The Amulet

"Tell us about the three-headed dog," the eldest grandson asked his grandfather who sat in his comfortable although worn-out settee. The old man looked warmly at his grandson and smiled wrily. The youngest grandson was seated on the rug with his sister. The three children had come to pay their grandfather a visit. The eldest grandson was ten years old and he looked a spitting image of his father. Reskin shook his head once to drive away from the regret he always felt whenever he thought of his son. Due to the nature of his job, Reskin had to spend a lot of time away from his family and while he was busy with his job, his children had grown up rather quickly. He left his job about five years back and then he decided to return home to try his hand at sculpting. It was, after all, a family business that he had turned his back on for he wanted to run away from his father and his insufferable discipline. When he finally returned home, he found that his eldest son, Mihir, had completed his education and taken up a job in a faraway city. Reskin was thankful to his gods for getting a chance to spend some years with his three other children but a tinge of regret made its home in his heart about missing out on spending time with his eldest son. Mihir was very attached to his mother and his siblings and made an effort to stay connected with them. Reskin adored the moments he could spend with his grandchildren.

"It was not a three-headed dog," Reskin corrected his grandson, Anand, who listened intently. "It was a two-headed monster with five legs. People would not want to believe it."

"Why would anyone want to do it?" His granddaughter Priya asked. "Why not believe the guy who saw the monster himself?"

"They were not as wise as you are, Priya!" Reskin's praise made Priya smile. The youngest grandson, Rony, gave a shudder.

"I thought it was a three-headed dog," Anand muttered. "My teacher mentioned about a three headed dog in a story. He told us that it was a huge dog and no one would dare to attack it so one day the villagers poisoned its drink and when the monster fell unconscious, they tried to bludgeon it but their weapons broke without hurting the dog so they buried it in a deep pit and covered it with mud. The dog is still alive but it can't come out."

"That's an interesting story," Reskin commented. "But I never saw a three-headed dog."

"Baba told me that you saw it once," Anand countered him.

"Well, it is true that I told everyone that I saw a three-headed dog," Reskin nodded his head. "Actually when I told them about a monster with two heads and five legs, they got really upset with me. No such monster is known to us. No one has ever seen it so that meant that I must be lying about it. To make them happy, I lied to them that I saw a three-headed dog and then they left me alone but I never saw such a dog." Reskin sighed. He still recalled how his colleagues had harassed him till he had rectified his story.

"Why did you lie?" Rony finally asked a question. He was only five years old and he had been taught to not lie to his parents so he could not understand why his grandfather had to lie.

"To keep them away from me," Reskin patted Rony's head. "When you grow up, you will realize that it is better to keep some people away from you."

"So then I can lie?" Rony was excited at the prospect of being allowed to lie.

"Yes but only when you grow up," Reskin cautioned his grandchildren. He did not want to run afoul of their mother. His eyes fell on the status of a warrior that was kept in its own place of pride. It was made by his great-great-great-great-grandfather or perhaps someone even older than him. It was made as a tribute to the sculptor’s father who had fought in the great war between the forest king and the immortal king.

"Tell us about that monster," Anand begged his grandfather.

Reskin thought about the strange entity that he had encountered so long ago though the memories of those days never seemed to fade away. His friends had been left terrified when they learned about the three-headed dog roaming about on the hills of Pabab but his grandchildren had not yet heard of the abomination. He did not want to tell the children about a monster but they looked up at him innocently and it made him melt from inside.

"Sure thing," he said, deciding to strip away the gory parts of his story to make it more palatable for the young kids. "Long time back I was posted on the very last watchtower of our kingdom. Beyond that watchtower was a very thick forest. A long time back, like five hundred years ago, there used to be a road that threaded its way through the forest to take the travelers to the kingdom of Pabab. In those times, the city of Pabab stood majestically on a hill. There were five forts, each forming a circle on the hill. At the very summit was the castle of the king of Pabab. He was a powerful magician. He was so powerful that he could control seasons around his little kingdom." Reskin was about to add the bit about human sacrifices but he checked himself. The king of Pabab, the mighty Neisako, used to worship a demon, and to appease his deity, Neisako would regularly sacrifice humans. He did not want to harass his citizens so he used to force his dominion kingdoms, Abitsar and Tribhanga, to send healthy humans as tribute. The practice ended only when Abitsar and Tribhanga revolted against Pabab.

