Prologue
“Stop! Don’t do this!” Praveen shouted as his wife died. A spell was cast upon Shreya from her father, Shiva.
“NO!!!” she shouted as her life slipped away.
As Shreya died, Praveen sobbed. ”l will avenge her! I will make the gods pay if that’s the last thing that I have to do!”As he said this, a prophecy was made:In a decade, two siblings will save, replace or destroy the Gods.When this happens the stars will align and a light brighter than the Sun will shine.The world will go into Dark Age and it will be destroyed.
As this prophecy was made the gods could not inform the mortals about this, but they knew that whoever it would be, they would always face a large problem wherever they go.
Shiva cried at the known fact that his daughter had died. He felt horrible that he had killed his own daughter. But he had to because she was going out of control. Shreya was helping the demons during the war between the gods and the evil-minded ones. She told the exact location of the gods when they were about to defeat the demons and the dark age from ever coming again but the gods were unfortunate.
Chapter-1 Kai
My family is oddly different. For starters, my sister, Bryn, was raised as a Russian kid, and I travelled with my Dad. So when we were little, our mom died, and many people thought that Dad was the reason that she died. So while Bryn was taken by the authorities after that incident, I was stuck staying with Dad.
When we arrived at the orphanage to meet up with Bryn, the taxi let us off the curb and my dad asked the driver to wait. We were halfway up the walk when Dad froze.
“What?” I asked
“Nothing, just go and get Bryn.”
As I headed for the door, Bryn was already waiting in her usual sweater and jeans. Her hair mouse brown hair had grown so much since we were last here. (We had last seen her two years ago.)
“Let’s go,” she grumbled.
She had grown taller from when I had seen her last.
“C’mon!” she repeated.
That’s the way she was! No “Hi how have you been the last six months?” But that was okay with me. We trudged down the steps. I was thinking how she smelled, like a combination of soda and chicken soup. It was probably the smell of my the old people who were in charge of the orphanage, since Bryn was around them so much. She somberly waved back to little girl who looked like a nine year old and the joined me.Then Bryn stopped.
“Who’s that?” Bryn asked.
“Don’t know,” I said.
“He looks familiar,” Bryn frowned like she was trying to remember.
“Dad wants us to get in the cab,” I explained. Though I knew it was no use. Bryn was already moving toward the man. I quickly followed her. The man was wearing a leather coat and thick glasses.
Once we got closer, we heard, “I have to Raim. You know I have to,” said Dad.
“Fine, do what you want,” said Raim.
Before I could react, Bryn popped up and shouted, “Dad!”
He looked surprised but not as surprised as Raim. He backed up so quickly that he tripped over his own leather coat.
“I-I must be going now,” said Raim.
Dad relaxed after Raim went.
“Hello sweetheart,” he said.
“Who’s Raim?” Bryn asked.
“Just one of my friends. Now I have a private tour for you both at the Russian museum.” said Dad.
“Oh this is boring,” Bryn said after a while. “It’s New Year’s Eve and we get to do research?”
“It’s okay,” I said.
“You are used to this,” Bryn huffed.
We finally arrived at the museum when Bryn stopped complaining, which seemed like forever. Dad led us into the museum and started explaining things.
“That’s the god Vishnu, the protector and,” said Dad.
“Hello Dr. Praveen Avalon,” said a man.
“That’s Dr.Martin,” Dad told us.
“Would you like to see our newest exhibit about all the famous Indian gods, which might be interesting to you?” said Dr.Martin.
“Sure!” Dad said.
As Dr.Martin was leading the way I had a bad feeling that something would happen.
“That’s the exhibit, but I really want to show you something Dr.Avalon,” Dr.Martin said.
“Children, stay here and I will be back.”
I started reading the chart when Bryn whispered, “Let’s follow.” I did feel a little curious myself, so I went with the plan.
“Here’s the flute we found and its known to be the flute of God Krishna,” I suddenly recognized Dr.Martin’s voice.
While Dad was carefully examining the flute I saw Dr.Martin taking a nearby staff and saw his face turn like a lion’s face.
“Bryn, are you seeing this or am I hallucinating?” I asked.
“Yup, definitely real,” Bryn answered in a small voice.
“Dr. Avalon!” Dr.Martin’s voice boomed. Dad just stood there shocked, while fire shot out of Dr.Martin’s staff. In horror I saw my poor dad getting burnt to death! I knew something was in Dad’s work bag. I quickly pulled out a staff from his work bag, though I had no idea how to use it.
