by Iram Dana
“Where did you two train?” asked Rainbow.
“At Mt.Chimpu, with Master Shengdu.”
“What’s he like?”
“He’s kind of short. Wears glasses … he’s bald and looks Chinese. I’m sure he is from China. He’s real nice and a brilliant teacher.”
“Did you have dorms to stay in?”
“All of us stayed at the monastery, where four of us shared one room. The girls stayed on the first floor and the boys on the second. It was great training there.” answered Rain.
Rainbow turned to Heart.
“What about you, Heart? Where did you train?”
“I trained at Mt. Kalamitti, with Swami Rami. We stayed at the Ashram, where the girls and boys stayed in two separate wings. It was one of the most peaceful periods of my life. But enough about us boys. Tell us about you, Rainbow. Where did you train?”
“I trained at Mt. N-Ly10 with Professor Spark. She’s something else, our professor, she really is.”
Rain and Heart almost dropped their woody skewers.
“Professor Spark is a woman!?” exclaimed Rain.
Rainbow regarded the two of them disdainfully.
“Yes, you two chauvinists, Professor Spark is a female. She is gorgeous and an extremely skilled combatant. None of the boys in our batch were able to ever outdo her in anything. Or the girls, for that matter.”
“Describe her some more, please.” requested Heart, with a mischievous grin.
Rainbow pursed her lips impatiently but obliged.
“She has thick, long, red hair and green eyes. She always dressed in these cat-suits that would drive the boys insane. It’s a wonder they ever learned anything.”
“Sounds like my kind of training ground.” said Rain.
“Sounds like heaven.” chipped in Heart.
Rain frowned. “That’s not fair. I want to train at Mt. N-Ly10 too!” he complained. “Wish Master Shengdu was a woman.”
Rainbow arched a mocking brow.
“Short, bald, Asian women? With that kind of eclectic taste, it’s no wonder my feminine charms are having no effect on you.” she teased.
“Maybe you should display your charms some more. I’ll bet they’ll have an effect on me then.” suggested Rain naughtily.
Rainbow flung another marshmallow at him.
“All right!” cheered Rain, catching the marshmallow such that it skewered itself onto the twig.
“You keep giving all your marshmallows to him. What about me?” protested Heart.
Rainbow flicked a hand over the marshmallows once more. This time they appeared to be dotted with bluish-green fungus.
“Be my guest.” said Rainbow, politely offering the marshmallows to Heart, who turned his nose up on them in disgust. This time, Rainbow did not change them back to their original white color but ate them just as they were.
“What was the disciplinary action at Mt.Kalamitti like?” asked Rainbow.
“We had to go in for two hours of meditation…” said Heart.
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“On a bed of needles.” finished Heart.
“Ouch!” exclaimed Rainbow, while Rain burst into a fit of laughter which he seemed unable to stop.
“Something funny, brother Rain?” said Heart, who didn’t find this amusing at all, having had actually gone through the agony of it. Rain took great gulps of air and shook his head, almost choking on a marshmallow.
“Just remembered s-something … nothing that you should b-bother about. Relax.” he sputtered.
“What kind of punishment did you guys have to go through at Mt. Chimpu?” asked Rainbow.
And Rain collected himself and told them all about the ‘torture chambers’ at Mt. Chimpu.
Done with both, their conversation and their marshmallows, the three of them got up and put the fire out by pouring some sand over it. They pulled out their sleeping bags and lay down side by side beside the snoring Subodh and were soon fast asleep.
*****
CHAPTER 12
That night, just before dawn, Rain’s chain began to glow. His Geeya shook his shoulders softly to wake him up. He sat up groggily, still clutching the bow and quiver he always slept with. He could feel the wind rushing by his ears and by the time he opened his eyes, all was silent again.
“Where am I?” he asked, his voice still heavy with sleep.
“You are in the forest of …”
“Shh …” Rain held up a hand, pricking his ears. “Do you hear that? Sounds like someone is crying.”
His Geeya nodded.
“It’s coming from over there.”
All the sleep left him as he jumped to his feet and ran in the direction of the sound. He came upon a small girl of about six lying on the forest floor, covered in dirt and crying her eyes out. Rain knelt down next to her and gently brushed the dirt off her face.
“What’s the matter, little girl? Why are you crying?” he asked.
At the sound of his voice, the little girl sat bolt upright and wiped the tears from her eyes.
“It’s my brother! He’s trapped! Please help me save him or he’ll die!” she cried, tugging at Rain’s jeans.
“Where is your brother? Take me to him.” said Rain.
The girl jumped to her feet and shot forward like a bullet on tiny legs. Rain kept pace with her easily as she led him through the forest.
“There he is!” pointed the girl.
Rain saw a huge black tree with no leaves on it, below which lay a boy who looked to be about as old as the girl.
“He’s barely conscious.” said Rain, feeling the boy’s pale, sweaty forehead. “What happened to him?”
The girl began crying again and among chokes and sobs, she pointed to her brother’s feet.