"In any case," Reskin continued, "Neisako was feared by everyone who met him. There was an aura of evil around him that terrified people around him. It is said that he became immortal by making a deal with his demon. He was not afraid of any living thing and would regularly roam about in the forest without any guard. There were many attempts on his life for he was not loved by his people but no one succeeded in even injuring Neisako. There are stories of how some people stabbed him with swords and he bled so it looked like he was a human after all. But he would not die. His last breath would not come out of his body. Somehow he would gain enough strength to kill his attackers. Then someone tried to poison him but it only managed to intoxicate the king. Then someone tried to drown him and so they put him in a sack and threw him in the lake and it looked like it would be the end for him but then a three-headed dog came out from nowhere, jumped in the lake, and saved the king. From that day onwards, the king and his hound were never separated. They used to go out on walks together and the king would feed the dog before he ate himself."

"So who killed the king?" Priya could not see how anyone could kill the mighty king.

"It was the forest king," Reskin could not help but smile at the child's eagerness. "The forest king was himself a very powerful magician but Neisako kept his distance from the forest king and they never quarreled. But then one day the kings of Abitsar and Tribhanga supplicated to the forest king and asked for his help in bringing down the evil of Neisako. The forest king agreed. Then a brutal war took place. The forest king severed Neisako's head from his body but Neisako picked up his head and jumped in the fire pit. Since then no one has seen Neisako."

"He is dead, right?" Anand asked quickly.

"No one found his dead body or his bones," Reskin shook his head. "It is said that the demon took Neisako along with him. It is said that he would return one day to reclaim his throne as the king of all humans but so far he has not returned."

"And the forest king?" Priya seemed very invested in the story.

"He succumbed to his injuries soon after," Reskin sighed. "His people went and hid in the forest." He did not want to talk about the treachery of the kings of Abitsar and Tribhanga who decided to ravage the lands of the forest king after his death. The land and the treasures were distributed equally between Abitsar and Tribhanga. The denizens of the forest kingdom had to hide to save their lives but they prophesized that the forest king would return one day to avenge the pillage of his land.

"What happened to the dog?" Rony asked. He was very concerned about the dog who saved the king.

"The forest king killed it," Reskin was lost in his own thoughts and did not realize how savage his reply was to the little kid. When he saw Rony's smile disappear, he immediately rectified his mistake. "That's what the forest king thought. The dog is still alive."

"Oh wow!" Little Rony exclaimed.

"So whatever monster you saw, it was not the three-headed dog?" Anand asked.

"Correct," Reskin replied. "Everyone told me that it had to be the three-headed dog for many people have seen the dog roaming the forest, looking for its lost master. But I never saw it."

"What did you see?" Priya asked.

