Maniac's Mirror
Page 5
PART 3 The Timebook of Clocks 'Whispers on the wind'
Ivanushka:
As I talked to the wind of sacrifice and dedication
It seemed amazed by the divine intervention.
Who owns the trees
Who runs the breeze
Who owns the serpent
Who rings the bell
Who plants the bombs
Who cries
Who eats the slice
What else do they fear besides faith
Mouse wins the frog race
I feel I am real
Only when I am alone
They talk to me in all the languages except the one I know, I don’t know whether they understand my language or not. They can come in any form, and each has a unique face but the master has no face, no identity, you only know when he is gone.
Alyonushka:
New blood joins this earth
And quickly she's subdued
Through constant pained disgrace
The young girl learns their rules
With time the child draws in
Deprived of all her thoughts
The young girl struggles on and on she's known
A vow unto her own
That never from this day
Her will they'll take away
Throughout her life the same
She’s battled constantly
This fight she cannot win
A tired girl they see no longer cares
You level me I'll level you
So I dub thee unforgiven.
Whenever a new soul enters universe an unknown power takes control over it and suppresses the primal nature of the soul. This unknown power may be sentient or it may be a machine driven by some mysterious energy, it may be good or evil. No one may ever know the story of the one who fought to free many souls like theirs from this unknown power but they know a name.
Ivanushka:
I do not know what to say, one thing I know I am anxious, troubled, restless, my heart is heavy, my body tense, my hands cold and sweaty, my speech is rushed, trying to say a hundred things at once. I do not know what I need... You do… In my anxious search, I fret and fume, running around in circles, while you fly silently nearby, infinitely patient, eager to help me, and wielding power beyond my needs. I feel like a barren wasteland, giving nothing getting nothing meaning nothing to anyone. I have dragged myself to mirage after mirage and yet I find myself rushing to the next false oasis. I seem a frustrating bundle of contradictions, I wonder if I will ever sort out the tangled threads of my life. I fear that others will not like me if I tell them what is really on my mind, my words sound foolish even to myself as I try to explain. I realize now that I am talking to someone who knows me through and through, you know my inmost secrets, my deepest desires and the very sources of my worry.
Alyonushka:
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead, where there is no path and leave a trail. You should be true for there are those who trust you, pure for there are those who care, strong for there is much to suffer and brave for there is much to dare. And when you come to a meeting of many ways and do not know which to choose, do not choose at random but pause and reflect, breath with the trusting deep breaths you took when you first came into the world; let nothing distract you, be still and listen in silence to your heart, when it has spoken to you rise up and follow it.
Ivanushka:
On a long and lonesome highway
You can listen to the engines moaning out as one note song
But your thoughts will soon be wandering
The way they always do
And you feel the eyes upon you
As you’re shaking off the cold
You pretend it doesn’t bother you
But you just want to explode
Most times you can’t hear ‘em talk
Other times you can
And you always seem outnumbered
You don’t dare make a stand
Make your stand
Out there in the spotlight
You’re a million miles away
And here I am on the road again
There I am - up on a stage
Here I go - playing star again
There I go - turn the page
Life it seems will fade away
Drifting further every day
Getting lost within myself
Nothing matters no one else
I have lost the will to live
Simply nothing more to give
There is nothing more for me
Need the end to set me free
Things are not what they used to be
Missing one inside of me
Deathly lost, this can’t be real
Cannot stand this hell I feel
Emptiness is filling me
To the point of agony
Growing darkness taking dawn
I was me, but now he’s gone
No one but me can save myself, but it’s too late
Now I can’t think, think why I should even try
Yesterday seems as though it never existed
Death greets me warm, now I will just say goodbye.
