Bhakti Thummar
Kasak was fat, kind and beautiful. Now I know what you are thinking, “Another fat-girl story? HMMPH” You only feel pity when you hear these kinds of stories, right? But what if I say that the story is magical? How? Because I live in a magical world, the home of all fae, Crysorn. How do I know all this? Because I am the villain in this story.
She studied in a high school. She often got teased and bullied for being fat. But she never minded once, she put all that in a small, locked part of her mind. Despite being fat, she was really good at sports, she was not only the fastest girl in her class but the fastest one in her school. Now the day it all officially began, one of the kids had taken her books, and when she punched him to get it back, he screamed and said, “Hey stupid orphan! Your parents probably dumped you because you were so fat. Or probably they wanted to kill you, but didn’t have the heart to. Touch me again, and I will kill that sister of yours too!!” She walked away from there before she could break his nose.
What happened had REALLY affected her. She went to her foster home that day. Zakira was sitting on her bed, and that calmed her down. Zakira was the only real family Kasak had. Their family had left them in the foster home when Kasak was 10 and Zakira was 12. They had 2 brothers also, both elder than them, but they were back with their real parents.
That day Kasak had been hurt the way she had never been before. After that, she lost all her weight in army training and become thin within 3 months and was never bullied again. She became a spy for a detective agency, at 18, and she was one of their best and Zakira became a singer and had enrolled in a national singing competition.
Then came the day, when they sent her on a mission to the border of the country. They had sent her there to check on the border security. She walked down the perimeter and then she saw ‘IT.’
Now you must be wondering what ‘IT’ is. ‘IT’ happens to be a secret pathway to Crysorn. The shocking thing is that this pathway is glamorized, and would appear as a part of the border, when it actually was the rare entwining of the only 2 Crystal trees in the human world. She saw it, no shock there. And touched the hole between the 2 entwined trees. And obviously, as it happens in every single story, got sucked into the hole, and fell on greener grass on the other side.
Now, the thing to understand here, is that Crysorn isn’t much different from the outside world, just that the grass was a little greener, the rays a little brighter and the sky a little cloudier. What was different was that there were no buildings, no roads, no shops, all she could see was treehouses, and tree shops and even…. Somehow, tree bridges (from one tree to another, don’t judge us, it’s just easier that way).
She obviously thought she was dreaming and obviously had all the thoughts the heroines in the story always have. She tried to pinch herself…...blah...blah...blah…. the same old things.
Finally, the fae soldiers became aware of the breach in security and took her to the security general. Their first impression of her was quite dismissing, they thought she was a mere human, and were preparing to erase her memory and send her back when she said something that I laugh over till today. She said, “Hey, lumberjack, is that a wig that you are wearing? Are you a baldie?” I laugh till this date whenever I recall her saying that.
The security general, who indeed was bald, and indeed wore a wig, turned towards her in full on slow motion and looked at her again, and punched her. But before his fist connected with her face, she caught hold of his hand and kicked him in the gut. And the security general of the Fae, one of the most powerful people, yelled at her and cursed her. But he told his soldiers, “Take her to the king, she might be one of our own.”
Once she was taken to the king, Quor, he just wanted her transported back, but Kieran, the security general insisted she fight him, and she lost in the fight, but she’d fought quite impressively, keeping in mind Kieran had years of practice and was fae! Quor looked bored, but the man standing on his left, Krushi whistled. She looked up to see. And now, she was speechless, she was shocked in her bones to see him. She was so shocked that her mouth hung open. Quor said, “You two know each other?” Of course, he was the most popular guy in her high school. And her biggest bully, too.
The guy just yawned and said, “Yeah, I met her in the French boulevard market.” Of course, they hadn’t met there, she didn’t even know what place that was, and she couldn’t because he had made it up. She was just shocked enough not to reply at all. Anyway, the king told the guards to take her to the chief medical examiner in another ‘one of the trees.’ The medical examiner there confirmed, obviously that she was a fae, but according to her, Kasak hadn’t reached her primal period, and that meant that she couldn’t have developed the super speed, super hearing, super vision or any of the cool powers we have.
Now, her being fae meant news. She was taken back into the palace (which was a belt of trees together and a giant 3 story- tree house on top of it. Or at least that is how she would describe it.) The king was not surprised to hear that she was a fae, and he said, “Show her one of the spare rooms, and welcome to Crysorn, now the rules of this place and everything else will be explained to you by Krushi, ok? Dismissed.” Kasak just stared at the man, because as the cliché goes, she didn’t want to stay here, and had better things and a sister, etc. etc. So, she tried to protest, but finally Krushi just dragged her outside.
As soon as they were out, Kasak said, “Hey, I have a question, when you and your dork peeps hid my shawl, where’d you hide it? I still haven’t found it. And that shawl meant so much to me, so I’d really appreciate it, if you gave it back.” She wore that shawl everywhere “Seriously? That’s the first question you want to ask me?”
Krushi said. “Duh! I already knew I was fae, plus I also know what’s going to happen now.” “Yeah, you are going to be shown to your residential tree and going to be guarded heavily for next few days.” Krushi said.
And that shawl really does have a significance in the story. Anyhow, the story went on, Kasak kept quiet for 7-8 days and she settled down in Crysorn quietly, she went for practice with Kieran, the security general, they had become quite good friends. They went for dinners with his girlfriend, Kiara, and she practiced with Krushi, too. He was quite good at sparring. They sparred together now most of the times.