"As I said, I was posted in the very last watchtower of our kingdom," Reskin took a deep breath. He did not want to recall the unsettling experience but he could not back out now that he had already started. "Everyone was sent to live in that isolated watchtower for a week. Living amidst the constant cacophony of your comrades, the soldiers crave for stillness, for silence. So the brass decided to send everyone to this god-forsaken watchtower for one week. By the time the week ended, the soldier was already missing his comrades and their companionship. My turn came after a long time but I was looking forward to it. I had heard of how beautiful and calm it was and I wanted to experience it on my own. I brought with me the food stuff necessary to survive one week. There was a well not far off from the watch tower that provided clean potable water. On the first day, I took a walk in the deep woods and became aware of the spirit of a forest. You see, everything in this world has a spirit. When the life force is spent, the thing crumbles to dust. This life force is frequently confused with the health of an individual but they are two separate things. Even if one is healthy, if his life force is spent, then he will die soon. For many people, their health is irretrievably linked with their life force but for some of them it is not the case. A hill or a forest or even a building that is man-made has a life force in it. Even a mighty hill is eroded over time. When I first stepped in the forest, I became aware of a tremendous force around me. It was not only the combined life force of all the trees that were part of the forest. There was something else, something that pulsated regularly like a heart does. It was a unique experience for me. I had been warned by my comrades to not spend the night in the forest. There were strange creatures that roamed about in the forest, some of them living that we could see and fight if the need arose but most of them were of the unseen kind, those we couldn't see and those we can't fight. On the first day, I had ventured quite far inside but when dusk fell, I decided to hurry back to my watchtower. There was no need to pick up a fight with a spirit on my very first day. As I made my way back, I noticed a herd of deer following a trail, their heads bowed. They did not even take notice of me as I approached them. I came so close to them that I could smell their ghastly skins but the deer paid no heed to me and kept moving along in a straight line. I marked the spot for my curiosity was easily excited in those days. If I had seen such a sight now, I would have skirted them and ignored them. There are many things happening out there that do not concern us and we should not get involved with them but I was young then and reckless too. So I marked the spot and returned to the watchtower. I could not sleep that night. It was not only a new bed that caused me discomfort. It was the forest calling out to me. Twice I woke up because I genuinely believed that someone called out to me. The moon was gibbous that night. I finally stopped trying to get some sleep and sat outside and looked at the forest bathed in the pale moonlight. I will never forget that sight. It comforted me and filled my heart with tranquility. For some moments I believed that I had returned home, that long time back I was a part of the forest but then I had been thrown out and since then I had been struggling about looking for a way that would take me home. I passed out after some time. When I woke up, I found myself far away from the watchtower. I was alarmed and got up hurriedly. The birds sang and screamed around me. The animals moved about skirting me. The bees and the hornets went about their business. None among them took offense at my presence amidst them. Then I noticed that I was standing next to the tree with my mark. The trail that the deer was following last night was right in front of me. I wondered if I had walked in my sleep to that spot but the more I thought about it the more I felt that I had not come to that spot on my feet. I was not wearing my shoes. I was still dressed in my nightclothes. Someone must have carried me here and the thought scared me. I decided to return to the watchtower to get dressed. I ran back, got dressed hurriedly, grabbed something to eat on the way, and returned to the trail. It took me about an hour. I wanted to check the trail that the deer was following and I was in high spirits when I got the shock of my life. Within that hour of my absence, the trail had been temporarily shut out. Someone went to the trouble of pulling out branches of the bushes and made a temporary blockade, evidently aiming to keep me out. The way the branches had been snapped off and the bushes uprooted belied the presence of another man in the forest. Someone was there who was trying to mess with me. I kicked away the blocking branches and having thus made the way I began following the trail inside the forest. In many places, the trees grew so much close that their trunks had joined together. The branches of the trees were intertwined with each other in such a way that for a casual onlooker it would be impossible to tell which branch belonged to which tree. I tried to hack my way inside but after about two hundred meters of hacking at the undergrowth and kicking them away, I got very tired and returned back. I could not figure out where the deer went for if I was having so much problem with the bushes and the branches and the stuck together trunks, the deer would have been thwarted in the same manner. The next day when I went back to the trail that I had created by my own hands, I saw that someone had tried to cover it with leaves and bushes. There was someone in the forest who did not want me to venture inside the forest. I believed it was someone who had made his home in the forest and he did not want me to find out about him. So I once again removed the bushes from my trail and went on my merry way. The second day I moved about 600 yards deep inside the forest. The trees were still quite close together but they no longer blocked my way. I could slip between them and move ahead without exerting myself. I kept marking the trees on my way to remember my way back. When I was a kid, I had tried to explore a forest and got lost hopelessly inside it. I got confused then and instead of coming out of the forest, I kept going inside. I would have died that day had it not been for some holy ascetics who led me out of the forest. So when I decided to explore the forest of Pabab, I marked the trees to remember my way out of the forest. On the second day, I made my way up to about two miles inside the forest. I returned early for it got really dark in the forest at night and I did not want to stumble through a forest where animals and snakes moved about freely. On the third day, I followed my trail to go deeper inside the forest. After some time I realized that someone had messed up my marks on the trees. There were similar signs on other trees leading me further away from my trail. Twice I realized that the marks were different and were designed to mislead me and send me on a wild goose chase but I was able to notice the differing marks and I returned to find my own way but by now I was really upset at the person messing up my trail. Had I not been paying attention to my marks, I might have got lost in the forest, never to find my way home. I had to cut short my trip that day for I was scared of losing my way in the forest. The person who copied my marks on other trees was not very good at it for I could very easily make out which mark was made by my hands and which were useless copies. I returned safely though I cursed my enemy loudly and challenged him to fight me like a man."

