Doomed from the Beginning

14. Birthday Present!

That was bad, real bad. He couldn’t even go to Mir now for he will only be followed and that will basically be leading them to the target. But Mir was supposed to be waiting – he was indeed waiting. Amir took it upon himself to make sure he doesn’t let Vinasaka escape once again. That was it. Things just got the worst.

It was dark, a lot of time had passed while Vinasaka just anxiously kept looking out of his chamber’s windows without a word. After quite a long time, Amir began, “Are you sure you can help him?” To this, Vinasaka violently turned to look back at him like it was the last thing he was expecting.

“Brother...you...”

He didn’t know why his brother suddenly was behaving that way. But he didn’t have time to ponder about it anyway.

“Can you?” Vinasaka nodded violently which brought a smile on Amir’s face and both of them very efficiently sneaked out without a hindrance. As soon as they reached the forest, Amir stopped, “It’s all upon you now.”

“Mmn, but brother may I ask why suddenly...”

“Ummm ...Let’s just say, I have my own regrets.”

Vinasaka didn’t quite understand but he instantly began proceeding to the direction of the cave. Amir was anxious about the fact whether he did the right thing or simply let his whim take over himself and pushed his own brother towards obvious danger. He decided to wait...right there.

Vinasaka reached the cave as soon as possible, but Mir wasn’t there.

But I remember asking him to wait for me right here! Did he go somewhere?

He began looking for him everywhere but he couldn’t be careless. There were guards everywhere. He almost reached the town but there was no sign of Mir.

Suddenly, he felt sad by the fact that he knew nothing about him. He didn’t know where to look for him, he didn’t know where he lived, he was so lonely yet he never spoke a word about it. And probably, if he hadn’t mentioned his father dying, Vinasaka would have had no idea about that as well. That’s how he realised, he never asked Mir about any of this. Most of their meetings would be mostly about Mir listening to Vinasaka cracking stupid jokes and both of them doubling up in laughter, or them sparring and later Vinasaka sitting on the forest floor sulking at his defeat. But Mir...he never complained about a thing. And yet Vinasaka ended up doubting him. Even if he knows the truth now, the fact can’t be changed that he hadn’t trusted him at first.

As he walked on the streets of the town, he found a bunch of royal soldiers walking towards him and as he looked more carefully, his eyes became wider and wider as soon as he noticed Mir captured by them. Mir faced down at the road as he was getting dragged by them probably to the palace. There was no better idea that he could think of at that time, honestly.

Vinasaka simply walked to the guards with a proud expression on his face, probably way too nervous from inside and threw a casual question, “Where are you all going?”

The guards upon recognising him instantly kneeled on the spot…. without letting go of the prisoner.

Ughh, more acting!!

“Third prince, we found the traitor who tried to kill you!” Mir was happy to see Vinasaka at first but the sudden discovery of this fact brought a drastic change in his face and it was as if the words were stuck in his throat. Vinasaka wanted to scream ‘NOOO’ but that wouldn’t help the situation so he tried to continue his acting as he walked towards Mir and said, “Let me see then...”

As soon as he found the guard having let go of Mir, Vinasaka used his spell to cut off the rope that was used to bind Mir’s hands and pulled him along before Mir had realised the situation himself.

One time, he actually tried screaming, “Where are we going?” to which Vinasaka only replied, “Anywhere but here!!”

“....”

“...”

The guards were on their tails to be specific, but the kids, they were fast...damn fast. Some time they almost somersaulted over a cart, while sometime they were received with a woman dusting off her mats, sometime they almost ran into a vendor and sometime they ran into sacks of rice bursting them open and getting rained by grains of rice all over. When they finally reached the end of the town which somewhat looked like the border of the kingdom, they noticed that they were not being followed anymore, at least not for the time being. They stopped to catch their breaths and started laughing at all the rice that stuck on their clothes.

It was unusual...for them to stop laughing so soon. They both knew what this meant. The only way for him to survive now was to leave the kingdom, which also meant that this might be the last time that they were meeting.

“Where will you go now?  How? You said your father...,” Vinasaka stopped but sensing nervousness in his tone, Mir replied, “Yeah, I am alone now. I guess I will find something out.”