But Kasak always kept that ONE incident in mind. Krushi had asked Kasak out in school, and they went out for 1 month and then he had posted a video of all of her secrets and all of some of her moments with him, where she was the fattie, and he was the cutie. But despite that, Kasak and Krushi were getting closer every day, they were together most of the days.
Within the 7-8 days she’d been there, the other fae were also starting to like her. She fought brilliantly and Kieran was thinking of enrolling her in the army. However, on the 9th day, Kasak didn’t attend anything and was not seen by anyone. Now remember, Zakira had the finals for her singing competition? So, let’s just say that Kasak had found the exit on a very right time. Obviously, Kasak had been putting on the pretense of the acceptance for this, but she definitely had enjoyed it there.
Kasak met Zakira directly on the stage with Zakira holding the golden trophy. Krushi had followed Kasak out the exit. And Kasak whispered in Zakira’s ear, “I found it! Finally!” Zakira cried out and hugged her and whispered back, “When are we seizing it?” Krushi heard that. (Remember, super hearing?!)
Now, What I didn’t tell you in the beginning or in fact anywhere in this story was that, Kasak and Zakira’s parents were the true king and queen of Crysorn, and they were betrayed by their closest friends, Quor and his wife. They overtook the throne, and so to keep their children out of the war, they put Kasak and Zakira on Earth. Because their elder brothers were capable enough to be soldiers in the fight, they stayed in Crysorn. A civil war came, and their parents were killed, along with the eldest brother. No one knew about their daughters and no one knew where their younger son went. What they also didn’t know was that Quor’s son was also sent to Earth after his mother had been killed.
And how do I know this? Because I am Quor’s son. And that is not even the reason I am the villain. And why did Kasak whisper in Zakira’s ear that she’d found it? Because they had a plan of seizing the throne, in fact they had been planning it since they heard of their parents’ and brother’s demise. And they had a weapon on the inside: Kieran. He knew of the horrid deed that Quor had done and was on Kasak’s side. Now I knew of all of this going on, I was in love with Kasak and she didn’t even know who I truly was. In fact, there were only a handful of people in the entire kingdom who knew I was the king’s son. I knew the whole story even before I’d followed Kasak around. And at the time I owed it to my father, or at least thought I owed it to my father to tell him everything. So, I walked to the palace, knocked on my father’s door, and snitched out her whole plan to him.
Kasak, Kieran, and Zakira were arrested and were going to have their trial after a few days. But as usual, since good always defeats evil, they broke out of the prison and went underground. They were sure to gather supporters and the thing was I knew this time, too where they were hiding. When I walked in, I saw that the whole place was empty but there was a letter pinned to the softboard right beside her seat. The letter was titled ‘The History of Grapefruit’, it said-
“Dear Krushi,
I knew you would know I was hiding here, so I left early. The first time I saw you was through the window on your left. You were the only guy I’d seen who read ‘Crysanthemum’. I had not even seen your face, but I fell in love with that boy. Then, you asked me out, I knew about the whole prank thing even before you asked me out, I overheard you in the playground. But I said yes, because I wanted to see if that boy was still somewhere in there. Then you released that video, and I knew he wasn’t. When I saw you in Crysorn again, I fell in love with you for the second time. Then you asked me if I saw us together ever again and I didn’t reply. I knew you were following me everywhere I went; I knew you knew my plan, I wanted to see if the boy who said that the stars were pieces of God shit was still in there. And then you told your dad, and I knew he wasn’t. It’s like you said in your video, “As if!! A prince and a pauper don’t fall in love.” So, I am sorry for believing in you.
In our story, you are the mango, I was and am always going to be the grapefruit. By choice.
Yours,
Kasak"
After reading that, I cried for the first time in my life. I was in love with her then and was now. I had hurt her then, and hurt her now. The next day, I proved my father guilty in front of the council, he was tried for treason and was stamped on by the fae citizens.
I officiated Kiara the new queen of Crysorn. 1 year passed, Kiara was a good person, but not a very good leader, and the fae were suffering from food shortage, when she was busy finding Kieran. They needed a good leader. And then one day as I was walking towards my treehouse, and I saw the café-tree-ia was filled with soldiers and they were all standing in a circle. Only one person handled the meetings like that.
Kieran was standing in the center of the circle. He saw me and break off the circle and came towards me. “So, what are you doing here, might I ask?” “Oh, the fae were complaining of the leadership and well, Kiara is my wife after all.” “Can you give her just one thing?” I asked him. “Oh, you can give it yourself, she’s also here. She’s in her treehouse.”
I knocked on her door, and she opened it. She looked at me with surprise. “Well, what do you want?” She asked as if she didn’t even know me. “I don’t expect anything, I just want to return something.” And I held out her shawl from behind my back and something flashed on her face, too fast for me to notice. “Princes and paupers may not fall in love, but you are a princess.” She took the shawl and said, “Thank you.” What gave me hope was the slight, almost indetectable roughness in her voice.
For the story’s end, Kieran turned out to be the long-lost brother Kasak and Zakira had lost in the war, and Kasak gained her powers when she fell from her tree house and was saved by her super-speed. So, Kieran was crowned king. He made me his minister and Kasak the security general. Oh, that baldie! (Finally, he stopped wearing his wig and accepted his bald hood) He always ends up doing the right thing!! Zakira alternates between Earth and Crysorn and is a highly earning popstar.
So, there was once a girl, she was fat, kind and beautiful and her words ended up saving a magical land, the home of all fae, Crysorn. How do I know that? Because I was the villain who was saved by the hero.