1 Prologue

For the first time in ten decades, it rained heavily in the village of Kaaljayi. And it rained for 21 days straight.

It was the eighteenth night of the downpour, when the villagers were shaken. Thunder rolled through the black sky, as if threatening to split the Heaven apart. It was a black night, with lightning crashing against the wind, as a pale, dark moon hung amidst the clouds.

It was like a premonition of evil.

An omen of destruction itself.

A low moan began to echo in the air. It was joined in by several similar moans until the entire village was reverberating from the sound. The villagers, who had not been out of their houses for almost three weeks now, trembled in fear.

The moon had begun to turn red.

The moaning soon turned to screaming howls, almost as if someone was being called out for battle. The wind thrashed against the houses cruelly, the sound growing piercing by the second.

And then, something crashed.

In a small village courtyard, the land suddenly ripped apart. Earth trembled from the force of the crash as something hit the ground hard.

A piercing scream echoed through the night.

***

Vrishankh was born.

Fifteen years ago, on a deadly night that had made the entire village almost cry out in fear, the boy had been born.

He had been found in the courtyard of the village elder, Chief Shankh three days later, when the downpour of rain had stopped. The baby boy had been lying in a pit created in the ground when lightning had struck it.

Everyone in the village had been reluctant to even touch the scrawny being.

Chief Shankh, however, had decided to adopt the little guy.

Fifteen years later, the entire village feared his existence.