“What are you doing? Who are you? Why are you hurting my dad?” Bryn asked, shocked and curious.
Dr.Martin, who clearly looked shocked that we had been eavesdropping on him, answered, “I am lord Surbeshwara and your dad has broken the law. He has been channeling the power of the gods right under your nose. Especially, he has been channeling the power of the demons. He has been summoning the demon god of all evil sources. Ravana is powerful than ever and vows to destroy the world. Ravana is the demon god. He has the power to kill any of the major gods.”
“But I thought Ravana was dead a few thousand years ago?” I asked.
“Yes, but every thousand years once a god or very powerful demon dies, he gets reborn.”
“But even if we kill Ravana, won’t he be reborn again?”
Yes, but this millennia is called the Dark Age, so if a god or demon dies, they won’t be reborn and they will just die,” explained Surbeshwara.
“Ok,” I said while nodding. I acted normal and cool but deep down inside, all this new information and the shock of my dad’s death was very, very overwhelming.
“Anyway, your dad has been helping him, and has made a deal with Ravana that if he aids him to destroy the world, only he and Ravana can create a Dark Age and rule the god world. I have come to destroy your dad,” continued Surbeshwara. I was shocked and I think Bryn was too.
“How can you be so sure of yourself?” challenged Bryn , “You have no proof”.
“Look in your Dad’s work bag. Kai, I see that you have already found the staff,” said Surbeshwara.
While we were talking, I saw that Dad was gone.
“Where is Dad? I thought he was dead” I said suddenly, and tears rushed to my eyes.
“Oh no, he escaped!” Surbeshwara, cried.
“But, how is that even possible. Any human in Dad’s place would have surely been dead,” I said while sobbing on the inside.
“That is just more of his magic. Your dad is an evil magician. He plays many tricks on people. You didn’t know that, and you trusted him,” explained Surbeshwara.
“Wait! I see Dad running away with a flute!” Bryn cried. We all looked to where Bryn’s head was turned and sure enough found Dad scampering away with a glimmering flute in his hands.
Lord Surbeshwara started to chase Dad and we started following him. Suddenly, Dad disappeared in a dark tunnel, which closed by itself.
“Where did Dad go?” I shouted with hoarse voice, as if I had a cold.
“He went down a tunnel where his spirit and soul is with Ravana now. He is now virtually dead. Your dad has stolen the flute which I was showing him earlier, which belongs to Krishna, a supernatural human who was sort of god and a version of Vishnu.” said Surbeshwara. “Vishnu is the lord of the gods. He’s sort of like Zeus from Greece. “He (Vishnu) killed many of Ravana’s demons. Vishnu has already killed Ravana once and that was only when he was a mortal man, so I am sure that he will be able to do it now.”
“So we have to find Vishnu and tell him to fight Ravana?” asked Bryn.
“Exactly,” answered Surbeshwara.
“So, how do you find Vishnu?” I asked.
“We can travel to heaven to explain to Vishnu our crisis, obviously,” said Surbeshwara in a mocking voice.
“But how did you come here, to the mortal world?” I asked.
“Questions, questions, questions. That’s all kids ever ask these days. But I’ll tell you since it is vital to know the answer. Oh, I just used a spell. But it is not any regular spell. We’ll have to go far to find this ancient spell.”
“Ok, got it.” said Bryn while taking notes. “Can we call you Sur for short?” my sister asked.
“Sure, it can’t hurt,” said Sur.
“We have to figure out how to get to heaven, and then find Vishnu, and then ask him to kill Ravana?” Bryn asked again.
“Yeah, something like that” Sur said at last.
“Where do we start?” I questioned.
“We start by finding your uncle”, Sur said.
“Okay,” both Bryn and I said. I finally felt a spark of hope light me up.
Chapter-2 Bryn
So now you have heard my brother speak. I know it was pretty boring but what I will tell you will be much more exciting
Sur was leading us out the museum when I saw a huge bird.
“This is how we are going to travel”, Sur said.
“Won’t people see us?” Kai asked.
“We will be invisible to most mortal people.” Sur said. As I climbed up the bird I could hear his heartbeat and quickly named him Pump. His wings were white like a pure dove’s wings, and it had eyes and a beak, like a falcon. Pump was beautiful. We took off into night sky and I quickly grasped onto his feathers. The cool breeze lifted my hair and the stars shimmered like gems. It was as if the sky was welcoming us! Suddenly I heard a voice.
“We are in New York,” Sur said.
“Already?” I questioned. I hadn’t even realized.
“That felt like an hour,” Kai said.
