Adventures of Jayesh Bhaware part 2

Adventures of Jayesh Bhaware
Part- II

  On one fine day in January, when the cold winter winds were on their peak, I was asked by Council of Seven to go on a hunt. I was to find & capture a witch, who as per our information, had abducted hundreds of children. As I was about to leave for the mission, I received a letter from Lord Kashyap. Before I tell you what was in the letter, allow me to introduce Lord Kashyap to you. Lord Kashyap is one of the seven, who sit in the high council. And it is said that around a century ago, he single-handedly battled and defeated a whole army of dark elves, saving the entire humanity from eternal servitude.

  Getting back to the letter; In the letter, Lord Kashyap had mentioned of the hunt parties that were sent after the witch in the past few months. All of them had vanished off the face of the earth. Now that’s what scared me. Missions like witch hunting are always handled by the agents who have remarkable skills, and have proven themselves in the field. In the letter Lord Kashyap had also mentioned that one hunt party included Olivia. I had known Olivia since the first day of my training at the fort Salamer. And believe me, she was the best we had in our batch. She had the beauty of an angel and was fierce and deadly enough to tame even a dragon.  Damn! It was hard to believe that someone like Olivia could ever fail. I was angry. Angrier than I had ever been. If Olie had received even a single scar from that witch, I was ready to kill her in the most painful ways. In the letter, Lord Kashyap had also advised me take Excalibur, legendary sword of the late King Arthur, with me on the mission.  (To know more about Excalibur and how I got my hands on it, read the story of my first adventure.)  

  I folded the letter and it burned to ashes in bluish flames. Then, I put on my black vest over my white shirt, adjusted the Excalibur across my back, and made sure the pockets of my belt were full of the herbs that I might need on my mission. I took out the portkey, threw it on the ground, and when the air in front of me began to swirl and bluish light started coming out of it, I jumped right in. Within a moment I landed at some another place.

  I looked around and I couldn’t believe my own eyes. There were trees around me, tall trees of all the kinds. Some had red leaves, some were green and all were laden with delicious fruits of different colours.  On the sides of the pathway, there were flowers of different colours. And there were beautiful butterflies hovering over them. Their wings painted in bright red, blue, green, and colours that I couldn’t even name. The Air from that place was carrying the sweet fragrance of flowers and of freshly grown grass. Up above in the sky, there were birds of different colours, shapes and sizes. Each one carrying its own beautiful enchanting tune. I could even hear the soothing sound of a spring flowing nearby. Singing a song of its own as it raced through the rocks. It was a place of my dreams.

‘Isn’t it beautiful…’ I heard someone say. I turned and saw a girl standing in front of me. She was wearing a long white dress, with a crown of entwined Vines and white flowers on her head.
‘Olivia, Is that you?’ I asked, it had been years since I had last seen her. She nodded in approval and smiled. Her beautiful smile reminded me of why I had fallen in love with her in the first place.
‘It is you!’ I couldn't believe it, it was Olivia. After all these years we had finally met again. I grabbed her by her waist and pulled her close to my heart and said, ‘I thought something had happened to you Olie. I thought maybe I had lost you.’ I couldn't control my emotions. I grabbed her closer with promise to tell her the truth about what had happened years ago, and to never let her go again.
 ‘You know I can handle myself Jayesh.’ She said, running her hands softly through my hair. ‘We are together now. That’s all that matters.’

  After a minute or two, we broke apart and she held my hands. Then she looked into my eyes and in her beautiful voice said, ‘We will start anew. We will write a new chapter of our life here. Just you & me, together.’

  I looked into her dark brown eyes. Her hands were cold, her lips had curled up and had produced the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. But her eyes… There was something wrong with them. They were sad and heavy. They were trying to tell me a story she couldn’t.

  I freed my hands and looked into her pleading eyes once again. My fears had come true. And no matter how pleasant everything around me was, I had to perform my duty as a Master. I took out the Excalibur and thrusted its blade deep into the ground and said, ‘I hest thee to bewray the secrets.’

  A strong wave of blue light emerged from the Excalibur, spreading through the ground like a storm. Everything it touched turned into something else. The tall green trees turned into black dead trees, flowers on the sides of the pathway turned into wolfsbane. The butterflies hovering over the flowers transformed into poisonous beetles, the beautiful birds from the sky turned into flesh eating crows, and the air now carried the stench of the dead.