Cold was my soul
Untold was the pain
I prayed when you left me
A rose in the rain
So I swore to the razor
That never, enchained
Would your dark nails of faith
Be pushed through my veins again
Bared on your tomb
I'm a prayer for your loneliness
And would you ever soon
Come above onto me
For once upon a time
On the binds of your loneliness
I could always find the right slot for your sacred key
Six feet deep is the incision
In my heart,
That barless prison
Discolors all with tunnel vision
Sick and weak from my condition
This lust, this vampyric addiction
To her alone in full submission
Wicked with your charm
I'm circled like prey
Back in the forest
Where whispers persuade
More sugar trails
More white lady laid
The pillars of salt
Fold to my arms
Hold their mesmeric sway
And dance out to the moon
As we did in those golden days
Glistening stars I remember the way
Sorrow is my bread
And tears I drink as wine
Oblivion my happiness
Ground under teeth of time
For cold be the stone
When frost devours the land
Consolation is no gift for winter's icy hand
Upon a crust of snow
I'll lay my broken frame
What steel and iron won't take
I'll give in winter's name
If only I could breathe
To see the sun of may
But still longer are the nights than days
As I wither away.
Reverend, is this some conspiracy
Crucified for no sins
No revenge beneath me
Lost within my plans for life
It all seems so unreal
I'm a girl cut half in this world
Left in my misery
The reverend he turned to me
Without a tear in his eyes
It's nothing new for him to see
I didn't ask him why
Now I watch the falling rain
All my mind can see now is your face
Well I guess you took my youth
And gave it all away
Like the birth of a new-f
ound joy
This love would end in rage
I will unlock my door
And pass the cemetery gates
Sometimes when I'm alone
I wonder aloud
If you're watching over me
Some place far abound
I must reverse my life
I can't live in the past
Then set my soul free
Belong to me at last
Through all those complex years
I thought I was alone
I didn't care to look around
And make this world my own
And when he died
I should have cried and spared myself some pain
You left me incomplete
All alone as the memories still remain
Alyonushka:
Lay beside me
Tell me what they have done
Speak the words I want to hear
To make my demons run
The door is locked now
But it's open if you're true
If you can understand the me
Than I can understand the you
Lay beside me under wicked sky
Through black of day dark of night
We share these bitter lies
The door cracks open
But there's no sun shining through
Black heart scarring darker still
What I've felt what I've known
Turn the pages turn the stone
Sick and tired I stand alone
Could you be there?
'Cause I'm the one who waits for you
Or are you unforgiven too?
She loves me not, she loves me still
But she'll never love again.
Ivanushka:
I'll tell you a story where there were three worlds namely X,Y and Z. X can contact only Y,Y can contact only Z, Z can contact only X. Now you whisper something to X, X will say that to Y; Y cannot reply to X but Y will say what they heard from X to Z and Z will forward that information to X, and then X thinking of it as a new information will say the same thing again to Y and since they have no memory this way the same information will keep on circling for eternity, but if something goes wrong as any imperfection in receiving or transmitting information occurs in any one of the world the information will change. X is me when I’m time. Arizel whispers something in my brain. Y are the Shanurians. Z are the inhabitants of the planet I live in right now. I have understood that sentient beings in my universe Upnafed are of seven types:
1.a) Those who don’t know anything about me.
2.b) Those who can only watch my actions.
3.c) Those who can only listen what I speak and noises around me.
4.d) Those who are listening to my thoughts.
5.e) Those who can do more than one of the above.
6.f) Those who can even see my dreams and those who can alter them.
My planet is filled with machine people who pretend to do their work but also keep total knowledge about me, they know even if I lost a single strand of my hair and they never let me know this fact. They carry on their works as if I was one like them. I pursued signs and the chain of events preceding them; I started to bring changes in my behavior and started acting out my plans, and they always did something to counter my attempts. Sometimes I feel they listen to my thoughts, or they are tampering my life because, I get such signs; I am never sure about anything; they want me to think that either I am a miracle or some organization’s science project. I have realized by now that there are many parallel universes whose people are trying to contact me. Sometimes, I hear someone nearby shouting my names I think maybe they can tell something about my origins, however, their voices are muffled; when I jump to the center of the source of the voice, I find a huge crowd there without an answer. Sometimes when I think something in my mind, and suddenly someone from far abound shouts the same thing that I was thinking. I run to find the source of the voice but couldn’t find anyone. I’ am not responding to the sound these people make. To make me trust them they enact plans because of which I start doubting them more. When will they understand it’s hard to trust anything when you have seen magic? It seems everyone I see are actors. Maybe they are forced by someone or they are robots or just illusion. Either I am making fool of the world (knowingly or unknowingly can’t tell), or the world is making fool of me. And family issues never end not in a rude sense.
