“AAAAAAAAAAAAA……” came the voice like that of live pig going under the butcher’s knife “AAAAAAAAAAAA…” the scream filled the entire plaza, now filled with a crowd north of 1500 people. “AAA……” deep breath “AAA……” deep breath “AAA……” deep breath “AAA……” deep breath he continued, as a small puddle of blood formed under his under where he was pierced right next to a huge stream of blood which then collected into a large puddle. Unable to bear the pain the noble went was squirming and dragging his hand along the shaft of the arrow trying to pull it out, up and down, up and down again and again and each time he squealed “EEEEAAA…”. He grabbed his hand at the wrist and was pressing on it hard, involuntarily to get some sort of respite but it was all in vain. He tossed and turned on the ground and used his legs to drag himself in circles around the arrow.

Kush was conscious during all this time, he saw the noble and thought “How is this guy so strong?” what he did not realize that, he was severely restricted in the fight and results could have been different if he made the first blow and took care of the noble before going to the guards. Harsh had never faced so much pain in life. Living a sheltered life of a party animal, he thought he was given all this cause it was his, he deserved this because he was great and the poor deserved the pain and anguish they got.

The guards did not move to help their master, cause they had seen the arrow before. Though dyed in red, the pattern on the shaft was visible, the long arrow shaft was 150 cm in length, the arrow head which was like a sunken pyramid i.e. the arrow head was like 2 isosceles triangles in plane perpendicular to each other and intersecting at the perpendicular bisector of the unequal side. The fletching of the arrow was made in the shape of a cross, two lines of the cross were perpendicular to each other and had a third dimension of 8 cm. The entire thing was only made of wood, but still managed to pierce through the cement floor. The pattern on the shaft was helix cut in to the shaft, starting from the head ending at the fletching. The helix was red in color, it was weird thing to put on the shaft but no one questioned why it was required, because it may not have been intended initial but now it was quite popularly known as the symbol of Tatya. Thought dead now Tatya Bhil, he was a local hero who stole from the rich and gave to the poor, currently executing the same role was probably the reason of fear in all evil doers of outer city, and the reason why criminals did not outright suppress the poor out here was this man, 6 ft in height with a piece of cloth around his face and wearing a vastram around his bottom like a traditional dhoti but black. On his torso he wore another black piece of cloth which covered his back and chest except for thin strip of his chest from the bottom of his neck down to his dhoti. Around his neck he wore another piece of black cloth which he tied around his neck like a muffler though it wasn’t cold. For all his deeds the poor and the helpless started calling him Tatya after the local hero Tatya Bhil.

Slowly coming to himself, Harsh realized that the arrow was made out of wood and used his Karmic Dagger to cut above and below his hand. He did not pull it out entirely fearing increasing blood loss. He was sweating all over from the pain and the blood loss made him dizzy, slowly he started getting up as he looked at his guards who seemed further away from him than he remembered and were slowly backing up looking at the roof of one of house. They knew, probably everybody in the city knew who he was, not his actual name but his alias and the legendary wooden arrow known to pierce through bricks, cement and dent metals and remain undamaged during the path in but break as easily as wood when cut-off. Harsh followed the gazes of his men and who was up there on the roof. His eyes went wide on recognition and he too slowly backed away while sitting and then turned around and started running away from the place into the crowd. This was his first encounter with Tatya but he knew who he was and messing with him over a chump change and a woman was a dumb idea for sure so he backed away. He used his un-injured hand to part the crowd and drove them away, he was humiliated never had he been so humiliated and had sworn revenge on the boy and Tatya.