“Because that was an hour,” Sur explained.
“How? We must have traveled thousands of miles.” I asked.
“Magic,” sighed Sur. A moment later, Sur had told us that we had arrived at our uncle’s house.
“Go get your uncle,” Sur told us. We quickly scampered towards the incredibly big mansion.
“Ding Dong!” A moment later the door opened. We saw the same man we saw talking to our dad the other day. We saw Raim! I couldn’t believe that he was our uncle.
“Hello, Kai and Bryn,” he said calmly, like we had known each other for a long time. “I see that you have also brought Surbeshwara with you.”
“You are my dad’s brother, right?” Kai asked.
“Yes, I am ” said Raim.
“Let’s go now!” Sur called from Pump’s back. We all walked back to Pump and climbed on his back.
“What do you need?” asked Raim.
“As you know, Ravana is going to destroy the world and we need your help to get to heaven,” said Sur.
“I have heard of a spell that will get you to heaven,” said Raim.
“You know where it is?” asked Sur.
“No, but I have heard about a book that tells where the spell is. I know where the book is. It’s in Ranakpur, in India. It’s a Jain temple dedicated to Tirthankara Adinath, a Jain god. This temple is around 600 years old,” said Raim. ” I believe there is a tunnel or something under the temple.”
“Wow!” I exclaimed. “I can’t wait to fly to Ranakpur!” I said while yawning.
“Let’s fly to Ranakpur in the morning. But for now let’s crash in the mansion,” said Raim.
“Okay,” all of us said.
I quickly trudged up the stairs and Raim showed me my room. I was so amazed that Raim knew me so well. There was a flat screen TV. I had my own private closet with over filling clothes that I would wear. There was even a private bathroom with a hot tub and a sauna! I reached the bed and was surprised that it was really soft. Right beside my bed was a mini fridge, which had all my favorite snacks. I loved this room! As soon as I hit the pillow, I fell asleep.
“Wake up!”
When I opened my eyes, I saw Kai with a duffel bag. “Get dressed,” ordered Kai.
“Okay Gramps,” I answered smiling.
“Hey,” protested Kai before heading out the room.
I quickly got up, and got a rebel shirt and some ripped jeans, and put them on quickly. I rushed down stairs where I saw a large buffet arranged on the enormous dining table. I sat down and put a large chocolate muffin on my plate. As soon as I finished my muffin, Raim handed me a purple duffel bag. At 8 o’clock we started. We got on Pump and flew to Ranakpur. In 45 minutes we reached Ranakpur.
“Here we are,” said Sur sighted. Ranakpur was beautiful. there were a lot of trees and vibrant flowers in the area. There were a lot of stands selling carvings of marble just outside of the temple. We quickly went inside and started looking for anything that might lead us underground. I searched every inch of the temple.
Suddenly, I heard a voice, “I found something!” exclaimed Kai. We all turned and headed towards him. “Over there, I see a really small stone lever on God Tirthankara statue,” he said pointing to what looked like a miniature stone chisel. “What should we do with it?” asked Kai
“Well let’s pull it, obviously!” I said. Sometimes I worry that Kai doesn’t know to do the obvious. Once I pulled the lever, a doorway revealed itself and the wall folded up. I pulled out a flashlight from my duffel bag and we slowly moved into the darkness. At one point, the flat ground turned into ancient steps. The steps kept on going on and on.
Finally, some torches lit off the staircase. After what seemed like hours, we passed some carvings on the walls. We finally reached the book. There it was. I realized, it was surrounded by a lot of scorpions!
“Kai, Bryn, distract the scorpions while I get the book” explained Raim. I quickly got out a staff from my duffel bag and saw how Sur used his staff.
“Paansudhan!” Sur shouted as he pointed his staff on a scorpion as it turn to dust. I realized that “Paansudhan” meant dust.
“Paansudhan, Paansudhan, Paansudhan!!!” I shouted as three scorpions turned to dust. Then a moment later, they reappeared!
“I have the book!” shouted Raim. Raim started running while scorpions chased him. “Run!” Raim shouted. I realized that the tunnel was breaking! “Run!” Raim said again. We all ran as fast as we could. In no time at all, we reached the dark staircase and then the flat stone floor shortly after that. Soon we reached the temple floor. I was relieved that no one had gotten hurt. We had done something incredible and definitely off the normal scale. I had to tell my friends about this experience.
