Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Antomia. She was an introvert girl and she did not like to play with other children of her age. She used to play alone with her toys. Often she was found to be absorbed in her thoughts. Children used to make fun of her. In one fine evening, sitting under a tree of a park she Antomia was absorbed in her thoughts. All of a sudden, she yelled with excitement, “I will capture Aryoland and rule over it.”

Hearing these, other children playing around her began to laugh and poke fun at her. At this, she got furious and cried, “One day I will rule over that dirty Aryoland.” Saying this, she ran away to her home.

Antomia was the daughter of the famous wizard of the island Romia. Romia and Aryoland were two islands situated in the Pacific Ocean, about one thousand miles away from each other. Antomia was about twelve years old and was learning magic from his father who, in spite of being a famous wizard, was a humble and pleasant man of the Romia. But his daughter was just the opposite of father. She was ambitious and cruel. For some reason, she hated the island Aryoland and its people. She always dreamed of capturing the Aryoland and ruling over it. Her father always tried to make her understand but she was stubborn. With age, her hate for Aryoland increased day by day. This hate compelled her to work hard for learning the hardest of the hardest magic. By the age of twenty, she became more powerful and famous wizard than her father. She had got the magical power of turning herself into the desired form and another magical power of controlling the minds of people. She could control the minds of people by just staring at them for just a few moments.

The Aryoland was the richest and happiest island of the world. The people here were rich and happy. The island was famous for its art, literature, and trade. On the other hand, Romia was a poor island ruled by tyrants. Almost all the people and the ruler of Romia had strong hate and anger for Aryoland. When they heard about Antomia’s passion, they decided to depute her on the task of capturing of Aryoland. She was happy getting this opportunity. She prepared herself and gathered all her magical powers. Then she turned herself to a young and beautiful lady by her magic and began to work on her plan.

On the way to Aryoland, the ship, on which she was traveling, was attacked by sea bandits. The attack was so sudden that she and the other passengers couldn’t do anything to protect themselves from the bandits. The passengers were beaten, looted and killed by the bandits. The attack of sea bandits was a part of her plan.  As per plan the bandits tied her to chains and took her with them on their ship. 

Those days, Prince Dharampal, the son of the king, was carrying out a military operation against the sea bandits. When he heard about the incident of sea dacoity, he immediately proceeded to the sight. He found the bandits on the midway. As per the plan, the bandits attacked the royal ship. After a brief fight, the ship of bandits was captured. She was captured by the royal army and was produced before the prince Dharampal at the fort on the shore of the sea.

When he saw her, he got so much impressed with the beauty of her. He had seen many young and beautiful women so far, but never in his life he got as impressed with any woman as he was impressed by her. This was the spell of her beauty being cast on him by her.

 He asked her, "Who are you?"

                

She began to spin a tale, “I am Noori. I am the daughter of a merchant of Romia. My father and I were on a business trip to Aryoland. On the way, the bandits attacked our ship and plundered it. They killed many of the passengers and held me captive on their ship. Fortunately, your army came and rescued me. I will be always grateful to be.” Saying so, she bowed herself before him and murmured something in inaudible voice and looked straight into his eyes for a moment and made him bewitched with her magic. He fell victim to her spell. He fell in her love.

              

He forgot everything in her love and instead of fighting against sea bandits, he began to enjoy her company. When his father heard that the prince was not taking interest in fighting against sea bandits. He sent his younger son prince Vijaypal to replace him. He sent orders to Dharampal to return to the royal palace.

Prince Vijaypal was an ambitious, brave, and wise man. Upon reaching there he immediately took charge and sent Dharampal back to the king. Dharampal returned, not alone. Noori, too, was with him. Vijaypal didn’t meet Noori. His brother Dharampal didn’t introduce him to Noori. A loyal soldier told him everything, from her beauty to her affair with Dharampal. Vijaypal found something wrong with her. Alertness was in his nature. He always stayed alert. So he set his spies on Noori.

After reaching the royal palace, Dharampal along with Noori presented before the king. Seeing Noorie, the king asked to Dharampal, “Who is she?”

Dharampal was under the spell of Noori. He replied without any courtesy, “She is Noori, my wife to be.”

“What the hell are you saying?” the king yelled with anger and surprise.

Dharampal remained silent for a moment and said, “I love her and want to marry her.”

The king flew into a rage and looked at Noori and yelled, “Tell me who are you? What are you doing with him?”

She gave him a broad smile and replied, “Haven’t you listened to him! I am Noorie, the famous wizard of the Romia. I am going to marry your son and then...” Saying so, she looked into the eyes of the king and murmured something. And within a moment or two, the king got spellbound by her. He got silent.

She turned to Dharampal and gave him order in an authoritative voice, “Arrest that fool and old man and throw him to prison.”