No matter what they were too little, just 10 years old. Vinasaka couldn’t help thinking how he can survive but then again, it's better than getting caught because that would mean he would have to die anyway. So probably he should leave and take a chance at least.

“You should go,” Vinasaka turned back, failing at his attempt at hiding his tears.

“Will you still not tell me what’s going on?” Mir  peeked from behind.

“That’s- that’s a looong story!”

“I don’t think they can find us so soon!”

Vinasaka faced him again. After a good sniff, he ended up blurting out the entire story starting from his birth, his curse to why they had been running like crazy just a while ago. Mir was shocked but it never showed on his face. After listening to him finish, he simply replied, “So, that’s why your name is Vinasaka?”

Vinasaka nodded quietly.

Silence....

.....

.....

“Are you mad at me?” Vinasaka gulped.

“Well a little since you didn’t trust me ...but then I can understand. Besides you saved me as well. I was actually thinking ...”

“Thinking what?”

“I couldn’t give you a present...a birthday present.”

“THAT’S WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN THINKING ALL ALONG?!!!”

Mir has never panicked before as well, so this wasn’t that unusual but for him to be thinking of a present right now....

“Imay,” Mir looked up at Vinasaka with sparkling eyes after his personal brainstorming session and Vinasaka still looked clueless as ever, “Imay? Who?”

“You!....” Just then the sound of approaching footsteps became clear and Mir hugged Vinasaka out of nowhere before he started disappearing into the woods, “I am sorry I am not rich enough to buy anything but I think the name suits you. Goodbye Imay!”

I guess that was good bye!

The soldiers had searched every corner of the kingdom but he was found nowhere. As much as he missed his friend, he was still glad that he wasn’t caught.  The search continued for several days till time had begun doing its job and soon everyone forgot about him.

 “But I couldn’t,” The Demon overlord Vinasaka said with a huge sigh when he suddenly realised some movement in the sleeping forest spirit in front of them.

 Sansara didn’t seem to notice it since he was way too indulged in the story just like the little bird sitting on his shoulder.

“What happens next?” he asked curiously when Vinasaka stopped in the middle of the story.

“I think the forest spirit is up.”

“Huh! Forest Spirit?” Sansara has been looking at Vinasaka all this while so when the demon king noticed that Sansara might still be looking for the forest spirit in the story, he poked Sansara and pointed the same finger towards Yakshi who looked like he woke up after a good night’s sleep.

“Oh!” Sansara crawled over to check on the wound which seemed to have completely healed. Seeing that, he heaved out a sigh of relief and with a smile, he continued, “Can you try getting up?”

Yakshi stood up without any difficulty and thanked both of them indefinitely.

“I cannot thank you both enough. I am really grateful for your help....as far as I remember I had fallen asleep in the middle of discussing how to obtain the red diamond, isn’t it?”

At first they were just glad that he was doing fine but seeing him bringing up the topic on his own made their smiles even bigger and brighter.

“Right, if you could just...”

“Of course, it is my pleasure!” Yakshi said very calmly, “Now then will you follow me?” The forest spirit turned around to walk towards the wall of the cave behind him when Sansara suddenly realised that he had been forgetting something.

He looked at Vinasaka as if having remembered something crucial and said, “Mohi must’ve gone crazy by now!”

The others were almost forgotten. Yakshi realised the situation and said, “Ahh, I see! I guess you have company here. Well, this cave of mine isn’t really visible to everyone outside, you see. So they probably might not have found this out! But don’t you worry. I will have that fixed!” As soon as he finished speaking, the blue bird that had been sitting on Sansara’s shoulder flew out as if on a mission.

On the other hand, our demon overlord seemed to be chuckling in his mind for the same since they remained undisturbed the entire time!

 In a few minutes, some voices could be heard outside and soon four more people joined the three of them inside with one of them almost screaming and jumping on Sansara as soon as he entered, “How could you have not thought of at least informing me once?!”

“Calm down Mohi! I am sorry,” He did calm down when he realised that he had been acting inappropriately as well and all of them together started on their journey to the diamond kingdom and .....

looks like Mohi wasn’t the only one who was terribly uneasy about the entire thing.