SYAMANTAKA: THE LOST GEM

CHAPTER-01

                                                                             100 years later

                                                                                   2997 CE

Morning, 7:00 AM, Dreamland Colony, Bengaluru, India, The morning sun's rays fall on the glass windows of every house. In house # 187, A young woman is sleeping on the bed and tugs the bedsheet over her face.

"Luz. Wake up. You need to go to work." Her Aunt's voice echoed.

"Coming, Aunty." She shouted.

Luz puts her legs on the floor and stands. She swings her arms from left to right to stretch her back. She first walks inside the bathroom without doing anything else. The room looked like a destroyed warzone. Her comforter was falling off the bed, the mirror fell and the curtains were dusty. Her cupboard always remained open even after several reminders from her mom.

After 10 minutes, Luz quickly wore her dress with her pants and shirt tucked in tight. Her dress always remained very formal compared to her group of friends who were ready to come in gowns to the office. She was famous for doing things at the last minute. All her plans were just successful emergencies. She quickly applied the cream and tapped powder on her face to run down the steps. The clock's ticking.

Down in the hall, Mr Rathore, with his white Hitler-like moustache was reading the newspaper. After reading every sentence of an article, he would take a sip from his cup of tea. He was a man in his early sixties working as a bank manager for a bank called NFP (National Finance Public Bank). The neighbors found the name odd but they wouldn't speak about it in front of her uncle. He would display his patriotism towards his bank since he is the one employee who stayed in the bank for the longest period. Mrs. Rathore was a housewife and had a homemade bakery. She used to love Luz and take care of her so much. She was busy in the kitchen cleaning the utensils.

Luz came running down the stairs to the dining hall. She took the glass of orange juice and chugged it down.

"Luz, calm down you have time." Mrs Rathore would say.

"Yeah, but I need to catch the metro. I have only 10 mins left."

"Just calm down and eat. The station is just 500m nearby. It will take like 2 minutes. After all, there is no point in you going early, it's just research."  "Discipline, Aunty. Discipline." Luz stuffed the whole sandwich in her mouth. She was doing a final check of all her things till the whole sandwich went inside her mouth. She went to Mrs. Rathore, kissed her cheek, and waved bye to her dad or Mr. Rathore.

Her phone was ringing. Her friend, Nalini, called her 5 times. Luz was confused as to why she called her so many times. She immediately dialled Nalini. "LUZ, WHERE ARE YOU? I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CALL YOU SO MANY TIMES." Nalini asked.

"What happened? Why you are calling me so urgently?" 

"I heard you decided on the meeting at 9:00. We need to prepare ourselves."

"It's just a presentation for the students. Don't call it a meeting."

"No, not that. Your inspiration, Darrell Brewski, the famous botanist, and CEO of Green and Grow, has agreed to meet with you. Professor just told me and you should know since you decided. We have a lot of work." Nalini said.

Words weren't able to come out of Luz's mouth. She didn't know how to be happy, excited or stressed. She went into the house and snatched her Uncle's car keys.

She took it and hit the accelerator immediately. Mr Rathore came running out of the door and put his hand over his forehead in confusion.
" Oh god, hope this girl stays out of trouble. "