Ravanan

Chapter -28

"Selvi cried in grief due to the loss of her loved elephant. Arasu didn't show any sign of slowing down and the blood drenched his muscular arms. She fired the stone at him but his rock hard body didn't even flinch. She grabbed his long veined legs and pushed it away from the elephant. But even his limbs was like a small palm tree. The elephant slowly became unstable and trembled. It closed and opened it's eyes several times. When it tried to release itself from the weapon and moved backwards, the deeply buried trident caused more pain. The vision of the elephant blurred and it's legs finally gave up. With a heart breaking death groan , the elephant fell on the ground with it's eyes open while Arasu withdrawn his trident from its neck. The fascinated tribal lifted Arasu on their shoulders and praised his celestial strength. Selvi hugged the young mother elephant's soul less body and grieved. She saw the little calf unwrapped it's trunk from the legs of her mother and started to scratch her belly with his belly and tried to wake her up. The calf sat under the shade of her mother and laid it's head on his mother thinking that she would wake up soon and take him somewhere. This innocent act of the little calf made her to burst out with tears and her grievous sound echoed around the forest. The tribals were annoyed by her and dragged her inside the crude. The leader of the tribe asked his fellow men to take the calf and to begin it's training.

The tribal people praised Arasu for his immeasurable strength and offered him everything they could in order to compensate for the help he had done. But Arasu ignored them all and took the body of his dead friend and made a proper burial. The tribals were filled with pleasure to place their hands on their elephants.

The day passed, the tribals sat on the elephant's back and carried carried and did other heavy weighted works on their back. Arasu taught the youngsters how to handle the spear and other weapons and the art of spear throwing. When he heard a sound from the west, he rushed there and noticed a man was heavily injured with a stone. He was the one who dragged Selvi and the people around him claimed that she attacked him and ran away with the elephant calf again. Irritated Arasu followed the foot prints of the calf elephant .

It wasn't so hard for the warrior to locate the calf and the lady. He saw Selvi was trying to pull the calf away from the half degraded mother elephant's body and it seemed like when she freed the calf , the calf elephant immediately arrived to the place died and Selvi was trying hard to make the elephant escape from her village. Selvi felt like something was watching them and suddenly turned her head back to notice Arasu standing with his trident and breathed heavily. Her heart stopped for a second and she grabbed a big stone and ran towards his head. But Arasu pushed her into the ground by a hard slap and asked her to wake up from her stupidity. He turned towards the calf and sauntered. The smell of the half degraded body of the mother spread in the air. When he forcefully touched the head of the grieving calf , his hand was covered in blood which surprised him. When he leaned in front of the calf, he noticed the calf's head was filled with a lot of bloody wounds. It looked like the young calf was stabbed all night with something sharp and the poor little one began to cuddle with the dead body of the mother. The calf humped, sprayed sand with his trunk and rubbed it's head on the body on the elephant. It appeared to be like the calf was trying to say that the people stabbed the little one all night and asking her dead mother to get up and take him away from the horrible people. It strongly wrapped his trunk around the mother . Even though the calf was lying with a deep grief and crying , his curved mouth appeared to be like the calf was still smiling. He felt bad for the little one and this was the first time in the life of the heart less warrior to witness something like this. Whenever he killed a big and wild animal, he would abandon it's body or prey on it and drove away the calves in to forest thinking that they would survive on their own. He enquired Selvi what had happened to the newly born calf. Selvi wiped the tears away and asked him what he was expecting other than cruelty after handing the innocent animals in the hands of a monsters. "Do you even know anything about the people living here ? Do you think the people will treat them like a cattle? The people make the elephants to do all the heavy works day and night. There is nothing like rest to them and the only rest that grant them to be free from all the hands is dead. Now take a look at the young calf. To make the elephants obey their words , they will first make this little one to go all day without food and water. They will separate the mother the calf and make the mother to do the work and train the calf to work like his mother till it's death. The elephant of this place won't even dare to rebel against the people, because they knew their life would end if they didn't obey their words. So most of the elephants obey and follow the orders give the people except the free willed calves. The young calves will be trained to carry anything said by the mahout and misbehaving elephants will be left unfed , they will be beaten with the wooden sticks and as a final stage it will be stabbed all around the body and treated mercilessly. This young calf has went through the same from yesterday night. They would have stabbed it all night to make it submit itself. The elephants knew well that If they disobey them for a second they will kill them on the spot without any second thought. I was one of them but I couldn't tolerate their acts myself and I freed all the elephants from their hands and managed to survive with them for five years. And then you came here rampaging around the forest , hunting all the animals that looked strong. It's you....you are the one responsible for the young calf to go through such a pain in his age. If you didn't show up the mother and calf would have had a better life and still be roaming in the forest. You are the one responsible for the sorrow of the calf and I'm sure one day your life will end in the hands of these elephants and your sinful , blood drenched hands will get drenched in your own blood ", Selvi cursed Arasu for his act and smashed her head on the tree after thinking about what will happen to the helpless little calf on the hands of the tribals.

Her speech struck like a lightning in the heart of Arasu who realized the sin he committed by killing a weak mother and separating a calf from it. His hands and feet lost it's strength and his trident fell on the ground. He couldn't see the face of the innocent calf trying to wake his mother. His legs shivered in guilt and he collapsed on the ground with tear filled eyes. The tribal people spotted the calf and Selvi and dragged them into the village again. But the calf refused to leave the body of it's mother. The tribals forced it to move and began smacking on the head of the animal. Arasu doesn't know what to do and saw the cruel nature of the people with his own eyes. The other man began to beat Selvi harshly and smashed her left leg with a big stone . As a result she cried in pain and slowly felt her legs becoming numb. The two of them slowly lost their consciousness and a drop of blood splashed on the forehead of Arasu. He wiped the liquid and noticed his hand and face was covered in blood . He saw his hands reddened in blood and thought of how many animals he would have hunted just to show off his strength. He couldn't watch the two of them suffering in pain and their groan caused a sharp pain in his head. He covered his eyes and ears with his hands and curved his body inwards and cried. His head was filled with the death groan of the mother elephant and all the elephants he had killed . His smashed his head in ground and his entire body gave him a burning sensation. He couldn't tolerate anymore and ran inside his crude. He closed the doors and cried there for several hours. The crew member never seen him crying and decided to leave him alone for a while.

He couldn't eat, sleep or even use his weapon which he treasured. The voice of the elephants kept disturbing him. He witnessed the people of the tribes were riding on the elephants while it carried heavy wooden using their trunk, some of the elephants which was stabbed continuously and beaten on the head and the rest of them were locked in a small cage made by the wooden trunk. They were stabbed with the sharp needles, separated from their herd and left unfed until they submit themselves to the tribes. There were no hope left for them. He couldn't able to take anymore and asked his crew members to get ready to set sail. The crew decided to leave the place by the next day. The crew prepared everything for sailing and stuffed the ship with lots of foods, herbs and other things they thought to be useful.