"Did that make him angry?" Anand was enjoying the story. "The monster, I mean? Did he come to fight you?"

"No," Reskin smiled. "My challenge was ignored. The next two days it rained so I stayed in the watchtower. On the sixth day, I started again on my trip. That was when I found that my enemy had got better at copying my marks on the trees. There were so many marks on so many trees that it looked like my enemy used the two intervening days to not do anything else but to make marks on the trees. I was both impressed at his dedication to keep me out and upset at his cowardly ways to thwart me. I had to make a new mark on the tree every few steps and I also tied a white thread to some branches so that I did not have to depend only on the marks to bring me out of the forest. My progress was slow but I still made it deeper in the forest. I managed to reach a lake next to a hillock. There were three large rocks near the lake and I ascended one of these rocks and looked about. The lake was very silent. I watched the faint ripples made by the gentle, rain-laden breeze that had accompanied me for some time now. The forest was abuzz with birds and bees and monkeys and other animals but none among them came towards the lake. In fact, the soil on the bank of the lake was very soft and as I made my way towards it I saw my footprints on it but I did not see any other footprints. The lake was not used as a watering hole by the animals. I presumed that the water must be poisoned and the animals and the birds had learned to avoid it. I skirted the lake and went towards the hillock. The bushes and small trees had covered it thoroughly leaving no place for me to even make a foothold. When the first drops of rain hit me, I dropped the idea of climbing up the hillock and decided to return to the watchtower. On my way back, I was confused many times. The recent marks that I had made were copied expertly on other trees and in some places the white threads had been cut and thrown down. My enemy had been following me the whole day and I had never even heard him once." He took a sip of water and it helped him calm down. The terrible memory still managed to upset him.

"I grew very alarmed," Reskin continued. "How did this person manage to walk behind me that I had not even heard his footsteps once? Why did the animals or the birds not protest when this person walked next to them? When it started raining heavily, my line of sight dropped ridiculously low so that I could see only a few steps ahead of me. The trickles of water running over my marks made it very difficult for me to determine if the marks were original or copycat. Thrice I lost my way but something or the other would always warn me. Once it was the sharp cry of a bird I had heard regularly in the morning. It had made its nest on a tree and my trail led very close to the tree. The bird had instantly protested and I was amazed at the sight of a small bird capable of making such raucous cries. On my way back to the watchtower, the bird cried loudly but the sound came from my right. Immediately I knew that I had messed up so I followed the cry of the bird till I hit my trail. The second time it was a root that had forced its way out of the ground. I had not encountered it on my way going inside the forest so I knew I had lost my way again and so I had to backtrack till I found my trail. The third time it was a gigantic beehive that I spotted on a tree. I had not seen it in the morning so I turned back and found my trail after some difficulties for it was getting darker by the hour. Finally, I stepped out of the forest but it was very dark by then. I slipped and fell many times in the last hundred yards but I managed to get out of the forest alive and safe. When I was making my way inside the watchtower, I noticed the monster for the first time." An imperceptible shudder passed through his spine. The first encounter with the monster had created an indelible memory.

