by W. C. Jasper
King Jeraash interjected, “Well, you two actually surpass us in raw intellect. Jared’s natural fighting instinct is superior to anyone else. And his battle intellect too is probably superior to the both of us… I do believe that to be the case. But he has a repugnant habit of holding back too much when he shouldn’t, and not holding back enough when he should. But, truth be told, if these two had fought at full strength when they first met, it would have certainly been a tie. He never realised that Maomi held back more than anyone could see.”
Prince Jared lifted his head slightly and stared in shock as he continued, “But if they fought now with the absolute intent of defeating the other, my beloved little brother would probably win. Everything about him was designed to be a warrior. However, if Maomi was angry during this battle, then only Sathyam could save Jared.”
“Hmm…” said Thaymas, “And what if you both fought each other without holding back?”
The King and Prince started laughing at this question that they had expected to eventually hear from him. After a few moments of thought, King Jeraash spoke, “Tell me Thaymas, what do you think would happen if an unstoppable force met an immovable object?” Thaymas was stumped by the question and thought for a while. And then he thought for a while longer. And then he thought a while longer as King Jeraash decided to put him out of his misery, “You see, the question you ask is one that your father is far better suited to answer than me. And when we had asked the same question to your father, this is the exact question he posed to us in response. He says that we both are the very incarnation of these two phenomena. He said that Jared is the very embodiment of an unstoppable force and I, the embodiment of an immovable object. You see, little Brother… some questions are not meant to have answers. And this one,” Thaymas started nodding his head even before the King finished his sentence, “is a question that is simply not meant to be asked.” As Thaymas’ face jerked in surprise at the end of that sentence, the King and Prince burst out in laughter.
Prince Jared and Thaymas spent the next day focusing solely on strength training and sparring. The day after, Thaymas showed up to the Royal Palace for lunch on the fifteenth hour of the day. It was the first day of the week; and according to Jerudia’s religion and customs, this day was supposed to be set apart for worshipping Sathyam, visiting relatives, and spending time with family and friends. King Jeraash, Queen Maomi, Prince Jared, Princess Jeniah, General Thayman, and Thaymas had all gathered as a family. King Jeraash had also invited General Hana Zivaala who was not technically of the House of Rash-Yaph but like a little sister to him nevertheless.
After lunch, Prince Jared took Thaymas to the garden to chat with him. They were enjoying the pleasant weather with the heavy and fluffy snow-white clouds that kept the day cool, but not dark. Thaymas sat silently beside Prince Jared as he lay flat on the ground (shirtless - which is how he spent pretty much every moment inside the palace). Thaymas was quite content and happy, enjoying the kind breeze while the Prince peered into the sky like he often did.
After a while, the Prince turned towards Thaymas and asked, “How much do you know about Shayla-ka?”
Thaymas’ face turned a little sombre as he replied, “I barely have any memories of her… Even her face is only a blur to me. But I’ve heard quite a bit about her… Appa tells me she was a prodigy, and that it was miraculous that she was brought into the military at the age of nine by King Jahous himself. Amma tells me that Appa trained her from the age of six, and she always turns angry when she talks about it… But, of importance, all I know is that she deserted the kingdom. I haven’t been able to find out anything more.”
‘Amma’ and ‘Appa’ were the honorifics used to address mothers and fathers respectively in Jerudian culture. The suffix ‘-ma’ was used to address mothers as well as younger loved ones who were female.
Prince Jared took a deep breath, acknowledging his sad circumstance and nodded. He lay flat on the grass with his palms interlocked behind his head and peered into the sky silently. After a few seconds had passed, he suddenly yelled out with a piercingly loud voice, “Uncle!!!!!”
General Thayman arrived in the garden after a minute or so, “Try to be well-mannered every once in a while.”
“Remember what we spoke of yesterday? I think it is time,” replied Prince Jared.
General Thayman took a few seconds to compose himself and sat on the ground with his legs crossed and intertwined. General Thayman sat silently for a minute or so and spoke with a sombre voice, “Son, I am sorry for having had to hide the truth from you for such a long time… You must already know that your sister ran away. I’m sure you also know that she was a prodigal talent. King Jahous had trained her personally and moulded her into one of the finest fighters on the planet. She was already expected to become the youngest General ever at the age of 24 at the King’s discretion, when she unexpectedly deserted the kingdom. I still remember that day as fresh as the very day it happened…”
There was a barely audible change in his voice as he continued, “It was a bright and hot day, the heat was menacing… I had just then returned from training some of the new recruits. I stepped into the northern living room to give the King an update regarding the training of the recruits and found a guard waiting for me. He handed me a note.” He pulled out a note from his pocket and continued as his eyes started welling up, “I opened the note and read. ‘Appa, forgive me. I have learned about something recently that I absolutely need to investigate. I have to leave Jerudia. The pain I am causing you is beyond my comprehension, and I promise you that one day I will fall on your feet and seek your forgiveness for this ignominious act. I know that Amma will hold you responsible for this, and also that telling her that this has nothing to do with you will not make a difference. I wish there were something I could do to make Amma understand, but you and I already know that that is not possible. Forgive me also for the blame that Amma will place on you. I will pray to Sathyam every day for your safety and prosperity. Forgive me. Stay Blessed.’”