Seeing the man run away from the plaza, Kush lost the tension in his body and started to sink down, the taller cloaked figure came to him and supported him up and they walked away as quietly as they came. The daughter came running after they had gone a few miles. On catching she said “Thank you for rescuing my mother and me. Sorry for being late, I had to take my mother to her house”. Kush turned around and with smile said “It’s alright” as soon as he said that beautiful hand came out from within the cloak and smacked him across the rear of his head “Ow. Alright already… it was not me figured it out it was Rhodos”. On hearing this the daughter turned to Rhodos and said “I am very thankful for what you have done. My name is Gauri, I work as a maid for the noble Chandan. I may not be of much help in the future, but please tell me if I may be of any use, I will ask twice before giving my life up for you”

“If we wanted to take your life, what was the point of saving you? If there’s nothing else we’ll be on our way” said Rhodos

“I want to be strong too” hearing this the duo stop in their tracks

“I too want to be able to protect myself and ones I care about, but I need help”

….

….

“I am not asking for much” she drops down on her knees and smashes her forehead on the road “I don’t know how is all”

...

…

“I noticed you are his teacher, please teach me too” hearing this Kush looks up to Rhodos to see how she answers, cause he was sure, if she talks to his parents, they would never say no.

…

…

Rhodos thought for I while and recapped the fight wherein she went on to stab the person in his shoulders despite having close to no cultivation at all, this did impress Rhodos. She said “I am not his teacher; his parent are my masters. I was brought in by them to be his bodyguard for life, I owe them my life so I agreed anyway. I can ask them to hire you but you have to be hired as his maid and also we don’t live here so you will have to move with us. We are living in the ABC inn ahead of us and will be leaving in a few days, you can make your decision and come to us. When Gauri returned home she saw her mother lying on the coughing. She brought her a glass of water they sat and chatted through the night where she told her what the duo had told her. Her mother asked what her decision was to which she said “I think I will not go, its comfortable here and who knows if they are good people or not”. Her mother knew that they were living in a society of scoundrels, no way would they be considered good by any definition of the word. She knew her daughter did not want to leave her here and asking them to take her with them would be a massive imposition on her saviors. When Gauri was asleep, the old woman stepped out of the house and bought poison. Lying in her bed she wrote a note to her daughter ate the rat poison with water and passed away peacefully in the night.

Gauri woke up next day and shouted to her mother “Mom, I am going away for my work, the food is on the table eat it if you see fit, else I will eat it for dinner when I come back”

…

She was waiting for a reply from her mother but did not get one, so she went in her room to see and saw her lying peacefully, generally her mother was the first one to wake up due her coughing fits, today she seemed to be doing fine. The peaceful look on her face, made her not to wake her up. It was raining outside, harder than usual, hence she needed to leave earlier than usual if she wanted to make good time for her work. The clouds were thunderous and it was getting cold. This made Gauri close the doors and windows of her room and raise the sheets on her mother to warm her. This is when she feels the cold and stuck hands of her mother. She is scared and pulls her hand away in a jerking motion, whenever people came to know of her mother’s disease this would be their first reaction, jerking their hands back, they behaved politely but would refuse to share a meal with her or to even come near her, despite the fact that her disease was not contagious because of this degree of contact. It hurt her mother’s feelings but she soldiered through it to support her daughter. Slowly Gauri called her mother “Mother…” once again “Mother…” now she held her shoulder and shook it. Rigor mortis had set in so her stiff body was shaking as a whole “Mother!” she called again “Mother!!” she screamed “Mother!!!”. She dropped on her knees by her mother’s bedside in tears, she cried and called her again and again. The thunder had stopped but the rain was pouring with tremendous intensity. Her eyes were blurred with tears, as she cried for more than an hour straight. She had no strength in her body put forced herself to get up, limping to the table by her mother’s bedside she noticed a sheet of paper with something written. Initially she was not noticed until she was the first few words which read “Dear Gauri…”

