‘Sahastra Gajbala’ is a very miraculous fruit. It can only be sought for, but not obtained. It was only through a windfall of fortune that he was able to get his hands on them.

This fruit is quite an unusual fruit. The fruit has no healing ability as per se, instead, it contains a very potent poison. But its root releases a green syrup that acted as an antidote for the poison of the fruits. But that poison did not affect Rakshasas. The physique of Rakshasas was vastly different from humans, humans were weak and fragile from birth. They have to train and worship deities for blessings to get stronger.

But Rakshasas were different, they were born with superior strength and physique. They had immunity to most of ailments and poison with their superior regeneration. This fruit would instead provide him with enough amount of energy and thus would speed up his rate of regeneration. A Rakshasa with such a massive body would consume hundreds to thousands of times more food than an average human. Thus to recover from wounds their body sustained would also require massive amounts of energy which their body will gain slowly. Rakshasas lived on for a few centuries, they would have to only eat and sleep to gain enough energy to become powerful.

Some ambitious Rakshasas would worship Gods to get a very powerful boon and would get stronger very fast. Such Rakshasas would usually aim for the title of Rakshasa Raj. He was not very ambitious and the battle hundred years ago had taken a massive toll on him. The main effect of ‘Sahastra Gajbala’ was to grant immense strength to the consumer. The normal ‘Sahastra Gajbala’ fruit was red and was in the shape of an elephant head with small tusks. It grants its consumer the strength of five hundred elephants with each fruit thus the name ‘Sahastra Gajbala’ meaning the strength of a thousand ancient elephants. The ‘Sahastra Gajbala’ would bear fruit once in its lifetime of a thousand-year. It would take five hundred years for the flower to bloom and another five hundred would take for fruits to ripen. 

When the fruits would ripen, it would release an enchanting fragrance affecting every individual within a large amount of area. After the berries would have been plucked from the tree it would dry soon and die. Its dried roots could still be used as ingredients for an anti-venom. It would bore ten red berries at once, all of them clustered around each other. If any of the berries are plucked immaturely, the entirety of the tree would die leaving nothing useful behind. It was wise not to be hasty and have patience.  

Sometimes, an unusual blueberry would also grow among the cluster of the redberries, surrounded and hidden by the other redberries. It would only be visible when the fruit had ripened, the berries would then expand and break free from the cluster. It is like they are defending their king, till he grows up and matures. The king berry had the shape of an ancient elephant with a crown on head and two large tusks protruding from the mouth. But chances of a blue king berry to grow are very minuscules. He had only heard of them in legends. Since it was a king berry the strength it would grant would be majestic too.

The king berry would grant the majestic strength equivalent to all of the other berries combined.  An immense strength of five thousand ancient elephants. Such vast strength was enough to easily move mountains, change landscapes with a stomp of foot and call down thunder and lightning with a roar. But other than it also grants one the majesty of a king, the aura of a ruler superior to all beings, that is if one can survive from the poisoning of the berry. With such thoughts, the Rakshasa trudged towards the cave.

Meanwhile, inside the village,

The villagers were busy doing their chores. Raicharan appeared on the entrance of the village huffing and puffing. His sudden arrival at the entrance startled a lot of villagers. The villagers began to whisper among each other’s, occasionally glancing at the Raicharan. The village guards were stunned to see him alive and kicking right in front of them. They got out of their stupor and one of them ran towards the lodgings of the Village head to inform of this event.

The other guard stopped Raicharan at the entrance baring his entry from the village. Some of the servants sent by the fat landlord hurriedly ran towards the manor of the fat landlord to inform him of this matter.

Soon, the became chaotic as more and more villagers gathered near the entrance. About fifteen minutes later, the village head arrived at the entrance with a serious expression on his face. He anxiously ran towards the Raicharan and grabbed hold of his hand tightly and shouted,

“What’s the matter, boy? Why you ran away from the Rakshasa? Do you know how much big trouble have you brought to our village? Hurry up and go back to the Forest of Death now. Apologize to the Rakshasa and quietly offer yourself to him” the village chief furiously growled.

“What will you do if the Rakshasa massacred the entirety of our village in a fit of rage? Would you be able to take responsibility for your actions? Answer me, you sinner” the village chief babbled on. His anger rising on and his breath becoming more erratic as his grip on Raicharan tightened who was in visible pain.

“Spare him!... ‘huff’ ‘huff’….. Spare him! Sarpanch spare my son and please allow him to explain himself. I believe my son wouldn’t do anything recklessly” the fat landlord hastily approached the Village Chief. His cheeks were flushed red and he was perspiring profusely for having overexerted himself.

When the servant mentioned to him about the appearance of his son on the entrance, he hurriedly left the manor in panic. He didn’t want the villagers to get suspicious of his son and bully him. When he reached on the spot, he saw his son grimacing in pain while the Village Chief clutched his son’s hand tightly.

The village chief upon seeing the fat landlord set Raicharan off from his grip and menacingly looked at him. There was a questioning look on face as he wouldn’t allow leaving this place if the explanation wasn’t up to his satisfaction. The fat landlord gently rubbed the red wrist of his son and wiped the tears from his face and whispered to his son,

“Raicharan! My dear! Tell them everything that happened in the forest after those people left you there. Don’t worry nothing will happen to you, your father is here. He will take care of everything for you.”

The village chief frowned upon hearing such pampering words from the mouth of the fat landlord and an ugly expression appeared on his face as he threatened,

“Don’t try to twist the truths and answer my question truthfully or your entire family would be banished from the village and you would be left to fend for yourself. All of your property and wealth would be confiscated by the village if you implicated the village in any of your folly.”

“Now answer me, what exactly happened in the forest after those people left you there?”

Raicharan answered while sobbing,

“After those people left me there all alone in the forest, I was frightened very much and hid among the goods in the carts. Then after some time, the ground began to tremble as a gigantic Rakshasa appeared there.” Raicharan then explained the appearance of the Rakshasa in detail to the Village chief. The village chief nodded and demanded,

“That’s the appearance of the Rakshasa. So, you certainly met the Rakshasa; but how are you still alive despite meeting the Rakshasa?”

Everyone present there perked up their ears to hear the answer as they were eager to know it. Raicharan slowly opened his mouth and explained,

“The Rakshasa was in a very happy mood. It happily ate all the offerings. I was ready to sacrifice myself for the sake of the village and thus closed my eyes and waited for the Rakshasa to gobble me down.”

But something unbelievable happened the Rakshasa looked at me and said, ‘Human child, I am very happy this time. Scramble back to your village and don’t bother spoiling my mood. Don’t let me change my mind to spare your pitiful life. Now Scram!” Raicharan imitated the voice of the Rakshasa.

Seemingly convinced by Raicharan’s naïve expression while explaining the village chief nodded and congratulated the fat landlord,

“Congratulations! Brother! It seemed like god’s grace was upon your family for being able to save the life of both of your sons.” The village still had his doubts but he thought nothing much of it as who knew what was going inside the mind of that Rakshasa otherwise the Rakshasa would have gone on a rampage inside the village for not fulfilling his demand.

As such an incident was happening in the village, inside the forest of death;

The Rakshasa finally reached the entrance of the cave. He walked deeper inside the cave following the scent. There was a visible excitement on his face as he was too eager to consume those fruits and recover from his injuries. Although, he still had some regret on the loss of the strength granted by the fruit to be used for recovering his body.

As he finally reached the tree, the sight there stunned him and he roared furiously shaking the entire mountain.