Daily Times

Soon after the travelling historian left Mercusary, he found people talking about the demise of Syncaria – the nation that was dying near a great river.

The travelling historian thought for a moment that maybe tomorrow this nation too would become as successful as Mercusary therefore recording its history would be a right thing to do. It took him about a month to reach Syncaria. The kingdom was large though but was not planned at all. For a moment the historian thought he had come to the ruins of a dead nation, as everything was a mess. The living conditions of the people were miserable. However the nation was not dead just yet. A ruthless king and his clan ruled the kingdom. The king’s family and the king’s guards and their families were not natives; instead, they were the descendants of the intruders that had intruded Syncaria about half a century ago. Though all previous rulers from this clan were kind towards the nation, this regime however didn’t care for its citizens and didn’t even want to mix with them so much so that the king’s palaces were set on the highest grounds far away from the houses of the citizens; the kingdom’s citizens were living on the plains below the king’s palaces. The residents were charged with heavy taxes therefore even though they made good money, they were still poor.

The river by the kingdom was large and wealthy in terms of resources. The residents were into the business of producing clothes, running small industries and fishing. Some were also into whale hunting and whale oiling. There were surgeons, and teachers too in this kingdom, and they were the most respected ones.

One morning, the people that were whaling in the open sea, rushed back to the land and started running to the king’s palaces announcing on the way that a rogue wave was to hit the kingdom soon. That morning, all the fishermen had noticed that the water had receded considerably. However, before they could understand this, the whalers were already backing on the land and were announcing about the approaching wave. In the past decades, the kingdom had never seen any flood or rouge waves coming into the kingdom. Moreover since the rulers were not concerned about the citizens therefore no precautions were ever taken to prevent a major loss. However today it was different because the water had already receded and the whalers were coming from the sea so they knew that this time they would be affected.

One morning, the people that were whaling in the open sea, rushed back to land and started running to the king’s palace announcing that a rogue wave was to hit the kingdom soon. That morning, all the fishermen had noticed that the water had receded considerably. However, before they could understand this, the whalers were already back on land and were announcing about the approaching wave

The moment the whalers reached the higher grounds where the king’s palaces were located, the guards of the king started beating and pushing the whalers back to the lower plains. The guards killed two of the 20 something whalers. Undeterred by this, the whalers kept pushing until they were able to run past the fences of the king’s palaces and into the nearby forest. Within half an hour, people were able to see a large wave coming towards the kingdom. People that were until now not taking it seriously were struck by the reality. The size of the approaching wave was so big that it was already visible from afar. The faces of the people were showing their clear bewilderment. They were so shocked that for a brief moment, there was total silence in the atmosphere. The moment they realised – they all realised this almost together – that the threat of a rogue wave was real, they too started running towards the higher plains. Within minutes, thousands of residents of the kingdom were on their heels and running towards the king’s palaces. Men, women, children, sick, poor, cows, bulls, cats, dogs, ducks, chickens, goats and every other living being that was living in the kingdom joined the race. Since the whalers had already breached the fences of the king’s palaces, therefore the guards by the orders of the king had readied the catapults and the arrow men for stopping anyone that will come to the higher plains from entering the king’s palaces.

The wave was fast rushing towards the land and people were also fast running towards the higher plains. The fences and the doors that were erected from the hard-earned money of the citizens were closed on them in the time of need. Once they were within the sight of the king’s guards, the guards started hurling large stones towards them and hundreds of arrows were thrown at them too. Within seconds, many citizens lost their lives. Just when the citizens were losing their lives for running towards higher plains for seeking shelter against the wave, the wave finally hit the land. The wave was large enough and it travelled several miles into the kingdom. However before it would reach the houses of the citizens, its momentum somehow died as it was already coming from a long distance. However, the people oblivious of the dying energy of the wave were still trying to reach the higher grounds to ensure their safety. They kept fighting with the guards for hours and during this battle, hundreds of citizens lost their lives. The travelling historian saw that the guards were showing no mercy to the pleas of the citizens to let them go to the forest rather replied to their calls with aggression. On the contrary, the wave damaged very few houses and the water also receded very quickly. The citizens came to know about this only when they had already lost hundreds of their men to the ruthless king’s orders and decided to gradually move back to their fate ie to their destroyed houses, shops and businesses.

That night, there was a funeral in every house. Each household had lost a loved one to the brutality of the regime and not to the killer wave. That was the darkest night the kingdom had ever seen. At the funerals, the teachers announced that they have had enough of this brutal regime. If the rulers will not save them in time of need, they too should not live there anymore and be called their subjects. The teachers announced their decision of migration to some other kingdom. Many of them decided to go to Mercusary among other options. The surgeons were the next to announce their plans to migrate. Within few weeks, all teachers and surgeons had migrated to other kingdoms.

After a while, the citizens found their children roaming in the streets of the kingdom aimlessly and getting into fights with the king’s guards. When they would return to their houses with injuries, they would found no surgeons to treat them. Fed up with this situation, the fishermen and the whalers that were not going to the sea since the rogue wave had hit the kingdom also decided to migrate. Those that were the merchants of the sea exploits followed them. After them, it was as if all the citizens had decided to migrate. Every eye was crying when they were migrating to other kingdoms. The young and old all were upset for leaving the houses they had built with such love. Within few weeks, a kingdom that was once full of life was now empty.

Since the rogue wave had hit, the guards had not come to the kingdom. However after several weeks when they did come back to collect the monthly taxes, they found the kingdom nearly empty. All citizens had already left. Only few old women and some middle-aged men were there and were also in the process of packing up their belongings for the migration. A guard stopped an old woman to ask where are all the people were and the woman told them that a large monster ate them all.

The travelling historian who had been watching all this for a while also decided that it was about time to move on. At this stage, the historian stood up, he struck off the dust from his clothes. Gradually he started packing his stuff; he placed his pen in his breast pocket and the notebook in the backpack. He nicely folded his mat and stuffed it too in his backpack. Before finally leaving for his next destination, he took a long look at the kingdom, took a deep sigh of sorrow, looked directly into the readers’ eyes and said, “If only they knew and protected their rights!”

Years later when the travelling historian met someone who had traversed the route leading to Syncaria, he asked him about the kingdom. The fellow historian replied, “What kingdom, which people? There are only ruins in that place.”

With the people, the money too flew away; the guards left the king soon afterwards and the king’s family that was feasting on the hard earned money of its subjects was left penniless. The king died in misery and without any medication. The houses, the shops, and the businesses are still there in the way as if people had just walked out of them.

The writer can be reached at m.khalid.shaikh@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, September 17^th 2017.