‘Come with us,’ Old master’s granddaughter said.

As far as he could remember, all the students used to call her Miss Hana.

She opened the house. And pushed old master’s chair to bring him inside. Vishwa and his father followed them inside. Hana lit up the lanterns and closed the door. The silence in the room was stifling. Miss Hana fetched some water for all of us and gave some medicines to the old master. The medicine looked like some kind of drink. Vishwa was overwhelmed by the smell it emitted from that far. But old master’s expression didn’t changed at all, as he gulped all its content.

After some more minutes of silence, Vishwa was losing his patience by the minute. It was only his father who had kept him in check. But it looked like he was going to make some excuse. If the wait extended beyond the time limit he had set for himself.

Finally after few minutes, where Vishwa just looked at old master’s constant change in emotion and Miss Hana looking at us in an expression that said. It wasn’t something related to her. The old master’s clarity returned. And returned it was. Vishwa felt like the person in front of him wasn’t the old master but another person entirely. There was a youthful vigor on his face. The frailty from before was nowhere to be seen.

Vishwa felt it was a shocking change, so his expression was valid but when he turned to look at his father. His father looked like he had seen a ghost. And suddenly he wasn’t sitting anymore. The intent Vishwa felt when he saw his father in the bullfighting field had returned. He was looking at the old master with a fierce expression on his face.

‘Who are you, and what are you doing here in this village,’ Vishwa’s father looked like, he couldn’t just wait to murder the old master. If he found something wrong with the answer.

Miss Hana's face had gone pale, she was looking between her own grandfather and Vishwa’s father. She looked as clueless as Vishwa. At some instant they both looked at each other. Their eyes found each other as if they were asking what was happening. But Vishwa just shook his head, and looking at him Miss Hana also shook her head.

‘Huh,’ the old man looked surprised, as he looked at Vishwa’s father.

‘Looks like bullshead, you were hiding it too,’ the old master smiled as he looked at Vishwa’s father.

A deep frown appeared on Mayankan's face. But he quickly regained his calm.

‘What is the meaning behind this old master,’ he asked the old man.

‘I wanted to gift this to you,’ the old master shook his head.

‘What do you mean,’ Vishwa’s father asked again.

‘The conversation won’t go anywhere like this, let’s take a seat, all of us.’ the old master suggested, he was still sitting on his wheelchair, but there was a change in his demeanor from before. He looked at his own granddaughter and me.

Vishwa looked at his father. Who nodded after thinking for a bit. He took a sit on the wooden furniture that was years old. But looked better than some of the furnitures you could find in the village.

‘Now tell us, I am sure your granddaughter too has some questions.’ Mayankan said.

The old master looked at his granddaughter and nodded.

Sigh

The old man sighed and then started recounting his story.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

‘The story starts when I was just a little boy. Our family, as my father had told us, had been in this village forever. And from generations and generations our lineage has not failed in our duty. As being one of the most competent and educated families in the village. We had the responsibility of teaching others. But as time passed and as I roamed through more and more cities. I came across thing, I wouldn’t believe if I hadn’t seen it first hand. Those cities. They were den of people, but they were not like us. They had powers I hadn’t seen before. They were much greater. Whatever technologies, ideology, transport, and facilities we have in this village couldn’t be equal to the drop of what makes the city a city.’ the old master said. Vishwa didn’t understand what he was speaking about. But he would see his father nodding at the old master’s words.

‘At first I had thought that there were many villages like us, spread throughout the country. But as I came to know, I realized that wasn’t the case. As I visited some more cities and looked at the information which was accessible by the general public. I looked at some of the maps. Maps you wouldn’t find in this library. I searched throughout the country trying to find our village. Hours and Hours passed but I wasn’t able to find our village. Through hours and hours in the book I came across various cities and towns. They all had their unique names and identities. But as I pondered over it, I realized our village didn’t have any name.’ the old master said, he still couldn’t come to terms with the fact.

Vishwa thought about it. Right, why hadn’t I bothered to learn the name of this village. But I thought this was Village. And it was called a village. But recently he had come across a town, it was called flaming town right. So there wasn’t a name for this village.

Vishwa was able to come up with the terms quite easily. As he wasn’t someone who liked guessing and remembering names of things. In fact, he still hadn’t remembered the author of the book. That book only. The only thing he read in the library. Vishwa realized he had forgotten the book’s name.

He saw his father nodding again, it seemed like he knew about it before coming here. But he saw Miss Hana looking bewildered.

‘I finally came across the village, infact ours wasn’t the only one, there were others villages too. There were too small in size, but there was a characteristic speciality. They were all on the outer edges of the land. And after us the forest starts. There hasn’t been any activity in the past time. But it wasn’t like anything happened in the past.’ the old master said.

This time Mayankan too was perplexed it seemed like he didn’t knew about.

‘After many years of studying and working in different towns and villages. I hadn’t told this to anyone in those cities. The main reason was mostly that they don’t care about us. And if there was a slight change, someone might use this knowledge against us. I shut my mouth. Lastly I came home. I thought, I would be able to find something about our past in the village library. But it only contained books that wasn’t useful in any way. Finally, I wasn’t able to stop myself and I had asked my father. My father was already old by the time I came back. But he looked younger than any of villagers or any normal people he had seen in the towns and the villages. I told him everything about what I had found. But his expression hadn’t changed one bit. At last he sighed. And said,’It is finally to share about our family.’ the old master said reminiscing his conversation with his father.

‘The thing I am going to tell you is only known to the guardian families of the village. Those who rise again and again from the ashes of the past. Those who bear the cruelty of what lies ahead in the land of forest. Also known as the land…’ the old man stopped. He considered again, if he should tell us or not.

But it wasn’t the old master who spoke again. But Vishwa’s father. ‘Is it the land of the unknown.’

Vishwa looked at his father. What is this, some fancy place to spend vacation or what.

‘You,’ the old master couldn’t contain the surprise he felt.

So you know about this too.’ the old master saw Mayankan in a new light.

‘That’s not true, I had some ideas. But I wouldn't have been able to guess it in my life, if you hadn’t said the last sentence.’ Vishwa’s father shook his own head as he answered the old master.

‘I,I see, I don’t know much about other villages but I know about this one.’ the old master said his expression turned serious.

Vishwa gulped his own saliva. This was some exciting stuff. This was the old thought he had. The maniac who only read about legendary stories, this was something like a passtime snack for him.

‘There is a great evil, sealed in this village,’ the old master said with a grave expression.

‘You,’ Vishwa’s father was furious as he said that. He continued, ‘‘Why didn’t you tell us before, you said all of these things.’

Watching his father behaving this way, Vishwa was perplexed. He thought of all the things old master said before and he didn’t felt like this great evil was more exciting than any of those.

‘I can’t,’ the old master shook his head.