"There was no doubt," the old man sighed, "that there was someone hiding behind a tree watching me intently. It was very dark and I could see nothing but I could feel its ominous presence. It hated me and I could feel its pulsating hatred as clearly as if it were standing next to me. I was still under the belief that it was a human being but then lightning flashed above me. In that brilliant light, I saw my pursuer. Our eyes met and it stepped out from behind the tree. I saw its two heads as clearly as I see you all here. The hair was matted and knotted wildly on each of the heads. A really long beard covered its faces, one of them was grey and the other was pitch black. There were five legs, two in front and three behind. It reared up on its back legs and made a strange whinnying sound that terrified me to the core. The back legs resembled those of a deer while the two legs in front looked more like a horse. The single torso was wide and strong and was covered with some animal skin. The lightning flash disappeared at that instant and the last thing I saw was the monster running towards me. I swear I thought it was gently floating above the ground. I screamed and ran inside the watchtower. I had no doubt that the monster was going to attack me so I picked up a spear to protect myself but I was terrified and my hands shook wildly. I waited for the monster for some moments but it did not follow me inside the watchtower. I could not sleep the whole night but no one came after me."

For some moments the narrator and his young audience stayed silent. The sudden attack of the monster made all of them uncomfortable.

"The next morning," Reskin continued with his story, "I crept out of the watchtower and went towards the spot where I had seen the monster rushing at me. There was no sign of any animal being present on that spot. The grass was not trampled and there was no sign of any entity standing over there. When I checked my trail, I found that someone had once again placed bushes and branches on it so as to deter me. I heeded the warning and never went inside the forest. I believe the monster lived around the lake that I found inside the forest. The fact that the animals and the birds avoided the lake implies that it was reserved for the use of the monster."

"But you never saw its hands, right?" Little Rony had not missed the detail.

"No," Reskin agreed. "I never saw its hands but it must be the one copying my marks and leading me astray. It could have attacked me inside the forest any time but it let me walk out alive. I believe it did not want to hurt me. It just did not want me to contaminate his living quarters. It gave me a real good scare, I must admit that."

"Were you all alone in the watchtower?" Priya asked.

"Yes," Reskin replied. "On the seventh day, I returned to my comrades and told them about my ordeal. Some of them did not believe my story while others insisted that I must have seen the three-headed dog of Neisako. They kept harping about the three-headed dog and I just went along with their version. I used to share my supernatural encounter with anyone who cared to listen for the truth was that it had shaken me up badly. I believed truly that if that monster would have attacked me I would not have been able to defend myself. Then something weird happened. The soldier who succeeded me to the watchtower tried to find the trail that I had created. He could not find it nor was he able to find the marks made on the trees. Ditto for all those soldiers who were posted in that watchtower. They thought that I made up my fascinating story. Some years later I met Baba Rajaraj. He was a holy man but he had not renounced the world. He ran a small school in the holy city of Dwarka. I was posted there for some months and took up my quarters near the school. We would chat sometimes and during one of those idle, desultory conversations, I shared my supernatural experience with him. He was the only one who believed my account. He told me that the monster I saw was a mythical guard. There were very few stories about it. In all of those stories, the guard monster lived alone in a forest where it protected some treasure. It did not want me to stumble on its treasure and so it tried to block my way and did everything it did to confuse me. Rajaraj was very surprised that the monster never made any attempt to kill me. When I told him that the monster had made a running charge at me, he grimaced and informed me that the monster would not have stopped then. Rajaraj believed that someone or something protected me that night and he believed that it must have been the spirit that carried me to the trail. As for the deer walking on the trail, Rajaraj believed that it must have been a hallucination that my guardian spirit showed me. Rajaraj told me that my guardian spirit wanted me to obtain the secret that the monster was hiding. It had set me on the trail to find the treasure and it protected me when the monster attacked me. He told me to return to the forest of Pabab and to seek the treasure that my guardian spirit wanted me to find otherwise my guardian spirit would stay disappointed with me. His words gave me a lot of comforts. His validation of my description of the monster went a long way in letting me accept that I was not making it all up."

