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Today we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2020 finalist, Amogh Kashyap! Amogh finished 5th grade this past school year. The story he submitted is called “Mystery of the Timeless Relic.” Amogh included his cover art as well. Check it out below!


 

Chapter 1

It was the summer of 2019. Vihan and his mom were visiting the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Vihan, an inquisitive 10-year old boy who loved history, was excited about this visit. He read about the museum on its Wikipedia page and had asked his mom when they were going to visit it many times since the beginning of summer.

At the museum, only two floors were open.  The third floor is under renovation, the notice board said. A lady at the museum’s admission counter told Vihan’s mom that it was getting renovated to create more space for traveling exhibits from China. They were giving out an extra day pass with each ticket for the inconvenience. For some reason, the third floor gave Vihan the chills. He could have sworn he heard a faint high-pitched noise up there but didn’t know if he was imagining it.

Vihan and his mom started looking at the exhibits in the ‘Indian’ section on the second floor. This section contained little to no windows but was still relatively brightly lit by ceiling lights. It was an oddly odorless place, for something that held lots of ancient stuff. There were very few people in each room, and they were spread out.

There were lots of exhibits in the ‘Indian’ section, ranging from ancient relics to sculptures to ornaments. There were exhibits lined up on each side of the rooms they visited with another two or three exhibits in the middle of each room. Since he was smart, Vihan needed only twenty seconds to look at each exhibit and read its description before moving on. 

“Slow down, Vihan,” his mom said, “we’ve come here to enjoy the museum, not to rush through the experience.” 

“Alright, Mom,” replied Vihan, rolling his eyes.

Eventually, Vihan came across the Shanti Relic. This relic in Sanskrit was said to be thousands of years old, and Vihan was looking forward to it since he’d read that it was unique. He examined the relic in admiration. It was an ancient Sanskrit manuscript written on a palm-leaf. It had a hole in the middle of it and it had jagged edges. Vihan felt like he was time traveling just by looking at it, picturing himself somewhere in ancient India, reading the manuscript. 

Vihan was actually planning to take Sanskrit classes but he just didn’t have enough time to. He only knew a few Sanskrit words but not enough to read or understand the scribing written on the manuscript. So, Vihan read its description underneath. On it, the rough Sanskrit translation states: Bring eternal peace to all. Restore harmony to this world. May the gods bless us with hope and joy. 

“Pretty neat,” Vihan muttered.

Vihan took one last glance and moved on to see the other artifacts when he heard a voice. “Hey! YOU! Put back that relic!”

Vihan saw that a museum security guard was shouting at him. Vihan was confused, but then he looked at the Shanti Relic exhibit. The relic was gone!

 “Excuse me, but my son would never steal museum artifacts! He would never!” Vihan’s mom was fuming. Vihan was in disbelief.

Chapter 2

The Shanti Relic situation got resolved pretty quickly (for Vihan, at least). The security guard checked Vihan and his mom’s pockets and belongings. But of course, they weren’t hiding anything. Vihan’s mom slightly glared at the guard, and either way, he apologized profusely.

Vihan’s mom checked her watch. It was 12:34 P.M. “Vihan, do you want to get some lunch?” she asked. They ate lunch at a nearby restaurant. 

“Since the relic was stolen, what will happen next?” Vihan asked while eating. 

“They will probably call the cops who will start investigating the case.” Vihan’s mom replied. 

After they both finished eating, Vihan’s mom asked, “Do you want to return to the museum or go home?” 

Vihan was not ready to go home yet. His mind was still hanging on to what happened in the museum.  “How about a library?” he requested.  His mom agreed since Vihan loved reading books. They went to the San Francisco Public Library, which was a block away.

The library presented a different ambiance, compared to the museum. It had rooms with high ceilings and large windows that let in a lot of natural sunlight. However, nothing seemed to interest Vihan at the library, because he was still thinking about the events from that morning. The library was mostly quiet with a few people talking to each other in whispers, but for the children’s section, where the kids were running around. Vihan could smell old and dusty books as he moved through the rooms. He and his mom continued walking aimlessly until they reached the ‘Indian language’ section. They didn’t stop because they were interested, but because there were about a hundred books on the floor with five people cleaning them up.

“What happened?” Vihan’s mom asked. 

“Well, this morning we saw all of these books on the floor in this section.” A worker replied. 

 “Who did this?” Vihan’s mom asked. 

“We checked the security cameras and we saw what looked like a strange invisible force searching and knocking books off the shelf in these specific sections,” another worker replied. “Interestingly, these are mostly Hindi books with a few Sanskrit books.” 

Vihan noted this strange occurrence. He knew that Hindi and Sanskrit alphabets were identical.

 

Chapter 3

Vihan felt that even the library visit couldn’t help him relax, so he and his mom returned home. Vihan’s dad was home and he asked how his day was. Vihan explained what happened at the Museum of Asian Art. “These things happen once in a while,” said Vihan’s dad. 

Vihan saw that his dad was watching the news on the TV.  What was on the news surprised Vihan. Vihan read the news scrolling at the bottom of the TV. It said: Strange activity at a local Hindu temple. A person from the temple was speaking on the screen.

“A lady came up to me and said, ‘Do you have the Shanti Relic here?’ Something about her seemed odd,” the temple worker said. “When I said ‘No,’ she started walking out of the temple and… it was like… it was like she was glitching for a split second. Like static. And then she disappeared. Some kids nearby said they heard a high-pitched noise coming from her.”

“Phony news,” Vihan heard his dad mutter. “Don’t know how they think people will believe this.”

