by W. C. Jasper
As King Jeraash and General Thayman drowned in uncontrollable laughter, Thaymas laughed at himself for falling for it yet again. And once again, Earth was graced with the rarest and the most charming of laughs as Yaakub laughed gently and his charm put even the springs of Erphu to shame.
“Okay!” said Prince Jared, “I think we’ve had enough of that nonsense.” And exited the pool in anger, “Let’s go eat!”
The party sat down for their second meal of the day when the sun had already started its decline. Sitting in their private sanctuary, on straw mats, surrounded by nature’s walls on both sides, as the orange fire of the sun splattered on their skin breaking through the artisan roof and the creepers; the party enjoyed a lively feast. A lively feast that had in attendance: King Jeraash’s dignity-filled affection and nobility-filled meekness; General Thayman’s fatherly humour and kind hand; Queen Maomi’s motherly warmth, generosity, and hospitality; General Hana’s mostly monstrous lack of human sensibilities interrupted by a few short-lived moments of humanness where the communion of her loving companions broke through her sifith walls; Akini’s fiery and petty indignance; Kaveri’s dignified, yet warm and friendly communion; Ribon’s tranquil yet joyful presence; Yuroichi’s endless energy and cheerfulness; Thaymas’ yearning for even a moment of escape from the constant state of being the group's punching bag; Yaakub’s pricelessly charming smile that would only grace the mortals on extremely rare occasions; and Prince Jared’s clownship with a little Akini-ness and some Thaymas-ness.
It was a day that was perfectly worthy of the name of the mountain. For ‘Erphu’ meant ‘Be still and be refreshed’ in ancient Jerudian tongue. As the party headed home, racing against the rising moon, Mount Erphu closed her eyes to a beautiful communion that evening. If she had lips, she would have smiled. But if she had a tongue, she would have spoken, “Be still, Prince Jared. Be still and let the communion of your loved ones wash away your sins. Be still, Prince Thaymas. Learn to be still, lest you recklessly dart into danger.”
It was the fifth to last day of the year. As the day began to close its eyes and prepared for sleep; Prince Jared sat under the Trees of Three, watching his favourite person. As Princess Jeniah ran around the enchantingly green hill, chasing the wizardly butterflies, Prince Jared sat shirtless (as usual), staring over the magically beautiful Forest of Ferianoy. Overlooking a maze of thin and thick waterfalls running through shining black and green mountains, birds of all the colours of the rainbow and of all shapes and sizes flying all around in huge numbers, numerous ponds and streams; Prince Jared sat on the lush, waving grass with his palms resting on the ground behind him. As he watched Princess Jeniah chase the butterflies with no intention of catching them, just for a tiny moment, his mind was devoid of any negative emotions - no worries and no fear, nothing to get him down. The songs of the innumerable birds that were far sweeter than the birds of today and even sweeter than the finest honey of SHAR preached sermons of peace to his soul.
As he often did, the Prince started to stare at his palms. He did this often, ruminating thoughts of his actions, his mistakes, his failures… his sins. He did this whenever he felt unworthy. Whenever he stared at his palms, he also wondered whether the gift of his hands was to be a warrior or be a musician. This was because the talents of a person were usually referred to as the gifts of their hands. Despite being smart and wise enough to know that every human has multiple gifts, he was also human enough to get lost in such foolishness sometimes. His conflicting thoughts of his giftings as a warrior and a musician were based on how he viewed himself. As a warrior, he had caused tremendous destruction. A lot of violence that the people around him viewed as unnecessary and excessive. But, as a musician, he brought immense peace, comfort, and joy to people. However, his favourite gifting was his ability to console his crying daughter instantaneously with his singing and put her to sleep as if his voice were a magical medicine to her soul.
As he continued staring at his hands, he also felt like he could express his unspoken words… Words that he himself could not discover in the depths of his heart… Words that were unspoken because they were unformed… Words that never found their way to existence because of their torturously knotted nature that disallowed them from manifesting into the realm of verbal existence in the limited realm of human tongue.