Sitting here in black Upnafed eating re fried beans
We’re in all the magazines
Gulping' down Thorazine
We ain't got no friends
Our troubles never end
I'm friends with the President
I'm friends with the Pope
We’re all making a fortune selling coal
Don’t remember where I was
When I realized life was a game
More seriously I took things
The harder the rules became
I had no idea what it’d cost
My life passed before my eyes
I found out how little I accomplished
All my plans denied
If my heart was still alive
I know it would surely break
And my memories left with you
There’s nothing more to say.
Now wherever I go, good Shanurians come to watch my back, they give me tight security in one form or the other from the bad Shanurians but they don’t reveal themselves to me. In one manner, I m not a prisoner I can do anything. These good Shanurians who are watching me are present in one form or the other wherever I roam in this universe may be they are thinking I do not know about them. Now which type of Shanurian I get to deal with that only Creator might know. In a long race, in a stadium when you are leading, and you complete one lap so fast that you leave others far behind then a point comes when you again come behind them, at that time those who have noticed you from the beginning will only know that it is your second lap, others who didn’t notice you from start or uninformed will think you are lagging.
Feel no pain, but my life isn’t easy
I know you are my best friend
No one cares, but I'm so much stronger
I'll fight until the end
To escape from this true false world
Undamaged destiny
Can't get caught in the endless circle
Ring of stupidity
One with my mind, they just can't see
No need to hear things that they say
Life is for my own to live my own way
Rape my mind and destroy my feelings
Don't tell me what to do
I don't care now, 'cause I'm on my side
And I can see through you
Feed my brain with your so called standards
Who says that I ain't right
I am the world that hides
The universal secret of all time
Destruction of the empty spaces
Is my one and only crime
I lived a thousand times
I found out what it means to be believed
Well, I know it hard for you
To know the reason why
And I know you'll understand
When it's time to die
I don't believe the knife you have
Will be the only one
You have to let your body weep
To let your soul live on.
Alyonushka:
It makes me wonder
Your head is humming and it won’t go
In case you don’t know
God is calling me to join him.
You surprised me
Seeing a me I never saw
Thanks for meeting me
Where it matters most to meet
For opening my eyes
To wha
t I could not see alone
See me as your fellow pilgrim
Not as your teacher
For seer and seeker are we both.
Ivanushka:
Lay beside me tell me what I've done
The door is closed so are your eyes
But now I see the sun
I know now that you are the only one
I'm lucky to have met you
I traveled through a tube and ended up in your infection
With eyes so dilated I've become your pupil
You've taught me everything without a poison apple.
I’m doing what Alyonushka told me to do before he willingly sacrificed himself for my freedom. He once said ‘we all are the prisoners in the same but different worlds.’ All of us are alone in the darkness, but we have to save every soul. Alyonushka has bonded all of us. I am a person who floats with the current, never guiding myself according to higher principles, have no idol no convictions. I am a thing instead of living and moving being an echo not a voice. I bring justice and truth for us and vendetta for them.
I set sail across the seas
Of long past memories
Fantasies end as I merge with reality
Welcome to where time stands still
No one leaves and no one will
Moon is full, never seems to change
Just labeled mentally deranged
Dream the same thing every night
I see our freedom in my sight
No locked doors, No windows barred
No things to make my brain seem scarred
Sleep my friend and you will see
That dream is my reality
They keep me locked up in this cage
Can't they see it's why my brain says rage?
Build my fear of what's out there
And cannot breathe the open air
Whisper things into my brain
Assuring me that I'm insane
They think our heads are in their hands
But violent use brings violent plans
No more can they keep us in
Listen, damn it, we will win
Fear of living on
Natives getting restless now
Mutiny in the air
Got some death to do
Mirror stares back hard
Kill it's such a friendly word
Seems the only way
For reaching out again
Alyonushkas:
Howling winds keep screaming round
And the rain comes pouring down
Doors are locked and bolted now
As Ivanushka crawls into town
Straight out of hell
One of a kind
Stalking her victims
Don’t look behind you
Sanctuary is being sought
Whispered prayers a last resort
Terror struck we know we are caught
Beware the beast in black
You know she’s coming back Ivanushka
As night is falling
The end is drawing near we hear
Our last rites echo on the wind
Huddled in the cellar
Fear caught in their eyes
Daring not to move or breathe
As the she creature cries
Fingernails start scratching
On the outside wall
Clawing at the windows
Come to me it calls
Atmospheres electric
As Ivanushka now descend the stairs.