General Thayman got to his feet, turned his back towards them and continued, “My brain went numb. Unable to think, I looked at the guard with frozen eyes. The guard said to me, ‘King Jahous has set out in her pursuit.’ But I already knew that it would be to no avail. The truth is that no one in the kingdom has known anything about where she went since that day… Even though there is no news of her, my heart knows that she is alive and well. I am sorry, Son. Forgive me.”
Thaymas did not know how to react. His face remained mostly expressionless. Thaymas was only five years old when Lady Shayla had deserted the kingdom. He had very few memories of his sister.
Thaymas: “I know you well enough to know that you were not at fault. But I am going to need an honest answer from you about something else. I think I already know the answer, but I need to hear it from you nevertheless.” General Thayman nodded gently as he continued, “I am sure that Amma made it absolutely unnegotiable that I wouldn’t be trained by you in combat. But here’s my question - After everything that happened with Shayla-ka, if Amma had not forbidden it, would you have trained me the same way you trained Shayla-ka?”
General Thayman stood silently for a moment as the cawing of a crow was heard two times distinctly. Suddenly, General Thayman broke into a sob, “I don’t know! I don’t know, Son! I don’t know!” His posture remained upright like a General standing in front of his troop even as he continued to weep.
Prince Jared got up on his feet and hugged him from behind and held him locked in his arms and spoke in a soothing voice, “You know that we are going to find her, Uncle. And when we do, everything will then be alright. It will all then be good. We will all then be joyful and whole.” Not knowing how to react to any of it, Thaymas sat on the ground as static as a milestone the entire time.
Without turning around, General Thayman patted Prince Jared on his cheeks and walked away. Prince Jared went back to lying on the grass and stared into the sky once again as Thaymas continued to
sit in complete silence.
Prince Jared: “I have a few memories of Shayla-ka… She used to treat me like a child, of course… But that was fair. You know? Since I was a child. I remember this one time when I was five years old and she must have been 23. She used to sneak me away into the restricted areas of the Ferianoy forest. *chuckle* She was the only one who had the combination of skill and daring required to sneak in there like that…” His smile became tighter as he continued, “Not to mention, the audacity and boldness required to break the King’s orders and steal his own child to accompany on such a criminal venture—” He broke into a hearty laughter and cherished the memory unhurriedly.
Thaymas continued to sit silently; listening intently, but staying locked inside his own mind.
Prince Jared: “When I asked why we were not taking Brother Jeraash with us, she’d tell me that he was a ‘righteous, recreant’s rump’.” Once again, he cracked up in laughter, holding his chest.
Thaymas remained the same.
Prince Jared: “She loved Brother a lot. But she despised his due-north sense of propriety. That is probably the reason that Brother always says that I was her second-favourite after you.” His tone changed just a little as he continued, “I understand that you cannot recollect any specific memories of her. But those memories are still there. They are just buried deep somewhere. We’ll see her someday, Thaymas.” He turned his head to see that Thaymas still had no response. He turned back to peer at the sky once more and continued, “I know that it must be weird and difficult for you to try and remember a sibling whom you have no personal reference of… But I assure you, she loves you a great deal. More than you’ll ever know. And someday… we’ll make new memories you can cherish.”
“Mmm-hmm,” replied Thaymas with a blank tone and an empty face.
And just like that, they both were back to sitting in silence.
In a few minutes Princess Jeniah came running with her ever so beautifully melodious laugh. She jumped on Prince Jared with the force and weight of a mountain yak and landed on his belly with her legs on both sides of his abdomen. Prince Jared definitely felt the force of that but chose to ignore it and grouped her hands together and kissed them, expressing his delight in getting to be with her.
Princess Jeniah exclaimed with her heart-meltingly adorable voice, “Appa! Akini has come!”
“Oh really? I bet she’s brought you some delicious treats?” said the Prince in a playful voice.
The Princess nodded her head rapidly like a jackhammer, grinning from ear to ear and shouted in her magically melodic voice as she ran back into the house, “Yes. She. Haaaas!”
Thaymas was still lost in thought as Prince Jared took a big breath to transition out of his resting mindset, and performing a kip up, got to his feet. Unlike his elder brother’s, his kip up was not what one would call a “textbook / picture perfect” execution, yet it was just as elegant and visually magnificent as his.
Performing a few mellow stretches, he said, “It’s time to meet your fellow pupil. Let’s go.”
They walked into one of the living rooms and came upon Akini playing with the Princess, while General Hana stood silently nearby, smiling. General Hana: smiling - a rare sight indeed. And it was one of the purest smiles on Earth. The infinitely scary General did, after all, have a soft spot for the little Princess. Thaymas was almost shocked to see that General Hana’s lips could even move that way. Discovering the fact that General Hana’s face was capable of performing a smile was perhaps a bit much for Thaymas to handle and his face showed as much.
General Hana: “What’s the matter with your face, dull-blade? Do you need something?”
Thaymas answered in panicky nervousness, “No— I— I was just— It’s nothing, General Hana.”
