In the continent of Hind that is surrounded on three sides by the sea and one side by the mighty Himalayas, there are thousands of villages, hundreds of cities and millions of people. The continent which is ravaged by the wars that rise and fall like waves of an unpredictable sea, now enjoys an era of peace. But like the waves that are controlled by the movements of the earth and the moon, the war and peace too is controlled by the heavens. There exists constant tension between the empires who appear friendly on the surface but are in fact constantly putting swords at the neck of each other maintaining a deadlock which might break at any time resulting a massive war.

Amongst the empires that are the main players of this era, there is a special powerhouse whose royal family is said to have the backing of the mighty Shiva himself. Hence, people say, that ages ago it was named in honor of this God of Destruction, Shivpur. The land of Shiva. In the war of the great empires which came to halt two decades ago, Shivpur annihilated multiple states and consolidated its foundation which made the country stable and powerful. Those who witnessed the battles of Shivpur still talk about it's ferocity. Specially, they discuss the one who was titled "Asura", the then crown prince, Vairabh. The way he danced in the battlefield causing destruction to his enemies wherever his steps fell and the viciousness with which he tore them apart with his very teeth and then proceeded to drink their blood, is said to have rendered those who personally witnessed it, unable to sleep for the rest of their lives.

This "Asura" who later rose to the throne and became the emperor of Shivpur ruled with ruthlessness, killing the entire generation of those who resisted him and dare oppose him. However, his ruthlessness eradicated any and all internal strife of the court and Shivpur prospered under his rule. As a result, it became an economical superpower and the quality of life of citizens improved. The citizens thus regard him highly and continue to enjoy this era of peace.

* * *

In the borders of Shivpur, there exists a massive forest which is termed the Dark Forest. It earned its name because the trees in the forest were so dense that no light would enter inside and those who were unfortunate enough to be trapped inside would fail to distinguish night from day. Vicious beasts of the dark crawled these forests and it was said that apart from the god amongst the warriors, no one had ever seen the center of this forest.

Somewhere within this forest, currently a woman whose clothes are tattered and who carried numerous cuts and injuries on her bodies was leaning against a small opening on a tree of the forest. Even though she was far from the core of the forest, but various ruthless beasts prowled around which put her in a mortal danger. In spite of her being in such mortal peril, she didn't carry a tinge of fear. Instead, her eyes were wet and two small lines of tear leaked from her eyes. She put a small package, careful wrapped in a silk cloth, inside the opening and whispered,

"Forgive me little master, but we must part here.. your servant shall very soon come to retrieve you. I pray to the Shiva who grants life and death that he would protect you in the meanwhile."

While whispering these words of farewell, sobbing all the while, she took out another similar cloth like the one that was around the infant and proceeded to wrap a small log in it. As she was wrapping the log, other sounds reverberated in the not-too-distant surroundings,

"Oye!! I found a torn cloth, this way!!"

As the sound drew nearer to her, she hastily ran off. Moments later, hurried footsteps of a 10 man party approached the place where she previously was. One of them suddenly exclaimed,

"Captain! There she is"

"Follow her!!"

The party spotted a running silhouette and proceeded to chase it. Minutes after everyone left, the usual calm of the forest returned.

* * *

The Dark Forest was infamous primarily because of the vicious beasts. But it was not the only reason for it's infamy. The fact that no one knew what the forest was like, made people even more reluctant to ever step inside its boundaries. Thus it remained uncharted for so many years. It was possible that someone in past conquered the innermost part of the forest, but no records existed in any of the current empires of such feats. To citizens of those empires, the Dark Forest was just a god forsaken land of which they could only tell scary stories to their children about.

At some place inside this forest, a sound echoed. This was not growls of a predator nor chirps of birds.. It was the cry of an infant.

"Waaaaaaaaa"

It had been hours since the mysterious woman had settled this infant at this place and so far, she hadn't returned. The child was perhaps hungry or cold or perhaps it was just him crying for no reason at all but he cried. And this put him in a life-threatening situation. In a dangerous place such as this, one normally tiptoes so as to avoid being detected by predators. Making any loud sound would mean an unpleasant attention of those who lurk in the shadows. But the child continued crying.

Two minutes.. five minutes.. ten minutes.. he continued crying and with each passing minute, danger crept nearer and nearer to him.

"Grrrr"

Growls of animals resounded nearby.. One by one, figures came out of shadows. They were large and swift. Like breeze they descended, carefully, surveying their surroundings all the while as if on a lookout. As they came merely paces away from where the infant was crying, one could finally see that they were in fact the Night Wolves.