But Vihan believed it. He thought of the strange occurrences he experienced and thought they were connected. He started making theories in his head. Vihan did not like things unresolved, and he was determined to solve the mystery of the Shanti Relic. 

Vihan then thought of his friend, Nathan, who would love to talk about mysteries. Together, Vihan and Nathan had solved a couple of small “mysteries” (Example: A case of missing headphones) throughout their friendship. The process they always followed was to note down all the clues, connect the dots, bounce off ideas, hypothesize, and see where it would lead them. But since it was summer break, Vihan didn’t really get to spend time with Nathan, unlike in school. Vihan went to sleep thinking about the clues he noted down in his mind, connecting the dots.

The next morning, he knew exactly where he wanted to go. He was ready to solve this mystery alone.

During breakfast, Vihan asked his mom if they could visit the museum again. “I didn’t get to see all of the exhibits,” Vihan explained. It was the summer holiday, and Vihan’s mom didn’t have anything planned, so she agreed.

When they arrived at the museum’s first floor, Vihan told his mom he needed to use the restroom. It was an excuse to get to the third floor (The restroom is on the second floor). Vihan went on the elevator and a high-pitched noise was growing louder and louder. When the elevator doors opened on the third floor, Vihan gasped!

Chapter 4

The room Vihan was staring at on the third floor looked like the one on the second floor. It was mostly dark but for a few lights, and Vihan had to squint until his eyes got adjusted to dim light. It had several artifacts and exhibits covered in plastic, but it also had a person standing in the center.

Vihan was looking at a woman who looked like she was in her forties. She had brown skin, but blonde curly hair. She was wearing a shiny blue shirt and pants, which looked more like armor than clothing. She was holding the Shanti Relic in her hands. But the weirdest thing was that the woman was glitching!

Vihan was in shock. He’d never seen anybody like that before. Vihan asked, “W-Who are you?” Vihan was shuddering.

He saw the woman speaking high-pitched sounds into what looked like a walkie-talkie embedded in her arm. “Great,” the woman said unenthusiastically, “I guess you followed the high-frequency sound. I suspected that this frequency would be audible to kids while can’t be heard by adults….. well, hello. My name is Chix Freweyar, and I’m a time traveler.” She looked like she was expecting him, but at the same time, a little surprised to see him.

“You’re a WHAT?” Vihan couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.

“A time traveler,” Chix Freweyar repeated. 

Vihan had a million questions in his mind all at once. “Where did you come from? Why did you steal the relic? How did you steal the relic? Ho-”

“Slow down, kid, and you’ll get all the answers you want.” Chix Freweyar said. She spoke to her walkie-talkie forearm again in another high-frequency sound. 

She covered her arm and said to Vihan, “I am from the year 2169. I am taking the Shanti Relic because it is going to save us. You don’t understand, it is more powerful than humans from your time realize. There is a secret code in its inscriptions that can help us restore peace and harmony. We just need to decode it along with other relics from across the world. In our timeline, the Shanti Relic went missing in 2019 and so I came to get it.” 

Vihan looked at her. “But how did you steal the relic?”

“It’s because of this,” Chix pointed to her clothing, “It can camouflage my body. Call it invisibility if you want.” 

Vihan looked eager to see Chix demonstrating this camouflage, and she read Vihan’s face. Chix pressed a button on her left arm, and Vihan couldn’t see Chix (except he could slightly see her head). A few seconds later, Chix reappeared out of thin air.

Vihan looked at her in astonishment, but he still wasn’t convinced enough. “Prove that you’re a time traveler,” Vihan demanded. 

Chix Freweyar stepped aside to reveal a machine. An odd-looking machine. “That is my time machine,” Chix said. “It malfunctioned just after I stole the relic. It’s almost back up and working.”

Vihan now believed her, but he still had a question. “If you knew the relic was here, why did you go to the library and temple?” he asked. 

“The thing is, I didn’t know. We don’t have libraries and temples in our time. Everything is on augmented reality glasses. Information is supplied when and where we need it.” A light flickered on the time machine. And then a bunch of light flickered and lit up. “It’s back up!” Chix seemed happy. “Well, kid, I’ve got to go,” Chix said to Vihan. 

“Wait, one last question!” Vihan said. “No offense, but why do you look so… different?”

“In the future, since there were fewer people on Earth due to global warming, religions and races merged.” Chix smiled. “Anyways, goodbye.” Chix Freweyar stepped into the time machine, and ZAP! She (and the time machine) disappeared. 

Just when Vihan was about to go back to the elevator, he stopped. He’d let her get away with the relic! But Vihan remembered the cause. She was better off keeping it. ‘But how did the relic go missing in 2019?’ he wondered for a second. And then he smiled because he knew.

Epilogue

Vihan arrived back on the ground floor of the museum. His mom stood there waiting with a concerned look on her face. When she spotted Vihan, she rushed up to him and said, with now obvious concern, “What took you so long, Vihan?” “I had a lot to let out,” Vihan said, hiding a snicker. “Anyways, let’s go see the rest of the exhibits!”

To this, his mom nodded, and off they went.

***

Chix Freweyar also returned safely to 2169. She traveled to her workplace, location unknown. It looked like something in the middle of a wasteland. It was barren; there were no plants, no trees, but only small shrubs. “Here’s the Shanti relic,” she said handing the artifact to her boss, Jox. 

“Good!” Jox looked pleased. Chix began to walk away but Jox asked her, “Hey, did you meet your great-great-grandfather Vihan in 2019? As a kid, he used to live in the San Francisco bay area. He was very smart. Grew up to do lots of great things, that one.”

Chix smiled.

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