The Pearls of Catharsis Times Issue 04, July 2017 | Page 20

Locklin was a rather lazy lad, he
was good looking and witty but
PHOTOGRAPH BY SOURAV
BISWAS
he did not like to work hard. He
often faked leg injuries and fevers
to avoid hunting trips with his
brothers. Until one day, when
his mother came from fetching
water from a village well, she
announced that he would report
for training at the royal house the
next day when the first rooster
cried "cock-a-doodle doo!".
Her royal Huntress had offered his
mother that she would have him
trained.
"Locklin! That rooster will not cry
twice, boy!" she yelled.
Reluctantly Locklin made his way to the royal training yard though he did not
intend on attending his first day of training. Locklin started running away from
the village, and headed towards the south, where he could bathe in the sun all
day and achieve a life with no responsibility. ‘I'll miss you mother,’ he said to
himself, ‘but I'll keep you in my memory forever, and that should be enough.’
That was one of the few things his family underestimated about him; his good
memory.
His plan was to disappear into the trees adjacent to the training courtyard. He
would take his bag from the bamboo tree which he hid there last night. He
remembered every detail so that he could estimate the time it would be safe to
sneak out. He memorised as much detail as he could; which direction the new
trainees would face as they stood to greet her royal Huntress and how many
she said there would be. What he had no memory of was Janet. She was not
there at his tour yesterday.
Janet was passionate about hunting. Not for the thrill of killing animals but for
the beauty of the forest that surrounded the village. She too had an eidetic
memory; she remembered all the birds she came across: their different