by H. K Oby
That loud voice could have come from nowhere else. Wishing that he was back in the hut, he walked forward until he stood in front of the giant.
With a grin that showed yellow teeth, the giant bellowed, “Welcome! So nice of you to join us!”
“I didn’t know I was supposed to be here. I just came here yesterday –“
“That’s your excuse? What did you do after you were dropped off at your assigned dwelling? Did you go to sleep? Did you not even think to find someone else, find directions and go find the supervisor? Those two frogs also came yesterday, but here they are. They are late, but they at least knew that they were supposed to come here. You just strolled in!”
Amin looked at the two accusingly. Both of them had the grace to glance down, not meeting his gaze, but the giant was not done.
“No matter. You’re here, but in my training ground, the rules state that anyone who comes late shall be punished. Before we decide what to do with you, here’s what you need to know, initiate. You are bound to Ayodhya, bound to become an elite warrior. Until I say otherwise, you exist to train. Make no friends. Don’t even think of making enemies. Learn the ancient forms of hand-to-hand combat. Grow stronger, or die in your trials. The only initiates you are allowed to spend time with are those two frogs. If you had come with them, you would have joined them in jumping around the ground five times. But no, you deserve something special. This is your punishment: a spar with me. Prepare yourself.”
No sooner had the last word come out of the giants mouth than the man was moving at a blinding speed, blurring right in front of Amin’s eyes. A fist came flying out of nowhere, and Amin barely managed to duck then roll away, trusting his instincts.
Sure enough, a foot hammered into the ground right where he had been, sending up a cloud of dust. He stared at that spot, feeling his blood go cold; it left such a deep imprint that he was convinced half his body would have been broken if he stayed where he was.
Frustrating years spent being too slow to dodge had given him the ability to detect danger before it was upon him, but even this ability failed him when the giant sped up even further. He seemed to disappear from view, now; a fist punched into Amin not even a fraction of a second after his roll, sending him flying into the air.
He fell to the ground at least 5 feet away, coughing and spewing out. It felt like he was reliving his first interaction with the demigod; true, it didn’t really hurt as much, but he was just as defenseless, and that hurt more than all the pain in the world.
He tried to get up, intending to put his hands up and deliver at least a single punch, but he collapsed as soon as his feet got under him. His stomach hurt too much; it felt as if his innards had liquefied. Grunting, he coughed out more blood.
“Not bad. It’s been a long time since an initiate dodged my attack. Just for that, I’ll stop. You two newbies – take him to the infirmary. Remember: be on time from tomorrow, or there’ll be worse to come. You have no siddhi, so there’s going to be worse every day anyway. No reason to make things even harder.”
A collective gasp rose around him as the giant spoke. Amin found his consciousness slipping. Right before he went under, the last thing he saw was Amaira’s eyes filled with pity.
CHAPTER SEVEN
AMIN WOKE UP with his throat on fire.
Something so hot and bitter that it blistered everything it touched was being forced down his throat via a mug at his lips. He sputtered and tried to push away, but the force holding it only increased. He felt weak, so giving up due to the genuine fear that any more resistance might force the entire cup down his throat, he gulped it all down and coughed, trying to get at least some of it out to lessen the horrible taste in his mouth.
Pain radiated from his stomach. Looking down, he saw that his shirt had been removed, his stomach covered with a green mushy substance that stuck to him, smelling of green things and places. A woman wearing a white sari was setting down the mug on a wooden table beside the bed he was on. Her black hair was streaked with white; she had a motherly face although her lips were pursed, now, and she was mumbling something in a language he didn’t understand.
“You’re finally awake! She said you would be, and I had no reason to doubt it…I’m just dumb, sometimes…”
Turning to the other side of his bed, he found Rishi and Amaira, the latter carefully looking down at her feet. He could guess the reason: the woman was probably glaring at Amaira reproachfully.
“It has been three hours; we didn’t know whether we were supposed to go or stay. But it is nice to see that you’re okay.”