She picked it up and read it

‘Dear Gauri,

By the time you read this I will have long since passed away. Before everything else I would like to say that I love you my daughter and am nothing short of proud of what you have become. I tried my best to guard you from your father and his acquaintances’ shadows but doing so pushed you into this hell hole which isn’t much better, I don’t have any companions and/or any relatives I could call to take care of you, so lived on till you grew up, despite all the humiliation I had to bear, despite all the pain, only for you I accepted the tough solitude living as an outcast. When you grew up to be such a wonderful child I thought that maybe things were turning around, but today’s act from that scoundrel, made me lose hope in fate. Ours is not a fate to we can live with and expect to turn around our life is that of struggle in the gutter and climb out victorious, so listen to this last request for your mother and gift my soul the satisfaction of seeing you happy. Go with the boy, I have seen his eyes, they were the eyes of an immortal a being who will surpass all other. I use this letter to declare that if there has been any good that I have done in my life, then that boy will one day either change the world to a better place or destroy it entirely.

To you my love, I have only one message, become strong, stronger than fate herself, and twist her arm to give you the life you want, you may or may not deserve but the one you want. I know you think I was weak but forgive me for this one last cowardice cause I think moving on is impossible for me.

Always proud of you and loved you even more

Your mom’

…

…

…

‘SShhhaaaa…’ poured the rain with tremendous intensity such that you couldn’t see what was ahead of you for more than a foot. It was raining so much that the whole world was painted white. The rain falling on the skin hurt, downpour probably had the power to shred rocks let alone skin. In this heavy downpour a pretty woman walked out of her house. Even she did not know where she was going, she just walked, she had just been orphaned the pretty woman, it should not have hurt anyone so much if they were 24 years old, but for her… for her mother was a different concept. Early in her life she saw tragedy, she saw her mother being violated from the open crevices from where she hid, they would violate her from behind from the front, sometime her mouth, sometimes multiple people used violate her at the same time. One day they used burnt wood to burn her skin in six locations, all for a mistake she did not even commit. She was a firm believer in karma and that the bad karma of the men never came to haunt them. They got richer and stronger and thought this to be a great pass time for them. One day 6 of them came to their house, her mother was not fully dressed, all six of them violated her taking turns, it seemed they were determined to kill her this time. In the end inserted an iron rod in her body and her mother became immobile just like how she was now. Gauri was scared and started banging the door of the box she was locked in, this scared the thugs and they ran, but Gauri kept on banging the door for 15 min and then passed out then and there. After a few minutes her mother got up and dressed herself she unlocked the box and brought Gauri out and placed her on a bed. She packed their clothes and ran for the shores where used what little money she had to run to Kashi, Bharat. She was told it was the cradle of human civilization but filth was all she got, filth in Lonora, Europa and the same in Bharat. She had given up on life when the noble Chadan helped them and pulled them off the streets. Life was never kind to the mother daughter duo but they were anchors for each other, her mother was her shield in those days, later she became her friend who she would talk to everyday. Now she had neither, blindly she walked in rain, the down pour increasing in intensity. It broke the pin on her saree causing it to come lose as she walked and the end fell on the ground. Lo and behold her ample succulent breast were in full display to the world, cold drops of water made her nipples erect and she had goose bumps all over her body, the rest of her saree got wet and got stuck to her skin and the other end of the saree was still getting dragged on the ground, slowly the wet saree was slipping down her waist and saree end on the ground got stuck to something and started getting tugged and all her clothes  came undone, she walked down the road in absolute nudity, her succulent breasts, erect nipples, here thin waist, her plump buttocks, her enticingly pink vagina out there for the world to see but none could appreciate it cause of the rain, nobody could see the drops of water run down her back make their way to her spine then down into the valley between her buttocks as they trace her skin, to touch into her pink beautiful flesh, but are unable to enter because of the godforsaken gravity as they dropped to the ground and became part of running stream entering the gutter. She walked to a destination even unknown to her consciousness, but to her unconscious mind there was only destination in mind where she reached in a few hours.

