AM BACK!

As soon as Gagansahu stepped into his house, he realised it was calm. "Mother!?" he shouted as he searched through the whole house. "Velar? Velar?" he shouted. He ran to the back to see if they were all gathered there. But to his surprise no one was there.

He ran around to see if it looked like something bad happened. But how would he know the difference. In this house, there was never a day that had gone by without somebody shouting or somebody throwing something.

"Huh! Such a bother!" he said to himself as he sat on a bench at the fountain with his legs spread out and his neck resting on the edge of the bench and his eyes into the sky.

He slowly fell asleep probably because of all the physical stress he has gone through. It took him a couple of hours before he could open his eyes. As he got up he realised a familiar figure stood across his with his mouth wide open and finger pointed towards him.

Gagansahu looked at him and smiled.

"Is it..uh..u? Am I …dreaming? Is it…." he stammered as he slowly walked towards gagan still pointing his finger towards him.

Gagan smiled and said " Unless you are looking at a giant potato in my shape, I am afraid you are not dreaming"

"Huhhhh!" the persons mouth opened even wider as he gasped out loud and ran towards gagan saying " It is you! Gagan!"

"Yup!" gagan replied as he twitched his lips

" So! Where is everybody?" he asked

" I think they left for a function or a meeting or somebody died? I don't know. All I know is they left and asked me to take care of this mansion for a few days until they return" Ali replied walking back into the house.

Gagan grinned and followed him.

"Why did you come back?" ali asked him

Gagan really don't know the answer to his question. He just felt the urge to come back. But that's just is not enough to face a million questions that follows his arrival and he knew it right when he started back. But Ali is gagans best friend. Whenever he wanted to run away from this chaos of a house, he would just go to ali. They both would then go to the jeeland fields where no one would be present except the rocks and grass of those barren lands. There they would play hide and seek until the sun sets. By that time they will obviously be obstructed by the coarse voice of gagans father who would come and drag him home by the collar as he mischeviously tries to let himself loose.

But as the years passed by, responsibilities creeped up on Ali and thus making him to work as a teen itself while gagan was forced into faroff education in the name of the familys good name. But whatever the case, the only place he feels at home are those jeeland fields in which he ran around with his childhood friend and not his home.

His home…even the thought of his home makes him sick to his stomach. The big old mansion or rather the big old palace was always a prison or so he felt. His father, the king of the country not so well honoured by the people is a tyrant who would go to any extremes just to spread his fame. But his mother was a very intelligent and kind woman made sure the people in the kingdom do not suffer from the ambitious king. She would turn any adversity into opportunity and made sure it reflected in the good will of the king thus saving many people from his wrath. But soon, tables turned upside down as the cunning ministers who always thought of the queen as a obstruction for their evil deeds, waited for an opportunity to corner her and outthrow her. Soon enough, they got one such occasion and the good old queen had to die a prisoner.

The king remarried one of the daughters of a minister and was blessed with two sons as evil as their mother and father. But as fate would turn out, their own egoistic deeds turned out to be a hassle among themselves. So they would often fire out and lash at each other creating an unhomely home.

As Gagan was reminiscing in the past, he was interrupted by Ali shaking him "Deep thoughts huh! Care to share? Or is it about a woman..mm? Am I right?" he said smirking.

Gagan laughed and said "If it were, what the hell would I be doing coming back here." To which ali nodded in agreement.

Ali and Gagan sat on the chairs in a room. Ali took a deep breath and leaned in closer to gagan.

"So, why did you come back?" he asked gagan with a serious look on his face

"The way you left, I thought that would be the last time I was going to see you" he added

"I know! But things changed." Gagan said thoughtfully

Then recited his whole adventure with the Neoon princess and the weird girl and the kingdom of Neoon. Ali nodded along as he heard the story and said finally "Again! Why did you come back home?" he said scratching his head.

"The story of Neoon somehow reminded of me of mom. The Neoon Princess, She was just like mom. She sacrificed her whole life to the kingdom and she died the same way mom died. It somehow made me wanted to comeback. Look all I remember about mom was the image of me playing and running around and her running after me trying to feed me. That was my good memory of her. And the bad memory…. Its papa slapping her and throwing her on to the floor. I still remember her eyes. She saw me hiding behind the curtains and tried to stop her tears. She got up and left calmly . She probably didn't want me to see her cry. But I cried anyway that day. That's the day I have decided to one day beat the crap out of that monster of a father." He said as his eyes turned misty.

"Ali! I want to be like the Neoon princess. Like mom. Do something for the people my mom cared a lot about" he stood up determined

"But you hated this place and you still do. You wanted to go far away from here" ali said in a worried tone.

"I know! But now I changed my mind." Gagan said as he looked at a portrait of his mom hanging on the wall.

"Ali! I want to know her. All she was but a memory to me till now. But now I want to know more about her. I want to make sure I stand for things she stood for and make her proud" he announced

Ali stood there calmly trying to process what the prince has just said. He wondered what the Neoon princess did that changed his friend so much.