Chapter 6: The Flute by the River
Morning came the same way it always did.
Cold air.
Quiet wind.
The distant white crown of Mount Kailash glowing under the rising sun.
Arjun woke before anyone else.
He ran with his father.
Just like every morning.
Step after step across the narrow dirt road.
Breath in.
Breath out.
The energy from Kundalini moved slowly through his body, warming his muscles.
By the time the run ended, sweat covered his back.
His father nodded once.
“Good.”
Training finished.
Morning passed.
The village returned to its normal rhythm.
But Arjun’s mind was somewhere else.
The mountain.
The wind.
That impossible moment yesterday.
Had he really done that?
Or had it been luck?
Or worse…
a mistake.
By afternoon he walked to the river.
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The same quiet place where he practiced every day.
Water moved gently around the stones.
Calm.
Patient.
Arjun sat down.
“Okay,” he muttered.
“Let’s try again.”
He raised his hand.
Focused.
Move.
Nothing.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
The water ignored him completely.
Again.
Nothing.
Ten tries.
Twenty.
Thirty.
The sun slowly moved across the sky.
Fifty tries.
Seventy.
Eighty.
One hundred.
The water didn’t move even a single drop.
Arjun lowered his hand slowly.
“…seriously?”
Yesterday he had destroyed part of a mountain.
Today he couldn’t move a cup of water.
He tried the wind next.
He remembered the sword swing.
The pressure.
The storm.
He copied the movement again.
Nothing happened.
Just normal air.
No wind.
No magic.
Arjun sat down heavily on the grass.
“Maybe… I imagined it.”
The thought felt heavy in his chest.
Maybe the blessings of Shiva and Vishnu had never been real.
Maybe the system.
The energy.
The power.
Maybe it was all just his imagination.
He stared at the slow river current.
For the first time in a long while…
he felt tired.
Really tired.
Then suddenly a memory appeared in his mind.
A voice.
Loud.
Defiant.
Something he had once heard in his previous life while watching Black Clover.
The words echoed clearly inside his head.
If you dare to give up now…
then don’t you ever talk about your dreams again.
Arjun blinked.
The voice continued.
If being born without magic is your excuse to stop…
then you're insulting every drop of sweat you've shed.
Arjun slowly clenched his fists.
The voice grew stronger.
My magic isn’t something I was born with.
It’s not something a god or a system handed to me.
My magic…
…is the fact that no matter how many times I fall—
I stand back up.
Arjun inhaled slowly.
“…never giving up.”
He stood again.
Raised his hand.
“Fine.”
“Let’s start again.”
He tried to move the water.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
Again.
Still nothing.
But this time he didn’t stop.
Fail.
Try again.
Fail.
Try again.
The sun moved lower in the sky.
His arms started shaking from exhaustion.
Still he tried.
Then something peaceful interrupted the moment.
A cow slowly walked down to the river.
It lowered its head and began drinking water calmly.
Arjun watched it quietly.
The animal didn’t force the river.
Didn’t command it.
It simply… existed beside it.
Then another sound appeared.
Soft.
Gentle.
A melody.
The quiet music of a flute.
The notes floated across the river like drifting leaves.
Arjun turned slowly.
Someone was standing farther down the riverbank.
A simple traveler.
Clothes plain.
Eyes calm.
The flute resting lightly in his hands.
The melody felt… strangely peaceful.
The wind itself seemed to listen.
Far above the sky, the eternal preserver of the universe smiled softly.
Because once again…
Vishnu had arrived.
Not as a king.
Not as a god.
Just a traveler with a flute.
And the next chapter of Arjun’s life had quietly begun.
End of Chapter 6
