A tale of the fantastical, the brave, and the chivalrous.
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Eight thousand years before the common era, the world was not so much different. Were the means vastly different? Yeah, perhaps. But people were just like they are now if you know what I mean. Kimayar was still the biggest plateau on the whole of the Earth; at least, that is what the inhabitants of the great kingdom of Soloma believed. There was nothing more glorious, prosperous, or beautiful. The plateau overlooked the giant sea of Macareth. The wise men had forbidden crossing the ocean. It was sacred. Crossing the Macareth would have invited the wrath of the sea gods and unknown maladies unto the people of the Soloma.
But Kaniu did not believe this to be the case. He was a young man of twenty-three, all brave and strong from growing up in the alleys of Soloma city. He had survived the streets of the city known for its crime and thuggery. Bamik, his aging father, was the only family he ever had, except for an aunt maybe, of whom Bamik sometimes spoke; when tired from all the day's hard work, he drank Davu, the hard country liquor popular among the commonfolk of the city. Kaniu's mother had died from a plague outbreak ten years ago. Bamik never re-married.
"I will die alone, a widower, but not betray her." Bamik had vowed on a drunken night. Ten years gone, he had stayed true to his word. But he had aged more than his natural age. Kaniu could see it in his father's tired eyes and his thing hands that shook on their own now and then.
"You don't need to work anymore, Father," he had once said to Bamik. "I am earning now. I can take care of you."
"I don't want to stop, my boy," Bamik had responded. "Life is all about hard work. We must work until our last breath, as the gods wish."
"How do you know the gods will us to do only hard work? What if they want us to make money and live a good life?" Kaniu had asked.
"I am a simple man, Kaniu. I do not have the answers to such questions." Bamik had responded in a low, resigned voice before dozing off to sleep.
" I know the answers, father." Kaniu had whispered, "And I am willing to go to great lengths to change the story of our lives."
**
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Copyright © A.S.Dhavale (Anant Dhavale)
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