A sapling and a citadel
“Curse these creepers”, he thought to himself as he bent down to pluck the tiny little plant off the ground adjoining the tower of the citadel. The tiny plants, came in with the rains; their roots dug into the rocks, causing cracks and weakening the structure. As he bent down, something caught his eye – a tiny bud, just about to bloom. As he bent down further to take a closer look, a sweet fragrance from the tiny form of life went through his nostrils and touched a spot long forgotten, in his hardened heart. He straightened himself and walked away, unable to harm that tiny and yet beautiful little sapling.
As he walked on, he got reminded of a long forgotten self – the carefree young lad that he had once been along with the long lost love and tenderness. Sara, his first love. She loved plants. Her father was a gardener. Every morning, on his way to his school, he would stop by their garden to watch her watering the plants. She would smile sweetly from across the fence. Some days she would walk over and give him a rose or a lily, which he would carry with himself, despite all the taunts from his friends.
The smile and the flowers slowly blossomed into sweet fragrant love. They would meet under the trees, near the river, away from the world. Their meeting was forbidden. He was the son of the chosen ones; those who had chosen to become a part of the brethren; she was from those, who chose their simple tradition and earthiness, revering the trees, the woods and the stars in the sky. Their dissimilarities did not hinder their love, it ran its own course, beyond every logic.
He still remembered the day he had to leave the city for his war training. He ran over to Sara’s place, it was crowded. On further inquiry, he heard that her father was taken away for execution for throwing a stone at an official. The official was his own father. As he quietly turned back and began walking towards his house, Sara came running after him – she begged him to take her to his father, so that she could beg for her father’s life. She said that the whole thing was an accident; her father was cleaning the garden, and his father went past, at the right moment, when unknowingly, her father picked a stone off the ground and cast it across the fence.
He pushed her off and ran, knowing his father fully well. He hated the ‘lot’ as he called them. They were the scum of the earth, fit to be killed at the smallest mistake. Sara was relentless, she ran after him all the way to his luxurious dwelling, despite his protests and orders. At his gates, the inevitable happened – Sara was caught by the guards, who took her to his father. Unable to contain himself, he followed the guards and her to his father’s ‘room’.
He watched mutely as Sara fell at his father’s feet, begging for mercy; he saw his father lashing out at her with a cane, till she fainted, and ordering the guards to ‘take her’. As the guards were carrying her to the quarters, he ran to them, and told them to give the girl over to him, telling them that he would punish her aptly. He gently carried her back to the trees. In that anguished state of hers, she reached out to him; he took her in his arms; their bodies blended into one, she gave him her trust and maidenhood; his soul claimed hers, before he took her back to her house and left her to lament along with her newly widowed mother, over the body of her father. He never told her that it would be their last meeting….
When he came back ten years later, having completed his training and having taken part in the war, where his sword secured victory over many slain enemies, he found that the garden was long gone. The citadel wall covered most of the land where the garden once stood. Nobody remembered them, except as the traitor’s family, whom they had tarnished and banished into the wilderness to die. They were one of the many, who chose to stay and die, unchosen, and disappear into nonexistence….
That night he was unable to sleep. He got out of his bed, dressed up quietly, got on his horse and rode over to the citadel. He walked over to the tiny plant, bent down and whispered softly, “I am sorry Sara, my love”, he then stood up straight, wiped the tears off his eyes, caught hold of the plant, and plucked it off the ground!! After all, he could not let wretched creepers weaken the citadel of brotherhood.