It looked like he was explaining himself, as if to tell Amin that he had not stayed out of any concern. Amin mirrored the feeling; he felt nothing for the coward who he couldn’t probably even use, which was actually an improvement as he seemed to have let go of that grudge from before.
Amaira was a different matter entirely.
That last moment before he went under came back to him. It was an extraordinary feeling, one he had never experienced before.
Is it because she looked genuinely concerned? Maybe I believed she cared for me in that state, so I would not want her to cry…but that’s impossible. I just met her! There’s no way she has a reason to feel anything for me. Delirium is a crazy thing…
He tried to get up, but wrinkled hands pushed his shoulders with surprising strength. He laid back down and grimaced; those hands had been entirely too forceful. He wasn’t sure that he could have resisted them even if he wasn’t feeling so weak, and that made him look at the lady in a new light.
She sniffed loudly when she saw him staring at her. Refilling the pitcher, she ordered, “Drink this in one hour and rest. You shall not be getting out of this bed for the next couple of hours, at the very least. I cannot heal you as perfectly as a demigod, but I’m still pretty good. You two, I’ve just been informed that you have the rest of the day off. Today was supposed to be a short introduction, anyway. Stay with him. If you see him feeling dizzy, bring him right back here no matter what he says.”
Giving no chance for any of them to reply, she stomped away. Seeing her disappear behind a door on the far end of the room, Amin asked, “What’s her problem? Why is she so pissed?”
Amaira giggled, and Amin found himself smiling as he heard the merry sound. It was something pure, something untouched by any of the true nature of the world.
“We caught her flirting when we walked in. It was bizarre; the man she was talking to disappeared as soon as we entered like a ghost. Rishi is convinced we imagined it, but I can recognize that look anywhere – we caught her doing something she shouldn’t.”
Amin cocked his head, his mind listing the possible ways in which he could use this information to his advantage. He stopped it midway, though; it was dangerous to get up to such mischievous deeds when he still didn’t know everything about where he was.
He tried to get to his feet, and a wave of dizziness washed over him. Rishi was the one who pushed him back into his bed, this time; it was embarrassing that the weakling was even able to.
“She gave you the mixture for a healing sleep. She has a habit of muttering the names of the ingredients and the purpose of each when she makes a mixture, so I heard her talking about it. You will wake up in an hour; you’ll have to drink another glass then. I don’t want to get on her bad side; you better do what she said.”
Amin felt like snapping back, but he didn’t have the energy. Sleep possessed him, again, and vague dreams of being used as a ball by the keeper and the giant from the training ground assaulted him. There was one in the middle where he was forced to drink down another mug of that horrible tasting mixture—albeit a cooler version, this time--but he hardly paid notice to it as he was too busy insisting that there should be no kicking.
When he woke up again, he felt much better. His stomach was almost painless, and when he got to his feet, the green substance fell off in patches where it had hardened on his skin, revealing red, sore spots. Not knowing what to
make of that, he studied the room he was in. It had a thatched roof, too, but it was large enough to hold five huts inside. The walls were made of the same mud—he was getting awful tired of seeing the orange stuff everywhere--but they were decorated by all sorts of herbs. Herbs hung down from the ceiling, too, and various tables filled the space, all of them chock full with even more ingredients.
There were four other beds that were all empty, and five chairs were set against one wall. Rishi and Amaira were both dosing off beside each other, their heads resting on the wall the chairs were set against. He stepped forward to wake them up and find out what else he needed to know so that the morning wouldn’t repeat, but he paused when his stomach rumbled loudly.
Feeling famished, he looked around and smiled happily when he saw a clay bowl on the table that had held the mug before. As large as both his fists and filled to the brim with a steaming, yellow broth in which rice floated, it looked so inviting that Amin felt like dancing with joy.
