IRULPUGAI

chapter 2

As soon as he finished his breakfast, Banmai ran to grandma Eshw to ask about the rest of the story. "Grandma, you told me that many left the Kullas tribe back then and that they settled in Parvath, but Adiban is from Teri, and he also said that they are also the descendants of the Kullas. But how can they be the descendants of Kullas when they have not settled in Parvath before? They came to our tribe from Teri only a few weeks ago, but everyone in the Paila tribe knows the story of five heroes already. I'm confused. Who are the real descendants after all?" ......

Grandma smiled at Banmai and asked him to sit down as she will clear his doubts. "It is said that after the Kullas, who left the tribe 1000 or so years back, they settled down in five places following their leaders. Why five, if you ask It's because the original Kullas were made up of five factions following the five gods. These five factions, which once lived in harmony, were divided when they left due to their varied interests and the split happened when the question of who should lead the group. Eventually, the five factions decided to settle down in different places, like the Atarvi where the Iallum tribe live, the Ttakku where the Aarudha tribes live, the Kadar where the Neyth tribes live, the Teri where the Paila tribes live and ours the Parvath where the Runji tribes live. And each faction furthur divided and now many individual tribal groups are formed with five big tribal groups, the Runji, Iallum, Aarudha, Neyth and Paila tribes at the center. So when Adiban said that he's also of Kullas descent .......he's not lying....it's true." explained grandma

"But grandma, if what you said is right, then the Paila tribe of the Teri valley should also be one of the big tribes. Then why are they here under the protection of our tribe?" asked Banmai.

as soon as he asked that question grandma Eshw's face became gloomy and one could see immense sadness growing on her face....................she stroked Banmai's head with a worried look, and said" that's because the irul has come again and Runji is the only tribe with a strong barrier to protect people from dying due to the irul.......the barrier was put up 47 years ago by a sage from Utavi mountains. Though all other tribes have barriers, ours is the strongest and is in place for many years."

If the barriers are in place, then why do the Pailas come to us for protection when they have one themselves?" asked Banmai.

The irul is leaking from the seal, or so is suspected. At the begining, its form was so small and its impact was very little, and it was only able to last for a few seconds before vanishing, so people neglected it..........but the irul started to grow little by little over time from small grasses, mosses, algae to plants, insects, small birds to small animals and now even though it can only stay for an hour or so..........it has become strong by consuming all the life and vegetation. It's starting to take human life now. Except for the barrier of the Runji tribe, all other barriers are weakening. The first victims of the irul were the Paila tribe of Teri. So the Runji tribe had taken them in return for helping the Runjis grow the Iagne plant; the only plant whose flower hold a divine power to defend oneself from irul. The divine power from the flower is extracted in liquid form and is used. The power is not big.....it can utmost protect a person for 20 mins .........still at crucial times, it can save lives............ Iagne plants are difficult to cultivate. Only four out of ten saplings survive ........ they need an atmosphere similar to that of the one in the Utavi mountains as they were originally brought from there by the sage 47 years back.

When grandma Eshw finished explaining all this, it was already lunchtime and Banmai's mom, Elil, came to take him back home.

Walking with his mom, Banmai, he was thinking about all the things grandma Eshw said and fear started to grow inside him..........he started to wonder what would happen if this strongest barrier fell..........his mind became blank.