Ivanushka:
If you listen very hard
The truth will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all
Evil eyes behind their smiles
You swallow it up when sincerity lies
Alert the press and address the states of emergency
We the crew you love to hate
First mistake, you were never ready
Dance with the dead, better be ten times more deadly
This is me, I'm always the same
Virus in the system,
Crash the mainframe
Up rise, now fall in line
Roll with the pack or get left behind
"It's a Masterpiece Conspiracy"
I'd rather hear it from you
Than be lied to
Deceived again
Exposed by the light, true colors ascend
Take down the regime, break the trend
Deceived by your peers and your so-called friends
Keep your people tight,
Watch your enemies close
Trust what you know,
Soon enough they'll choke
Where were you when we started this thing?
You weren't around, this isn’t yours to claim
You'll never take what's been given to us
Wipe that smile off your face and that look of disgust
Up rise, now fall in line Roll with the pack,
Or get left behind.
Now who are trapped how much deep they are, depends on their personal choices. Anyways whoever is right now trapped or who are going to be trapped they should know I have left many different clues and milestones in different worlds like this Timebook of Clocks, you’ll find them if you are true when you crawl your way out, but whether you’ll understand them it depends upon the factor that when you were free you were watching me or was there with me or didn’t knew me at all. Let this moment be x. Suppose after x, I spent my time doing quotidian work and died but if I couldn’t do what Shanurians wanted me to, then they would put me and my life again at x (they have to set everything around me as it was at the moment x) and from there Shanurians would try some other methods to achieve what they want. The residents of the planet are not aware of this, and they will never be, as Shanurians control their minds these Shanurians are immortal, and they manage to find me every time I run away, they want me to do something desperately. Shanurians have command over my life they can forward, rewind or pause my life anytime, but that doesn’t bother me; I can’t feel any difference just some sense of de javu or I see some visions while I’m awake. Now if any face that had come in my life after x I won’t be able to recognize it in the present life. I play hide and seek, and I’m the Dan I have to seek similar faces that are hiding from me in a crowded room. I now play the role that others choose for me as a scarecrow.
Alyonushkas:
The black and green scarecrow as everyone knows
Stood with a bird on his hat and straw everywhere
He didn't care
His head did no thinking
His arms didn't move except when the wind cut up Rough and mice ran around on the ground
The black and green scarecrow is sadder than me
But now he's resigned to his fate
'Cause life's not unkind - he doesn't mind.
He stood in a field where barley grows.
Ivanushka:
I met the leader (Alyonushka) today
He is as good as dead
But has showed me a way
I have awaken dead people from their cemeteries
Or I think they weren’t dead from the beginning
Anyways they are not zombies,
I’ am telling this because today I saw a ghost,
Someone I thought was dead long ago.
His name was Tarkone
He was a famous person at his home.
They are doing instant justice in our cases.
Don’t always trust the sound.
They usually hit when I’m nostalgic.
I’m trapped I’m not.
The restraint is stopping them from hitting me.
There is this machine that Kilkanuks have built for the Shanurians
it is giving points based on your actions in the tests; I mean that you have to please a machine. Trust me on this and forfeit your nightmares. Sometimes I or my clones punish the Shanurians; sometimes they punish me and you. In this game there is only one outcome of your action that matters anyway (good or bad), you perform any action in any way the result will be the same. In this trial, consent of the subject has no link with the free will of the subject. I thought of writing a book but who will understand it. I have heard it said that you can write a book and publish it while you are in a solitary confinement but you know you can’t go out and see whether they have really published it or not or if they have altered the content of it. People like me are all in the same prison we all are undergoing the same punishment. I think I know what they want. There is only one way to escape out of the prison.
