Rudra’s head was buzzing from the discussion on time and space. He was still trying to wrap his head around Sara’s explanations of these concepts. Rudra had a lot of questions but could not put them into words. He pushed the thoughts away and turned to Little Sara, “What next?”

“You are asking! You actually want to listen to what I have to say. Oh, happy days.”

Rudra just looked at Little Sara, his eyes delivering a far more eloquent response.

Little Sara rolled her eyes, “Just walk back into the forest, follow the path. You will determine the sequence in which you encounter the eight training centres for the arts, Bal, Rann, Shashtra, Dhanur, Maya, Yantra, Rahsya, Palayan, Chaal.”

Rudra frowned, “Strength, combat, weapons, bows, shakti techniques, shakti mechanics, stealth, escape, deception. That’s nine.”

Sara just smiled, “You’ll see.”

“Well, I don’t really need the strength training so we can skip that.”

“You can’t skip. To leave the valley you have to complete all eight.”

Rudra gave her another look.

“On my honour, may lightning strike me if I am faffing.”, as she said this, Little Sara put on the big-eyed, innocent, honest, little kitten look. Rudra struggled to keep a straight face as she looked more like a spoof anime character. Or maybe that was the look she was after. He had enough anime in his memories.

Rudra succeeded and feigned a grumble, “Ok, I’ll do it last. I should do combat first, then weapons, followed by shakti techniques and shakti mechanics. Stealth, escape, deception and bows can be a toss-up. I care little for them.”

“You sure know what you want.”

“So I just walk the path and it will take me to the first training grounds?”

“Yes. Just walk and the path will take you to the first training you need.”, the last part was said softly, even as her grin widened.

He started walking. As he entered the path through the forest, it felt like the paths he’d trod in the forests around Hope Cottage. He could also hear the sounds and smell the scents of a forest. A forest that lived, breathed and thrived. Sunlight streamed through the canopy of leaves and branches of tall trees and a light breeze made the shadows dance. Rudra was happy. Having lived most of his life in a concrete jungle, tangling with animals in the guise of humans, he’d loved the cosy, comfortable feeling of Hope Cottage and had enjoyed the forests around it. He’d fought more in a year on Vendhya than he had his whole life on Earth, but here it didn’t seem meaningless and was actually… fun.

“This feels so much like the role-playing games I played on…”, he stopped.

“Earth… I know of your rebirth. Known it since I saw you. Your soul carries marks of transition, but not reincarnation. Rare but not unknown. Also, even if that weren’t the case, your memories made it clear. But I saw nothing on role-playing games.”

“Played them on computer. Sort of interactive fiction. I can’t recreate them here. Now I play immersive holographic games, but sometimes I miss those…”, he saw Little Sara looking at him with a twinkle in her eye, “This has the feel of a tutorial that explains the game mechanics and things I should know before playing the game but by making me play the game in a controlled environment.”

Little Sara laughed, “That actually sums up perfectly what it was under the Collectorate. Now I am not so sure.”

“I am wondering if this will turn out to be a cheat sheet, where the cheats are disclosed as a quest reward.”

“Cheat sheet?”

“The games were artificial, played on machines. Cheat sheets were documents that recorded ways to cheat the game system, fool the machine, to win the game.”

Little Sara smiled, “Two things. One, do not assume that you are learning things that no one in your world knows. The past always invades the future. Also, if someone figured something out then someone else can also figure it out. There are no inventions in the universe, just discoveries.”

“And the second thing?”

“You’ve already got one.", Little Sara started giggling at Rudra's puzzled expression, "You've already got a proper cheat sheet.” And then failed to control her laugh.

Rudra’s eyes widened at Little Sara's laugh and then he scanned his unit and found a cookbook that hadn’t been there before… “Amazing and Awesome Recipes for Jiggly, Wiggly Big Milky Buns by the Sexiest Cook Sara”. The cover was her in an apron and nothing else winking at him. It was an active picture and kept changing poses. He’d tried to change the title and the cover and failed. He tried to read it, but it was locked. It was his unit, everything in it was under his control. He still failed.

When Sara stopped laughing, she let him know it was a record of everything she knew and had collected in her journeys. It would also contain a record of all his experiences with Sara and what he’d go through in the valley.

“If it is a cheat sheet, why is it locked?”

“Complete the tutorial and start playing the game. Wanting to use cheats even during the tutorial phase… tsk tsk tsk.”

Rudra looked at Little Sara, still posing in her anime avatar, being serious, looking anything but that. He wanted to be annoyed, but there was no anger left. Gratuitous violence, walking the edge of life (even if mistakenly), an adrenalin rush and a walk through the Rejuvenation Mist had washed the anger away and a lot more, pushed it all into the abyss of his soul. It may come up another day, but not now. For now, free of the past, he felt free to live in the present. Both Rudra and Little Sara burst out laughing at the same time.

