A trip to the sky

Long time ago, there was a king and a queen living in a forest. One day, the queen wanted to go for a vacation outside the forest. So the queen asked the king - "O King! I have been wanting to ask you something - can we go somewhere outside this forest? Like a trip?"

The king replies - "To where, my queen?"

"Anywhere is fine, my King! I cannot stay here no more" 

"Well, my dear queen, to be honest, it will be the same - the same mountains, same waterfalls - you can't feel any difference."

Disappointed, the queen walks away and reaches the nearby lake. There, she saw her reflection - not only that, she saw the sky!

The Queen runs back to the King and asks - "Can we visit the sky?"

"my dear queen, to be honest, the sky is very plain, what will be there to see in sky, my queen?"

"Till we reach there, we can't tell for sure right?" replies the queen. 

"But how can we travel in sky? We don't have any floor to walk and roam on, right?"

 That's true though - the queen did not know how to travel in air.

 

While the queen was walking at the night in the garden, she got to overhear the conversation of the nearby birds. 

"We really enjoyed very well in the sky right?" - says a bird. 

"Yeah, how poor it is that so many could not fly in the sky and enjoy its beauty" replies the other bird.

"But they do have to know the secret to fly right?" 

"what? there is a secret to fly?" - wonders the queen. She immediately interrupts the bids - "Oh my dear lovely birds, can you please tell me the secret to fly.."

The birds look at each other; the queen further pleads - "please - I will do whatever you want"

"Well, fine then." responds one of the birds. "There is a secret chant that you should say during the sunrise, that can make you fly just like us" - the bird whispers the chant to the queen. 

 ***

"Oh my king, I found the way to travel in the sky.." said the excited queen to the king. 

"Is it?"

"Yes, the birds staying near our garden told me the way. We just have to do a secret chanting during the sunrise and that can help us to travel in the sky!" 

 "That's great my queen! Tomorrow shall be our journey then!" declared the king.

The next morning the queen goes to the king and asks - "Oh my king, can we go ?"

"O my queen - you look so tired; didn't you sleep properly the last night? What if someone appears in our journey? I don't want them to see you like this. Tomorrow shall be our journey" said the king.

The next morning, queen asked the king - "Can we go?"

"O my queen - today is no moon day. It's not auspicious. Tomorrow shall be our journey" 

The next morning, "O my queen - I have got some important work today. Tomorrow shall be our journey"

The next morning, "O my queen - today your sisters are coming home right? Did you forget? Tomorrow shall be our journey."

 

After many such days, finally the queen and king both got free time. The next morning, both woke up and chanted the secret chant at the sunrise. They started slowly to rise above the ground. They both could not believe that they were flying above the ground. 

They were raising higher and higher - and the king pointed the queen in a direction - "o my queen - see that side"

Queen looks at that side and got surprised - it's the long gone brother of hers.

"Hey, sister? What are you doing here?" asked the estranged brother. 

 "No, answer me first? Where have you gone? What happened? What are you doing here?"

"Oh no sister, don't say that you listened to the birds in the garden and arrived here.."

"But that's what happened brother" 

"Oh no"

"What happened"

"Okay, I will ask you a question - did the birds tell you how to get down from the sky?"

Both the king and queen got shocked. "No" they told together.

"See? It's not just you and me, many arrived here and got stuck because of those birds" 

"What? Can you please explain in more detail?" asked the king.

"The secret chant - it's not the same for everyone - the length of the chant determines the....." he was saying something but the queen and the king could no longer hear him - they were going higher than him; they were losing him.

"O dear queen, what's happening here? I am not understanding"

"Me too king, me too" 

Then a bird comes by near the pair and told them "I will explain"

"To be honest, we have been flying in the sky but it was very boring. The sky has been long very empty and very plain. We wanted to change that. A few years back, we came across a book that has this secret verse that can transport anyone into air. With the help of that, we actually are trying to send anyone who is interested to the sky, so that - you know, it will be interesting for us to watch from here."

"What? Seriously? Common, the book must have some way to put us down, please put us down, I will give whatever you want" - pleads the king.

"Well, unfortunately, there's no such verse for putting down. You have to accept the fact that you are staying here forever." 

"Whattttttt" both panic.

"Wait, wait, actually there are some advantages you know." replies the bird in a very calm tone.

"See, you need not eat anything - you will never be hungry. Also you need not do anything. Even though you are staying very high you can watch everyone on the Earth. You will live here for crores and crores of years. You will always glow here. Maybe think this as a positive thing"

The queen asks "What do you mean by glowing? and also we live for crores of years? what happens after that.."

"To be honest, I don't know. Well, I think you still have to reach further heights.. please continue on your journey" says the bird and goes away, while the queen and king keep on rising in the sky.

After sometime, both of them stop rising further and settle in the sky. The king asks the queen "O my queen, what is that we can do now?"

"Maybe we can wait and watch everyone else coming here and everyone on the earth."

And soon, the sky ended up with full of stars.

***