Amazonia...For Sofia!

The story so far…. In a chance occurrence, Princess Sofia meets a girl from the forest, Lily. The two become instant friends enjoying each other’s company playing hopscotch, drinking water from the stream and climbing a tree along with Lily’s three friends- Kaku, the bear, Chhotu, the doggie and Bahadur, the owl. When Sofia does not return to the forest for days, Lily and her friends go to the palace with the help of her gardener father in search and realize that the princess may be in trouble. (https://punctuationsandmore.blogspot.com/2021/03/once-upon-time.html)

The story continues…Lily and friends walked back to the forest without uttering a single word. They climbed their Jamun tree and started talking about things running in their tiny heads…where was Sofia…who was this giant with a sword…why was the Queen crying…what can we do….and then there was an element of doubt whether they should, at all, get into this mess for someone who they had met just once…..? Undaunted and putting all doubts to rest, Lily raised her fist and Kaku, Bahadur and Chhotu joined her as they shouted once more…For Sofia!

“We first need to find out more about what is the real situation at the palace and then we can think of doing something to solve the mystery. Bahadur, this is where we need you.”

Bahadur felt happy at being given such importance…"Yes Lily, Bahadur, the Brave Heart, at your service. Tell me what can this humble but brave Ullu do.”

“You need to get a large number of your friends together and at nightfall fly into every window in the palace to search for Sofia. With your super night vision eyes and sharp ears, you are our best bet. Silently observe everything, and relay the news back to us. Since your intelligence is high but memory short, you will need to organize your friends to sit on every tree available from the palace to the forest passing on the news from one owl to another. Your grandfather, Bada Ullu, may be asked to sit with us here to translate the tweets. Mind it, the work is dangerous as the enemy inside may attack you and your brethren and if the situation gets out of hand, send out an SOS (Save Owl Service) and abandon the mission. The safety of our friends is our main concern.”

“Well understood, Lily. You can definitely count on us ullus to live up to their reputation of dependability, intelligence and bravery.”

While waiting for Bahadur and friends to send the messages, Lily and her two friends felt hungry. Lily went to her mother who had prepared good food for all which she packed in boxes and went up the tree to eat together with her friends. It was now late in the night when the first tweets started coming. Bada Ullu started translating them logically.

Tweet tweet tweet…the giant with one arm, one eye and a foul mouth is sitting on the throne…

Tweet tweet tweet….the king and the queen have been locked up in the dungeon…

Tweet tweet tweet…there are many heavily armed soldiers dancing and singing behind the palace…

Tweet tweet tweet…Princess Sofia is found in a big hall crying with a dirty looking woman around…

Tweet tweet tweet…Bahadur met Sofia but the bad woman attacked him with a stick that emits fire….

Tweet tweet tweet…Bahadur is safe and flying back with the Owl Brigade….Mission Accomplished!

In some time, Bahadur returned to a hero’s welcome and a pot of the best rice pudding. It was past midnight and so the friends decided to retire and agreed to meet again next morning to plan Sofia’s rescue. Lily went to her father’s room to wish him good night. She saw her father kneeling before a big chest with his head touching the knob on it and uttering what seemed a prayer in a  strange language. She waited for him to complete his act and then went straight ahead and jumped onto the chest and asked, “ Daddy, what were you doing and what is in this chest?” Father tried to avoid the questions but the persistence of the little one was rock solid and he finally picked her up in his arms and flung open the lid of the chest. Lily’s eyes popped out when she looked inside to find the armour of a soldier, a straight long sword and a helmet with a gold coin in the front side, all kept neatly. She looked at him in awe and with her eyes asked questions to which he replied, one by one.

