BOUND BY DESTINY

CHAPTER THREE

just a little background history to give more content to the story, really try to grasp where they all come from..

Ps: image of Arielle's mum and dad back in the days ;)

.....................................................................................................................................................................

My father was best described as a brave and courageous man. He was always up for new adventurers and life-fearing sensations. That's mostly the reason why he enrolled in the marines at the age of 18, leaving his family and friends back in France, in search of a new adventure. He had travelled around the world with his crew, discovering other cultures and beliefs, different cuisines and different set of people, races and genders. He discovered the world and was so amazed by it that he began writing journals of his journeys in the foreign countries he had been.

It was during one of these journeys that he met my mother. His ship had made a detour through southern Indonesia in the direction of Spain, when there was an 'incident' that caused them to embarked in for the nearest port in India.

They settled in the country for a couple of days, to regain strength and stock in the provisions for their next journey. They had chosen among them, a few of those who will explore the country and naturally my father had been among one of those. Discovering yet another culture, along with their love for colors and flowers and their faith in numerous gods based on each concept of humanity; Shiva, the god of destruction or Vishnu, god of creation, among others.

My father had been amazed by these diversities. He, born and raised in a house of Catholics, he had been taught from his early age on the existence of a God, the great sacrifice of the Christ saving the earth from the chaos of their sins and the solace of His supremacy in the world, above other incredulous and statuesque gods who weren't worth the greatness of the Almighty. But as he observed all of these people's faith in the gods in which they believed, he couldn't help but reason that maybe, just maybe there was another way of living.

Their exploration lasted weeks during which my father and his companions had gathered information about the country, their inhabitants and their culture. Each of them invested in their personal interest; some were the women, others the food or handiwork, for my father, it was the temples of the gods of Delhi, India. He visited their mosques and temples relishing in the knowledge he acquired, from the country he had named in his journals as 'the country of colors'.

One day during his visit to the temple of 'Kamadeva' or 'Kama', god of love which was one of the few he had not visited yet, he was met by a site he had described as 'heavenly'. A woman knelt at the altar, hair adorned with a crowned of orchids, dressed into a simple purple robe that flowed down to her ankles. Her face as he had described was bare of any 'paint', just her natural beauty exposed to the world. He had felt like a voyeur, unworthy of witnessing such a magnificent site in such a beautiful scenery. He wished for his old camera, to capture the moment into image.

He had frozen on that spot he stood, zoning back in only when the woman had finally acknowledged his presence. She had been shocked at first but then her gaze had turned cautious and hostile towards my father, who could not find in his mind the words to explained his presence. They had stood facing each other for long moments and just like that, she was gone. One moment she was there and the other she was not. He had wondered then if what he had seen was just a mirage, just a fruit of his lonely imagination, but there at the far corner of the altar he saw it - a petal of orchid - he knew then that he had to find who this woman was.

The days that followed my father had searched for the orchid princess all around the town. It was really difficult since he didn't have a name or anything he could use in his search; all he had was that petal of orchid he had picked at the temple. After weeks of fruitless searching, he had finally given up hope of ever laying eyes on the mystery woman again and that saddened him.