Two thick vines had bound the ankles of the boy together while several hair-like appendages had dug themselves deep into the soles of the boy’s feet, keeping him trapped and immobile.
“What on earth …!” exclaimed Rain.
He drew out a knife from his belt and chopped off the vines. Three more grew in their place and dug into the boys flesh, taking up from where the previous vines had left off. Rain kept chopping them off but more kept growing in their place.
“What’s happening? Why can’t I stop this?” Rain asked the sobbing girl.
She spoke through her tears.
“This is the tree of Murshi. Murshi was a priestess of the royal temple. She wanted to be made the Queen’s personal advisor and head of the royal temple. The queen refused and in retaliation, Murshi turned one of the queen’s daughters into a lotus. The queen then ordered the palace magicians to put a curse on her. They did, and trapped her inside the very pond over which she had turned the princess into a lotus. A few days later, this tree grew out of the earth. Since then, it traps unsuspecting people who take rest under it. Once it has my brother firmly in its grasp, the tree will pull him inside and make him a part of itself. Nobody will ever know what happened to my brother or where he went!”
The little boy gave a weak moan and twisted in pain.
“Tell me how I can free him.” demanded Rain.
“You will have to kill Murshi. She is the real life of this tree.”
“Where can I find her?”
The boy gave another moan and then his eyeballs rolled up in his sockets and his body went limp. The tree then began to pull the boy towards itself. Again, Rain tried to cut the vines but with no luck.
“It’s no use getting the tree. Don’t waste what little time we have left. Come with me, I will take you to the pond under which Murshi is trapped.” said the girl.
The two of them ran to the pond that was just a few feet away from the tree. There were several lotuses floating over the pond.
“She is in there. Hurry!” said the little girl.
“How do I get to Murshi?” asked Rain.
“Just walk into the pond. She will pull you in herself.”
Rain walked into the pond hesitantly.
It was shallow. As soon as he reached the centre of the pond the water started swirling around him like a whirlpool. Rain had the funniest sensation of passing through invisible layers of energy and then he was standing alone on a deserted street in the dead of the night.
A few streetlamps cast their dull orange glow on the ground below at regular intervals.
Sensing the need for urgency, Rain began to half jog as he looked around himself for some sign of Murshi.
A short distance ahead, a beautiful woman came running down the large white marble stairs of a palatial bungalow, and began walking ahead briskly without so much as a glance towards Rain.
Rain ran behind her. She continued walking, ignoring his presence. Rain was wondering if he should call out to the woman when she stopped and turned to face him.
“Are you Murshi?” said Rain.
She shook her head.
“Do you know where I can find her?”
She smiled and began walking ahead briskly once more, seeming to almost fly away with the wind. Rain followed behind. She just kept on walking, seeming to be headed nowhere in particular. Rain was starting to get annoyed and was about to stop her when his eyes fell on her feet. They were turned backwards, facing him.
His heart missed a beat and he sucked in a sharp breath. The sound of it rang heavily in the silence of the empty street. Ahead of him, the woman stopped walking.
Slowly, while her body remained absolutely still, her head turned a hundred and eighty degrees to look Rain straight in the face.
In that moment, she was no longer beautiful. She was terrifying.
Rain couldn’t move. He was frozen to his spot with fear. The woman began to cackle loudly. Around him, the empty street dissolved and he found himself standing inside a dilapidated warehouse, facing the woman he was now sure, was Murshi.
“Prepare to die, fool, for I am Murshi, the powerful!” she boomed.
“Not so fast!” said Rain, pulling an arrow out of his quiver and stringing it on his bow.
Murshi’s eyes went wide with fright for a second and then an evil smile stretched across her face.
“Exactly …” she crooned, “not so fast!”
She spread her arms and fell backwards, her body breaking up into a thousand rats which went scurrying in every direction, filling up every inch of the warehouse.
“Which one is her?!” exclaimed Rain, baffled.
“That, you must figure out on your own.” said his Geeya. “I can tell you, though, only one rat among all of these is a real rat with a real heart. The rest are all decoys.”
Rain looked at the red eyed rats. They seemed to be laughing at him. Rain kicked them out of his way in frustration. He could spend all of his life here, killing them one by one, and still never chance upon the real one.
How was he supposed to figure out which rat had her heart and life, and then kill only that rat?
He needed help. Something that could sense the heartbeat of the real rat. Rain wished Heart was here, now. He would have been able to point out to Rain exactly which one was Murshi. But Heart wasn’t here, so he would just have to use his own resources to get past this.
Now, what means did he have of gauging the difference between the real rat and the …
Rain snapped his fingers.
That was it! A snake! A snake could see the heat emanated by the body of its prey and only the animal with a real heart that was pumping real blood through its body would be warm.
What he needed was a hungry, venomous snake. No, not a venomous snake, because a hungry snake could just as well turn on him. What was the name of that harmless lookalike of the Coral snake that Subodh had told him about? Yeah, Milk snake.
Rain groaned.
Where on earth was he supposed to go looking for a Milk snake now? That too, when the time he had left was precious little?
