The priest smiled as if he was expecting the visitor but didn't stand up or turn towards him. It was Liya who stood up startled and explained, "Oh… I was listening to the story behind the temple. Were you looking for me?"
"It's time to leave. Mother and Fariya have already left. Shouldn't you have at least informed me before walking around?" Yul reprimanded Liya.
"I… I didn't…" Liya was looking for words to explain but she was unable to say anything. Just then the priest said, "Since the busy persons have already left, why don't you sit here and listen to an old man's story for some time? May the child like it…?"
Inu got frightened on hearing Yul scold Liya though it wasn't intentional. So he wriggled out of Yul's hand and ran to Liya. Now Yul was the one caught in a situation. He finally agreed and said, "I will just wait here."
The priest made Inu and Liya sit down near him and continued with the story.
"So the chief went up the hill to find out what happened to his son. As soon as he reached there, a ghostly spirit appeared in front of him. According to his description, the spirit had a human face but two horns in head, long canines and fire coloured eyes. Instead of the body all there was some thick dark smoke."
Yul who was messaging Devin that he would be late, raised his head on hearing the descriptions. "Are you trying to scare the kid with this nonsense?" He asked in anger.
Both Liya and Inu were now engrossed in the story, so the priest said looking at them, "Not everyone thinks it as nonsense. Moreover it is just a story. What is there to be afraid in a story? Right my child?"
Inu nodded his head in excitement and eagerly waited for the rest. The priest gently patted on Inu's head and continued, "The chief was scared out of his wits and took out his sword to attack the ghostly spirit. But without a body what was there to attack? The spirit laughed like thunder which was heard all over Poonj. It then threw the chief's sword away and roared. The chief ran down the hill that moment itself with half the life he had."
"Then what happened?" Inu asked. Yul was surprised to hear Inu speak with such an enthusiasm. He had felt that Inu was autistic or something from his behaviour all this while. Now it seemed that wasn't the case.
The priest continued, "The chief then went back to the land he came from and brought back some monks to capture the ghostly spirit. But nothing worked and the monks went back defeated. Then a wandering monk came by and advised the chief to build a temple here to please the spirit. He also warned not to disturb this stone idol and to always keep this lamp lit here. That monk meditated here at this same spot for days until the temple's construction was completed and then vanished. After three days all the missing soldiers and the chief's son were found in the nearby forests unconscious."
"So what happened to the ghostly spirit?" Inu asked out of curiosity.
"He is believed to be here, in this cave, watching over Poonj and its people, as he has always done." The priest ended the story.
"Then what about all those figurines inside the new temple? Wasn't there only one mountain spirit?" It was Liya who asked the doubt now.
"At the wedding, when I saw you looking at the gods as if seeing them for the first time, I knew you weren't like others whom I told you about before. And that is why I told you this story."
The priest stood up and continued, "Like I said, people either come to temple out of fear or to get their desires. And as there are more fear and more desires, new gods are created to meet the requirements. That is what is present at the new temple now."
"Do you understand my child?" The priest asked as if to Inu, but that question was actually for Liya. By now both of them had stood up.
Inu nodded his head in denial but Liya asked again, "So what you are saying is that the real mountain spirit is in here and not the ghostly figures outside?"
"Seems your mother understood it clearly..." The priest said to Inu and started to walk out of the cave.
He said to both Yul and Liya, "What I am saying is that, we only see what we want to see. If we see the gods as ghostly spirits then they are ghostly spirits. If we see the gods as innocent children like him, then they are innocent children. It is all upto what we what to believe in…"
Liya and Yul could sense that the high priest was trying to say something else in between those words. But it wasn't clear to both of them.
Before Liya asked another question to clarify this, the monk said to Liya, "My girl, not everything you see is the future, nor the truth. Sometimes it is still the truth but shrouded in misconception. If you want answers, go and seek for it, but always keep an open heart. Because a true heart can move mountains…"
The high priest finished his words and walked back to his abode. Liya stood there itself like a statue because she suddenly felt naked even inside all those heavy dress. It was as if all her secrets had been exposed. She doubted that the monk knew all about her abilities and even about what she saw last time.
Inu was calling his mom to go back but she was still in a trance. Yul sensed something wrong and touched Liya to wake her up. He asked, "Are you alright? What happened? And what was he talking about?"
Liya came back to her senses and stammered when she tried to find the right words to lie, "Nothing… I… I … was just thinking about what the priest said. It wasn't making any sense… so… was just trying to understand it…" She somehow made it.
Although Yul didn't believe what Liya had said, he decided to let go for the time being. He hurried them back to the palace as they still had an itinerary to follow.