He called the guards and ordered them, “arrest that fool and old man and throw him into prison.”

Hearing these words for the king from prince’s mouth, the guards got surprised. Meantime Noori cast her spell and made them spellbound. They obeyed the prince and arrested the king.

When they were about to carry the king to prison, she shouted at them, “You fools. Who will arrest this dirty swine? Arrest him too.” Saying so, she pointed at Dharampal.

The spellbound guards followed her orders and arrested him. Both the father and the son were thrown into prison.

Next, she reached the royal court along with some spellbound guards. All the ministers and courtiers were awaiting the king. Nobody knew what was going next. When they saw Noorie, instead of the king, they got surprised. But without wasting a moment, she played her magic and made all of them were spellbound. And then she, sitting on the throne of the island, proclaimed, “From now on I am the queen of the island.”  All the spellbound courtiers, ministers, and guards bowed to her in her respect.

Now she took her next step, she called all the generals of the royal army for the meeting and made them spellbound by casting spell on them. Then she proclaimed herself the queen of the Aryoland in public. The people of island were shocked at this. People were at unrest and they wanted to know what happened to the king and the princes, who she was and how she became the ruler of the island.

               

When Vijaypal heard the news of Noori becoming the ruler of the island and the missing of his father and brother, he got shocked and worried. He immediately left the fort and hid away in the dense jungle along with his army. His army consisted of a few hundreds of those lucky soldiers who, at that time, were engaged in the fight against the sea bandits too far from Noori or who somehow escaped from the magic of Noori.

Soon Noori sent an army to fight and kill his brother Vijaypal. Vijaypal was ready for this situation. Taking advantage of thick jungle and hills, he fought a guerrilla war against the royal force. Hundreds of soldiers were killed from both sides. It was almost impossible for Vijaypal to defeat the spellbound royal army. His manpower and ammunition were decreasing day by day. Noori was confident that someday or the other, he would be killed certainly. Now the queen Noori began to oppress the people of the island. The spellbound officers began to collect more than usual taxes. The army began to loot and kill those who raised their voice against the queen. 

One day, when Vijaypal was wandering in a dense escaping from the royal force, he came across a monk. The monk, despite living in the dense forest, knew what was going in the island and royal palace. He told Vijaypal that Noori was nothing but a dirty magician who had the capacity of controlling the minds of other peoples by casting her spell. She had controlled the mind of Dharampal and Dharampal was doing what she wanted under her spell.

The monk said to him, “It is you who can save the Ayroland from Antomia.”

He asked, “But how?”

The monk said, “Listen to me, I know how to break the magic of that Anatomia.” He paused for a moment and then said, “Never look into her eyes. Don’t look even at her face. If you see her eye or face for a few moments, you will surely get spelled by her magic. Your brother did this mistake and got spelled by her. I have a mantra for you to make her weak. Chanting this mantra before her will make her weak and it will be easy for you to kill her.”

The monk murmured the mantra in his ear and blessed him to win in the war.

He memorized the mantra. Without wasting time, along with some loyal soldiers he set for the royal palace. When they reached the city they found tight security around the royal palace. They hid in the narrow and dark streets of the town. At the midnight they gathered at the nook of a narrow street near the royal palace. Taking advantage of the moonless night, they proceeded to the royal palace. While his soldiers engaged the royal guards in a fight, he managed to sneak into the royal palace. He furtively proceeded to the room of the Antomia. He was chanting the mantra given by the monk.      

   

Here, in her room, Antomia was awoken and was practicing her magic. Suddenly she felt something wrong with her magic. Her magic was waning. Before she could understand what was going on and could do anything, with the sound of bang the door was opened and she found a man standing at the door chanting the mantra with a sword in one hand. She understood what the matter was when she heard the mantra. She knew the mantra very well that the mantra was an antidote to her magic. She had no way to escape. Her death was in front of her. Vijaypal rushed at her and with a single strike of the sword he cut her head off. 

Her spell was over with her death. The royal army began to come out of the spell. Dharampal and the king who was sleeping in the prison, all of the sudden awaken and find themselves in a different state of mind. They were feeling free now. It was as if they were unbounded from unseen chains. They were sad to find themselves in prison. Just then, Vijaypal reached the prison and set them free. He told them all the story of how Antomia cast her spell on Dharampal and married him, how she captured the power of Aryoland and how she was killed by him.”

The royal army was still confused and was unable to understand why they were wandering around the royal palace. People of the city, too, being free from the spell came out of their homes. All were gathering before the royal palace. Then the king along with his sons appeared before them. Seeing the king and princes after such a long time, people began cheering. All were curious to know what happened. The king told them all what happened to the island. Being impressed with Vijaypal, the king declared Vijaypal the next king of the island. Becoming the ruler of the island he ruled over the island with the help of his brother Dharampal for a long time.