Rain took a few steps forward, slashing with his knife through several mice. They just burst into a cloud of black dust as soon as he cut through them.
This was no use. There were simply too many for him to go through. He wished he could somehow make a snake materialize out of thin air…
Rain’s head snapped up and his eyes widened as a realization hit him. His wish! He had a wish he could use! Quickly taking out the yellow jelly-bean and popping it into his mouth, Rain made a wish.
“I wish for a very hungry Milk snake.” said Rain softly.
A snake dropped at his feet out of nowhere.
“Yes!” exclaimed Rain. “Now go, eat your breakfast.” He said to the snake.
Rain could hear frightened squeals all around him and he strung his bow once more, ready and on alert in case she should take back her human form. It wasn’t necessary, for Murshi knew she was well and truly trapped. If she turned human again, Rain would kill her. And if she remained a mouse, the snake would kill her.
The snake reared itself for attack and flicked its tongue at the air around it. Then it launched itself forward and headed single-mindedly for just one mouse among the many.
Rain saw the mouse squeal and try to escape but the snake was a prized hunter. It had its prey between its jaws in to time and Rain watched it swallow the terrified mouse whole, wondering why the madwoman had chosen to die this way instead of the quick death that his arrow would have provided her. But Rain was grateful for the reprieve. Who knew what consequences there would be for killing another cursed creature?
Once again, Rain felt the sensation of being pulled through layers of energy and then he was standing outside beside the pond once more. He ran towards the tree where the little boy was trapped. The tree had almost finished swallowing him. Only his face was visible, sticking out of the black tree trunk.
“Am I too late?” asked Rain, fear clawing at his chest.
“No. You saved my brother just in time. The tree is dead. It has stopped swallowing my brother. We have to free him now, somehow.” said the girl.
Rain began to hack away at the tree with his knife in order to free the trapped boy.
“Thank-you for saving me.” said a soft voice from behind.
Rain turned to look. A pretty young girl was standing there, smiling at him.
“Who are you?” said Rain.
“I am Karima, the queen’s youngest daughter. Murshi had turned me into a lotus. I have spent the last year floating on the pond.”
“Princess!” gasped the little girl and fell into a bow. “This kind man killed Murshi, and saved my little brother, too.”
The princess looked at Rain with shining eyes.
“Don’t worry about the boy. I will send the palace soldiers here. They will free him in no time. In the meanwhile, as a reward for saving my life, I would like to give you this.” she said, making a sword materialize out of thin air.
“The sword of Halion!” exclaimed Rain, taking the sword from the princess’ hands.
‘Karima is a fairy?!’
‘Yes. And her mother is the Queen.’
“Is there anything else you would like to have?” asked the princess, looking down shyly.
‘Why is she blushing like that?’Rain asked his Geeya.
‘Why else? You just saved her life. Now, she is hoping you will ask for her hand in marriage.’
‘No way!’
“Actually, there is. Princess, I would like …”
She looked up hopefully. “Yes?”
“A wisdom, please.” finished Rain.
She looked crestfallen. “A … a wisdom? That is all?”
“Yes. Just a wisdom. Nothing more.” said Rain firmly.
“All right. Here is one my mother always said to me. I wish I had taken heed of it. Mother always said, ‘Never underestimate your enemies, no matter how strong you are.’ How true it is, too. I underestimated the hate in Murshi’s heart when I went wandering alone in the forest. But now I am free. Thanks to you … are you sure a wisdom is all you want?”
Rain looked at his chain. A glowing claw crumbled to dust before his eyes.
> “Yes, princess. That will be all. Thank-you very much.” said Rain.
Then, before she could say anything more, he turned and ran … into the forest … and out of his Quest.
*****
CHAPTER 13
On his return Rain found Rainbow still present and Heart gone again.
Rain and Rainbow got along like a house on fire, alternately laughing and joking like best friends and at other times squabbling like long lost siblings.
The reason they had most of their fights was because Rain never lost an opportunity to tease Rainbow. And she, it seemed, took all jokes personally. Rainbow accompanied Rain and Subodh sometimes on their healing jaunts or just wandered off by herself at other times. She was the only person Rain knew of, who enjoyed her own company just as much as she enjoyed being with others.
“What’s your favorite thing to do, Rainbow? asked Rain, as they were returning from the forest after running an errand for Subodh.
“Play with colors.” replied Rainbow. “What’s yours?”
“Eat!” said Rain, patting his stomach.
“If you like to eat so much, you’ll surely like the anyfruit tree.” said Rainbow, going to help Subodh who was unsuccessfully trying to get an injured pigeon down from a tree.
“What’s that?” asked Rain.
“You’ll see.” said Rainbow, climbing the tree deftly and getting the injured bird to Subodh.
*****
The opportunity to see the Anyfruit tree came several weeks later when they had gone deep into the forest to release a healed wolf cub that had been abandoned by its mother after getting seriously injured.
“There it is,” said Rainbow, “an Anyfruit tree.”
Rain looked in the direction pointed out to him. There was no tree there, only a puddle.
“I don’t see any tree. Just some water.”