He stared at the tiny dot-like birthmark in his right palm, about an inch below his pinkie finger. The birthmark that was identical to his mother’s - exact same size, and in the exact same spot. He turned his hand around and stared at another smaller birthmark in the back of his index finger in the same hand, about half a centimetre below his fingernail. The birthmark that was identical to his father’s - exact same size, and in the exact same spot. He wondered for a moment as to why his elder brother did not inherit either of those, while he inherited both. Despite being a man who relished and engaged in an awful lot of manual labour, his palms were rather soft. A passing thought reminded him that it’s a good thing since the Princess loved being caressed by his hands, and soft hands served that purpose better. His hands did not look imposing enough for a hardened warrior of his calibre. In fact, they looked unbelievably harmless. His wrists were very lean, shaped as if forming a pointy end before broadening at the palms. A perfect design to focus all power into a small area of impact and also be able to move swiftly. Wrists that were perfect for a fighter with his fighting style. As he once again turned his hand around and stared at his palms; as if in a dream, he saw blood starting to cover his hands. He thought to himself that these hands drenched in blood were not worthy of holding the most beautiful soul to ever exist - Princess Jeniah Meshoshanah. Flowing from the tips of his fingers, they covered his entire palms in blood and started moving further up his hands.
As his guilt started pulling him into a deep pit with its blood-red tentacles, a sudden voice came to his rescue and pulled him back out. The fairest voice to ever exist. His daughter’s sudden playful howl echoed through the forest like the song of a wolf cub. Sudden, random, meaningless, and purposeless howls throughout the day - a trait she inherited directly from her father. But right now, that quirk served as divine providence and a timely instrument that delivered the Princess’ magical voice to her father’s ears and broke the grasp of the evil tentacles that were swallowing him. As her voice struck his ears, his eyes that were drowning in darkness were suddenly illuminated with a white sun breaking through, the blood he saw on his hands suddenly disappeared; and all he saw now were the hands that protected his purpose for living - his daughter. He decided to shake off all his thoughts and reminded himself that the only thing that mattered now was that those hands protected his daughter, the single thing that mattered more than anything else in all of existence.
As the violet of the night started to envelope the sky, the infinitely cute Princess Jeniah charged at Prince Jared like a rhino. Tackling him in the name of hugging, she slammed him to the ground. Laughing merrily, as he rolled around with the Princess on the grass that shone with moonlight, Prince Jared thought to himself, “One day… she really will be strong enough to take me down… She’ll be an adult…” And suddenly panic set in, “What if she won’t play with me every day anymore!?” And just like that, he once again transitioned from drinking in the joy of the blissful present to despising the reality of human existence. The reality that children eventually grow up and become something other than cute little beings of love and affection who enjoy being cuddled and coddled every hour of the day.
As he humoured his daughter by acting like they were truly matched equally in grappling, she plucked out a small bunch of hair from his chest with great force as he screamed in pain and let her go. Truly great might she carried, for such a little girl. Unlike King Jeraash, whose chest had short and neat hair; Prince Jared had a fairly hairy body, and that only helped the Princess in her assault. Celebrating her victory, she punched him on his chest and sat on his stomach, raising her fists up in the air, declaring in a voice that attempted to i
mitate the voice of a monstrous beast, “I WIN!!!” Her adorable victory cry was far sweeter than the enchanting songs of the birds. As if her voice put all the birds to shame, all other voices seemed to disappear. But, of course, such is a daughter’s voice to every father. But Princess Jeniah’s voice truly carried some magic.
Prince Jared sat up, and as the Princess fell back, he caught her in his forearms. Looking into her eyes, bouncing his eyebrows, “How about one more bout?” As she squinted her eyes, he swiftly pulled her close and kissed her forehead. He proceeded to unleash a barrage of kisses like any father and thanked Sathyam for all his blessings. With the moon behind their heads and the cool breeze of the night catering to the comfort of the Prince and Princess; Princess Jeniah sat on her father’s criss-crossed laps and gazed over the lowlands in front of them. Whether she was purposely imitating her father, no one can know; but if any eyes could have seen them in that moment, she would have seemed like a tiny clone of her father.