After the fight concluded it took a eight hours for Kush to reach the inn they were staying at, along the way they bought another piece of clothing to cover his feature, he had exposed himself more than his father had allowed him to. He still did not remove the weights, movement was becoming difficult for him, added to the fact that his injuries were at the strongest muscles he possessed, the thigh and his shoulders. They used the torn shawl he previously wore to stem the bleeding but the pain was unbearable. It was understandable since any cultivating person would have been unconscious from the pain. They moved with less than half the pace as they come. He said to Rhodos with a smile on his face “Hey Rhodos, why don’t you move on ahead? I will come in at my own pace later” Rhodos stood there still for the minute before turning around and saying “You know young master, master always says, it is ok to cry sometimes and defeat has to be overcome”. She did not turn to see him and hurried towards the inn. Kush on finally being alone cried, he cried at his weakness, despite struggling with his life every day, he lost to bunch crazy nobodies who probably had never cultivated their whole life. Their weapons were all salt grade (white) meaning they were novitiates, being cut and pierced all over his bodies, bearing those tortures, this was all he amounted to. After walking a few steps after she left he sat down, partly from the pain and partly from the fatigue as he cried, drops of tears flowed out from his eyes sliding down his young unblemished cheek, then after passing his lips they drop down to the ground, soaking the already parched flat surface of cement with tears, sweat and blood from his wounds. It takes him an hour in that position, like a good soldier he started mana absorption and storage trying to fill the endlessly thirsty pouch of damn thing which heals his body. He cried for as much time he could, fortunately nobody sees him there, he goes to a nearby shop where he asks the shopkeeper to use the hand pump, to give him some water. He washes his face and drinks some water and gives him 10 Swarna, which the shopkeeper denies taking. He did not notice the shopkeeper before but after having a closer look the shopkeeper was old and gaunt to the extreme, the shop keeper tells him with a smile “I will never charge a traveler for glass of water, cause it is my Dharma to provide all who seek satiate a traveler (something along the lines of Indian culture, nobody goes thirsty from your house)”. Kush was in a foul mood a bit and replied rudely “But good sir, from the status of your body and the location of your store, you don’t seem like you have a lot of options, if not as a payment then take it as a donation (polite way of saying giving money to a beggar)” he immediately regretted after saying this.

“Heh… child, your words seem to make you wise beyond your age” this surprised Kush, cause nobody till now was able to guess how old he was in his cloak.

“Do not worry, only reason I could make out your age was from my experience as a trader” said the old man

“Why are you working at your age despite your meager achievements at your age?” asked Kush to the trader, though he did not know why would ask this to a complete stranger. It was like he wanted to get this out to somebody, his father, mother and Rhodos were too close to him for this and he did not know anyone else he could talk to. The old man then replied without hesitation “Because it is only over when I say it is”. “heh” thought Kush to himself “the same concocted line every time”. But the old man continued “Also because, I don’t know if I will succeed if I don’t work, but I know for sure that I will lose if I don’t work” Kush’s eyes opened wide, goosebumps all over his body, he was out of the dark shadows he had carried all his, being the underdog, losing hope and heart, fatigued by doing his best, losing hope with each battle when his father told him he still not compare to any strong, after a point he had discredited his father’s opinion stating it was impossible for him to not be strong yet, but today was an eye-opener sending him back down spiraling staircase towards darkness, but he met the old man. Kush touched the feet of the old man and asked for blessings to which the old man said “Sada sukhi bhava, shaktishali bhava (always be happy, be STRONG)”. Invigorated by the meeting he picked himself up and started walking away before stopping and coming back. The old man asked “What happened son?” the boy said “Respected Sir, I will not insult you by giving you a donation” he said as he pulled out a bundle of currency notes his father had given him and gave him 1000 Swarna and presenting it to him. Annoyed by this gesture a bit the old man asked “then what is this?”. Kush said “This is my investment in your company, which I believe will the greatest of this generation, in return please offer me a share in your company”. Still unwilling the old man did not accept the money and asked “Why do you think that”, because of two reasons, “one being you were able to identify my age when despite major fight at hand even a 1000 people were unable to and the other reason being I want to walk on your way of life and never give up, so this is like an investment in myself as well”