a lower level fighter.

The shark glared at him and mumbled for a while, then stated in a monotone, “At this time, I can neither confirm nor deny this conjecture.”

“So that’s a yes, thanks.”

Rana’s mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water. So many notions of his had been dashed. Amita and Satt had a dazed look in their eyes. Suvi’s look wavered between relief and worry. She had been worrying about a fight against an overpowered opponent, a fight that wouldn’t happen, maybe.

Rudra started walking towards the portal, the shark floating along beside him, looking despondent. It would occasionally come up with an idea, only to be shot down.

The portal came after a walk of a few kos in a straight line. It was a circular stone arch floating above an octagonal stone platform that had three ramps placed around it going to the top. The symbols and mantras on the arch were lit, the arch itself was rotating, and the air within it had a hazy wavy sheen to it, all indicative of an active teleportation portal.

“Right, up you go. Bye, bye.”

“Wait, what?” Rudra was surprised, “What about our fight?”

“‘Allow access to only those who can defeat me in combat or those with access tokens or those with special marks’”, the shark emphasised the last words and added, “It's actually just one mark, and you’ve got it on you.”

“Oh…”, Rudra was puzzled, the reason for which changed even as he guessed at what the shark could refer to.

“Seen plenty of brats like you. Not one who didn’t want to pull a prank on me. I got tired and started pranking brats myself.”

“When did you know?”, Amita asked.

“When he stepped over the boundary. After dealing with hundreds of pranksters I’ve gained some acting talent, what do you think?”

“Uhh… yes, you were quite good.”, Satt stammered. No one countered. It was still a behemoth killing machine they were dealing with. And it was true., “He has the mark, right? Can we still pass through?”

“Sure. The mistress doesn’t mind if friends tag along. But it will only be a sightseeing trip for you.”

“Ok. Did your mistress tell you this?”

“No, no. That’s been her rule since forever. I’ve not heard from her for over two million years now.”

"Is she… uh…", Satt wasn’t sure how to ask.

“Alive? Yes. I can still sense her through my connection to her. Don’t worry, you all are guests now. Atithi Devo Bhava. I will not bite you.”, the shark grinned, revealing his big teeth, conveying the unstated warning.

Relieved but wary the friends starting going up the nearest ramp. Rudra stayed put, looking at the shark.

“You’ve got more questions, go ahead, ask. On my honour, I’ll answer truthfully. Though, know that I’ve slept for about two million years so my information could be out of date. And yes, I know the Collectorate is long gone. It was on its last legs when I went to sleep.”

“How do you know our language?”

“Learned it from those who attempted to enter forcefully. Some 12 attempts over the last ten thousand years. I can do what I wish with those I defeat.”, the shark’s grin seemed to be wider this time.

“Will we find the Crystal Night Queen inside?”

“Yes, when you go through the garden to mistress’ abode, you will find a fair few plants of it and a few others as well.”

“Two million years old?”

“Don’t be silly. Such plants have a life of a few hundred thousand years. Automated constructs maintain the garden, they would have replanted the dying plants.”

“What can we expect in there?”

“Your friends? Nothing except a relaxing time, excellent food and wine. You on the other will have the personal attention of the mistress. She was the Collectorate’s most famous tutor, especially of brats like you.”

Rudra nodded and started walking away. He halted and turned, “One last question, you weren’t really afraid of my contraptions were you?”

The shark glared at him. The silence hung in the air, waiting, drawing out moments slowly. Eventually, the shark muttered, “Brat”, and then vanished, sinking into the sand and swimming away.

Rudra’s laugh rang through the desert as he went up the ramp.