The ‘Trees of Three’, otherwise known as Triotrees, were called so very accurately. For on top of that magically green hill, the only trees were the almost identical triplets standing next to each other. They stood close to each other in a straight line, almost brushing each other. All three of them were sayoka trees - similar to the banyan trees of today, but a tad bit smaller. And even though their prop roots were thinner, they were also stronger. Exactly equal in size, and set in the centre of the top of the hill to geometrical perfection, one would be forced to believe that some gardener designed for them to be put there and took care of them every day and made sure they never grew over the set size limit. This area too, was one of the places that were restricted for the general public - mainly for protecting the rare flora and fauna that were found only in that part of the entire Earth.
“Where are they!?” restlessly yelled Princess Jeniah in her incomparably sweet voice. Prince Jared caressed the top of her head and answered, “Soon, Love. Soon.” He felt the need to always touch her whenever he spoke to her. For some reason, he believed that any verbal communication with her needed to be accompanied with physical feedback. As soon as he caressed her head and answered, her shoulders relaxed immediately and her eyes transformed instantaneously from impatient to peaceful.
Prince Jared spoke in a voice that was reserved exclusively for his Princess, “Jeni-ma…”
Princess Jeniah nodded her head, “Hm?”
Prince Jared asked in an unusually calm and serene voice, “You know how you kiss me every morning and every time you leave the house?”
The Princess turned her head around in faint confusion, “Yes…?”
Prince Jared, “When you grow up and become an adult… Will you do it every day?”
Princess Jeniah looked puzzled. After about three seconds of persisting confusion, she relaxed her face and turned back to her original position and faced the same direction as her father, “You still kiss Papa-Jur everyday… I am sure you two are adults…”
Prince Jared smiled at her uncommon intellect and adult-like response and replied in a long-running tone, “Yes…”
At a loss for words, he threw his head back and looked up at the sky with an audible, deep breath. He quickly lowered his head back down as the Princess looked up. Gazing into her magical eyes, he said, “But I still need you to promise me that you will never stop doing it. Not even when I am 180 years old and Jeni-ma is 161 years old! Not a single day when you have access to me, will you ever skip out on kissing me in your morning greetings and whenever you take your leave!” And immediately remembering something he had forgotten, he added, “And also kiss me goodnight every, single, night!”
Princess Jeniah was bewildered. She had no idea that the expression of affection changes when people become adults. She grew up in the most intimate family in history. Even the mere idea that it could be a possibility for their physical expression of affection to wane in the slightest degree was an impossibility to her. Unable to understand what was going on, she obliged to her father’s request, “Well… Kissing goodnight is actually your job, but… Maomi-ma does say you are lazy…” and shrugged in a fast motion, “Okay!”
Prince Jared smiled in perfect bliss and gazed at the maze of waterfalls shining in the bluish moonlight. But it was cut short abruptly when he came to a haunting realisation and asked, “Wait! Why did Jeni-ma not ask me for the same? Does Jeni-ma not want to be kissed everyday by me?!”
The Princess laughed uncontrollably, “Appa is really not very smart sometimes!”
Prince Jared: “Excuse me!?”
Princess Jeniah continued laughing and eventually calmed down with effort. She threw her head back and looked up at the Prince’s face, “I am a General’s daughter, you know? I’m supposed to be strategic! I need to be smart about resource utilisation. And Maomi-ma said that promises should not be used too often, otherwise they lose their meaning. Why would I use a promise to make you do something that you anyway can’t go even two hours without doing?”
Prince Jared threw his head back and mumbled to himself, “She’s five years old! We’ve created a monster!”
Princess Jeniah, “What?”