"So did you return to the forest?" Anand sounded concerned.

"Yes," Reskin smiled. "I had to return to face my fears. After all, I did not want to disappoint my guardian spirit. I requested my officer to let me return to the forest of Pabab out of turn and it took some time but I got the necessary approval for it. When I finally reached the old watchtower again, a whole year had passed. The roof of the watchtower had collapsed so the only hospitable area was the ground floor. I did not really care for my business was in the forest. I made my preparations for my arduous trek and when done, I prayed to my guardian spirit to help me again. That night I slept fitfully. There were too many nightmares. I still remember fragments of one of them. In the dream, I was fumbling around in utter darkness when suddenly something glowed up ahead of me. Then two snakes slithered towards me with open fangs. I stayed frozen on the spot and the snakes tried to bite me but then before their fangs could sink in my leg, both the snakes petrified, and then their sizes got reduced till they became faint lines on the ground. It was a stupid dream but it woke me up. At dawn itself, I made my way towards the old trail. The birds and the animals were waking up. The trail was once again carefully hid and in the intervening year, the forest had got a chance to completely claim it back. It took me some time but I was able to rediscover the trail. When I checked for my marks on the trees, I found that every one of them had been carefully hidden or erased from existence. Someone went to great pains to remove all my marks from the trees. This time around, I did not waste time making marks. I simply plunged ahead, hacking at anything and everything that came my way. Soon I was able to reach the part of the trail where there was enough space to slide between the trees. I pushed myself ahead and reached the lake by noon. The soil on the banks was undisturbed. The animals still avoided the watering hole. I boldly walked up to the lake and took water from it to splash on my face and to drink it. It was not poisonous at all. It was very sweet. My very act of defiling the lake greatly disturbed the monster. It must have been watching me for the moment I drank the water it bellowed loudly. The sound came from the hillock. Remember the hillock on which I couldn't climb? From somewhere there, the monster screamed at me in anger. I could not see it but I knew then that I was soon going to be attacked by it. Instead of running away from it, I began walking towards the hillock. My daring act of approaching the monster made it hesitate. I reached the foothills of the hillock without getting attacked. I had to find the treasure being protected by the guard monster. If I could find it, the guard monster would not have any raison d'etre to live. The moment its secret was found out, that very moment it was going to lose its power. Rajaraj believed that the monster would instantly either crumble to dust or go back to its original world. That was the only way to defeat it, to render it powerless. As I looked up at the hillock, I knew that the guard monster must have hidden its treasure up there. It would take me days to explore it fully but with the monster breathing down my neck, I would not be able to even take a proper look. I had to find a way to distract the monster. I opened the bag that I had brought with me and stared at the small mice that were huddled together. There were about 20 of them but all of them had got the scent of the guard monster and every one of them was scared. I dragged them out and tossed them about. Some of them fell in the trees and some of them fell in the bushes. A terrible cry from the monster shook me hard. It had glided down the hillock and was standing about one pace from me. I still can't believe how it managed to reach so close to me without even giving me a chance to know about its movements. The last time around, I was not expecting it but this time I fully expected to have a confrontation with it and my senses were on high alert and yet I could not track it. It cried out at the sight of the little monsters and its enraged cry made me take some steps back. I shook the panic off and began tossing the mice about me. See, anyone, be it a human or an animal, if it were to touch the treasure of the monster, the power of the monster was to be lost forever. The monster raced about to exterminate the scurrying mice now running for their lives and I finally got the chance to do something about my climb up. I had to hack at the bushes quickly, take some steps ahead, toss a mice or two, and then get back to my climb. It was exhausting but very soon I was able to find a trail leading to the summit. It helped me race up the hillock while the monster went after the mice. Almost three-quarters of the trail up, there was a piece of rock jutting out the side of the hillock under which a flower with four petals was blooming. Its bright red color juxtaposed against the grey of the rock and green blades of grass made it stand out. My guardian angel whispered in my ear that this was what I was looking for."

