In a remote village, there was a ruined palace which scared the people. From childhood all the little boys and girls were advised to play away from that place. Among them was a curious boy called Badri who played alone there because of his strange attraction towards the ruins.
The cracked and broken walls had many interesting murals by an unrecognized artist covered in dust. Badri would stand in front of the huge wall wondering about the painting.
Then one day, as he was looking at the murals an interesting thing happened. The murals changed in the raising sunlight. On the bushes were painted intricate fairies with fluttering wings. He tried to wipe the dust to see the painting.
The minute he tried to wipe the dust then, a strange light appeared between his fingers. A real, live fairy fluttering its wings appeared on his palm.
Suddenly, the fairy called his name in a dolce voice. Badri was surprised and started to have doubts whether he was awake or dreaming?!! So, he pinched himself sharply and yelped in pain.
A few minutes passed in silence. The fascinated Badri asked the fairy, “Who are you? Where are you from?”
The fairy smiled and said, “I am a wish fairy, and my name is Yagnavalika. I used to live in the colony of fairies in the city of Pearls. An evil sorceress has imprisoned me on the wall as a painting.”
The puzzled Badri asked, “But why were you imprisoned and how are you free now?”
Yagnavalika flew away from his hand and did a somersault in midair and said, “It is long story, I once came here with my friends to play in the nearby gardens.”
She did a flip and fluttered her wings quickly then, leaving behind trails of gold dust. She did not seem to stay in one place for more than a minute. Badri was feeling giddy watching Yagnavalika and mildly reprimanded her, “Do stay in one place and tell me what happened to you?”
She continued, “My friends and I were playing a new game and having loads of fun. When the day ended my friends decided to return to their colonies. But I refused to go with them and decided to explore the gardens a little further.”
She paused and did another somersault and continued. “In the garden I came across a hut made of human bones. I peered inside and saw the sorceress Vilamba. She was mumbling to herself over a big book and recording something with her quill. A stove was burning bright with a cauldron on it. I heard her say I need the barks of a thousand-year-old tree and some gold dust.
Vilamba opened the loudly creaking door and banged it shut after her. She then left the hut in search of the ingredients. The hut became silent except for the sound of the boiling cauldron.”
With a twinkle in her eyes, Yagnavalika continued, “Alone in the hut, I started to explore it. I saw a lot of bottles with different colored liquids on the shelf near the stove. I flew up to it and sniffed the odorless liquids. When a fire bellowed from the cauldron, and I accidentally bumped into the bottles. A bottle broke and the liquid dripped into the concoction. Different colored fumes hovered over the cauldron. I struck the dark cloud with my wand and made a small rain of gold.
After a few minutes, the liquid turned to a reddish pink color and bubbles started to form in it. Just then I could hear the footsteps of the sorceress. I tried to hide behind the books on the shelf, which was on the right side to the door. I found an old box and hid behind it. She entered the hut carrying some barks, red pouch, and an old cat.
She stopped at the cauldron and added the ingredients. The Sorceress sniff and let out a scream. In wild frenzy she said someone has dared to enter her hut.
Just as she began searching for the intruder, the box popped open and revealed a ruby pendant with a four-petal flower embedded in it. When I saw the pendant, I began to sneeze from the corner in which I was hiding. Immediately, Vilamba removed the book from the shelf and caught me sneezing uncontrollably.
Vilamba grabbed me by my wings and held me close to her one eye. She laughed loudly making the entire hut tremble and she accusatively mumbled that I had thought of taking her life by breaking the pendant and destroying the flower. She gave me a toothless grin and imprisoned me in a glass jar.
Vilamba drank the magic potion from the cauldron and transformed into a young woman after much deformation. She left the hut with me. After a mile, we came across a huge palace. She entered the palace through the back door and magically put everyone to sleep.
She entered the youngest princess chamber and lifted her from the bed and stealthily took her away. She then cast a spell on the entire kingdom to be unaware of the missing princess.
That night, Vilamba took them to dark and deep maze where the moon appears to shine in the middle of the maze during the midnight on a full moon night. She then chanted a few words and converted the maze into a ruined palace with murky murals.
The Sorceress muttered how she was going to gain more magical powers after sacrificing the princess. She then hid us among the painting so that no one could find us. She warned us that no one but a human can alone rescue us from her. But she was sure that she would kill any human who tried to rescue them.” So saying Yagnavalika stopped her narration.
After a pause and backflip, Yagnavalika continued, “You must hurry to rescue us because Vilamba is waiting for the next full moon to sacrifice us to gain stronger magical powers. You will have to trick her into releasing us,”
“How can I do that?” asked Badri.
Yagnavalika explained, “All the powers of Vilamba are encased in the pendant, which no one with magical power can touch. But then maybe a human can touch it. We need to find out. If you open the pendant, you will see a big ruby stone, break it and all the magical power of Vilamba will vanish. Inside the broken ruby stone, you will find a flower with four petals. If you break each petal, she will lose her life slowly. So, follow her tonight to her hut and grab the pendant from the box in the bookshelf.”
Night fell, when Vilamba came to visit the maze Badri stealthily followed her into the hut. After Vilamba fell asleep and was snoring, he went to the shelf that Yagnavalika had described and removed the pendant from the box. The minute he removed the pendant the whole hut began to shake and Vilamba woke up to see Badri holding the pendant. She immediately tried to snatch it back from him, but Badri ran as fast as he could until he reached the maze.
Before she could utter a curse at him, he quickly broke the ruby and destroyed the flower embedded in it. The minute Vilamba died the entire spell was broken and both the princess and the fairy were rescued from the sorceress clutch.
Badri, the fairy, and the princess returned to the kingdom. The fairy explained all that happened, and the King was moved by Badri’s braveness. He rewarded him and made him the Knight of his secret army. Badri returned to his village and was never called Lazy useless boy ever again.
Itinerant Storyteller 