Chapter - 03
1257 Words
Chapter - 03
"Erebus! Erebus!" a lady walked around, calling out a boy's name. She was Nariha, Erebus's mother.
It has been five years since the day darkness engulfed the sky. Most of the people even forgot about that day, and the boy who was the cause of what happened that day has also grown a lot during this time.
But where was he?"
Agrud did you find Erebus?" Nariha asked her husband who just entered the cave.
"No, nobody has any clue to where he is" Agrud replied shaking his head in denial.
"You don't think he went there again, do you?" Nariha asked with worry all over her face.
"I don't think so. Since the last time I have increased the number of guards there" Agrud rejected the idea. Though he denied it in front of his wife, thinking about his mischievous son he could not rule out the possibility completely.
"You never know. He has a lot of tricks up his sleeves" Nariha said.
"That brat, always making things difficult for me. Let him come if I don't slap the s**t out of his a*s today my name is not Agrud".
The lady turned towards the fox by her side, " Tinka think of some names for my husband. He is going to change his name today".
The fox nodded and walked outside to think of some names for the man.
"What are you doing? You don't believe that I will beat him?" Agrud after hearing this went red with embarrassment.
It was known throughout the village that how much rogue and brazen Agrud maybe, he never scolded his son for his mischiefs.
"You want me to help you remember all the times you saved him from getting scolded by me? Last week during the feast of the naming ceremony of Drakon's daughter, he mixed the paste of the Dragon's breath in the food. All of those who ate that food were crying out tears, but what did you do? You applauded him in front of everyone. Leave that aside, let's not talk about something so old, yesterday he freed all the Bodacbulls behind Strank, instead of scolding him, you joined in the fun. Do you want me to remind you of some more incidents?" Nariha didn't back down one bit instead, she reminded of the times he joined in the fun.
"Uhmm..." Agrud coughed in embarrassment, " No need I assure you that this time, I won't spare him. You have my word".
"We will see about that, before that we need to find him first". Nariha turned around to look for her son leaving her husband in embarrassment.
* * *
Somewhere else,
The street by the 'City Gate' was bustling with people. There were shops on each side of the street, and people could be occasionally seen, stopping by on one or the other to buy something. Soldiers patrolled the streets, clad in armours. There were occasional skirmishes between people, and the soldiers would run there to keep the order maintained.
"Look at the dates, these are from the kingdom of Butuan" Ashopkeeper screamed at the top of his lungs.
"These are the carpets made from the wool of Changthangi. Feel the softness" Another peddler yelled trying to get the attention of the people.
"How much does this carpet cost?" Someone asked the peddler.
"Eleven gold coins". The peddler said.
"Who are you trying to fool? Name the right price". The customer rebuked.
"How much are you willing to pay?" The peddler asked.
"Three Gold coins".
"I won't take anything less than ten".
And the Bargain began.
"Four".
"Nine".
"Five".
"Eight".
"Six".
"Seven and no less".
"Deal".
Like this, the market was bustling with people all across the street.
Outside the 'City Gate', a small figure covered in rags from head to toe such that his face could not be seen was peeking inside the city. The one behind those rags wanted to go inside but was afraid of being caught. He would come here occasionally but could not go any further.
The figure looked at the sky and seeing the setting sun and sighed in disappointment. It was time to go back.
The small figure looked inside the city one more time and engraved the image in his mind. After that, the figure walked slowly towards the forest on the outskirts of the city. As he walked towards the forest, he passed by many people who looked at him with weird gazes. It was the season of summer and temperature was so high that people tried to wear as minimum clothes as possible, but this small boy, was covered in rags from top to bottom, he certainly stood out from the rest.
The figure entered the forest and quickly followed a path. He raced his way through the trees so easily that it was hard for anyone to follow him. After dashing for about ten minutes, the figure came to a halt. He looked around to see if anyone was around and after confirming that he was all alone, he walked up to the two rocks placed side by side each other forming a triangle.
The rocks were covered with vines all around. He walked past the vines and went inside the passage between the rocks. From the outside, it looked like the passage should have been no more than two or three meters, but magically the figure did not come out from the other side.
The figure covered in rags walked in the dark for some time. As he walked, he could feel the temperature rising by each step he took. After walking for some time, he stood in front of what could be described as a red translucent door.
He stepped inside the door, and he was pulled inside as he completely vanished.
As soon as the figure emerged on the other side of the door, the rags around him were blown to ashes.
Underneath the rags, was a boy not more than five or six years old. He had the same pale blue skin like Agrud, but his ears were a lot less pointy maybe because he was young. Yes, he was Erebus, the son of Agrud and Nariha, whom they were searching all around. Except for his pale skin and deep red eyes, he looked more like a human than his father or mother.
Erebus was standing in a long corridor. He walked forward stealthily trying not to create much noise. Soon he was at the end of the corridor, he glued himself to one of the walls and moved along the wall. He peeked and saw two men with standing on either side of the mouth of the corridor holding spears with three blades, in which the middle blade was longer than the other two*.
Erebus knew that it would be hard for him to go through the normal route under the gaze of these guards. So he went back the way he came. At a certain place in the corridor, there were a lot of statues of people who died in the war three hundred years ago placed. He walked to a particular statue, joined his hands and bent a little, " Please forgive the intrusion ".
Saying this he moved the statue a bit and behind it was a hole big enough for him to pass through. He crawled inside the hole and after adjusting the statue from there moved in it. After five minutes of crawling, he finally poked his head out only to see a couple of feet in front of him.
He lifted his head slowly only to see his mother smiling at him while his father stood behind her.
"Welcome back".
* * *
*For reference, look at the Trishul held by Lord Shiva or the trident of Aquaman.
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- Writer