"A flower?" Young Rony was disappointed.

"Yes," Reskin tousled his grandson's hair gently. "A flower! I was disappointed too. I had almost walked past it. Never in my wildest dream had I imagined my treasure to be a red flower. I wanted the treasure to be something grand. Perhaps a treasure chest of gemstones or gold coins. Even old war memorabilia would have been sufficient. A red flower was disappointing, to say the least. However, I heeded the advice of my guardian spirit and touched the flower. Instantly the monster knew that its secret was known to me. A cry of anguish and pain rose from the bushes on my right where the monster must have been hunting the mice and then I heard a mild explosion and a poof of smoke rose up from the spot. I knew then that the monster was defeated, that I was safe." Reskin grimaced as he spoke about the defeat of the guard monster. It was a lie as he did not want to frighten his grandchildren. He glanced once towards the statue of the warrior. That day when he had touched the red flower, the monster had dropped everything and hurried towards him. The red flower was not the treasure but Reskin was very close to it and the guard monster could no longer afford to ignore him. The guard monster must have gambled upon the fact that Reskin would walk past the red flower and he deliberately kept himself away from the flower so as to confound Reskin but the moment the flower was touched the guard monster knew that his treasure was about to fall in the wrong hands. It rushed towards Reskin screaming wildly to frighten him. Reskin was scared by the murderous cries and he struggled to get his spear out. The guardian angel helped Reskin by making the guard monster stumble. Reskin took the opportunity to stab the monster in its navel. Rajaraj had told him that everyone attacked the monster on its head or its torso but the trick was to stab it in the navel for it was the only weak spot in its body. Reskin's spear pierced the guard monster's skin and the blood that poured out was golden yellow. The monster let out a shriek that scared the birds half a mile around them. Reskin's head swam and he almost lost his consciousness but his angel helped him snap out of the funk by whispering encouragement in his ears about how he was the scion of a great warrior. Reskin managed to push the guard monster away for it was almost upon him and then used the spear to blind it in its right eye. Once again a torrent of golden yellow blood poured out of the guard monster's wound but the second blow was still not enough to finish the monster. Reskin was advised by its guardian angel to stab the flower and he followed the advice. The red flower disintegrated and all that the guard monster could utter was a faint moan. It simply lay supine on the ground while Reskin dug under the flower rapidly to obtain a small metal box. The moment Reskin touched the metal box, the guard monster petrified, and then it gradually sunk in the ground. Reskin sat on the ground staring at the departure of the monster with dazed eyes. He had not forgotten even a single detail of the awful spectacle but he did not want to give his grandchildren nightmares.

He smiled indulgently, "I checked the petals carefully and saw two lines on each petal. Those lines looked familiar and when I stared at them for some time, I recalled the nightmare of the two snakes turning to lines on the ground. The lines on the petals were exactly similar to those I had seen in my dream. On the spot where the guard monster had dissipated, I found a small box. When I opened the box hurriedly, I found an amulet wrapped in a soft muslin cloth. The amulet had two snakes etched on it. The fangs of both the snakes were open. On the bottom of the amulet were some words in a strange script. My guardian spirit read it to me. It said 'Neisako!'" Reskin had to lie about how he found the amulet but his grandchildren did not seem to catch on to the evident lie. His eldest grandchild Anand was the only one who frowned but he did not protest and Reskin breathed a sigh of relief.

"Immortal king?" Priya exclaimed.