After a while, he said, “I don’t want to start the trials just yet. I feel like finding that lake and going for a swim. I can sense it far to the left, off the path. Hunt a rabbit or something and cook me a nice hot meal.”

“Then just get off this path. Outside of the trials, you will just encounter animals, you will face Beasts only when you begin the trials. When you are ready just get on the path and resume your journey.”

The forest breeze raced Rudra as he leapt off the path. Who was this young lout to challenge it in its territory, weaving between bushes, jumping over shrubs, diving under low branches, brushing past leaves as he made his way through the forest as if he could outrun the breeze? Look at the joy on his face. The breeze would replace it with crushing defeat when it won. Rudra raced the breeze through the forest, going up and down hills, running by the river. He lost track of time. He was enjoying the moment. Rudra slowed as he sensed a herd of red deer in a clearing up ahead. Deer would do instead of a rabbit.

The breeze broke into the clearing, letting the wind there know that its brother followed. After all, that boy was a free spirit and all free spirits are kin to the wind. The herd broke, melting into the forest as they caught Rudra’s scent on the winds. He laughed. These deer were almost double the size of one’s on Earth and much faster. He ran into the forest after them, chasing one, then another for a while. Then he chose his dinner and stopped playing with the deer and moved to the lake, following the river, carrying the deer across his shoulders. The lake was large and he never could have swum its length on earth. He nodded to an enormous crocodile sunning itself on the lakeside with its mouth wide open as a plover cleaned its teeth. There were quite a few birds over the lake and around it, herons, terns, ducks, cormorants, and loons. A loon swimming in the lake took flight as something raced past it, carrying a deer carcass. The loon followed the crazy monkey to the shore; it was intrigued as it had never seen a hairless monkey before. And then there was that little sprite which floated over the air, sometimes diving into the lake and coming out sparkling but not wet.

Rudra sat beside a blazing fire as the sun melted into the earth. The sun’s dying rays danced on the lake and it seemed like waves of liquid fire were battling the encroaching darkness and would by themselves keep the world bright and warm through the night. He’d skinned the deer and hung the meat over the fire. Now the sizzle of its dripping fat added to the forest’s music that welcomed a night’s birth. He could see the moon's reflection in the sky, like a shadow of the setting sun. Soon the moon would rise to rule the sky, the stars running around doing the moon's bidding. As he cooked the meat, Little Sara was issuing non-stop instructions. She’d even pestered him till he’d ventured into the forest and collected some herbs and leaves to use in basting the meat. He had wondered if Little Sara would also eat with him, if she could. She couldn’t and he had rarely tasted something so good.

After his dinner, he interred the bones and took a bath in the lake before pulling out his clothes to dress. He sat by the fire, looking over the horizon as the last rays of the sun dissolved into the lake and dusk announced the forthcoming night. Little Sara lounged on his shoulder.

“Why eight? Why just these arts?”

“The Arts of the Kings. The Collectorate was not a kingdom, but we had kings, emperors, tyrants and dictators in our history. Millions of years of wisdom said that a king should be strong, true of aim, knowledgeable in the ways of the world, everything to everyone, good of tongue, slippery and a good fighter. My students would be the kings of their life, so I modelled the training in this valley on the Arts of the Kings.”

“Wouldn’t alchemy, crafting, and smithy come under the knowledge of the ways of the world?”

“The teachers here are those who were outstanding in their field… and whom I could compel.”

“Why did you abandon a colourful life to become a teacher?”

“My early life was not colourful. It was not dull, but it was a constant struggle for survival. Now when I look back, despite the difference in worlds and beings I tangled with, all my adventures were the same. That life was black and white. Colour in my life came from teaching. For all their differences, all my students were quite similar in circumstances and attitudes and ways that matter. I taught from the same location and taught the same things. Yet, each of them turned out unique, the outcomes at each step were different.”

They sat in silence for a long moment. Sara continued, “I grew into my power while on the road. Even before I had completed my first cycle, I’d travelled a lot more than those with more power and years. I stuck my nose into affairs I had no interest in or business in. Other times I served as a guard or soldier of fortune. I made many names for myself. One day they started feeling hollow. I had come far and yet never left where I started from. I didn’t stop my misadventures, just became more… choosy. Barring a few most you see here were… acquired… during this later phase. Another day came when I realized that a few I had helped, in ways no one had helped me when I started out, had done well. Then I meddled once again, and lost, becoming a teacher in all ways and happier for it in every way.”