Chapter-3 Kai
We finally had gotten the book. I couldn’t believe Bryn learned her first spell before mine, but I was glad to see that no one was hurt. Sur opened the book and found something written in Sanskrit. Off course Bryn and I didn’t know Sanskrit, so Sur read it and translated it in English.
“It says, that you can find the spell in the Ellora caves in India. It’s called Kalishanta. This temple is dedicated to Vishnu and Shiva. It tells the steps to find the spell, but I should read it at the temple,” Sur said.
“We should rest for the night at a hotel.” Raim suggested.
We quickly flew to a nearby hotel. The walls there were scraped and rusty and the paint was peeling off. But other than that the hotel was okay. I shared a bed with Bryn, while Sur and Raim shared a bed. I had trouble falling asleep and wished we were back at the New York mansion.
“Wake up, monster snorer,” said Bryn. I ignored her mean comment and quickly got up and went to the bathroom with my clothes. The bathroom didn’t even have a shower! Luckily, in my duffel bag there was a pack of wipes. I quickly started getting dressed the fastest I could. When I came out, I could see that we were ready to start. I quickly got on the bird (Pump as Bryn calls it) and we soon flew into the sunrise. In no time we reached the temple, which was in ruins. We carefully made our way through the temple, though it had no visitors. There were cobwebs everywhere.
“In the book, it says that near the Vishnu statue there is a sun picture,” Sur said. We moved towards the Vishnu statue and just like he said there was a Sun carving on the wall. ”You have to move your finger around the sun once counterclockwise.” Raim moved his finger around the sun and a bunch of numbers appeared under the carving.
“You have to press 5,1,0,8,2,” said Sur. Kyra pressed those numbers and a tunnel opened, just like the temple before. We walked down the staircase that had appeared and was it lighted by torches. Soon we reached the bottom and then found a dead-end and carvings on the walls.
“Now we have to say the spell Vivnoti while pointing our staffs at the wall. By the way that means open!” declared Sur.
“Vivnoti!” we all said together.
A small doorway opened and we all went through it. This place was dark. “We have to keep going,” Sur explained. We walked for a few moments when we heard sobbing.
“Waa!” a woman sobbed. “This is Kaali the goddess who kills the evil.” Raim said, “She is good.”
“Why is she crying?” I asked.
“Because she is the one who killed Shiva. When she was killing some other demon she got carried away and killed Shiva himself by accident, even though he is still alive and well, she hasn’t forgiven herself,” said Sur.
Kaali suddenly started weeping again when she heard the name Shiva. “Can we pass?”
“Sure, go away before I kill you!” she said sarcastically. We soon walked passed her, which was a relief. The darkness continued. We walked on and on. Finally I could catch a glimpse of a paper floating in the midair. It was surrounded by lava.
“I WILL KILL YOU!” boomed a voice. I looked up and saw a giant demon blocking the way to the sacred spell. It had two massive eyes and pointed ears. Its skin was a yucky greenish color and slime covered its giant body. The creature was easily the size of a ten story building.
“That’s a Rakshasa, a type of demon.” Sur explained.
“Why do you want to kill us?” Bryn asked. Why would she ask that question? Obviously, because it wanted food.
“Because I have to guard this place and kill you! Unless you solve my problem,” boomed the Rakshasa.
“My name is not Rakshasa.” grumbled the demon. “I forgot my name and you only get three tries to impress me. If I don’t like any of the names I will kill all of you.” It hit me hard. Why did this monster need a name? It wasn’t like it was ever going to use it in this deep, dark tunnel.
“Deal!” Sur said, before I could say anything.
“Flamethrower!” I shouted out in a second. I was sure that the name would satisfy it.
“Too violent!” said the demon.
“I know, Sam,” said Raim.
“Too normal” said the Rakshasa.
We all thought for a while then Bryn got an answer, “Sweetheart!” Bryn answered, sure of it. It was at that moment that I knew that we were going to die.
“Perfect! I love it. It’s a nice, caring and a loving name!” Said Sweetheart. “Thank you! You may all pass,” He said as he disappeared into the lava. I was extremely surprised as a stared in awe along with Sur and Raim. “So now how do we get across the lava?” I asked regaining my focus.
“That’s easy, ” said Raim,
“Setu,” said Raim pointing the staff down on lava, and a bridge appeared over the lava. We ran across the bridge and then quickly got the spell.
“This is it,” Bryn said. “Now we can head back! I couldn’t believe we had done all this! But still there would be a lot more things ahead. I had a lot of questions like, how did Ravana take over our dad’s mind and things like that. But, bye for now. This is Kai signing off on the quest for the sacred spell.
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