The Bleak Truth

It’s been three months since Ares was on a run in disguise, first south, then southwest and then again
south. He kept on walking on a muddy roadway with cypress on its sides paving the way into the woods.
Cypresses are generally seen as symbol of death, sorrow and bad luck. Ares grew up here in this very
country and the forest hold no surprises for him, or at least that’s what he thought. He could feel that his
time is not very far now, he knew that all the sins that he has done in his life are now finally here to
collect the debt. Ares could feel the warmth of his body in the back of his eyes and knew that fever will
soon take over his body. “Is this the time for me to accept my sins and calling all the things that I regret
I don’t regret a thing I’ve done for her”, he said to himself, “All that I will ever regret is that I wasn’t
there to save her when the king executed her and what for? Why does she have to pay for the things I
did?” Questions were hounding his mind. “Could it be that the peasants were lying? What did they
knew about the royal family and the things they do? I was the right hand of the king, I know the way of
the king’s justice. But what if....? ”. Ares was ready to die; to him his life was as meaningless as bow
without an arrow.

As the sun dies for the day and the dark purple clouds took over the sky, Ares found a log to lean to for
the night over which there was a canopy to provide mere shelter from the soon expected rain. He placed
his sword beside him knowing that he don’t have the strength to use it anymore to even hunt. The fever
was crawling up on his body. A dying mind often dream for heaven but Ares was wishing just for her
love, heaven and hell were words to him. The sweat soaked his skin. He kept calling her name until the
fever goes away and he fell asleep. His sleep broke when the canopy started dripping and the soil turned
into thick mud. Ares could hear the humming of the darkness resonating in the woods.

Ares raised himself with his trembling legs, when he heard an awful scream that was echoing in the dark
woods. “That seems to be a woman’s voice”, he thinks. And ran as quickly as possible into the trees, as
he was approaching towards the voice he realized that he forgot his sword near the log. When he get to
the sources of the voice he came to know that it was a crying fox, alarmed by the approaching footsteps of
Ares the fox didn’t move a muscle and look dead straight in Ares’s eyes. The sight of the crying fox
rendered Ares silenced. Its bone was exposed and the blood was oozing from its leg gently into the mud.
Ares said to the fox, “I guess the gods just enjoy seeing some of us in pain” he looked around and raised
a stone to at least free one of the poor beings from the pain. He looked at the wound and thought to
himself, “I grew up in this country; there are no such creatures live in this forest that could attack a
fox and make such a large wound”. The hackles on his neck rises and he felt as something lunged for his
blood in the darkness. Soon he saw two yellow shinning eyes when the lightning strikes, the split second
was enough for Ares to see the creature from tooth to tail.

Ares turned and ran, crossing every tree he was picking up speed, though struggling to maintain his grip
in the slippery mud and the downpour that keeps blocking his view. He was trying to remembering his
way to the log where he left his sword. Trying to save a life he didn’t want. The blood was pumping in
veins and his legs strengthened. He flew as a deer being chased by a savage. His mind was empty then
and he forgot about the name he was chanting to Gods to give him his love in the afterlife. He ran to the
log and takes his sword out of its scabbard and points it in to the darkness. His hands were trembling but
in fear now. Nothing came out of the woods to attack him, nothing that keeping an eye on him. The
realization that he still clutched on to his life that he once was so tempted to abandon breaks his heart but
also tells him that he is not done, not yet. And that his love still has to wait to meet him. The mixed
emotions left his mouth in form of nothing but a loud and painful scream that was then lost in the
rumbling of thunder.

Ayush Kumar

12B

Roll no. 12

Kendriya Vidyalaya School, Sadar Bazar, Delhi Cantt, No. 1

Shift-II