Kaveri began singing her favourite folk song in her deep and resonant voice. We listened to it enraptured as always. Again, we were transported into the story the song told.
The trees around us dissolved and we were in the battlefield where swords clanged and arrows rained as the mighty armies of Devas and Asuras marched against each other, shaking the very earth.
Lord Indra climbed upon his mount Airavat, a white elephant with wings, and took flight. Flying atop the cheering Devas and awestruck Asuras, Indra raced into the Asuran capital city: Paatala, without a single arrow shot by the enemies touching him. Surveying the city from the sky, he spotted the palace where Prachanda resided. Airavat swooped down and landed on its roof. Prachanda's 20 elite palace guards, the strongest Asuras of his kingdom, advanced toward him. Lord Indra jumped off of Airavat and unsheathed his long sacred sword named Vajra as they neared him. In three lightning-fast sweeps, their heads were rolling on the floor.
He then climbed down the stairs and searched for Prachanda. He was not in his chambers. Scouring the place, the lord finally found him. The coward had been hiding in his wife's room. Indra offered to spare his life in exchange for calling back his soldiers; for ending the generational wars and the cycle of hatred by establishing peace between the two races. Refusing the offer, Prachanda howled in desperation and pounced at him. Lord Indra plunged Vajra into the demon's stomach midair and ended his life.
Amongst all the Deva legends, the one that has most fascinated me is the story of Airavat. My grandfather, lord Surya, had taken my father along on a hunting trip when he was a 10-year-old boy. When they were traveling across the forests with a retinue of soldiers, they encountered the white elephant with massive tusks and wings like that of a giant bird drinking water through its trunk from a pond. When the soldiers positioned themselves to try and capture the alien creature at first, it offered no resistance. In fact, it gently walked forward, folded its forelegs and bowed to my grandfather. People believed that the elephant was a gift from the Gods to lord Surya for his victory in a recent war against the Asuras.
The Elephant of the Clouds as modern historical texts refer to it went on to become the reason for many more victories. Befriending the elephant early on, my father started soaring into the sky with it since his teenage years. People excitedly pointed at him riding Airavat as a dot amid the clouds and shouted, "Look, that's prince Indra." This earned him the first of his many titles to come: Lord of the Skies.
Growing up, I used to pester my father and Kaveri to tell me an Airavat story while eating or going to bed. Whenever I asked my father to take me to see the great elephant, he turned serious and stopped talking. Sometimes, he used to answer me with a hopeful glint in his eyes that Airavat had gone on a long trip and it would be back.
It was only in my teens that I learnt what had happened. After killing Prachanda, father had gone back to the roof of the palace and saw that Airavat was gone. He later came to know that the person who stole it was none other than Chanda: Prachanda's younger brother. Apparently, he was hiding in the palace and had sneaked up onto the roof and flew off with Airavat when my father was searching for Prachanda. But to this day, the question remains: how did Chanda tame Airavat? It only obeyed my father and before that, my grandfather. What black magic did Chanda use to manipulate the loyal elephant?
With Airavat gone, the fortunes of the Devas went with it. After inheriting the throne, Chanda united various Asura tribes for the fight against the Devas in a way that Prachanda couldn't. Apart from the Devas, he created a new enemy for the Asuras within their own kingdom: half-breeds. The half-breeds had a mixed ancestry of Devas and Asuras. Despite being generally hated by both the races, they had sided with the Asuras in the wars, forming an uncomfortable coalition. After Chanda's regime began, the hatred against the half-breeds peaked. Their property was confiscated and they were sent into the jungles. If anyone amongst them refused to leave and tried to fight back, they were killed in the most gruesome manner possible. This maniacal policy earned Chanda the respect of the Asura tribes whose religions were especially opposed to the half-breeds. He integrated the rest of the tribes into his kingdom by assassinating their leaders, forcing the newly appointed ones to settle for a formal compromise by declaring each of their tribe's allegiance to the kingdom in exchange for a few parcels of useless land.
With renewed military might, the Asuras attacked us. The Devas were not ready for the onslaught and we were badly defeated. This time, Chanda stole something more precious than Airavat: my mother and her dignity- right in front of my eyes.
Hence, the cycle of hatred continues.
We had been walking for 30-40 minutes and the foothills were close.
"No sign of the soldiers; why haven't they joined us yet?" Kaveri whispered, frowning.
An uneasy silence followed her words as she had said aloud what we were all thinking.
"That's weird; they usually jump at the chance to guard a group of girls." I smiled.
The servants laughed, hiding their nervousness.
The woods gradually gave way to the foothills. We first saw solitary wild plants bearing flowers here and there. Some of the servants started spreading out and plucking them. The rest of us took a turn at a bend to head to the garden where there were plenty more varieties.
As we were turning, we could hear groaning sounds. We instinctively took a few steps forward and came across a shocking scene.
Around 20 soldiers were lying on the ground. Some of them were sprawled on the flowerbeds unconscious, while others rolled on the grass struggling to get up with broken limbs. Standing between them was a creature with its back facing us, a silk-cloth draped around its waist. It was tall with short horns protruding from its head and its shoulders were chiseled like boulders. A soldier hung by his neck from its outstretched hand, croaking above the chokehold. His bulging eyes spotted our horrified faces.
Some of the servants started running back.
The creature dropped him to the ground and he fell with a thud, gasping for breath. Right when it was turning toward us, Kaveri and the remaining servants whipped out the knives they had been hiding under their sarees and shielded me.
Standing behind the servants, Kaveri screamed at me: "Run!"
"No....let's all run. You can't buy me much time by fighting it. Look at the soldiers!" I urged.
"Nobody needs to run or buy time. I come in peace!"
We paused, dumbstruck by the friendly boyish tone.
"If you look carefully, you'll see that I haven't killed a single soldier. I also made sure that their injuries are not grave; some of them won't be able to get up for a while but they should thank me for it. I got them a good month or two off from sentinel duty- it's a tough job."
I then heard deliberate and gradual footsteps progressing toward us. My heartbeat accelerated with fear and hope simultaneously rising within me.
Kaveri's eyes still pleaded with me to run.
I shook my head, making my decision. "Move!" I ordered.
The servants parted, drawing down their knives.
Standing before me was a young man who looked as if a war-God with luscious long hair had sprouted horns.
He smiled charmingly and took one more step closer to me. I found myself unable breathe or utter a word.
"Princess Veena, your men are quite violent," he said, pointing at the soldiers moaning in pain on the ground.
Looking straight into his eyes- the most striking feature about him, I suddenly realized that they seemed familiar. Only later did I come to know that they were my mother's.
P.S: I've put a lot of time and effort into this story. So, please vote and spread the word if you like it!