An Unexpected Adventure

THE CONCLUSION

It is important for me to recount a certain event at this point of my story, otherwise my readers will not be able to fully understand future happenings.

It was the time when Hari's grandfather was still a child. He lived with his family in a village called Suvarna-nagari, or the city of gold. The village was called so as it had extensive deposits of gold in the earth and this could be obtained easily by mining. Due to this reason, the villagers were extremely rich and lived happily. As time flew by, the fame of this village spread far and wide. When Hari's grandfather was around fifteen or sixteen years of age, foreigners began to come in from different parts of the country and mining away all the gold. The villagers put up a tough struggle against the invaders but it only resulted in enormous bloodshed. Foreigners kept coming and the condition of the villagers grew miserable. They were pushed away from their own homeland. They moved out of Suvarna-nagari and began finding a place where they could reside. The villagers searched everywhere but didn't find any suitable land. Frustrated, they decided to use the same tactic that was used on them- take over another village and push away the existing residents. Eventually, everyone came to Bhadrapur and saw that the place had fertile land, a river, and all amenities necessary for a comfortable life; but it was already ruled by the Garonama tribe. The villagers tried to negotiate with them to let them stay in Bhadrapur but to no avail. They used Sama, Dama, Danda, and Bheda but could not overthrow the tribe. Finally, Hari's grandfather, who was quite old by now, thought of a scheme. He knew that the chief was the cause for the unity of the tribe. He decided to cut the head off the snake and devised a scheme to kill the chief cunningly. He instructed some villagers to set the chief's hut on fire at night. The villagers carried out his instructions and set the hut on fire. The chief perished in the flames but his daughter and the remaining members of the tribe escaped. The villagers then took over Bhadrapur and began residing there.

Now, back to our story.

Back in the village, everyone was very worried. Since morning Hari, Chandra and Priyakant were away and nobody knew where they were. Their parents feared the worst and didn't know what to do. Search parties were sent out in every direction but all came back with no news of the boys. They tried looking for Priyakant thinking he might be able to give some clue but didn't find him too. Nobody knew what to do, when suddenly, one of the villagers mentioned that he had heard the boys talk about going to the forest. A faint glimmer of hope came into the hearts of the villagers and, lamp in hand, they instantly set out towards the forest.

Meanwhile in the forest the boys were led by the tribal folk they knew not where. Half walked ahead of them showing the way with Angamala at the lead and the rest walked behind them, spears at the ready. Two tribals carried Chandra for they thought his limp would slow them down. After walking for some time they finally emerged into a vast open space. Hari saw that many huts were arranged in a circular pattern and some distance away was a hut bigger and grander than the others; this Hari assumed to be where the head of the tribe resided.The three boys were utterly exhausted and weary due the ordeals of the night but they had no choice but to obey the orders given. Soon they were brought in front of a towering woman seated on a throne with a large crowd around her. Her face was painted, she wore big earrings and a nose-ring and had a powerful figure. The chief of the tribe was frightening to look at.

"I have brought them, Mother" said Angamala. Hari and his friends did not know what had happened to their Priyakant. They didn't know what on earth was going on and the entire thing made no sense to any of them.

"Good" replied the woman, "they will pay severely for all that they have done"

Hari, Chandra and Sulochan didn't know what they had done and how this forest tribe knew them; but they had not the courage to speak a word.