The Mugdhah forest
Like every year, it was the day of showcasing the skills for the young Manwars of the Enchanted Forest. The Ashv-manavs (Centaurs), Saras (Nymphs), elves, fairies and many other creatures would showcase everything they'd learned in the training camp.
Lasiya, a Nishaavanshi (A Nightingale fairy) certainly stood up from the rest. She showcased excellent axe fighting skills, battling the various creatures and slicing fruits very neatly.
"Didi! YOU'RE THE BEST!" Her brother Lakhan was shouting from the crowd. "DIDI DIDI DIDI" The young trainee was super excited.
Lasiya was engaged in a dual with a fire-breathing bull, the fleurado. She was so engaged that she didn't see a mini-dragon launching from behind.
"DI! Behind you!" Lakhan shouted.
Before Lasiya could react, a Garuvanshi (Eagle fairy), who had just beaten a fellow opponent, flew towards the dragon. He pulled his bow string and conjured an arrow midair. He aimed it at the dragon, it pierced through it's wings and the dragon fell down.
"Told you so many times Lasiya, you need to take care of your surroundings." He said.
"He's amazing!" A trainee from the spectator said.
"Hell, he is!" Lakhan said. "He's the only one who can give a tough competition to di" he said. "He's Soham, son of the prince of birds, Avyaan, they're the descendant of Lord Garud, the King of birds"
Now that most creatures had lost the battle, it was a one on one among Soham and Lasiya. She would give him blows with her axe that he gracefully dodged. He would summon divine weapons at her that she would successfully block with her axe. They were engaged in a dual when the sea shell rang.
"It's sunset now. The showcase is over" Their trainer/teacher, Athish said. "It's a draw between the two fairies, Soham and Lasiya." He said as a cheer went through the crowd.
"Pitashree and Mataji will be so proud of Didi" Lakhan said.
Their parents, Sagar and Premi, were praising Lasiya. "You really are our pride, Chori!" Premi said.
"Your daughter fights amazing, Nishaavansh Sagar!" Avyaan arrived with Soham.
"Pakshraj Avyaan! Namaste,Your son is amazing too!" Sagar said.
"My boy is my pride!" Avyaan said as he ruffled Soham's hair.
"You're amazing" Premi said.
"Thank you, Nishaavanshi Premi ji" Soham said. "I wanted to ask you for something"
"What is it?" Sagar asked.
"Well, Lasyia and I have been really close while we were training together" Soham said. "We helped each other through thick and thin. I've been with her during her training. Now I want to be with her for life." He said, holding Lasiya's hands. "I want her hands for marriage"
"YOU WANT TO MARRY OUR DAUGHTER?" Sagar exclaimed.
"That would be amazing!" Premi said. "We would love to marry our daughter to a Garuvanshi, but the decision to marry should lie solely on her"
"What do you think, Chori?" Sagar asked.
"Pitashree, I have already considered Soham as my husband" Lasiya said.
"That's great!" Soham said as he conjured a flower garland. Lasiya conjured a flower garland too. "We shall get married!" he said, as they both put the garland around each other.
5 years later
"Soham, you know how important it is for you to have a child right? It's already been 5 years since you got married!!" Avyaan was telling Soham.
"I KNOW PITASHREE I KNOW!! What shall we do? We tried our best but got no results!!" Soham said.
"We want kids more than you do, Pitashree" Lasiya said. "I want to have little little kids running around in the house"
"But what shall we do?" Soham said. "We can't just like, ask the gods to give us a child" he said.
Lasiya's eyes widened as if she got an idea. "Actually!! We can!" She said. "There are rituals to help us get child from the Gods, Remember how King Dashrath had no children, so he performed a Yagna and got four sons?"
"But Honey, they were humans, we're birds, our rituals are completely different!" Soham said.
"And I'm pretty sure we have such rituals too!" Lasiya smiled. "We are MAAN-wars after all"
Avyaan smiled brightly "Thaks for the suggestion, Lasiya! I know of a sage who specialises in bird's traditions! I'll talk to him" he said.