“I was a general in King Behroz’s army and fought many a war defending the kingdom. One day, a couple of years before you were born, we got the news that a Hongol Chief Ustinov was planning to invade our kingdom. I led a contingent of troops to stop their advance through the mountain passes of Hindu Kush. We were ambushed there by the Hongols but our soldiers fought bravely and almost defeated the enemy. I fought their leader Ustinov in a fierce combat and he was badly injured. He was left with one eye and one hand when he begged for mercy. Taking pity, I let him go. King Behroz got angry at me and stripped me off my post. I was to be executed for treason when the good Queen Eliana stepped in and pardoned me and then allowed me to work as a gardener in the palace.”

“Daddy, the Hongol Chief Ustinov is back. The evil man is back in our kingdom and has taken control of the palace, imprisoned the king, the queen and my friend Princess Sofia.”

And Lily then narrated her story about her one day friendship and the news from the palace as told by the Bada Ullu and Bahadur’s friends.

The sun was peeping out of the dark clouds and Lily’s friends were back.

“Dad, we need to do something. Why don’t you call for your soldiers to help us? Surely they can defeat Ustinov and his Hongols once again.”

“No Lily. My key commanders were also stripped off their ranks. I could call for them but what good can ten men do against an army of blood thirsty Hongols who will be no less than ten thousand. And let me also tell you something about Ustinov and his forces. They fight in an organized manner. Their archers first fire hundreds and thousands of arrows to destroy their enemies over a distance. Then their cavalry comes forward and chops off everything that comes their way. Ustinov himself is a great fighter and his main strength lies in a Witch Kila who drinks the blood of hundred animals every day and has supernatural powers. Ustinov cannot be beaten unless someone defeats the evil witch. We have no time to muster up an army to fight. These Hongols have a schedule to do things. Tomorrow will be their day number three here and on this day, they will do a public execution of the royal family, and then send the army to slaughter all the people of this kingdom including us before plundering all the riches here and returning to their land in the mountains for the winters.”

“Daddy, if we are all going to be killed tomorrow anyway, don’t you think we should give a fight before we go down? You get your commanders together and we will try and muster all our friends of the forest before dawn.”

Lily and her friends walked out of the house and sat under the jamun tree. The father, General Shahbaaz, looked in amazement at his little daughter and blew his horn which had a peculiar sound. Surely his commanders would be the only ones who would understand the meaning of the clarion call to once again take up arms in the service of their beloved General.

“We have no time to lose. Chhotu, you have to go to Sheru, Baghera and other fighters and tell them to bring all their folks before tomorrow morning. Tell them, this is not just a fight for Sofia but for their own existence as they, too, will meet the same fate as ours at the hands of the evil Hongols. The cats, the dogs, the bears, the elephants, all must forget their enmity and join forces for this one cause.”

“Bahadur, you have to get all our eagles, hawks, kites, vultures….. The Hongols have people and animals on land but we can surprise them from the air. The pigeons, sparrows and owls must be here tonight. We have a special work for them before tomorrow’s fight for survival.”

“Kaku, you have a special task.” And she spoke silently into his big ears hearing which the bear started giggling. 'Yes..yes…this will be good. I can get this done. And what will you do Lily?"

“I am going deep into the forest to meet Bon Bibi, the Protector of the Forest. If she joins us, she can not only galvanize our army but she is the only one who can neutralize the witch, who must be beaten, if the Chief Ustinov has to be defeated.”

Bon Bibi: Courtesy Internet

All the friends went in different directions to muster up Amazonia, the army of the forest. By evening, the friends met again and each one of them confirmed that their missions had been successful. As the palace lights went out for the night, a flotilla of tiny birds and owls flew in the dark sky. They entered the palace through the windows and grilles and under the careful supervision of Bahadur and his owls, dropped drops of honey on the quivers and bows of soldiers lying in the armoury and flew back.

Trumpets blew aloud next morning from the palace announcing the big execution day of the royals and the Hongol soldiers wore their armour as it would also be their big day of killing and looting.  A golden chariot drove out of the palace gates and in it were Chief Ustinov and the Witch Kila, waving wildly to the victorious soldiers. The moment Ustinov stepped out, his sight fell on a group of soldiers standing at the distance waving their glittering swords at him. Ustinov pulled out a long viewing apparatus and saw General Shahbaaz and some ten odd men.