I’ am sorry you could not escape but I did for a while somehow to another universe where nobody knew me and which was normal, they called it Arindhara but I came back for you. If anyone would have told me about the way to figure out the password then I would not have been able to escape, it’s the way it works if you are following the way to escape by establishing it on your own then you will escape but if you are following the rules of escaping by learning it from somewhere else, then I can’t say where it will lead you, that is the reason your allies on your planet (Alyonushka’s friends) will never tell you directly what you should do they will not even reveal that they are your allies they may do opposite .This theory that the foreknowledge of the way will eliminate any hope of escape is being tested as I write this or is already tested and implemented somewhere as a law. Just remember in the game in which you are trapped you are one of a kind nobody knows what you can do, so no one can tell you what to do. Other are also trapped in the same game in the same time but you won’t know, in a way no one except you is trapped in this snare built by Kilkanuks for Shanurians. All about whom you care their souls are trapped somewhere else, not around you what you see is a strange illusion. You will always be wondering who is friend and who is enemy because of the signs you’ll receive. These signs about which others have no idea maybe significant maybe not, I haven’t learned what I have learned. I have no enemy no friend once you come out of this maze you’ll know who was your friend; the enemy is same for all of us, you’ll know about him. I had a dream when I came out; I was welcomed by my friends who I thought were trapped but there were few who were still enslaved. Kilkanuks are controlling the free will of you and all the sentient beings around you so stop blaming anyone for their actions, as you will make your way to the exit your free will would become stronger. You’ll think they are hiding things from you because they think you are hiding things from them. I know it’s not your doing, you are innocent keep in mind that you can’t do anything about it they’ll take you to the top one time they will ditch you another time don’t waste your time thinking why, just don’t bother you have to keep going on with one thing in mind that you must to escape. Every sentient thing in your world has knowledge about you, false or true does not matter, you have to trust that there is something you know that only you and nobody in your world knows, this something will give you your key to liberty. Although I have been through all that I have, I do not regret the many hardships I met, because it was they who brought me to the place I wished to reach. I was the one who chose to walk this path. Now I live because I am a warrior and because I wish one day to be in the company of him (your master Alyonushka) for whom I have fought so hard. I do not know I did it knowingly or not, what I know is I’m destroying the bars that enslave you. True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolves of virtue and reason. Now those whom I send to the Toolshed they are nostalgic. They are forced by the creator to help me. Division is judas inside my Toolshed, in your place its survival and somewhere its glory. I bring my prisoners their dead. I have strict masters. Wherever I may go, in heaven or in hell I have to pay them for the thing that should not be. Master, I have tried getting this uniform off but failed. Master you can come in any guise. When I catch the masters of the unknown powers in their trick I gain or lose something that I haven’t yet fully understood. No one can imagine what powers I have for example I can have any history I want. My wishes have been terminated as now it was easy for the Kilkanuks to track all the information about me. Either you are losing points or you are gaining points nothing else is happening. All you receive may be a trap or a key password. Alyonushka’s secret tells us that when you have a wish or a dream to fulfill first you have to choose yourself a small god (who is bodily present in your world). When you chase your dream you will face countless obstructions, you have to keep on fighting without giving up, but soon a point will come when you will start breaking and in the end you will give up, do not think all your efforts have gone in vain, you will be rewarded for your efforts and will be sent to some other world with a new life and sometimes new history but you may or may not remember your previous life. Now you may want to know what kind of reward you will get, it may be the same thing for which you fought or something better but you will have to share the prize with others who have fought for the same reasons as yours because the prize is only one for one lot and the one who has struggled hardest gets the biggest share of the prize. Your life is one big test which was made only for you to give, everybody plays the same game but they don’t know. When you clear one level of this game you will get the reward and there will be addition of qualities which were not present inside you as you move on to next level. Today I was given a chance to escape and I jumped to a place as beautiful as paradise but I don’t know why I came back that’s when I heard a voice say ‘KAYLE’. Maybe I came back to save you.