Few days later, a ritual was being held near the tree. A holy fire was roaring in the middle of a small open ground. A Sadhu sat on one side of the fire, and Soham and Lasiya sat on other side. They had dressed in traditional clothes for the ritual, and were adorned in jewels, even their wings were adorned with jewels.
The sage would say some mantras, and the couple would throw some stuffs in the fire. The weather was turning cloudy. As the rituals progressed, the weather turned fiercer some and it was beginning to thunder.
"I think he should stop the ritual before the weather turns bad" someone said.
"He won't, it may rain or whatever, but Soham won't stop a ritual, he's very determined" Avyaan said glaring at them.
Sure enough, the weather turned worse and worse, but the ritual didn't stop.
It started to rain. The sage paused for a second.
"Let it rain, Rishi Shivam, don't pause the ritual. The fire is not going to extinguish so easily" Soham said with a determined look on his face as the sky lighted.
So, the ritual went on.
The fire started cracking. A round thing was forming in the fire
"There's something in the fire!" Lasiya said.
"What happened, what happened!!" Avyaan excitedly ran near the fire.
"Lord Agni is pleased with the ritual!" Shivam said. "You're getting the gift of it!!"
Surely, a large eagle egg, about the size of a human baby, was sitting amidst the fire.
"Agni dev has blessed you with the gift of a child." Shivam said.
"My grandchild!!" Avyaan said, his eyes filled with tears.
The thunder and lightning were still going on really strong.
"The ritual is over, isn't it, Rishi Shivam?" Avyaan asked Shivam, who was more focused on the lightning.
"I don't think so" Shivam said. "This type of lightning... it usually signifies something..." he said.
The weather got more thunderous.
Suddenly, a huge lighting struck exactly near the fire, and in front of everyone, there was another huge egg.
"Lord Indra has blessed you with a child!!" Shivam said
Avyaan started doing a happy dance around the fire, without even caring about his old bones.
"I'm going to be a grandfather!! Yess a grandfather!! Of not one but two kids!!!" He exclaimed.
"We're going to be parents!!" Soham hugged Lasiya.
"Congratulations Paksh-raj!!"Shivam Congratulated them.
Few months later, the three were seated in their house, playing a game of Ludo.
The eggs were sitting nearby, one on the fire, and another one beside it.
"I win!" Lasiya exclaimed. "Ludo is a game of strategy, you see!"
"Now it's a game of strategy, yeah, when you lost yesterday you said it's a game of luck" Soham chuckled.
"It's basically a mixture of both"
"Shhh... shhh... keep quiet you both" Avyaan said. "I hear something"
Sure enough, they heard a cracking noise coming from one of the eggs, the one near to the fire- the gift of Indra Dev.
"Oh my God" Lasiya said.
"It's time!!" Soham said.
The egg was cracking. The top of the egg burst open, revealing a crying baby underneath. He looked exactly like a human baby, except that he had wings, right now featherless like that of a baby bird.
Lasiya rushed to it and picked up the baby. "My little baby!!" She said, and wrapped the baby in a blanket. Soham went to her and she gave him the baby. "Such an adorable baby!"
Avyaan took the baby from Soham "My grandson!!" He hugged him. "I'm a grandfather now! And look at him, he has the most beautiful eyes!! A blue and a grey eye!" He said admiring the heterochrome eyes.
"Pitashree! Since you are so happy for him, why don't you give him a name?" Lasiya said.
"His name shall be Devrath, my grandson." He handed the baby back to Lasiya so she could feed him. "The gift of Devraj Indra"
They were about 40 mins into celebrating the birth of their 1st baby when the second egg started crackling.
"The other egg is hatching too!" Soham said. He carefully took it of the fire. It cracked and another baby fairy was inside, crying. Lasiya went and bonded with the baby.
Avyaan handed the other baby. " I'm naming this baby, Yashvanth! May he attend great flame and glory!" He said.
"I'll send a message to Lakhan!" Lasiya went outside, flew up until she met a bird, and told the bird to deliver the news to her brother, and flew back to the house.
"We should distribute sweets to all the fairies and grains to the birds of this forest!" Avyaan said.