He lowered his head and kissed her forehead tightly, “Nothing. I was just asking Sathyam for more intellect to be able to keep up with you.”
As he sat on the grass, hugging her tightly and rocking from side and side, Princess Jeniah looked to her left and noticed that the long-awaited fireflies were now arriving. There were two types of common fireflies - with yellow light and white light. But in the Forest of Ferianoy, there were an additional three - red light, blue light, and green light. And while the white and yellow were seasonal, the rest of the three would gather at the Triotrees every night of the year. Every night, without fail. It never rained in this part of the Ferianoy forest, as if the gardener had forbidden mother nature from doing so.
As Princess Jeniah noticed the red, green, and blue fireflies slowly arriving and settling on each of the trees, she started hopping, “They’re here! They’re here!” Prince Jared caught her hand and pulled her into his lap once again, “Yes, they’re here, My Love. But if you cause a commotion like that, they will all fly away!” Struggling against every uncontainable urge in her body, she curbed her excitement and sat down. Prince Jared now turned his sitting posture to face the Triotrees. Sitting on the right side of the Triotrees, they could only see the tree with the green fireflies on them.
When all the fireflies had almost arrived, Prince Jared carried the Princess on his shoulders and headed to the middle tree. The three trees now stood between the moon and the two of them. The tree in the middle was swarming with fireflies with bright red lights like rubies of candy apple red dipped in liquid white light. The one to their left was covered with fireflies whose green lights were like emeralds with white oliones in them. And the one to their right was filled with blue fireflies like glowing sapphires with tiny moons inside them. The three trees, now studded with luminous jewels swaying gently in the cool breeze of the night, also produced a strange music in the harmonised buzzing of the fireflies. Prince Jared raised his right hand straight with the Princess standing erect upon his right palm like a master gymnast and gently touched one red firefly. At her touch, it immediately hopped onto her index finger.
“Appa…” said Princess Jeniah in her magical voice, staring at the red firefly crawling on her finger.
Prince Jared: “Yes?”
Princess Jeniah: “Why are blood-bonds so important?”
Prince Jared’s eyebrows curled in puzzlement for a moment as he answered in a manner of obviousness, “They’re not.”
Princess Jeniah: “What makes relationships important then? Hmmmm…” She added after a long pause, “Maomi-ma was teaching me that family is the most important thing among all the things in the world. So if blood-relations are not family, then what is?”
Prince Jared needed time to answer that question and swiftly dropped her low and caught her in his arms. Startled by the sudde
n movement, the red fireflies launched straight upwards in a swarm of spiralling motion, like a pillar of tiny angels of light ascending on a ladder to heaven.
“You scared them away!” scolded the Princess in agitation.
Prince Jared grinned apologetically, “Sorry!”
As Princess Jeniah squinted and stared at him in anger, he appeased her with a hug of violent shaking.
To the Princess’ joy, she noticed that most of the red fireflies had returned and settled on the tree once again. Prince Jared took her to the trunk of the tree and sat down, leaning on the trunk; and set the Princess on his legs, facing him. The white-red light of the fireflies breaking through the prop roots created an enchanting sanctuary.
As they sat inside the magical roof of the tree of fireflies, Prince Jared spoke, “Family is not about blood or flesh… Family is not about who gave you birth… I mean! It is… But it is also not just about that… You see, your Uncle Thaymas was born to Paaya-Thayman. But Paaya-Thayman himself was not related to our bloodline in any way. But everyone in Paaya-Thayman’s house still has all the powers of the House of Rash-Yaph, correct? That is proof that Family is not determined by just blood and flesh! It’s not about blood and flesh, but about bonds of love and the strength of relationships.”
“Hmm…” said the Princess. She thought for a while, tapping her finger on her chin, imitating her father’s thinking pose, and proceeded to add, “So Aunt Hana, Akini, Ribon, Yuroichi, Yaakub-aani, and Kaveri-ka are our family too, right? Why do they not have our powers?”