Friends For Eternity

I ran without any break, trying to go as far as possible from the battlefield. I had no idea for how long I was running—I just ran.

Run! Run! Ru—

Suddenly, my feet slipped and I rolled my way down. I completely covered my sister under my arms, protecting her from any potential injuries.

“Ouch!” I yelled in pain. Because of my mishap, my sleeping little sister started crying.

“Shh, shh… nothing happened. It’s alright.” I tried to calm her down while swinging her slowly in the air. After few swings, she went back to sleep.

Tired from all the running I decided to sit and relax on the ground. I was breathing heavily. To steady my breathing, I decided to meditate for a little bit before continuing my journey.

Closing my eyes, I started to meditate but the horrifying images from earlier stopped me from doing so. My thoughts were still a mess. I couldn’t forget the dying faces of my parents.

I was about to tear up again when I heard the sound of water. I immediately got up and ran to the direction of the noise. As I was running, the noise became clearer and clearer and suddenly I found myself in the front of a river.

Is this the river my father mentioned?

The water of the river was so clear I could see the reflection of my face on it, just like I would see on any other mirror. After gently putting down my sister on the ground, I drank the water from the river and washed my face.

“Whew… it feels so refreshing.”

I was surveying my surroundings and all I could see were thick trees on both sides of the river. As I was surveying, suddenly my eyes noticed someone lying unconsciously. I quickly lifted my sister and ran to the stranger.

When I got closer, I realized it was a boy who seemed to be about my age. He wore simple clothes like me and his hair was as bright as the sun itself.

I tried to wake him up but he didn’t respond. I hurriedly laid down my sister besides him and ran to the river.

I hastily took off the t-shirt I was wearing and knotted both of its ends to each other making a sachet to carry the water. After filling it with water, I ran to the boy and splashed the water on it but he didn’t respond. I did it again for few times when he finally responded—

“Cough, cough… I-I don’t want to die!”

The boy suddenly started yelling.

“Someone help me! I don’t want to die!”

“H-hey, Calm down! No one here is hurting you.” I tried to calm him down. He slowly opened his eyes.

“W-wait where am I?” the boy said while surveying his surroundings.

“In the middle of forest,” I replied to the confused boy.

“Urgh… my head hurts so much.”

“Wh— cough, cough…” the boy tried to speak, but due to his parched throat nothing came out of his mouth.

“Wait,” I said before running to the river. I filled the sachet that I just made with water and brought it to him.

“Here, drink,” He drank the water in one go.

“How did you get here?” I asked the groaning boy.

“I… I was running. The last thing I remember was running for my life,” with a sad face the boy replied.

“Wait, don’t tell me you also ran from the battlefield.”

“I also? So did you also run from there?”

I nodded in reply.

“Did your parents…” with hesitation the boy asked.

“They… they didn’t make it,” I replied, my face full of sorrow.

“I am sorry… I am also… the only one left.”

I didn’t know what to say in this situation, so I decided to stay silent.

“By the way, my name is Reyansh,” he said, outstretching his hand towards me.

“Mine’s Anant. Nice to meet you,” I replied, helping him to stand up.

“So, what are we— wait, a baby!?” Reyansh said with a surprised face.

“Oh yeah, she is my little sister.”

“I didn’t notice her. What’s her name?” he asked, lifting my sister slowly.

“Khushi,” I replied, my sister still sleeping.

“She… she is adorable,” he said with a cheerful face. “So, what are we going to do? We can’t just stay here and hope to get rescued.”

“There’s a small town if we follow the river,” I replied before starting to undress.

“That’s good news! Then we better start—w-what are you doing!? Why are you getting undress!? He quickly turned around not wanting to see me naked.

“Well, the river’s current is not strong so might as well clean myself,” I answered to his back. “Do you want to come?”

“It’s embarrassing… but I think you are right. I really need to take a bath,” said my new friend.

While he was getting undress, I gathered some leaves to make a resting place for my sister. I also gathered dry twigs to make a bonfire. Making a cushion of leaves, I gently laid her down on it and got back to make the bonfire.

“What are you doing?” Reyansh asked.

“Making a bonfire,” I answered while digging a pit.

“Do you even know how to do it?”

“I have seen my father do it.”

First, I dug a shallow pit and surrounded it with stones to prevent the fire from spreading. Then, I placed the dry twigs by arranging it in a conical shape and put the dry leaves under it.

“But how are you going to light it on fire?” my friend asked, carefully studying what I just did.

Without answering him, I pointed my index finger near the dry leaves and after concentrating I conjured a small flame that lit the leaves on fire. After few seconds, my bonfire was ready.

“Wait… did you just conjure a fire!? Are you an awakener!?” asked my friend. His eyes were wide open in surprise.

“Yeah. I awakened eight months ago,” I answered my friend who was in disbelief.

“How old are you? I am six and I thought you were my age,” he asked, impatient to get answers.

“Can we talk about this while bathing? It would be a good way to know each other. I will tell you about my life and you will tell me about yours,” I suggested to my curious friend who was dying to get answers.

“Oh right. Sorry for being pushy.”

“No worries, but first let’s wash our clothes. They would be dried up before we finish bathing,” I said, grabbing my clothes and made my way to the river.

“Good idea,” he said, following me.

After washing our clothes, we made two conical structures in front of our bonfire and put each of our clothes on them to dry.

“You know what?” said my friend.

“What?” I asked.

“We were naked this entire time! Why didn’t we get undress after making the bonfire and washing our clothes!” he said. I hadn’t even noticed I was naked while making the bonfire this whole time.

“Good point,” I replied, going to the river to bathe.

