All over the land people knew that they were doomed; the sky began to blacken across the earth. But they knew they could do nothing now because they had done nothing to help each other or stand united against Dark Storm. They realised the terrible cost of fighting among themselves. As marked people they watched the sky with blank eyes, waiting for the storm.

But in one corner of the silent land a miracle was just beginning. Between the branches of a withered tree a lonely nest showed signs of life. From it a brilliant white bird, no bigger than a sparrow, with plumage that shone like an oceanful of pearls, soft and iridescent, came fluttering out like a dream on the bleak hillside. It looked, from afar, like a tiny, lonely white cloud of silken fluff on the dark landscape. Then this bird that shone like a pearl flew down into the ruined valley where once there had been singing and laughter and the sadabahar had bloomed, and where nothing now grew or stirred.

Circling around stumps and rubbish she came to rest on a broken fence. Here she perched and in her high, clear voice sang so beautifully that the only survivor of the village, a woodcutter, came out of his ruin and tried to see the bird from close. As he did so she flew to a high branch; he gathered up his only possession, a small handkerchief of uncooked dal, and followed her. She flew farther and farther away, over rocks and fields until she led the woodcutter far, far away from his village.

For three days and three nights he followed her. At the end of the third day the bird that shone like a pearl alighted on a tree. Before the leafless trunk and branches lay the ruins of another village Dark Storm had struck and destroyed. Seeing this the woodcutter stood stunned. Then he ran searching among the fallen houses. “Ohe, is anyone there? Is anyone there, ohe!” He was rewarded with the distant sound of another human voice, “I am here, I am here, I am here.”

He raced to the source of the voice. It was an old woman.

To be continued

Mala Marwah’s short story, Dark Storm and Bright Pearl first appeared in the children’s magazine Target edited by Rosalind Wilson. It was later published in the short story collection, The Carpenter’s Apprentice, by Katha, a Delhi-based non-profit organisation and publishing house.