Then something strange happened. As they chanted, something in the tremor and emotion of their voices scared Dark Storm. It was the strength that came to them from brotherhood and unity. Before long, it knew it was defeated.

Dark Storm began to inch backwards as the chanting grew louder and the people began pouring down the mountainside, led by Bright Pearl. Dark Storm had now begun to retreat with speed. Now it had travelled over three mountain ranges, now ten; now it was far out of sight. It ran far away, in shameful defeat, to do penance and to hide forever. It flew up to the highest Himalayas; gathering itself into a small knot of roaring winds that fought with each other, it waited many days for its troubled heart to quieten down; and then it became a hermit. As it meditated it turned into a lump of stone, which jutted out from one side of the mountain like an odd-looking rock.

And that was how Dark Storm was defeated and stilled forever. If you ever climb up that high mountain to Hermit’s Point, you will hear a far-off roar of winds faintly in your ear; some say it is just the winds on that rocky point. It is an eerie sort of roar, but that is all that remains to remind us of the storm that nearly destroyed the earth.

Far below, however, in the foothills and on the plains, life had long begun to return to the still earth. Above the murmur of people and animals Bright Pearl flew like an enchanted beam of light, while below the gulab and sadabahar opened their petals, and the first bees returned, humming to greet the beautiful day.

New story next week

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.