Chapter 1 – The Adventure Begins

Thivim was a small town. The town was beautiful and quiet. There were small mountains covered with thick jungles, where a small river flowed peacefully. Once, a group of friends – Samar, Anthony, Hanumant, Peter and Krishnan came to the town. Peter said, “Ah! What a beautiful place it is, just the right place to have a picnic”. They decided to explore the jungle and the mountains. They saw a small shop selling knick-knacks just close to the road, beyond which the forest area started. An old man was managing the same. They bought some food for their trip from him. The old man enquired to as to where they were going. They informed him about their plan. The old man looked worried and said, “Please don’t go to the jungle cave. It is not safe”. The group was stunned, they asked the old man, “But why we can’t go there?” “The cave is a mysterious place. They say that there is an arrow, from the Mahabharata era, inside the cave which is protecting something. Anyone who goes inside the cave comes back very scared, unable to do anything for months after the return. No one is in a position to tell exactly what happened inside the cave”, the old man replied.

The group laughed off. They felt that this was just an old story, made by the people of the town, to add some mystery to their town.  “Where is the cave?” the group asked. The old man realising that the group was not ready to believe him or the story answered, “The cave is in the jungle. Walk a small distance upwards along the river and you would see a big mountain across the river. The cave is in that big mountain”.  “Okay let’s solve this Mahabharat era mystery”, the group excitedly announced.

They entered the forest area and after sometime found the river, flowing gently. They started walking upwards. The forest was getting denser and thicker, the flow of the river was also changing, it was no more the peaceful river they saw a few kilometres away. It was difficult walking in the dense forest area. Soon they saw a big mountain covered with large trees. The river here had now turned angry, the flow was heavy and there were many boulders. There was no bridge to cross the river. With great difficulty they somehow crossed the river. The group was now wet and very tired. They decided to rest for some time and then move ahead. The forest covering the mountain was thicker than what they had seen across the river. The trees were very tall and it was dark as sunlight was not able to penetrate easily.

The group was confused, the mountain was tall, the forest dense, how would they ever find the cave? They started to search for the cave. Soon they saw an opening in the mountain, yes, this was the cave. To reach the cave, they had to climb up, a very tiring activity indeed. “Let’s not waste any more time and go inside the cave”, Samar said. Everyone agreed and entered the cave. The cave was dark and was filled with a strange musty smell. There was a feeling of doom all around. After some time their eyes adjusted to the darkness and they could move ahead on a narrow passage.

Suddenly, they were attacked by arrows. Only by running fast were they able to save themselves. The attack ended.  The group was now out of breath, they sat down. “It looks as if there are many security levels in this cave, there could be something precious hidden here, let’s find it”, Hanumant said. They all agreed and started moving ahead. There was some light coming in the passage now, probably sunlight coming from some openings in the mountain. The passage soon came to an end, there was huge gorge ahead. To move forward, they had to cross the old, rickety bridge which was standing sadly, joining the two sides. They carefully started walking on the bridge. Horror of horror, the bridge started breaking. They ran fast and crossed the bridge. The moment they crossed, the bridge crumbled away. The group was now badly shaken, but was still determined to solve the mystery.

This place looked safer, the passage was wider and there was some light. They carefully walked ahead. To their surprise, they saw a water body. “A lake inside a mountain?” The lake was dark green in colour and looked very deep. Hanging like ropes on the lake, were some tree roots. The group decided to use these roots as ropes to cross the lake. They started swinging from the ropes, copying their ape ancestors. It was not easy, soon their hands got sore and started hurting. They were now losing their grip, but they put all their efforts and crossed the lake.

The group decided to rest for some time. They drank some water and had some food. Their resources were depleting. Samar decided to check the taste of water of the lake. Thankfully the taste was fine.  Though still doubtful, because of the colour, he decided to fill some bottles they had emptied with this water. They started the trip ahead. The passage ended abruptly. There was a strange door ahead. They tried with all their might to open the door but couldn’t. The door had differently shaped stones embedded in it, which looked like some code. Krishnan, who was fond of cracking codes and solving puzzles on computer, decided to give it a try; soon his hands started moving fast, as if he was working on a computer. Krishnan finally cracked the code. The door opened magically. They entered the door and saw a maze like structure. The maze had three entrances. “Lets’ divide ourselves in three small groups and explore the three entrances. If any group finds the right way to get out, they would shout loudly – we will find our way and join that group”, Samar said. Samar and Hanumant became the first group, Peter and Krishnan the second and Anthony was alone in the third group.

The first group could not find the way and the same was with the second group. Finally Anthony found the way, “I have got the way”, he shouted loudly. The other two groups rushed to Anthony. All of them soon came out of the maze. There was a narrow passage in front of them.  They decided to walk ahead on the same. After some time they could hear a deep gurgling sound, there was a small but fierce river ahead, which had an angry flow.  The group was now troubled with the thought of how they would cross it. Suddenly, out of the blue, they saw a small boat, tied to a pointed rock on the bank of the river.  “Let’s cross the river in the boat”, Samar said.

To be continued…