Everyone in the continent knew that if one ever encountered any Night Wolves, his chances of survival would be very very low. Individual Night Wolf was not very powerful but one rarely if never encountered a lone Night Wolf. They always hunted in packs. This coupled with the fact that they were intelligent creatures made a pack of Night Wolves a nightmare for even the strongest warrior. They measured their enemies, formulated battle plans telepathically and executed it with almost fluid like elegance. Simply put, they were deadly.

As the Night Wolves crept near the infant, his cries got louder as if sensing the danger he was in. One amongst the pack drew forward, like a tensed bow, ready to pounce at any moment. It bared his fangs and pounced at the infant.

* * *

At the instant when the wolf was about to sink it's teeth in the child's body, a small glow appeared in the child's chest.

"Wham!!"

The wolf's teeth never reached him. It collided with an invisible wall and was sent flying against a nearby tree.

Seeing the fate of their leader, the pack was perplexed. But their confusion lasted only a few seconds. Whether they did not understand or they were fearless, but the wolves continued their charge. One by one they pounced upon the crying child and one by one they were sent flying with a loud bang.

Their charge continued for minutes and each time they were repelled by the glowing barrier. Any being with some sense would've been exhausted and discouraged by then but the wolves were known to be tenacious. Their preferred method of hunting was to surround their prey which were often much stronger than them and continuously charge from different directions to exhaust them. The wolves were employing the same tactics here.

As they continued, the glow in the child's chest began to flicker. The wolves sensed this and doubled their efforts. It was evident that the resistance that they were facing earlier was weakening rapidly. As if unable to withstand any further attacks, the glow disappeared altogether from the child's body. Sensing this, the pack leader which was the first one to charge broke into a run towards the child and lunged towards him.

"Whaaaam!!"

He was sent flying again. This time, the packs were even more confused. Clearly the defensive barrier that had surrounded the child was exhausted by their continuous pounding. So why was their pack leader still repelled? All of them looked at the child with fearful eyes.

"Hisss"

A sound broke their gazes. They looked around wildly, their faces extremely ugly out of fear. They recognized this sound. More appropriately, how could they not recognize it? This was the sound of that hateful existence which ruled over the Dark Forest! Had there been any other animal, it would have fled the moment it realised that *the thing* was here. Curiously, these wolves weren't moving an inch.

As if on cue, a log like thing descended from the nearby tree and whipped another one of the Night Wolves and sent it flying. A painful cry emerged from where the wolf crashed. The rest of the wolves were now utterly fearful as they slowly regained their senses. All of them fled with their tails under their legs, leaving two of the fallen to their fate.

After the wolves left, a huge *thing* descended from the tree. It was as thick as a tree's trunk and as long as a fully grown bamboo stalk. It slithered closer and closer to the child and observed it with its unblinking eyes. It drew near the child and with utmost care and delicacy, totally unlike its nature, wrapped him around its body and left the scene.

* * *

It had been a normal day. Normal by the standards of the Dark Forest anyway.

At the core of the forest, the foliage was so thick that no sunlight ever passed beneath the layers and layers of tree leaves. In this darkness, a beast, named as the king of the Dark Forest, not by any decree or inaugural ceremony of the sort but merely by its power, remained sleeping. Whenever any creatures, however ferocious, approached its vicinity, they would flee at the first moment they detected the king's presence. Nobody dared disturb it so it was peacefully sleeping, coiled around a branch.

It's sleep was perturbed, not by any animals nearby but by a fluctuation in the forest. It was unlike anything the forest normally had. It was a prana fluctuation. While the forest had prana fluctuations by the beasts fighting amongst themselves all the time, but this wasn't from any living being. It was from an object, or so the king concluded.

Since its curiosity was aroused, it decided to investigate this commotion. It uncoiled itself from the branch and moved towards the source of the disturbance. As it came to the scene, it witnessed a pack of ferocious Night Wolves attacking a seemingly invisible barrier. It observed for a while. The wolves would break into a run and pound against the wall repeatedly. Behind the wall, there was an object, which upon closer observation, turned out to be a human infant. It was extremely bizarre. Not many humans dare step foot into the Dark Forest, a human child was even rarer and this was an infant. In its entire life, it had never seen a human infant. It grew curious.

As the barrier which was protecting the infant weakened and vanished altogether, it saw the wolves pouncing upon the child. For some reason or other, it decided to interfere. It swung its tail and whipped the pouncing wolf into the distance. The wolves became confused but they did not flee. So it swung its tail again and sent another one of them flying. At this point the wolves probably realised that "it" was here. So they ran.

It descended near the child and slowly with utmost care wrapped the child within its body. The child was crying. Perhaps it was hungry? But it knew nothing about a human infant. What did they even eat? After pondering for a bit, it decided. Maybe *that* man could tell. After deciding so, it left.