Life changing Event

The old man started talking all mixed up, saying things like "reasonable, not unreasonable, Kats, nines, drum, and more." He drank water quickly and thought it was amazing. Shaan was surprised, but he said, "It's just well water, not that amazing. If you mean the bun, yes, it's good, cost me 10 Rupees. But, sir, your rhymes need work; they're not great."

The old man cleared his throat and asked seriously, "Hey kid, why'd you give me bread and water just now?"

Shaan felt relieved that the old man wasn't angry, so he explained, "Everyone was avoiding you, scaring you away. I thought if nobody feeds you, you might die, so I wanted to help."

The old man seemed satisfied but then started acting strangely, saying, "You're not enough. I don't have time. You're good but not good enough."

Confused by the old man's odd behavior, Shaan tried to make sense of it, saying, "If I'm not good enough, who is? I helped you, not your children or family. You should learn to be grateful."

The old man stayed silent for a moment, deep in thought. Shaan asked, "I don't think you'll live long. Can you tell me your last wish? If I can't do it now, I'll do it when I'm rich in the future."

Breaking the silence, the old man said, "You're right. I don't have much time now, lots of things to do."

Shaan listened carefully.

Old man spoke with bright voice,

"My name, it doesn't matter to you, at this stage to you, but call me Zor. A request, that I have, I want to ask you of. Request would be that you have keep living like this attitude and when the time comes, fight to protect the plains".

As Shaan sensed, old man seemed patriotic, as his life wish was to do something for country. Realising this Shaan replied,

"No worries old man. I love my home land, if our plains or country is at risk, I will definitely fight to protect it. But as for living with same attitude, I can't, I will try living better so that I don't end up begging in old age like you"

Old man started laughing and stood slowly from ground, Shaan definitely didn't want to help. Old man said,

"You have quite an confidence".

Shaan replied confidenly , "That maybe I was born with it".

Old man started walking towards Shaan, Shaan stepped back and shouted.

"Why you walking towards to me old begger".

Before he could react, a cold wrinkly hand touched Shaan's forehead, and he lost consciousness. In a strange space with countless stars, Shaan felt fangs of pricking pain before falling into a deep sleep

Before he lost consciousness, he heard faint old voice that said,"Don't try to die soon. But if you die fighting that's good. That's good enough, pitiful pawn".

That afternoon a boy who went to help a hungry old man, fell prey to machinations of the same old man.

There he lied, for hours, as breathing flesh and the relatives searched and scoured whole village searching for him.

Not until evening, Uncle Jim, walking by, noticed a colorful figure in a gray field. As he approached, he saw a boy and carried him to Uncle Niku's house.

Nia and Amin saw Uncle Jim carrying Shaan and ran towards him, shouting.

Soon, Uncle Niku and Aunt Suri rushed over. In a worried tone, Uncle asked, "What happened? Is he okay?"

Jim calmed them, saying, "Don't rush. I found him in the field, he's breathing; I don't know if he has any wounds."

They brought Shaan to the house, laid him on the bed, and checked for wounds. Though they didn't find any, they couldn't wake him up. Worried about what to tell his parents, they were frightened.

Aunt Suri rubbed Shaan's palm, trying to wake him. Hours passed with no success.

When Shaan woke up, he screamed due to a splitting headache. Aunt, realizing he was awake, shook his shoulders, asking, "Shaan, what happened? Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

Hurriedly, Shaan replied, "I'm okay, Aunt. I'm alright. Can you stop shaking me?"

Aunt calmed down, and when Shaan looked around, people had gathered. Neighbors wanted to soothe him and find out what happened.

When asked, Shaan didn't reveal much, simply saying, "While playing near water, I felt a ringing in my head and suddenly lost consciousness," saying nothing about the old man.

His experience seemed supernatural, but the next day, he learned the old man had died in a random street in the village. This made him rethink his encounter, realizing the old man met an unfortunate end.

He reforged story as it suited understanding, he thought the old man had hit him on head, possibly trying to rob. The dream of starry sky he felt is was his imagination, and the old man's erratic behavior couldn't be explained as it seemed his mind wasn't stable.

Except that there were none in his life that associated with something supernatural or out of laws of physics took place.

This incident left a deep impression on Shaan, reinforcing his belief in the uncertainties of life.