For five years, she had been watching his son grew. Even now, the cruel time was fleeing

"Haider, now, time for you to practice your meditation. Yes, that is good. raise your feet a bit. Very good, now continue breathing in and out like that until i tell you to stop."

Reena watched the way her son was sitting down with his eyes closed, breathing in and out, practicing the astral primal breathing technique, her heart was filled with abundant joy and a bit of sadness. Their beautiful moments together seemed to be accelerated, time flew by too quickly. Haider was already five. Five! How quickly days pa.s.sed by. And he even looked twice his age.

His strength was immense for his age. He was growing up fast and strong, too fast and too strong. The amount of Chi in his body is really frightening. He needed to be properly nurtured. An astrayed mind was a sickness to the body and danger to the sorroundings. They had decided to only teach him meditation, basic Chi sensing and farming until he was six before teaching him martial arts, mystical arts and cultivation technique. His mind needed to be tempered from a very young age. The mind held the power of imagination, recognition, and appreciation, and was responsible for processing feelings and emotions, resulting in att.i.tudes and actions.

The mind was what we were, the body was the tool.

Tempering the heart attuned it to the universe. A true oneness with the universe was to stimulate and adjust the mind to embrace the truth of the universe. The Dao of the universe, the very dharma of the cosmos had one simple, yet, complex truth. Only a tempered heart or mind could gain this knowledge. Tempering the heart to be humble.

Humility. A demeanor of humility was exactly what was needed to live in oneness and harmony with oneself and all ent.i.ties. The apprehension that you had nothing special that made you better than the others, just a grain in an ocean of sand, not even a speck in the universe, would greatly help towards being one with the universe in the true way.

"With the way he's growing fast in strength, his heart needs to be framed to be free of pride and arrogance. They are destructive distractions."

Reena closed her eyes and continued practicing her meditation. As an Asura, she could see what was happening around their hill-cave and the village, she could see her son still closing his eyes and breathing in and out. She decided to leave him for a while.

Aodh was preparing to go to the farm when he saw his daughter and grandson. He was a grandfather, yes, a grandfather.

"How's my grandson doing? Good?"

"Grandpa! Yes, good. I was meditating."

"Brilliant." Aodh picking up his grandson in a swirl. "i can't even stand properly carrying you. Very soon, you will be the one carrying me."

"Grandpa!"

"Hehe." Aodh laughed with his head thrown back. Turning to his daughter who was grinning widely.

"How's my daughter too? "

"I'm well, father. You look great yourself, especially in those old farm clothes."

"What's better than the joys of a simpler, farming lifestyle?" He asked while putting down his grandson.

"The joys of your daughter and grandson?"

"I was talking about lifestyle Reena, not my daughter and son." Aodh answered with a long suffering sigh.

He shook his head at Reena's broad happy smile.

"Do you want to follow me to the farm today, Haider?"

"Yes, grandpa. I want to go. See you later, mother." Haider happily followed his grandfather outside.

"See you too." She looked at their back and shook her head. "Time is really moving fast. He's growing up very fast. He spends less and less time with his mother, no longer his mother's alone. Sooner or later, he will leave to explore the world. Life. I need to spend more time with him before then."

She went looking for her mother.

Meanwhile.

On the farm, Aodh and his grandson, Haider were putting straws over the millet.

"Out here in the farm, i gain more enlightenment into the nature of the universe. Everytime i'm here, i view same thing from different perspective. When you achieve different perspective, you can arrive at a true perspective."

"Haider, look at the millet. What do you see?"

"I see crops, grandfather.

"Anything else? Look closely."

"Grains?"

"Mhm. Crops, grains, when you look at their appearance. Now, if you don't look at their appearance, what do you see?"

"Hmmmm, i'm not really sure about that, grandpa."

"Life, Haider, life. These crops you see, are living things. When they are planted and nurtured, they grow. After a time, they are harvested to serve as food. Source of life. They live to serve as source of life to the living. When you walk through them, you feel the peace coming from them. But, they never raised their heads towards creation to beat their chests. What do you see from this?"

"Ahh, yes grandpa. I understand now. They are humble "

"Aha. You are wiser than your age. Yes, humility. It takes an humble mind to open itself to the universe and accept the knowledge of the universe. Yes, we eat the crops, but does that mean we are more significant than them? We are all part of one universe, no live is greater than the other. Pride, arrogance, greed, prejudice, malice are diseases of the mind. Their cloud shrouds the mind from the true nature of the universe."

He beamed inside and continued.

"I am truly blessed to have you as my grandson. Always remember this, although this universe is infinite, it values an humble mind."

"Grandpa, i promise, i will always remember."

Aodh stopped mulching the millet, regarded his grandson and smiled. "Good, that's my grandson. Now let's wrap up the work here and check the goats."

As the sun was disappearing below the horizon, they were walking towards the cave.

After cleaning their bodies, they sat down to eat. They had plenty to eat and plenty goat milk to drink.

"How is your day in the farm with your grandpa?" Asked Reena,

"It was great mother, grandpa taught me many things."