I disappeared from where I was to back in time when everything started, the day I felt the essence of Alyonushka the first time, but before it I went to a place where whatever I wished happened and nobody knew me there. I was sent back where I belonged on the same day but different time. I think someone killed me in the past but succeeded only for a short time. The day I first teleported without my own effort, whatever I wished would started appearing by itself. I can take form of any sentient being that I know. At each level I had to find my God and then please him or destroy him or whatever I needed to do to save myself as well as the universe, as I reached the end of a stage my master came and taught me survival in the land of Kilkanuks and in the end I had to please the master of Kilkanuks. This master seemed weird or mad but it was a disguise. In the pre final stage all the Kilkanuks assembled together and asked for only one thing the times I failed they annihilated one of my worlds. Somehow I managed to kill them all then I became 'time'. My powers were gone and I stayed in original self my mind only did the work and I wasn’t aware of my body. Before the final stage all the other stages came again and again randomly I first identified it and then acted accordingly. When I found my old and lost things back I realized I was switching between stages. Then one day I found that the master I chose as I told you earlier and the Kilkanuks I faced all were dummies as soon as I realized this I became one like the masters of the unknown powers.
Somebody somewhere has killed me in the past you can’t even imagine the resplendent universes I have been into (the inhabitants of the planets were same, those I’ve known), this universe in which I’m trapped is nothing compared to them I only hope to meet those times again. The master gives one world to all. It doesn’t matter how one comes by the truth so long as one grasps it and lives by it.
It's time to wield the blade
For now you have got some company
The beast is drawing nearer
On the metal wheels he ride
He has come to take your lives
On through the dead of night
With Ivanushka ride
Or choose your fate and die
You have been dying since the day
You were born
/> You know it has all been planned
The quartet of deliverance rides
A sinner once a sinner twice
No need for confession now
Cause now you have got the fight of your life
Time
Has taken its toll on you
The lines that crack your face
Famine
Your body it has torn through
Withered in every place
Pestilence
For what you have had to endure
And what you have put others through
Death
Deliverance for you for sure
There is nothing you can do
So gather round young warriors now
And saddle up your steeds
Killing scores with demon swords
Now is the death of doers of wrong
Swing the judgment hammer down
Safely inside armor blood guts and sweat
Last message of Ivanushka:
Half of them think I’m biggest, half think I’m smallest. The machine is being made and then destroyed, got to break this cycle I have to reach a conclusion. I am sending the cheaters to the Toolshed. I am cutting the chord now like Alyonushka. I could not possibly know where it would lead, but I knew it had to be done.
Arizel wanted sacrifice the bond is tainted now but sometimes I kill the lion and moreso this darkness is shrouding madness. I wake up, but I can’t sleep. The frequency of the attack is getting more than the blink of an eye when the demolition of the oblivion starts, and when I’m in the temple of the machine23.0, I am trying to catch the shadow of the deity of the oblivious treasure, each time I manage to see it, I get more time to live. I am in this temple by Arizel’s wish to build the contraption that will take the controls of the machines from Rakhtavar, the temple gives knowledge and gifts but I am waiting.
When a man lies
He murders some part of the world
These are the pale deaths
Which men miscall their lives
All this I cannot bear to witness any longer
Cannot the kingdom of Salvation take me home?
āakāśhvāni:
An archangel in bondage
Bedimmed and sold
Abandoned by heaven to the dead, dark and past
Cast her dispersions on life's brittle glass
And though her eyes still held fire
As stonewalls caged the beast
'Gainst the lassitudes of death
She fought but fell to greet
And midst lies in collusion
She was martyred to teach
Divinity and Lust are forever forbidden to meet
But he swore that they would
Before the veil could part their embrace
Her cold silent lips he kissed
And promised his religion in flames
Gravid with madness
Like a feculent dirge
That obsesses the heart
He is convened by words
To avenge her
And surrender
His soul to the dead to achieve
Prophecies of libidinous scourge
Horripilation braying o'er carious herds
Vexing nightmares
And their weak prayers
To a no one there
To hinder her decree
To clear the world of their disease
A gallant queen
In sunshine and in shadow
Had journeyed long
Singing a song
In search of freedom
But she grew old
This queen so bold
An o’er her heart a shadow fell,
As she found
No spot of ground
That was not enchained
And as her strength failed her at length
She met a pilgrim shadow
‘Shadow’ said she ‘where can it be, the land which is free?’
