The Child of Prophecy

King Harold was distraught. He had just received the news from his trusted advisers and his sorcerers that a prophecy was made that a child born on this day would grow up to become powerful, and ultimately cause the downfall of his kingdom. King Harold was an authoritarian leader--he was very keen on maintaining his hold on the kingdom for the rest of his life. He was not about to let a baby get in the way of what he had built up these last twenty years. It was not a hard decision for King Harold to order his top associates to take out this prophecy child. After many years of corruption and back alley dealings, Harold had accumulated some of the most dangerous associates known to the world. Many of his associates were not of the human kind--they were demons who sought the power and resources that Harold could provide. On his orders, the demons would do anything. So, when King Harold told his most trusted demon Panera to go to the village of Toruk Macto to find and eliminate the child of prophecy, she obliged.

It wasn't difficult for Panera to find the child. She traveled in disguise as a wet nurse and quickly learned that Toruk Macto was a fairly small village. The people who lived there were trusting of everyone, even outsiders--for they never had a reason not to be. Panera soon discovered that there was only one young baby in this village who could be the child of prophecy--a young boy that was just a few weeks old. Panera quickly charmed the child's parents, and soon was very close to the family. The child, named Austin, was months old by this time. But Panera was meticulous in her manipulation. She was searching for the perfect time to isolate this child, eat it, and disappear like the wind. Before long, the parents trusted Panera enough to designate her as Austin's baby-sitter. This was exactly what Panera was waiting for.

One fateful night, Austin's parents had traveled to a nearby village in search of some goat cheese, and they asked Panera to watch over the child. Panera gladly accepted this opportunity. After the parents left, Panera took Austin from his house and they walked just outside of the village into the forest. "After getting to know this child and his parents so well, I almost feel bad about eating him...almost..." Panera laughed to herself. She took on her true form--becoming a hideous figure that looked like a giant bat. She opened her mouth real wide, and plucked the baby inside. "Piece of cake," Panera croaked out loud. All of the sudden, the demon felt a burning sensation in her stomach. She looked down to see a lump in her stomach, Austin, crawling back up her torso towards her mouth. Panera felt the baby reach her tongue, and then try to pull open her mouth. The demon refused to open her mouth, hoping that the baby would tire himself out before conceding to being a meal. Instead, the baby completely disregarded Panera's closed mouth and shot through the demon's face at the speed of a bullet. The faceless demon disintegrated and the child of prophecy crawled back to his crib in Toruk Macto with a smile on his face.

Fortunately for King Harold, he had a back up plan in case Panera failed--a dozen of his demon associates were waiting on the outskirts of the village in case, somehow, the baby managed to return without Panera. Unfortunately for the king's associates, baby Austin wasn't finished yet. The demons surrounded the baby before he could make it out of the forest. Austin, unperturbed, stood up on his wobbly feet. One demon flew at the back of the baby's head. Austin instantly turned around and spit up on the demon. The demon disintegrated in a ball of flames--Austin's spit up was fluoroantimonic acid. Austin took the flaming, hardened demon remains and quickly reshaped the structure into a boomerang. He flung his makeshift weapon in a loop, finishing several demons simultaneously. The remaining demons tightened their circle around the baby, slowly inching towards Austin with their claws out and their teeth bared. Austin began spinning in place, until he appeared more a glowing ball of energy than a baby. Austin pin-balled off of the remaining demons, causing their spontaneous disintegration as well. King Harold had failed. The child continued on its way to his home, poised to do great things in the future.

Author's Note: This story was inspired by a story from the book Shri Krishna of Dwarka by CA Kincaid. In one of the stories from this book, it describes King Kansa, the tyrant ruler of Mathura, attempting to kill a child that was prophesied to slay him. King Kansa sent demons after baby Krishna, including the she-demon Putana who became close with Krishna's parents in order to kill him by breast-feeding him with her poisoned milk. Instead of succumbing to the poison, Krishna instead sucks the life out of the demoness, killing her in the process.

This story served as inspiration for my story. King Harold was based off of King Kansa, and the same goes for Panera being based off of Putana. I thought it would be really neat to right a story about a baby overcoming attempts on his life and being too powerful for his opposition. I made Austin bust Panera's face out instead of sucking out her life, though. I am very interested in using this story for my portfolio and adding more action for Austin to take part in. In the original story, baby Krishna killed more demons than just Putana. I would like to showcase Austin's powers even more. Also, I came up the name for Austin's village kind of randomly after I watched the movie Avatar. Toruk Macto was one of the names they used and I thought it would work great as a village name :).

Bibliography: Bibliography: Shri Krishna of Dwarka by CA Kincaid