"I trust him to do that. Your grandfather is the wisest man i've ever seen. His words are treasures. Don't forget what he taught you. Anything you might want to teach me too?" Euanthe

"To be humble."

"Oh yes, you need to be. Before you start thinking you are the primordial king of the universe."

Euanthe laughingly joked.

They all laughed heartily

After they all had their fills of the food and the table tidied.

"Haider come with me."

"Yes, grandma."

Haider walked with her grandmother to the outside of the cave. Euanthe held Haider's hand and with two steps arrived at the top of the knoll. It was a flat top knoll. There were four stone stools placed here. Sometimes, the family gathered here to spend their time together in the grace of nature. To the front right part of the land was the millet farm, to the front left part waa the goat farm, to the small rear right part was the practice area and to the other was the pond.

"I know you've been here many times and you have seen the landscape many times. Today i want you to enjoy the scenery in a different way. Your grandfather already taught you about humility. The farms showed you to claim nothing about your talents or any other benefits you have above others, but rather consider them to be the grace and gifts of creation."

Euanthe looked at her grandson compa.s.sionately

"There are three things i want you to keep in your mind. Humility, courage and discipline. It takes courage to show humility. Courage to know when you are wrong, courage to ask for help, courage to seek advice, courage to open your heart to learn. Courage to know when, how and why to stand up for yourself and for others. Courage to help you respect the lives of others. Look at the practice area, that is where we train in martial arts and mystical arts. We practice them to be able to defend ourselves and people we care about, still, they are arts that can take lives. It takes courage to NOT take lives of people even your enemies. All lives are precious. Discipline will let you keep these in your mind. Discipline your mind not to forget all these."

"Thank you grandma, i won't forget them, i promise."

Moving towards one of the stone stools, Euanthe glanced at her grandson and gestured towards the stools.

"Come and have a seat."

She took out a mug of milk and two cups from her spatial sac. The mug was inscribed with runes to prevent milk from getting spoilt. She filled the two cups and gave one to him.

"Thank you grandma, that's why i love you." Said Haider, eyes and nose crinkling.

"Aha." Euanthe grinning widely with eyes on her grandson.

"I have a gift for you, i bought it for you in advance before you were born." She took out the crystal paG.o.da and gave it to her grandson.

"This is beautiful grandma, what is it?" Haider asked curiously.

"A crystal paG.o.da. PaG.o.das are used for meditation. They calm the mind to frame it for meditation. But, this one is different or told so. It's a gate to seven realms. They are filled with different amazing treasures. All you need to do is to continue meditating in the prescence of the paG.o.da, anywhere you are, and the gate to the seven realms with treasures will open to you."

Haider was jawed. He was staring with raised eyebrows at the paG.o.da. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Seven realms! Treasures! He was only five years old, but his grandma already placed a huge responsibility on him. He set his jaws tight and with a grim, determined face, he raised his head, He gleamed at his grandmother and fell to his knees and bowed his head.

"Thank you grandma, i won't disappoint you. I promise to work hard."

"I know. A step at a time. I'm already very happy with you."

Time flew fast.

Before they knew it, they had spent two hours on the knoll top. It was time to back. They left the top and arrived at the cave entrance in a blink. iHaider went to his room, sat in a lotus position, crunched a blue crystalline in his mouth and started meditating with the crystal paG.o.da placed in his front.

Euanthe went to look for the others. She found them in the cultivation chamber.

"He is ready." Euanthe nodded her head.

"His mind is truly remarkable. A very patient and recieving heart, ahead of its normal capacity." Aodh smilingly agreed.

"You are my parents, if you agreed, i agreed too. And his body is so full of Chi already."

They all agreed to start his training the following day.

That night, Haider dreamt of lights. Aetherel lights of many colours

The following morning, he woke up with his hand holding the crystal paG.o.da firmly to his chest. He couldn't remember when he fell asleep and how he was still holding the paG.o.da in his hands.

He cleaned his mouth with a willow twig soaked in salt water, washed his face and dressed up.

"Good morning mother, grandma, grandpa."

"Good morning son."

"Good morning to our grandson." His grandparents responded in unison.

"Did you sleep well?" Asked Reena with a raised brow and amused look

"I slept well, i even dreamt of light, beautiful lights."

"That was a peaceful mind, a clear mind."

"Meditation unlocks the mind. It's truly like beautiful lights. Very peaceful indeed."

"We have something important to tell you, your training will be starting today." Said Aodh with a bright smile.

"We will be taking turn to train you on Chi cutivation, martial art and mystical art." Euanthe quipped in.

"After eating your breakfast, you will follow your grandpa for your martial art training. After your martial training, you will follow your grandma for your mystical art training. When you are through with your grandma, you will come with me for your Chi cultivation."

Haider felt like his heart would explode. He looked at his mother and grandparents with teary eyes. He tilted back his head with a yell.

"YES!"

Then fell to his knees. He too would one day be like father, flying on a sword. He would be like his grandma, walking on air. And he would be like his mother with flowers of feathers.

"I will work very hard. I won't disappoint you."