General Hana looked at him with sinking eyebrows, “Miss Hana is fine in here, rookie.”
Prince Jared added, “Use ‘Lady Hana’ if you wish to escape both Brother Jeraash’s chastisement and her wrath. It’s a safe compromise,” with a frown and a nod.
Upon seeing Prince Jared, Akini turned her chair to face him and spoke in a very sober voice, “I’ll never stop being amazed at how fortunate Princess Jeniah is that she did not take after you in intellect and charm. Sathyam has been mighty kind to her.”
Prince Jared and Thaymas stopped dead in their tracks as the Prince turned his head towards Thaymas slowly with the eyes of a helpless child caught in an embarrassing moment and flashed the most awkward forced half-smile. Prince Jared turned to Akini, stared at her like an angry child and spoke in a taunting tone, “If it pleases your highness, may we please have a debriefing?” and headed to the neighbouring room. General Hana, Akini, and Thaymas followed him as Akini scanned Thaymas exhaustively.
As soon as Thaymas closed the room behind them, Akini spoke, “This one is most definitely General Thayman’s son. What is he doing here?” Thaymas understood at once that whatever opinion he had formed about Akini so far did no justice to how bizarre she really was.
Prince Jared answered, “Thaymas here, is going to be your fellow pupil. He too shall be my protege.”
“Wow!” replied Akini, “You were barely managing one ‘protege’, and now there is more deadweight for me to carry! G-reaat!”
Prince Jared quickly pulled a chair and sat on it with his face buried in his palms. He pulled his face up as his palms now only covered his mouth and spoke in total defeat, “Would you please… please just debrief us?”
Akini sat down on a chair and started speaking, “Well, the trip was quite obviously a waste. As I just learned from General Hana, your interrogation here yielded much more information than I could get from the clowns in the north who could not even do the simplest job… Sometimes I think it would be best to just…” She was interrupted by the Prince, “We have a guest here, and this poor soul has been through far too much in the past few days. Now that we know that your trip was useless, let us get back to business.”
Akini made no real response as he continued, “As you are aware, war is looming over our heads. We even have a meeting scheduled in the recent future regarding the final discussions about our move concerning the war. But until then, we are going to be focusing on training you both to make you as strong as possible. Thaymas here had never even explored his limits until the last couple of days. So, for Thaymas, we are going to be focusing mainly on his physical training, whereas you have found a great sparring partner in him because of his intellect.”
“He wouldn’t last even three seconds,” replied Akini in a condescending tone.
General Hana interjected in her signature steely voice, “Out of the 28 times that you have challenged Yuroichi, how many times have you defeated her?”
Akini’s humiliating silence bore down on her like a slap on the face. The last thing she wanted was to endure an abasement in front of her new fellow pupil (probably a competitor in her eyes).
Prince Jared: “I think the reason General Hana is having trouble remembering that is because the answer is zero. It’s kind of difficult to remember a number that is less than one, isn’t it, Akini?”
Prince Jared could see very clearly that Akini was going to redirect all of that anger at Thaymas and decided to ease off for the moment, “We shall be training in the snowy region tomorrow. Both of you report at our usual rendezvous spot in Pasuhara forest at the dawn of the eighth hour. I expect both of your presence before the seven bells finish tolling.”
The next morning, Thaymas reached the rendezvous point five minutes before the dawn of the eighth hour to find the Prince and Akini already waiting for him with the pack. Akini was sitting with her back leaning on a grey and white wolf. Akini’s palms were on the back of her head with her eyes closed and her legs stretched out to the front. Her wolf was sitting in a very dignified position with the belly resting on the ground, neck outstretched, chin up, and the front legs crossed one over the other. On the white and grey fur, Akini’s wolf also had faint black strokes almost in the likene
ss of flames.
As Thaymas arrived, Akini opened her eyes, glanced at Thaymas, and closed her eyes again. The wolf turned her head and looked at Thaymas with bright blue eyes like blue flames. Her eyes were every bit as fiery as Akini’s, but she was clearly more grounded and composed than Akini. Thaymas noticed that in cases of both Akini and Prince Jared, their wolves were more level-headed than their human counterparts. Jiraai, in particular, seemed to possess a great amount of composure and well-grounded equilibrium for someone who was Prince Jared’s companion.
Thaymas walked over to Paakun and caressed him in the reserved and mild-mannered fashion that Thaymas was accustomed to. Akini’s companion who was still sizing up Thaymas was named Fuoco. She was 6 feet 2 inches tall and wonderfully beautiful. The party arrived at the lake in the snowy region sometime around 15 minutes into the ninth hour of the day. The King and Prince called it Lake Aokiji for ‘Aokiji’ meant ‘blue frost’ in ancient Jerudian tongue. Akini was very familiar with the area as well as the lake and was quite accustomed to training there. As soon as they arrived, all three of them stripped down to their undergarments and started warming up.
Akini was built lean, yet also thick. Her extremely toned muscles on a short physique of only 5 feet 5 inches was as impressive-looking as it was efficient. Every section of her physique was as tight and well-defined as it could be, for she trained in such fashion every day. As imposing and striking as her physique was, it also possessed a spunky, feminine attraction.
