A missing part

So, you want to hear a story? But it is not a happy bedtime story… Okay, if you still want to know. Listen carefully. Let’s begin. 

There is a small village behind the great mountains. Rahul lives there, near to a river. Now he is 17 years old but if you looked at his eyes and saw his soul through them, you would say he’s middle-aged. His heart is heavy and still full of sorrow even though it all happened years ago when he was a little boy.

The weather has become colder and colder day by day. It is autumn, the winter will arrive soon - again. Rahul works at his father’s fields and takes care of his sheep. Rahul is sitting in the shadow of a tree, leaning on the tree. He stares at the mountains as if there was something special to see. Rahul feels the cold wind blowing on his face. He closes his eyes and breathes deep.

“All the memories. They are all we have together. All of them keep you near to me. But I wish someone could take them out of my mind. They hurt too much. They make the wounds in my chest deeper, don’t let them heal. The scars will stay forever.

Every day I pray to God that he would bring you back. I would take good care of you and wouldn’t ever let you go away from me. I wouldn’t let anyone harm you. I’m not strong enough without you. Now you are only my sparkling angel. 

There are so many things I wanted to tell you, what I wanted to show you, what I wanted to teach you. I would have taken you by the hand and shown you all the best places. I would have told you fascinating stories and looked at your shining eyes. I would have taught you to smile and laugh, your laugh was the most beautiful and sincere thing I knew.

But I couldn’t do that. It took you away from me. Why didn’t it take me too?”

He stands up and walks back to his home. He gives the last glance at the mountains before they are too far and disappear behind the clouds.

Now you are asking who passed away, right? Let me tell you. Nobody died, everybody thinks so though. Most people have given up hope that she is still alive. There somewhere she still lives without anybody knowing it.

She is a happy and lively girl full of sunshine. Or at least she was. A real sweetheart who everybody loved. Rahul was always there for her, he was her best friend. They spent most of their time together and he was taking good care of her. He loved her so much, he could have done anything for her just to see her lovely smile. She loved him too and Rahul knew it. Sharan, that’s her name.

So, what happened?

It was a baneful night. Rahul was six years old and Sharan five. They heard some awkward and terrible noise coming from the mountains. They didn’t know what it was; they had never heard it before. Even the oldest ones of the ancient village were terrified even though they usually are calm because they have already seen everything. This was something new to everybody. Everyone stayed in their homes, locked the doors and prayed. 

Then it happened. They heard an enormous crack and saw a bright light that lighted the whole village and blinded everybody’s eyes for a second. Suddenly people started to scream and many houses were in fire. People ran out of their burning homes to the woods and tried to hide. That was unnecessary though, it could easily find them from anywhere they were but it was looking for something special so it left everybody else alone. 

It was a dragon. Not a normal kind of dragon, this one looked different; it had the head of an eagle. If you saw it, you wouldn’t believe your eyes. It was huge, ugly, smelled bad and had a terrible voice. Its burning red evil eyes could kill within seconds if you looked at them. It is the cruellest creature in the world, a heartless killer. 

It had arrived from the mountains to the village that special night because, like I already said, it was looking for something. It could find what it wanted but before that it had to destroy the whole village. No, it wasn’t looking for any treasure. It wanted her.

When it found their home it was standing in front of it, lifted one of its legs and only one sweep was needed to break the roof. Rahul was more than terrified. He was with Sharan that time, holding her tightly close to him. He knew he couldn’t protect the one who he loved more than anything else in the world. It came closer and he could feel its warm stinking breath. Not more than a heartbeat later they were gone. 

It came so suddenly, without any warning. It felt like the entire universe had changed, sun had disappeared and only darkness was left. There was an unbreakable silence.

I don’t know why that all happened. Nobody else knows either. But I’m not even supposed to tell you any reasons, I am only telling you a story like you wanted. So, may I continue?

As you can imagine, Rahul could die due to all the sorrow and drown to his tears. He had lost a part of him. He didn’t know whether he could live without it. The sorrow tormented him and he felt fragile. He never cried when others could see, he just brooded. He didn’t want to seem weak so he tried to hide his sadness.  

And what happened to Sharan? I don’t know all the details but I do know that the dragon, or whatever it is, didn’t harm her despite I said it’s the cruellest creature in the world. It flew back to the mountains from where it had come. Try to imagine a five-year-old alone with that despicable creature, I wonder how she seriously survived. She didn’t know what to do, she was totally helpless. She wanted to be with Rahul, he would protect her. But he was somewhere far away, somewhere where she could maybe never return. 

It’s been years since that now. She doesn’t even remember her family or friends properly anymore because she was so young when she had to leave them. She doesn’t know about anything else but her life in the mountains. Sometimes when the weather is clear she can see the village where she used to live. She wants to go there some day. But she can’t. The creature won’t allow. She calls it Ishmat, by the way. She has learned to understand it and they can even communicate. Ishmat wants to keep her there and says that the world outside is only bad. 

But Sharan isn’t happy. She feels that something is missing but she doesn’t know what. There is a hole in her soul which she can’t fill. Rahul feels the same. He knows what it is though, that’s the difference. Every single day he thinks about Sharan and hopes he could see her again and hear her wonderful laugh.

That happy laugh doesn’t exist anymore. It was gone that day. 

It’s late evening, Rahul goes to the river to bring some water to the house. He kneels down for a moment and looks at the reflection of his face in the water as if it was a mirror. He takes some water in his hands and washes his face. At the same time in the mountains Sharan is doing the same, sitting by a little stream and washing her beautiful face. They both turn their faces to the sky. Snowflakes fall on their faces.