(I penned it for a Contest on the prompt the Apocalypse: The End of the World.
Yesterday, I sought your opinions regarding an excerpt from an unpublished novel of mine. No one bothered to comment. Will my story at least, meet with a more favourable response? Stay safe. )
3250 B.C: The End of The Indus
Dear Bhumi,
Can we meet at our favourite spot on the bank of the Zlus this evening? My heart is aching for thee and I want thee to be sworn to the proclamation of your love for me with the River Goddess as our only witness. Disappoint me not, please.
The one whose heart pines for thee.
Prithbi
Dear Bhumi,
I don't really know what is wrong with me. Since the moonlit night before last, I can't think of anything but thee. Thy genuine declaration of love and our first heart-to-heart embrace in front of the River Goddess, has left me more thirsty for thee than thou can ever imagine.
I’ve the premonition of some impending doom. Today when we meet there at the Great Bath for the ritualistic bathing, I know thou will be there before me, in one of the rooms up there with your people, watching me intently in the bath. I see thee with thine upraised face asking me how I know, right? Easy, I caught thee looking down at me last time with that look of desire on thine face. Not that I minded. I can’t wait for the day we will be together. As the leader of my clan, I have grown up in the area. But after our marriage, I want to move near the watery spread.There a little away from the sandy bank, we will live in our palace. Let me also tell thee that the construction is nearing completion. Just like thee, I have no control over my desire for you. I want thee by my side right now, if that is possible. With all those buildings, there is a new city coming up. I've dreams, Cheri, big ones. For you, for us. I want the first city in human history, properly planned. I want it to have the first sewerage and drainage system. Art and architecture with an Assembly Hall to boot. But more than all this, I want you by my side.
I am sending this note along with some bangles, bone-made, for thee. When thou come to the Great Bath, come with them on your persona.
Patiently waiting for our radezvous of the afternoon.
Thine for ever,
Prithbi
Dearest,
I got your note. I am dying to meet thee too. The past couple of days without thy sight, have been torturous. I am worried about our Indus. Should the thriving Indus come to an end one day, let that day be so far away that our great, great, grandchildren will not get to see it in their lifetime.
I have put on the bone bangles and the gold amulets. I hope thou like it. I've got a gift for thee too, a chest wrapper made of bear hide.
Dying to meet thee for..thou know what. I love thee with my soul and heart.
Thy soulmate,
Bhumi
Dear Bhumi,
Yesterday at the Great Bath was fun. If thine people hadn't been there, I would have grabbed thee for a whoosh in the clear, cool water. I guess, some dreams take patience to be fulfilled.
Anyway, I asked some artisans to come and have our story written. I personally supervised one being engraved on a seal. The story you told me where thou as a bird, have a piece of meat in thine beak, with me as the sly fox under the tree. So that thou can share the fish with me, from beak to mouth. That's our first remembrance of love for posterity.
Yesterday, while I was walking along the street on my way back, I'd this feeling again. Feeling of someone prying over me from behind one of those high-raised secretively. If anything ever happens to me, the seals of terracotta will tell our story, and about my dreams for my people.
I have made arrangements to formally send a messenger to thine father to claim thee as family. Our open air marriage seven moons away from now, will be history. Get ready, my bride.
Thine till the end of Life,
Prithbi
Prithbi Dearest,
Last night I was on a stroll across the city park. It was a beautiful moonlit night. I was missing thee and decided to walk over to thine dream site. I watched from the hill top. It was a spectacular sight with the people residing in those mansions and houses. I tried to see if the light was on in thine room. Other than the street lamps, I couldn't see anything else. Most of the people were either asleep or in bed. As I was coming back, I am sure. I saw something behind the oak tree. The silhouette of something against the backdrop of the monlit sky gave me the creeps. I don't know who or what it was but the very thought of an alien on the prowl out here, frightened me.
Later, I'd a horrible dream of thou being chased by the shiny metal and lying lifeless on the staircase. And everything in the city was dead silent. The silence of Death then spread to other parts. Soon, someone was trying to enter in my room too through the window. I screamed and woke up with beads of sweat on my forehead.
I am scared, scared beyond belief. Should anything happen to thee, how can I live? I prayed to Pashupati Shiva for the rest of the night for thine health and happiness.
In case thou don't get to hear from me anymore before our wedding two days from hence, I want you to know that my love for you is immeasurable, unimaginable and timeless. I know we are meant for one another and will be reborn as lovers till the apocalypse.
Waiting breathlessly for the day, two moons away,
Thine and thine alone,
Bhumi
(NOTICE put up from on a trunk:
The members of the Western Clan are hereby informed that the sudden, planned attack on the inhabitants of the city of Hind on the bank of the river Zlus takes place in seven clinking sounds from now.The metal weapons are to be collected from the foliage of the oak tree. Though we do not expect any resistance from the pacifist people,no mercy is to be shown either. No lives to be spared. Residents in the bathroom, in the kitchen, on the streets, everywhere, are to be massacred. Victory to the people of the Western clan. Hail Hailstorm.)
The water of the Zlus is rising at an alarming rate. After the sudden and horrendous attack and the river of bloodshed and ruthless killings, the city of Hind lies silent and still. But the water of Zlus keeps rising, unbeknownst to the victors. Let them relish their plunder and looting for sometime more. Not a single soul will escape the wrath of the River Goddess. She loved the lovers like her own.The dark clouds and the thunder overhead can only hear the water of the river breaking barriers, on ravage. The blood of the innocent will have to be soaked by the bodies of the intruders. It is time for the Apocalypse for at least the next ten thousand years.
The End
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