Chapter – 1

Why wait for a thousand years?

This was a question that he had failed to answer all these years but it was unexpected from the vocal cords of a small child who had barged in to the room and sat himself on the chair, without even waiting for the host to show his courtesy.

He waited a long time, his mouth wide open in surprise. The child was the first visitor he had had in these thousand years.

"Welcome, young lad. Poor fare it is to you that I do not have anything sweeter to offer you. But tell me, what in the name of heaven, are you doing so high up in the mountains on a stormy day as this?" he asked.

The child was fair and comely to look at. Like a spoiled son of a rich father, he looked. A short chap wearing a white monkish robe, his eyes deep and sharp, his hands skinny and his legs a little bent towards the front. His lips were a little reddish and wet and face filled with a strange light. He had curly hair than lengthened up till his shoulders.

He spoke now with a voice which was like music to one's ears.

"I have no name, high lord. But if you would prefer to give one, you might."

"I see. But what are you doing here?"

"I am always atop mountains and I always look down into the valleys."

"Well. And how did you know that I was here?"

"You seem to be one of those police, what they call them, yea, sheriffs. Always asking questions."

He laughed aloud. The child's answers had made him do something he hadn't done in a thousand years.

The child spoke again.

"You have been asking me questions and I have replied them as best I could. But could you give me the answer to the question I asked you moments ago?"

He fell silent for a while.

"Why do you seek them, child? The answers that you seek are not with me. It was prophesized a long time ago that I would be able to see the outside world again after a thousand years, whose completion is now near. If you must know, you would have to find the sage who made the prophecies."

"Prophecy? It is not prophecy, O King, it is your destiny that has made you near immortal. You, by your good deeds, earned yourself the boon of living a thousand years and so entitled to have revenge on your enemy."

"You know much. Then why do you ask me?"

"I wanted to see whether you know the reasons for your exile which you have suffered in solitude. As for thousand years, I know why but it is not my lot to tell you. You must seek them yourself. The thousand years are complete and you are free to go where you would but remember this, O lord, that you must seek revenge before the end. Tarry not now."

"Who are you?"

"Question again. But I would answer you. I am the wind. And I have been told to come to you and deliver you from your test. You must ride now in full haste. You would have to cross many lands, gather many allies, convince your old enemies, tread many rivers. And time draws to a close. You must hurry, lord, otherwise the darkness upon whose helm I am bidden to sit, covers the very earth and renders it with poison. I cannot imagine such a world and I cannot bear this fair earth to endure any torments that the dark king might unleash. Free your people, O Great King, for it is your doom, I guess."

"Doom it is. But who bid you?"

"The laws of the world. Tarry not now. Ride ahead and may the stars shine on you."

Saying, he stood up and vanished out of the door.