“Soldiers, this will be the day when we will have even more fun. We have an army of ten people out there waiting to fight us….ha ha ha…ten men against our ten thousand….ha ha ha!! Just leave their leader alive for I want to kill him with my own bare hands….want revenge for the earlier defeat.”

When Ustinov again looked through the viewing apparatus, he saw a huge army of ferocious animals of all shapes and sizes standing behind the ten soldiers. Each one was growling and ready to charge.

“This will be a funny war fighting against animals….Archers get ready to fire….Cavalrymen on your horses and charge with all your power to crush the enemy to smithereens.”

The archers bent down on their knees and took out their arrows from the quivers and took air but before a single shot could be shot, the sky went dark…..completely dark. All the Mongols heard was a buzzing sound that got louder by the second and suddenly the archers were under the attack by millions of bees. Kaku and his bear friends had stolen their honey and later told the bees that their precious stuff had been taken away by the Hongols, who drank pots of honey. The bees could themselves find honey on their armour as proof. The sting of the bees was so devastating that the archers fled the battlefield in no time leaving behind their bows and arrows.

As the forest army started their march towards the palace, the sky again became dark. This time it was not the bees but the birds of war that had taken to the sky and were flying fast in a group formation towards the Hongol cavalry. No sooner had they reached a point, that the group broke up into three teams….eagles going straight, the hawks going to the right and vultures to the left and in one moment of clockwork precision, all swooped down in a majestic fashion and dropped snakes and scorpions held in their claws over the horses and the men atop them. The horses started breaking the ranks as the deadly snakes thrust their venom. The soldiers fell down and many were trampled as the horses ran away leaving the terrified infantry men all alone to fight the charging forces of Amazonia.

The forest army was now no more than a hundred yards away when Ustinov and Kila realized that they had been beaten. The witch now took out her wand and with a circular motion of her wand…swoosh…a circle of fire was sent towards the oncoming animals. The animals froze in their tracks and a fear ran into their hearts….was this going to be their end….but before the circle of fire touched them, a deluge of cold water dropped from the clouds above and drowsed the fire. Bon Bibi, riding her tiger, charged towards the Witch Kila and the forest army ran along with her to demolish what remained of the great Hongol army. General Shahbaaz and his brave soldiers, too, joined the hand to hand fight and cornered Ustinov. Kila unleashed her next weapon of poison gas that blew towards the animals, Bon Bibi opened her mouth wide and sucked in the poisonous air…Kila was no match for the Protector of the Forest.

While this battle was going on, Lily and her three little friends ran into the palace. With Bahadur guiding them, they reached the dungeon where they found no one guarding it with the keys lying on the floor. They opened the door and released King Behroz and Queen Eliana. They then went to the hall where Princess Sofia was imprisoned and the guard standing outside was no match for King Behroz who easily knocked off his head in no time with one swift move. The royal family held each other tight and started crying in joy.

By now the fight on the outside was over and General Shahbaaz and Bon Bibi walked into the palace with their huge victorious forest army and had the evil Kila and Ustinov in chains. King Behroz reinstated Shahbaaz with a tap of his sword and made him the Commander in Chief of the Kingdom. Queen Eliana decreed, “From this day onwards, no royal would ever go on a hunt and kill any animal or bird. The trees of the forest will never be cut down.” Ustinov and Kila were punished with imprisonment for life in a remote island from where they would never be able to come back. Bon Bibi returned to the forest with the animals and birds.

The next day, the palace erupted in celebrations. There were festivities everywhere. Kaku, Bahadur and Chhotu ate all the cakes and puddings they ever wanted while Sofia went barefoot with Lily to the forest to play hopscotch, hide and seek, dived into the stream without any fear of the fish and frogs and enjoyed the jamun and other berries straight from the trees.

And they lived happily ever after.

SS