Into the sunlight

All 'fables' are our memories of events so far behind in time, that they are now too distorted to be considered facts.

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"You shouldn't mind them, Son. You shouldn't be scared". 

I remember mother saying this. She said this every night. 

I remember the raids. People, shorter than us, and weaker than us, drove us away. We went deeper and deeper into forests. We kept going until they stopped following us. Until we stopped scaring them.

We couldn't live on the ground. The forest thrives with animals we have never known. Grandfather tells me our homeland, many seas away, had denser forests, and stranger creatures. I don't know if I can believe that.

We live on trees. We had to decide between living with the tigers on the ground, and living with the snakes on the trees. We chose the trees. Snakes were easier to trap or kill, and only a few ventured near us. Slowly, we learnt live with them. We learnt to live like the monkeys, on trees, eating from the forest's hands, surviving in the hardest of conditions.

We seldom saw daylight. The trees canopied the ground. We didn't dare to step out of the trees for light. It was too dangerous. There were armies of people surrounding the forest, looking to kill us, weed us out of 'their' forests. Sunlight was a luxury. Our people worshiped the sun. The men who led our people, who fought for our people and who brought food for us were worshiped as the offspring of the sun god himself

I remember father telling me that getting scared and running deeper into the forests to live another day of freedom, was not the right way. I remember him making me go with him into the crocodile infested waters, into the dense swamps and forests in search of food. I remember running with his troops, with wood and rock in our hands as we avoided death at every turn of our way. 

My father was the quickest runner in the tribe. His troops said he ran faster than the spotted tiger. My father laughed out loud when I asked him if this was true.

"They like hearing stories, Son. They like to believe that I am the wind god himself. Imagining the wind god as their savior makes them feel safe. I run fast, faster then anyone here. Its not because I am the wind god. It is because I am strong, it is because I refuse to die as a weakling."

I wanted to be strong like father. I wanted to fight the armies and take my people to a place where sunlight was not a luxury. 

My friends laugh when they hear this. They say the armies belong to the strongest king of all lands. They say the king is so strong, he could lead his armies to the heavens and defeat the king of gods himself. His armies controlled the sun and the moon, they say, and when his armies came together, they outnumbered the trees in our forest. 

I knew it was a lie. No man could be a God. He can be stronger, wiser and more powerful than us, but he was no God. 

One day, I will go to his land and burn his palace. 

One day, I will fight his armies. 

One day, I will see the God king in his eye and tell him, that I, Hanuman, the son of the wind-god, a man whom he forced to live amongst the monkeys of the Dandaka forest, was here to end his rule. 

One day, I will lead my men out of the forests, into the sunlight.