“You were like your students, weren’t you? A talented but troublesome kid. A talented angry young child with immense potential, immense power for your age, taking it out on everyone around you.”

Sara just smiled, a smile dipped in fond memories of a lost time.

Rudra got up and moved to the path when each wave, each drop of the lake, twinkled with moonlight as if a lake of milk lay before him. The moon hung above the horizon. The creatures of the day were still rushing about as the creatures of the night stirred, aroused but not yet ready to set out. Rudra walked for a while on the moist forest mulch lining the path before he got on the path. A few steps later, the forest cover broke, and the path dipped down towards a small village. It was enclosed in walls made of black granite blocks that soaked up the moonlight and merged into the dark of the falling night. Each block was a cube, at least one gaz in size. The path ended at a break in the walls filled with a wooden door that felt thick, heavy, tough and old, so old that it seemed to say if time couldn’t break it then who else could dare.

A sign on the path pointed to the village held a name, “Pehalwanalaya”. Rudra turned to Little Sara, “A village of wrestlers? This was not what I wanted to do first.”

“The valley must have decided it is what you need.”

“Really? You know whom I received training on strength from.”

Little Sara shrugged. Rudra looked at her, shook his head and moved towards the door. He could not say he wasn’t expecting something like this.

The door was as tall as the walls and had a thick metal knocker about a gaz in diameter in the centre. When he got close to the door, he saw that there was a seam running straight down the middle, even through the knocker. He ignored the knocker and rapped on the wood with his knuckles. He repeated this four times with increasing strength till a gruff voice grumbled from the other side, “Go away, come back in the morning. Door is closed.”

“Good sir, I am a child, not even six. You surely would not send away a helpless child lost in this valley.”

“Door closes at sunset and opens at sunrise.”

“Is this how strong big pehalwans treat lost, young guests? Where will I go? What can I do? Sleep out here in the jungle? At night? At the mercy of wild animals? Me a little child. I ... I ..."

The voice on the other side grumbled something inaudible, then Rudra heard, “Door is not locked. If you have the strength, push it open and come in.”

“I don’t think, sire, that I want to fight you?”

“Why would you fight me?

“If you open the door and let me in, I am a guest. If I push the door and enter forcefully, then I am an invader. Honourable guard, won’t this mean you have to fight me?”

“What? No, no one is going to fight you.”

“Hmmm… you sure have an unusual way to appoint the village head.”

“What? No, we already have a village head. We don’t need a new one.”

“Surely, the village head will then fight me.”

“No, she won’t fight you. No one will fight you.”

“If I push this door open as an invader and enter and no one fights me, then I immediately conquer the village and become its head.”

“That doesn't make sense. You are crazy.”

“No, no. Through the door one can either be invited in or one can force their way in. If one forces their way in and is not resisted, then automatically they may take whatever they wish or everything.”

“Bull shits. You know you twist your words well, but you can’t…”

Rudra didn’t let him continue, instead, he took on a thoughtful tone, “The first thing I do when I become the ruler of the village will be to change the guard at the door. Can’t have lazy people letting just anyone get in.”

There was an angry shout. One half of the door was pulled open and a tall man stepped out, “Look here, you rascal…”

Rudra didn’t wait to listen, he’d been waiting right at the door and rushed in behind the tall man as soon as the door opened, “Thank you, good sir, for letting me in. I assure you I will be a model guest.”

The guard just felt the wind rustle his hair and stood puzzled at not seeing anyone before. Then he heard Rudra and soon the door closed with a thunk.

The tall man spun around, “What the… Let me in.”

“Sorry, I am not of this village and can’t let anyone inside. I closed the door out of caution. It is night and you never know what evil may come.”

“I am the guard you were just talking to.”

“How do I know you are not an evil shadow impersonating the honourable guard?”

“Why you…”

“The door closes at sunset and opens at sunrise. Please come then and someone will sort you out.”, Rudra then turned and went into the village.

When Rudra was out of sight, a woman stepped out of the shadows. She opened the door to let the tall man in and turned to look in the direction Rudra had gone, “What do you think?”

“He cheated, but having him around will be interesting.”, the tall man didn’t sound angry at all.

“He didn’t cheat. The test is to get in and he did, no matter how unusual his method was.”

“As you say, Mistress. I am going to go see what the Traveller gets up to next.”

After he left, the woman turned to Little Sara who was hovering in the air beside her, “Two million years, Little One?”

“I was as imprisoned as you were. He will be the last.”

The woman looked at Little Sara, her face impassive, but surprise shone in her eyes. She turned back and sighed, “Is there a place left for us in this world?”

“Was there ever one for us in that one?”