“That’s all you have to say!” he said while coming behind.

“Forget it. Let’s relax and talk about each other.” The water was a bit cold. I dipped my toes and slowly went into the river. He also did the same.

“It feels so good,” he said.

“Agreed,” I remarked. It felt like we were in heaven.

“So, what do you want to know about me?” I asked.

“Can you tell me your age? I thought the average age of awakening was 8-10 years. But you don’t look that old,” he asked with a curious face.

“I’m not. I will be five this summer,” I replied.

“So you mean to say you awakened at the age of four!? That’s impossible!”

“Believe it or not, it’s true. I myself sometimes wonder how this is possible.”

Diverting the topic from myself, I also asked, “What about you? Tell me something about you.”

“Well… there is not much to say. My father was a farmer but… he died in an accident. Since then, me and my mother were living alone until… the attack,” he replied, looking down at the water with a sad face.

Hearing his story, I regretted asking that question.

“Oh! Look at that beautiful deer,” Reyansh suddenly screamed, pointing his fingers to our left.

I looked at the direction where his fingers were pointing but found nothing. All I saw were green trees with birds sitting on the branches.

“Where? I don’t see it,” I said, trying to find the deer.

“You don’t? I can see it clearly. Look it’s eating grass,” he said while pointing to the same direction where I was looking a second ago.

I tried so hard but failed to see the animal my friend mentioned.

“You didn’t find it? Well, it’s a pity I suppose,” he said with a disappointed face.

Suddenly, I heard the flapping of wings you hear whenever there’s any movement in the forest.

“Oh look! That deer ran away. A tree branch fell on it, and it got scared,” he said, laughing at the sight he was looking.

“Wait, you mean to say the deer was there?” I asked, pointing towards the direction of the flapping noise. The noise came from our far left.

“Yeah,” he replied.

How can anyone see that far in this thick forest? Especially these trees block their vision.

“How can you see that far?” I asked, studying his red eyes.

“I don’t know,” he said. “But I do have good vision since birth. I can see minute details very clearly and things far ahead than a normal person. Many people have told me that it’s a blessing.”

‘Can see very clearly and far ahead than normal a person’… wait doesn’t this fits the description of an enhanced vision?

“You are not an awakener, right?” I asked him.

“Of course not! I am just six,” he replied.

“Have you ever tried meditating?”

“No. Why would I meditate?” he replied in a confusing manner.

He never tried meditating. Let’s hope what I am thinking turns out to be correct.

“Alright. Close your eyes,” I said.

“Why?”

“I need to check something. Do as I say,” I said to his confused looking face. He closed his eyes hesitantly. “Now, try to meditate.”

“Why? Can you tell me what you are doing?”

“I’m seeing if you are close to awakening or not,” I replied.

He opened his eyes in surprise and said, “What are you saying? I’m just six. How will I be close to awakening? And do you even know how to test it?”

“Yeah. My dad taught me. Now trust me and close your eyes,” I said to his suspicious looking face.

“I don’t know what you are doing but alright,” he said before closing his eyes.

“Now do as I say. Relax and imagine yourself as the particles of Pancha Bhuta flowing like a carefree soul. Try to become one with the nature.”

He followed my instructions without interrupting. His breathing slowly started to become stable and rhythmic. After a while, it felt like he was close to attaining equilibrium with the nature when suddenly screamed, abruptly ending his meditation.

“Urgh! My fingers!” he yelled in pain.

“What happened!?” I asked worryingly.

“My middle fingers! they hurt!”

I checked both of his middle finger and found them to be severely burnt.

How did this happen? They shouldn’t get hurt this bad. I thought we only feel a little bit of burning sensation, but this… his whole fingers are burnt.

As I was thinking to myself what had caused this, his fingers healed themselves right in front of my eyes. I was speechless witnessing this miracle.

“H-how? How did your fingers heal themselves on their own?” I asked, my eyes and mouth wide open.

“I-I don’t know. The pain is also gone,” he replied, also dumbfounded from what he just witnessed.

“Is this connected to his awakening?” I muttered, but my words were louder than expected.

“Awakening? What do you mean by this being connected to my awakening?” he asked, coming a bit too close to my face. He didn’t seem to notice that he invaded my private space.

I pushed him back a little and said, “Aright, alright let me explain. When you said your vision is way good than a normal person, it made me think of enhanced vision.”

“What do you mean by enhanced vision?” he asked interrupting me.

“When we awaken, our Indriya get enhanced for a short period of time and from what you told, it seemed like you had enhanced vision. So I thought maybe you were close to awakening. That’s why I told you to meditate,” I said answering all his questions.

“So… what do you think? Am I close to awakening?” he asked with a serious look on his face.

“Yeah, you are,” I replied. Hearing my response, Reyansh tried to jump in excitement, forgetting he was still in the water. “But there is something I don’t understand.”

“What?” he asked with a concerned look on his face.

“Our Indriya get enhanced— whether temporary or permanent— after awakening. But you have enhanced vision since birth. I have never read someone having enhanced senses before awakening, and the fact that your fingers got burnt before they healed themselves on their own. I don’t think it is normal.”

“So… should I be concerned or what?”

“I don’t know. But I think we should worry about it later. We have to get to that small town, remember? Or do you want to be eaten alive by wild animals?” I said sarcastically.

“Oh right! I almost forgot. I think we should get going. I don’t want to become dinner of some hungry animal.” he replied.

We came out of the water and sat in front of the bonfire to warm ourselves. After few minutes, we wore our dry clothes and got ready to leave. I picked my sleeping little sister on my arms and after putting out the fire we set out for the town my father mentioned.