Pallavi smirked. "Saintly people! What big sin did you commit? ", she mocked them. Sakshi and Vicky looked astonished at each other. "I was King Shantanu and she was my Queen Dhami", the demon said, pointing it's long bony finger at the shadow emerging from mother's body. "Hmm! So you were hiding inside the poor old woman's body. Who is the other shadow?", Pallavi snarled.
"There is no other shadow. We are only two demons. The other shadow is illusion created by me.", the demon said. "Hmm! So what is your story, King Shantanu ? How did you become a demon? Why are you terrorizing the poor humans? How did you get yourself locked in the room of small house? Tell me everything.", Pallavi said. The demon continued with it's story of hope, past life memories, determination and sin.
"I ruled my small kingdom with principles of dharma and justice. There was peace and prosperity everywhere. Our kingdom had abundance of wealth, food and shelter. No one was poor or hungry or homeless. Our kingdom was bound by laws of the God. After several years of contentment, my wife and I longed for a child. We had everything. Our people loved us. But we missed a careless laughter, curiosity and innocent mischievousness of our child. We wanted our own child.", King Shantanu reminisced.
The memories pained the demon as well as his wife's heart. The longingness of one's own child haunted them deeply. He paused to recollect his emotions for few minutes and said, "We did every possible to get the child. We did all kinds of rituals, yagnas and tapas. We sacrificed many things and donated wealth among the needy on outskirts of our kingdom. We begged every Gods and Goddesses. But our luck was hard on us. Maybe we weren't destined to get the child."
Sakshi felt the sorrow of the King and Queen. Tears welled in her eyes while Vicky calmed her down. She understood their pain as she missed being with her kids most of times. "Our royal priest recommended us to adopt a child. My wife declined the suggestion. She wanted to enjoy the motherhood of giving birth to our child. He also suggested me to marry second time. I couldn't do it. I loved my wife very much. I didn't want to share my love with another woman for sole purpose of the child. Later he suggested something unthinkable which seemed okay to us that time. We wanted a child desperately. We were ready to do anything except adoption or second marriage."
The King's eyes glowed with anger when he started to continue with the story. "I should have adopted a child. At least being parent to orphaned child was good karma than doing this sin. I was so blinded by the love for having my own child that I was ready to do this sin. As per my priest's instruction, my wife and I headed towards the forest, guided by thousand soldiers. In the forest, we were asked to bring the head of golden deer for the sacrifice. Had we known the repercussion of what we were going to do, we wouldn't have done it.", he said.
(To be continued)
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