  I looked at Olivia. ‘Kill her.’ She whispered as she passed out. I caught her midway and slowly and as gently as I could, placed her down. Then I picked up my sword, cleaned the blade and looked up. And damn! I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was now standing in a dark wooden room. And Olivia was nowhere to be found. The dead trees, the crows everything that was around me a moment ago was long gone. I studied the place I was at. The herbs hanging from the wall of the room caught my attention. There were ingredients like the tail of a salamander, tongue of frog, feathers of red crow, hairs of the dead witches and gut of the sea dragon. I was in the witch’s house.  

  ‘No one has ever set foot here in centuries.’  I heard a woman’s voice say, and a crooked loud smile followed. ‘No one alive at the least.’

  From the end from the room, appeared a woman around four to five feet tall. Her hair were white and her scalp was vividly visible through them. Wrinkles on her face were so dense, that she must have been hundreds of years old. She walked with the help of a wooden staff, which was of about her own height.

  ‘Where are the children?’ I demanded.

  ‘Straight to business, huh? I like it.’ The witch said, and when I showed her the glowing blade of Excalibur, she waved her staff. A fireball was conjured out of nowhere and it came rushing at me. I jumped sideways. She kept attacking me with the spells, I dodged some and used Excalibur to deflect the rest. There was no chance of bringing her in front of the council alive, I had to kill her. I jumped over the table and rushed at her with the sword ready to strike. She didn’t protest, and my sword cut through her. I was proud for a moment, but understood quickly that it was all just an illusion. I quickly turned, raised Excalibur and stopped her staff from touching me.

  ‘You cannot win this battle Masked Lord.’ The witch said and muttered something. When she stopped, the floor began to shake, and black, rotten hands crawled out of it. All trying to grab my feet. I pushed the witch away, kicked her in the gut, and jumped on the table. She was still on the floor trying to rise. I took a moment to decide my next step. I dashed forward, avoiding all the hands reaching out to grab me, and this time, made sure to swing my sword through her neck. The cut was sharp but it turned out, this was also… merely an illusion. But at least it broke her spell and all the hands risen from the floor turned to ashes.

  The room suddenly expanded, and at the end of the room there was a chair. A black wooden chair, on which the witch was sitting. ‘Impressive.’ she said in her crooked voice. But when she continued her voice tuned into the sweetest voice I had ever heard. ‘I haven’t seen a man as skilled as you are.’ Her voice was enchanting. She took steps towards me, and with every step she took, she turned younger.

  She was only a foot or two away from me now. I looked at her and my heart skipped a heartbeat. My grip on the Excalibur loosened and the metallic sound of its blade falling the ground followed. It was Olivia who was in front of me. And she was wearing the same dress as she was, when I had seen her for the first time. She came close to me and brushed my cheek with her soft fingers. ‘I know what your heart desires Jayesh.’ She said in her melodious voice and then slowly whispered in my ear, ‘Come with me, and we can rule the world togetherrrrr…’ Before she could complete her sentence she let out a scream. She had been stabbed with a sword in her chest and warm blood was oozing out of it. She looked at me. I was looking into her eyes with love and my Excalibur was lying still on the ground. At least that’s what she thought.

  She turned back and saw me standing in front of her, holding the Excalibur which had ended her days on Earth. The illusionary world I had created for her began to dissolve. The Excalibur lying on the ground, my illusionary image it all vanished into thin air. All that was real now, was the coldness of Excalibur that she could feel inside her.

  ‘I curse youuu to….’ She tried to grab me, but I turned, pushed her hand away and thrusted the blade even deeper. She let out a squeak in agony. I said my prayers and pulled out the blade. The whole room began to scramble to pieces. Her world was no more. Her magic just like her was burning down to ashes. I rushed to safety and waited. Minutes passed and I saw someone, a girl, wearing black dress, leading a group of men and hundreds of children. And this was real. She was finally the true Olivia. I ran towards her with promise to tell her the truth and to never let her go. But before I could even get close, I was pulled out of the place. And though I tried very hard to get loose, I landed back in my room, with Olivia nowhere in sight. I pulled my Excalibur and looked at its blade. The sole witness to my death defying adventure was painted dark blue in the Witch’s blood.

-Jayesh Bhaware

Masked Lord