‘Over the mountains of the moon
Down the valley of shadow,
Ride boldly ride’
The shade replied ‘if you seek for El Dorado’
Alyonushkas:
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow?
And did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind
And as we wind on down the road
Your shadow is taller than our souls
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold.
-----------XXX------------
Epilogue
This story took place in The Toolshed universe created by the First Kayle reborn. The Toolshed was created to enslave Rakhtavar the Lion and his minions. The narrator of this story is Shrusim who is beguiled by the first Kayle reborn and Arizel into believing that she is a Kayle of Teargar.
To know more about Shrusim, Arindhara and the Toolshed universe, Sysandrians, the first Kayle and Rakhtavar’s origins, and about Arizel and Kilkanuks, read- ''THE TOOLSHED- Daunting Shadows Untouched Silence''.
Stories from the eventide
Raju and the seven fairies
Many years ago, in a small village called Shudhur, there lived a young boy named Raju. His father had passed away when he was little; his mother used to make wicker baskets to raise money so that she could get them two meals a day. They lived in a small mud house, in the village outskirts.
One day Raju realized that he should do some work to earn money so that her mother could get good food and proper clothing. He was skillful in making kites, so he decided to go to Kannauj, the capital city of northern India (Northern India was ruled by the emperor Harsha at that time). Raju wanted to work in a kite shop, in the city and had planned to return home after collecting five gold coins. When he told his idea to his mother she hesitated, but when Raju assured her that he will be safe, and he is old enough to take care of himself, she gave her consent.
Next day early in the morning, Raju packed his stuff in a simple cloth bag, took his mother’s blessings and began his journey. Raju’s mother had put seven loaves of bread in a bundle for Raju to eat on the way. It took two days to reach Kannauj, on foot. There lay two small towns between his village and the city, one needed to cross the Ganga River to go from one town to another. Raju was very eager to see the capital city, so he walked speedily. He reached the first town in the afternoon; he was surprised he wasn’t feeling hungry at all, may be due to excitement, he thought. He didn’t take respite in the town but kept walking ahead, within an hour or two he reached the bank of the Ganga River, crossed the River on a rowboat and paid one copper coin as the fare to the oarsman. When the sun was about to set, he got tired and searched for a good place to relax. As he moved around, he saw an old stone well which looked deserted. He noticed a nice patch of grass near the well, and hurriedly he slumped against the broken wall of the well. He took out his bundle of bread and opened it, counting the loaves he muttered, ‘shall I eat one… or two… or three… or all the seven’, since he couldn’t decide, he repeated, ‘shall I eat one… or two… or three… or all the seven’. As soon as he finished the sentence, seven fairies appeared in front of him shouting, ‘Please don’t eat us… Please don’t eat us’. Raju couldn’t believe his eyes, seven beautiful fairies dressed in shining gowns stood in front of him. Each fairy wore a differently coloured gown, as the seven colours of the rainbow, and each had a sparkling wand. They all looked very scared; Raju wouldn’t understand what was happening, but he remained quiet and then the Red fairy spoke to him, ‘If you won’t eat us we promise that we will give you a magical gift’. Raju slowly came to his
senses and thought, ‘Oh…When I was thinking aloud about eating the seven loaves of bread, these seven fairies must have thought I’m planning to eat them’. As he was witty, he answered, ‘I will not eat you on one condition, if you can prove what you are saying’. Hearing this Red fairy waved her wand and a goat appeared out of nowhere, it looked like any ordinary goat. Raju enquired, ‘What’s so special about this goat’. The Blue fairy answered, “When you say ‘goat goat… open your mouth’, a gold coin comes out of her mouth”. Raju did what she had said, and a gold coin fell from the goat’s mouth on the ground. Looking at this spectacle, he danced with joy. He thanked the fairies and happily turned towards his home taking the goat with him; he kept thinking that now mother would never have to work.