Picking it up, he sat back down on the hemp bed and slurped from the bowl hungrily. It was a delicacy from South India called sambar rice. He had only had it once before, in a wedding he had snuck into. Made from lentils and spices mixed just so to bring forth a low heat that warmed one’s body from deep within, it was sumptuous.
He ate so loudly that he woke up the two. He was finished by the time they got their bearings and looked at him, taking in his yellow-stained lips and chin.
“That was delicious! Have you eaten?”
Getting to her feet and yawning, Amaira said, “Yes. It was the nurse’s special recipe. She just left. She was carrying a parcel that I’m sure is for whoever she was talking to when we arrived. How do you feel? You look disgusting, by the way.”
She just speaks her mind with no hesitation whatsoever. That’s…refreshing.
“As fit as ever. Ah! There it is.”
Scrubbing at his face, Amin looked around and found his shirt at the foot of the bed. He put it on, feeling conscious of Amaira studying the scars all over his body. She didn’t say a word about them, and to make sure that she wouldn’t get the chance, he changed the subject.
“So, what do we do now? What is the time? How do you even tell the time around here?”
To his surprise, Rishi opened the door beside the chairs, squinted at the sky, then closed it again. Blinking and wiping his eyes, he said, “Around noon. I’m still learning, but this is the easy part. Telling what time it is at night based on the stars is much harder…”
His forehead creasing with confusion, Amin raised the gates to the dam of questions about to burst in his head.
“Why? Why are we living like this? You must’ve seen that other island. They look more advanced than even the US! They had smartphones. Smartphones! They even wore suits! Why is this side so primitive?”
Amaira and Rishi turned to each other.
“You want to take this?”
“No, all you.”
Amaira sat back down, leaving Rishi standing. Taking a deep breath, he adopted a lecturing tone that grated on Amin’s nerves
“There is a lot you have to learn. Let’s take it a step at a time. For now, I’ll answer your question. I understand exactly how you feel because I had the same questions. The answer is frustrating. They weren’t willing to tell me everything; when I demanded more, they just laughed at me. All I know is that at the beginning, there was only one island. 20 years ago, a rift appeared in the inhabitants of Ayodhya, and the island was split into two. Don’t even get me started on trying to understand how that could have been even possible. And don’t ask me how such a massive metropolis could have been built in such a short time. This is all I know. And the fact that there is still some animosity between the two sides.”
That explains it. That is what I detected between them, before. Well, I’m finally getting some answers…
Nodding with satisfaction, he said, “It’s good to finally have a question answered. Knowing nothing was driving me mad! Can we go out? This place is very stifling.”
It was true; there were no windows, and although the thatch let in some light, it was dim. Rishi nodded and opened the door, walking out first.
Amaira waited for him to come near the door. When they were close enough that whatever they spoke would not be audible to Rishi, she asked, “Were you really that rude to him? You don’t look so mean.”
Snorting, Amin said, “I don’t know how much he told you. He woke me up by poking me with a floorboard. Understandably, I wasn’t pleased about that. I was a bit impatient, so I might have been harsh on him… But I’m usually impatient with cowards.”
Amaira’s eyebrows narrowed into a ‘V’.
“A coward? Are you sure you aren’t judging him prematurely? He does act like one, sometimes, but –.”
“Let’s go! I’m thirsty.“
She gave him a look that said they should talk later and walked forward, joining Rishi on the road. Both of them waited until he neared them, both watching intently to see whether a dizzy spell would come over him. No such thing happened; Amin really did feel as healthy as ever, so he smiled at them reassuringly.
Why was she so surprised? It is true that my judgment was premature, though, and biased to boot. Didn’t I tell myself that there was something more to him from the way he stopped himself from answering? I should find out soon.
The three of them set off down the path. Putting the matter in his mind aside for the moment, he asked, “Why is the entire place empty?”
Huts had appeared around the road again, letting him know that he was back at the quarters. It was just strange to see such a large place without a soul present, so he asked the question to no one in particular.
