Hairy Seeker and the Dreamer's Stone

He looked at the path ahead. He wasn't sure. He wasn't sure where he was heading. He wasn't sure why he was going there. He wasn't sure what prize awaited him. He looked at the seemingly endless path ahead. Dusty and barren. He knew he was following the right path, though a longer one. Short cuts failed to please him. He was aware of his nefarious competitors who were precocious and truculent. They mocked at his imbecility to follow this route but his unfeigned devotion to the adventure shielded his mind from being debauched. He was behind, what people call, the Dreamer's stone.

The stone, precious they say, was the treasure everyone sought. He wasn't aware how it looked and why it was precious. But he knew he had to find it. He started taking the path that lay ahead. Soon he realized that it wasn't going to be easy. He often had mirages of the stone lying just ahead but the excitement was short-lived always. He heard voices inside him asking him to give up as this journey was created without an end. His body was seeking to end its allegiance to him as every cell inside him got enervated. It was then that he saw the monotonous road leading him to a small cave.

With high hopes and sudden burst of energy created from the air, which was redolent of something royal and priceless, he entered the cave. It was dark. He wondered how the precious stone could lie in an area devoid of any light. Only when he lit the candle he carried did he realize the truth. He realized the hard truth. One of his competitors had taken away the stone. He felt cheated for he followed the righteous path but the one who emerged victorious was the one who was manipulative and spurious. He quelled the only source of light in the cave and sat down accepting defeat. He stared into the darkness that was asphyxiating him slowly. But his preordained destiny had something else in store for him.

He lay there and lost all account of time. He felt his life had no purpose anymore. He couldn't return without the trophy he had sought for but the Dreamer's stone belonged to someone else now. With despair and ignominy of defeat, he started to head back. In frustration, he threw all his belongings one by one into different parts of the cave. Suddenly he heard a metallic sound, a sound suggestive of something else existing inside the cave. With new hopes, he lit the candle again and he strode into that direction of the cave and found himself facing a gate.

Being adept at solving AND or NAND gates, it didn't take much time for him to open this one as he entered a room which contained nothing except a small lump of mud in one corner. He had a prescient feeling that something was lying inside it, needing to be freed. 'Go! Dharma will protect you!' he was being cheered by someone he didn't know and couldn't see. Without losing any time, he started digging into the lump with his bare hands. He was digging into the deep sands when he hit upon a pot. The pot was covered with ash. Ash that never missed the eye after the first look. He cleared the ash with his dress and lifted the pot with both his hands. Something was wrong. His one hand was burning and other was freezing. Ice and fire on two halves made him drop the pot. It fell apart conspicuously revealing its contents. The sweetie fluid that flowed from it was encapsulating something. Something immaculately designed. A piece of rock. Or was it? As soon as he touched it, he knew it belonged to him. That it was waiting to belong to him. There was a sudden revelation. A sudden light emerged from the rock he held. It was transforming itself slowly as it left his hand and pierced into his skin in the middle of his chest. He felt no pain. In fact he was relishing the feeling of it penetrating his body. With a happy and satisfied mind, he started his journey back. The journey till death meets him, with his only companion, his only partner and his only belonging.

A year on, he looked back at everything. It was all worth it. The rock had got itself attached to his beating heart while the transformation that started in the cave ended. The rock was not a mere rock after all. Little did people know that inside his chest, there was a precious stone, more valuable than the Dreamer's stone. He himself didn't know what he had inside his heart but he knew he was happy. Happier than he had ever dreamed to be. The stone vouched to stay with him till his heart stopped, feeding him with enough pulses of energy every second. The stone is better known as a diamond today. He calls it cRyStAl, his cRyStAl…