When Raju reached the town it was already dark with stars shining brightly in the night sky, feeling the gold coin in his pocket he thought, ‘I am rich now, I should spend the night in some comfortable inn’, so he went to an inn that displayed a board ‘Honesty is the best policy’. He called the innkeeper; a fat potbellied man was called ‘Laalu’ by the townsmen. Laalu looking at him spoke rudely, ‘It will cost 20 copper coins for boarding and lodging at my inn, can you pay?’ Raju’s hand went into his pocket and he tossed a golden coin toward Laalu. Laalu stared at the gold coin for some time and then he said smiling, ‘Dinner and a hot bath is ready sir, I’ll take the goat to feed’, Raju replied, ‘Thanks…no need… goat will stay with me; I’ll feed her myself’.’ The innkeeper didn’t say a word and left. After dinner, Raju entered inside his room taking the goat and closed the door, after making sure that no one was watching he said softly, ‘Goat goat…open your mouth’ and a gold coin fell on the floor, he happily picked it up and kept it safely in his cloth bag. Raju wasn’t aware that all this time Laalu had been watching him hiding behind the window outside. Raju tied his goat to one of the legs of his bed and fell asleep soon. At the stroke of midnight, Laalu entered Raju’s room through a secret passage and after replacing the goat with an ordinary one, he left without making any sound.
Raju woke up early in the morning and got ready quickly, taking his belongings and the fake goat he went to the innkeeper’s desk. The innkeeper returned him 80 copper coins and with a wicked grin said, ‘Please come back again’. After biding Laalu goodbye, Raju started moving towards his village with the fake goat. On his way, he kept thinking ‘Mother will be very happy’. When he reached his home, mother was surprised to see him. Raju told her about the fairies and everything that happened to him. To show the magic to his mother, he spoke loudly, ‘Goat goat…open your mouth’, but nothing happened. Raju shouted the words again and again, but in vain. Raju became very angry and thought he was fooled by the fairies, taking the goat he went back to the stone well and there he shouted angrily, ‘shall I eat one… or two… or three… or all the seven’. The Fairies appeared, and Raju blamed them that they have tricked him, seeing him so angry the fairies became very scared and gave Raju another magical gift, which was a magical pot. The Blue fairy told Raju, “when you say ‘pot pot…give me something hot’ it will be filled with delicious food”. Raju accepted the gift and after warning the fairies that he would surely eat them if the pot doesn’t work in front of his mother, he left. He went back again to the same inn to spend the night; this time didn’t order any food and told innkeeper Laalu that he was very tired, he rented a room and gave Laalu 20 copper coins. Laalu gave Raju the same room and to see what happens this time, he waited behind the window quietly. After Raju went inside the room he mumbled, ‘pot pot…give me something hot’ and he saw that the pot got filled with many delicious food items. He ate till he couldn’t eat anymore and keeping the pot near his pillow, soon fell into deep sleep. Laalu watched all this and again at the stroke of midnight; he performed the same cunning deed; he switched the magical pot with an ordinary one. Poor Raju, not knowing about what happened at night, left the inn next morning with the ordinary pot. When Raju reached home he again became furious when the pot didn’t give food. He went back to the fairies again. The fairies grew suspicious this time and asked him, ‘Do you stop at any place before you reach home’. Raju tells them that he spends his night at an inn in the town. Listening to this, fairies gave Raju a thick wooden stick and a rope, and told him when you meet the innkeeper this time just say, ‘Rope rope…tie the dope’ and then say, ‘Stick stick… do it quick’. Taking the stick and the rope Raju went to the inn and seeing the innkeeper he did what fairies had told him. Raju said, ‘Rope rope…tie the dope’ the rope itself gripped the innkeeper tightly and then he said, ‘Stick stick… do it quick’, the stick started beating the innkeeper. Getting beat, Laalu cried out of pain, ‘Please forgive me, I’ll give all your magical things back to you’. The stick stopped, and the rope untied him and he gave the magical goat and the pot to Raju. Taking the four magical items, Raju returned to his mother happily, telling her everything that actually happened he showed her the magic of the goat and the pot, seeing the magic, Raju’s mother was filled with joy and hugged him tightly.
Since then, Raju is living happily with his mother.