74 A Demon's Promise- Part 1 [Puru]

Asura Yaman's old, dilapidated Eastern temple was closed for decades due to a dwindling number of followers. But once the news spread of how Agni Asura Yaman heroically thwarted the catastrophic flood with help from Demon God Puru, people began to flock to the temple again. The affair had rekindled the faith of the old followers and the interest of new ones. 

Hearing of Asura Yaman's glory, a young couple from a small village in the Eastern kingdom traveled three days and three nights to reach the temple for a glimpse of the mighty Asura. To their dismay, the endless, serpentine line of pilgrims in front of the temple made the visitation seem like wasted time. Just like them, most travelers had arrived from faraway towns and villages, carrying large bundles of food and clothes, with a litter of barefoot, unruly children behind them. 

The elderly sought respite from the scorching heat by resting under the thick shade of banyan trees that lined the crowded path. A tribe of sacred monkeys invaded the trees and swung from branch to branch. They would bound towards the travelers to snatch offerings from their hands and scramble up the tree again to munch onto the offered food in peace. Disciples occasionally raised loud chants of prayers amidst the audible buzz of excitement. 

"Dearest," the young wife said to her husband, "we should not have traveled this far only for a glimpse of the lord. Look at the line! If I stand under this sun a moment longer, my skin will turn dark like coal!" The woman lamented as she rocked her crying baby in her arms. 

"You already are dark like coal; how much darker can you be?" The husband mumbled. 

"What is that, dear?" The wife appeared short of hearing. 

"Nothing, dearest. Do you want to walk to that shade under the tree? I will wait here in your stead." The husband dutifully offered. 

"Thank you, dearest. But I will wait here with other pilgrims. Even waiting in line to see the mighty Lord Asura will earn me some merit." 

"It will, dearest. Should I hold little Unna for a few moments, my dear?" The babe was yowling ceaselessly since the couple reached the area.

"No, dear. He will be all right, won't you, my little one?" The mother cooed to the babe, and the babe broke into another loud wail. 

"Dear, let me." The young father did not listen to his wife and grasped the baby from her arms despite her protests. The father's round, full face somehow amused the babe, who stopped his cries immediately and began to giggle instead. 

The young mother resigned with a heavy heart and shifted her attention to fellow travelers. Two little children walked past her as they quarreled over a clay toy while their parents trailed behind, bickering over a pouch of coins. Out of nowhere, a monkey swooped down from the banyan tree and took off with the pouch. The bickering woman raised a cry, already a flood of tears, catching everyone's attention. 

The young wife rushed up to her side and offered her a warm, comforting hold. "Sister, do not worry; the men here will fetch your money bag." She spied for the husband of the wailing woman. The man peered at the leafy branches where the thieving monkey was hiding, clearly deliberating whether or not to climb up the tree and confront the screeching troop of monkeys. The young wife decided not to wait for him and instead turned to her husband. 

"Dearest, please go and fetch this kind woman's moneybag." 

"But dear, what about Unna? He just went to sleep." The husband pointed with his chin to their baby, who was slumbering in his rocking arms.

"Give Unna to me, and please chase down that monkey." 

Soon the young husband began to make his way up the tree as the crowd of spectators cheered him on. He was surprisingly agile and light-footed for a portly man and quickly advanced towards the delinquent monkey, hands and feet moving from branch to branch. Despite all its threatening hisses and screeches, the monkey proved surprisingly docile when faced with the young man and innocently left the money bag on a thick branch before scrambling away to a different part of the tree. 

When the young man came down triumphantly holding the pouch of coins, a roll of cheers and claps rippled through the crowd. The young couple safely handed the pouch over to the woman, whose eyes were still moist but now with tears of joy. 

"Sister, how can I return your kindness?" 

"You needn't," the young wife said to her over the wails of her babe, who had woken up from his slumber. 

"No, I must. I know how. The head priest of this temple is my second cousin. Come with us, and he will let us a visitation of Lord Yaman. You need not wait in this communal line." 

The woman and her family boastfully passed by other visitors in line, and the young couple followed behind with envious eyes upon them. Soon they covered the snaky path and presented themselves at the temple entrance. The head priest and his apprentices had taken seat on either side of the porch. The visitors formed two lines, one that entered and the other that left the temple doors, and the priests oversaw the entire process as they collected the entry free. 

When the head priest saw his kin, he rose and came to receive her, all smiles and familiarity. Before long, he informed the party their familial bond had little worth in the eyes of the lord, and they all will have to pay a toll to enter the inner sanctum. The woman did not take very kindly to her cousin's word but paid the sum in full. She entered the sanctum, full of restrained wonder, along with her husband and two quarreling children. But when she came out, she was a poodle of tears and sniffles once again. 

It appeared that to catch a glimpse of the glorious fire demon, one must wriggle under a stone serpent that sat guarding the entryway to the altar of the lord. Only a few out of thousands were blessed with Lord Yaman's generosity to pass the narrow passage. Neither the woman nor her kin could pass the test, and they had to leave without Lord Yaman's darshan, despite spending their gold coins. 

Next was the young husband's turn, and to everyone's shock and disbelief, he crossed the passage despite his corpulent body. The young mother put the babe underneath the belly of the stone serpent, and the babe gleefully crawled to the other side. When the young woman, too, slithered through the small passage, it was clear that Lord Yaman had blessed the entire family. 

The darkness of the large inner sanctum was pierced by fingers of sunlight leaking through the air holes in the wall. In the center of the sanctum was a raised platform, where Agni Asura Yaman sat on a large, stone chair that was fashioned after a throne, looking as majestic as Puru had remembered from the last time. But being an agni asura himself who was skillful in the craft of Yantra, he saw through the disguise, and he could guess who was behind that façade. 

"Goddess Dimuka," Puru addressed the mighty asura sitting on the stone throne. Puru's voice cracked a little as his young female appearance slowly transformed into his real self, Demon God Puru. His impostor husband changed into his trusted companion, Lord Ganjana, while the little babe in his arms turned into a scrawny, little mouse before jumping to the floor and scurrying away.

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