As if taking turns, Amaira spoke up, skipping occasionally with a smile over a lump in the mud instead of stepping over it.
“The rules are stringent. Only at a certain time of the day can initiates be here; if they aren’t where they’re supposed to be, you’ve seen the type of punishment that can be given. It’s so unfair. In the world outside, physical punishment has been proven to do more bad than good. And how can they expect you to find out, yourself, about what is expected? It was just sheer luck that the supervisor spoke to me just when I was introducing myself to Rishi. He looked so much like a lamb that was lost that I knew he must be a newbie like me!”
Nodding, Amin replied, “Exactly. But I guess the punishment part makes sense, in a way. I had a friend who was in the army. He said that the more danger someone is expected to face, the more pressure there are placed under so that they won’t break at a crucial time. We are expected to fight monsters; it should be expected that they will be hard on us.”
Rishi’s sucked in a breath when he said the word ‘monster’, and Amaira suddenly looked uneasy. It was a cold day, but sweat appeared on the former’s face, covering it completely.
“At least there is a long time until we are actually sent on missions. We are just initiates; it’ll be years before we’ll be expected to fight Rakshasas on our own on. Until then, we should just try our best and break no rules. Which reminds me, I should read the rulebook again. I’m pretty sure I saw no rule against pranks being played, especially if you’re not caught…”
Glancing at her as she tapped her chin again, Amin looked at Rishi questioningly.
Shaking his head, he said, “One of the initiates was mean to her. She wants to play a prank to get back at her. I really think you shouldn’t do anything like that, Amaira. We should just put our heads down and focus on our studies until we can defend ourselves.”
Letting out a derisive laugh that made Amin stumble and stare at her, Amaira said, “Wait? Waiting is for losers! She doesn’t know who she’s dealing with. Oh, she’s going to feel my wrath; you can count on that…”
Amin hoped he would never get on Amaira’s bad side when he saw her thunderous face, and the way her eyes flashed when she was angry. Rishi actually looked scared as he observed her; surreptitiously, he took a few steps a
way, as if afraid that she would lash out at him.
It passed as quickly as it had appeared, like a thundercloud on an expressway.
“Well, that’s a task for another day. We should sit down and have a chat. Initiates usually bunch together based on when they were initiated. For a long time yet, we will be the last three initiates, the weakest of the lot. We are due for some bullying, but if we work together, we should be able to get past it. Our siddhis even coordinate well. With Rishi’s strength and my enlarging ability, we should –“
Amaira paused, realizing that Amin was no longer beside her. He had stopped when she mentioned siddhis; he hadn’t forgotten that both of them had been given powers while he had nothing, but finding out exactly what they had obtained stung far more than he cared to admit.
Pressing his lips tightly together, he tried to let go of the vestiges of anger he still felt because of the way others were privileged even in this life while he would have to overcome difficulties that no one else had to face. He drew on his memories, and by the time the two of them walked back to him, he was back to normal--or as normal as possible, given the circumstances.
“You have strength? You can grow in size? How?!”
He couldn’t really hide the jealousy in his voice. Sighing sadly, Amaira patted his shoulder and said, “We are sorry. We heard what Shanker said, and we heard all the rumors, too. The first initiative with no siddhi. Everyone is convinced you’re going to die soon. I know otherwise. I was observing all the spars in the morning; Shanker fought against a lot of initiates. He was able to knock most of them down in a single hit, but you were able to dodge. Even the initiates who were the most further along couldn’t all do that. Have faith in yourself. You’ll get past this. Besides, there are other ways to obtain siddhis. They are slower, but I’ve heard that they are better. Don’t ask me how; I was caught eavesdropping before I could hear more.”
Amin breathed in deeply, digesting the information and nodding, not really believing her as he had already pegged her to be someone who was nice to everyone. He had swindled quite a lot of people with her character. Of course, those had always had some or other deep flaw they masked using this behavior, so he wondered what hers was and whether it was possible that she didn’t have one.