"Yes," Reskin smiled. "I returned to the watchtower. I was very tired from my adventure and slept soon. I saw a long dream where a lot many things were explained to me. I forgot most of the details when I woke up but I remembered the key message from the dream. A long time ago, my ancestor had fought alongside the forest king when they had attacked the immortal king of Pabab. When the forest king had decapitated Neisako and was about to stab him with the eternal fire to extinguish Neisako’s life force, the three-headed dog attacked the forest king. While it kept the forest king busy, Neisako grabbed his head and rushed to his castle to get help from his demon god. In his hurried departure, the amulet around his neck fell down. My ancestor found the amulet but then it was stolen by a guard monster and it buried the amulet in the hillock and protected it. There was an old man with a long flowing white beard who told me about a prophecy in the dream. I forget the exact words but it said that as long the red flower blooming above the buried amulet had four petals, Neisako would not be able to find his way back to this world but when the forest king reincarnates the red flower will begin to have five petals and it would herald the return of the immortal king. When the guard monster died, the flower only had four petals so both the forest king and Neisako had not yet returned."

"That was a cool story," Priya commented. Her brothers echoed her sentiment. When their mother called them to bed, they bade good night to their grandfather and went rushing to their mother. Reskin had not shared the entire story with them. His guardian spirit had advised him to leave his job and to return back to his hometown. In a patch of his garden, Reskin had buried the amulet and watched the red flower bloom six months but it always had four petals. He forgot all about the prophecy and stopped checking on the flower. Two days back his gardener informed him of the strange flower with five petals. All the faint memories of the prophecy that he had heard in the dream rushed at him. By the time he reached the faintly glowing red flower with five petals, he recalled all the details and was thrilled to know that the forest king had reincarnated. It was only a matter of time now that Neisako would find his way back too and promptly go to war with the forest king. In his dream, Reskin had been told about the outcome of the war but he forgot about it when he woke up. Every night, before going to bed, he would beg and cajole his guardian spirit about the prophetic dream but the guardian angel stopped communicating with him the day he arrived in his ancestral house. Reskin watched the three children run around their mother with an affectionate smile. The guardian angel stood in the corner near the statue of the warrior and watched the little children contentedly. He was the one who had found the amulet after the war and on his way back home he was approached by the guard monster who wanted to make a deal for the amulet. The soldier had traded the amulet for a pot of gold coins. The guard monster had sensed the strength of the amulet easily and had traded all of its treasure with the soldier to obtain the amulet. When the soldier died of old age, he found that he was not allowed to pass from the land of the living. He joined the group of the dead who resided in the land of the living, always unwelcome, always cursed at, and eternally in wait for their chance at redemption. At long last, he got the message that he was to lead someone to the amulet and he chose his descendant Reskin to do the same. When the guard monster had sensed the return of the spirit of the warrior who sold the amulet, it got alarmed for it knew that the spirit of the warrior was up to no good. It could not harm the spirit though and kept its distance away from it. When the spirit of the warrior protected its descendant, the guard monster screamed impotently. It was finally sent back to its own world but it went down screaming and raging and cursing the warrior’s family. The amulet was obtained after a brief delay and it was carried to its current location. The light from the amulet was to shine on one of the paths in the maze that separated the underworld from the land of the living. It was to facilitate the return of the immortal king from the underworld. The moment Neisako would start on his arduous journey, the trapped spirit of the warrior was to be released from his prison. It waited for the confirmation to break its ties with the world of living as it stood next to the statue of the warrior that his own son had molded in his image. Its long wait was about to be over. The immortal king was set to return any hour now. The fate of the world was set in stone though only a few were privy to it. The spirit of the warrior knew about it but he could not share it with anyone, not if it wanted to continue staying stuck in the world of the living and it certainly did not want to do so. It was tired of the living world and craved peace and silence. Its long wait was about to get over but it felt no impatience. After all, impatience and greed were hallmarks of the living, not the dead. It could only wait and what other place to wait than by the side of the statue made by the hands of his own son.