5 years later
The kids were standing on top of a cliff, with their parents, Soham and Lasiya. Yashvanth took some dried leaves in his hand and burned them by producing fire.
"Here boys, you should just flap your wings like this and jump off, you'll start to fly" Soham said, flying and showing his kids.
"Like this?" Yashvanth flapped his wings, and jumped, but was unable to fly.
Devrath laughed "No Yash like this" he flapped his wings and jumped, but landed back on land. Yashvanth laughed at Devrath.
"Just jump off the cliff and flap your wings" Soham said.
Devrath looked down from the cliff.
"No no no Pitashree no, I don't want to die" Devrath started to cry.
Yashvanth looked down. He too started to cry. "Pitashree, I'm scared" he said.
"Face your fear boys, otherwise you'll never learn" Lasiya said.
They looked below and gulped.
Lasiya shook her head and looked at her husband.
Do it he signed at her Just do it
Lasiya nodded, and gave Yashvanth a push and he fell down the cliff.
"Maa noooo" Yashvanth said and closed his eyes. His survival instinct kicked in and he flapped his wings vigorously. Suddenly he wasn't falling anymore, he opened his eyes to see him flying on his own.
"I'm flying!! Mataji! Pitashree! Look at me!!" Yashvanth said gliding in the air. "Bhrata Devrath see, I can fly" He showed his tongue to Devrath.
"Yash, don't be rude to your brother" His father scolded him.
"See, Yash is flying, your turn now Dev!" Lasiya said. "Jump!"
Devrath looked down and still felt to scared.
"I guess that's the only way" Lasiya muttered to herself and pushed Devrath.
Like Yashvanth, he too shouted, closed his eyes, and flapped his wings. And started to fly.
"Haha! See Yash! You're not the only one who can fly" Devrath said making a face at Yashvanth.
Lasiya also flew off the ground. Both Soham and Lasiya maintained close proximity with their sons, so that they could catch them in case they lost their balance.
"Your Pitashree would've been so happy to see them fly! He must be smiling from heaven" Lasiya said.
"We should send the news to Lakhan and Maya" Soham told Lasiya. "They'll be so happy." He almost called a bird to deliver the message but was stopped by Lasiya.
"No wait, let's give them a surprise, it's almost time for their second egg to hatch anyways, we can all fly to , they'll be surprised to see us, and the boys flying on their own! Raghav will be so happy to see his big brothers, and we will get to see the hatching too!" She said.
3 years later
"Maa, can I lower my hands? Or change my feet?" Devrath asked.
"Yes, Maa please, it's already been an hour and half." Yashvanth said.
"You may do neither" Lasiya said glaring at the boys. She looked at the pendulum clock. "Just some more time"
Their father came back from getting firewood. "I'm bac- Lasiya why are you punishing my dear sons?" He said, looking at his sons standing on one leg with arms up in the air.
"Arya, your dear sons, along with those Manaja (Man- Manav, Aja- goat, Manaja -Satyr) kids, Rudra and Subh, went to an Ashva-manav's cave, and stole all the butter and curd from their house." She said.
"Naughty boys" Soham tapped his head. "And why is Yash carrying a heavy rock too?" He said looking at Yashvanth look at him with the cutest eyes.
"Because he was the ringleader of them all!"
"Maa, you know how much I love curd! And we were out of curd at home, besides, I've never seen Ashv-manavs actually eat dairy. All they eat is meat and alcohol and stuffs like that. It will get spoiled if we don't eat it!" Yashvanth pouted.
"Yashvanth, doesn't mean you go to other's places and steal their dairy" Soham scolded.
"Good boys don't do that" Lasiya said.
"But Lord Krishna stole curd too, when he was little" Yashvanth said, glancing at the Lord Krishna statue on their altar.
The parents laughed looking at the innocence of their sons. And soon turned stern.
"And he did get punished for that" Soham said and glanced at the wall clock.
"It's over now, you can lower your limbs" Lasiya said.
"Yash, can you light the fire" she told Yashvanth, who went to the fireplace and lighted the fire, using flame from his hands.