Chapter Eight: The Forced Separation


Noshirwan, the aged warrior quickly assumed command. Ahead of his Rath and the others that followed, lay the vast ice chasm that had swallowed up the unfortunate ones. But they had not died in vain.

In the hearts of those who saw them die, there arose the renewed desire that they would surmount all the trials and tribulations that faced the Aryan race at that time. They would preserve the ancient religion of the Aryans, the religion of Ahura Mazda and see that it would never die out from the face of the earth.

This they would do, while there was blood running in their veins and the breath in their nostrils.

Noshirwan observed that the chasm stretched on either side as far as the eye could see. He turned around in his chariot and faced the Raths that had come to a standstill.

"My fellow Aryans! There is no time for us to loose. We must cross this chasm. Let us follow it on our right, so that we may see where it ends or becomes narrow enough for us to cross."

The occupants of the chariots raised their hands.

"We are with you, brave Noshirwan! Lead us on."

Everyone knew this brave aged warrior, and the feats of war he had performed on the battlefield. They knew he was a true warrior or Ratheshtar of Ahura Mazda on the side of good against evil.

Noshirwan whirled his Rath around. His wife Havovi and daughter Yasmin looked at him proudly from the back of the chariot as he led the Aryan Mazdayasni families on that day twenty thousand years ago. Horses neighed vigorously as the chariots changed course to follow the path of the vast ice chasm.

Snow and ice were kicked up in a flurry as the chariots went on for a time, and just when it seemed that there could be no narrowing to the chasm and that it would go on for eternity; the vastness changed and narrowed down to a mere two or three feet.

Noshirwan reigned in his horses and stopped his chariot, raising one arm for those following his chariot to halt. There could be no point in following the chasm endlessly, when it could be crossed now.

"Worshippers of Mazda! Now is the time. We shall cross over the chasm and resume our great journey southwards."

"However, it is foolish to risk crossing on our loaded chariots. Let us dismount and cross over on foot; leading our horses and chariots over after each of our families have crossed."

There was a hum of approval from the two hundred families that had come with Noshirwan. Then, one by one; the Aryan families crossed. The women and children crossed first; jumping over the three feet or so wide chasm; and then the men of the family led their horses and chariots over; at times lifting the chariot wheels over the chasm.

Noshirwan declined to cross over until every Aryan family in his charge was safely on the other side, shaking his head each time a friend asked him to cross. It was only after an hour had passed by, and the two hundred families had crossed safely across; that the last of the Aryan families prepared to cross over.

Yasmin and her mother Havovi crossed the chasm slowly, the name of Ahura on their lips. No sooner were they on the other side; then they turned and beckoned to Noshirwan to cross.

The aged warrior Noshirwan took the rein of his mighty Rath in his hands, and his horses were beginning to stride majestically towards the chasm when the unexpected happened.

Suddenly, with a dull roar, the ice beneath Noshirwan started to rumble. Yasmin and her mother looked on in shocked surprise as the ice sheets began to break away once again and Noshirwan stood in his Rath, unsure of what was happening.

"Father! Go back!"

Yasmin was running towards the crumbling chasm, her face crying in panic and then she jumped across the disintegrating chasm towards her father, disregarding the tremendous danger and her only thought for her father.

As her foot touched the other side, the ice broke away in a huge sheet and started to cascade down into the huge crevice.

Yasmin lost her balance and was falling away from her father into the hungry yawning mass of crumbling ice when Noshirwan reached out one strong arm and caught her by the waist; pulling her and himself away barely in time from the cascading danger rushing into the bowels of the earth.

Havovi stood on the other side, her eyes and features shaking in panic as she saw her husband and daughter on the other side of the awesome and uncrossable vastness that had sprung up in between.

She was starting to throw herself towards her loved ones, screaming out their names; unmindful of the yawning gap before her when her friends caught her and held her back.

The clouds in the heavens above, long silent spectators broke down and tears of their agony poured down when they saw what had happened on the earth that day twenty thousand years ago.

An Aryan family had been separated by the evil one. Loved ones had been torn apart. An Aryan wife who had never wilfully separated from her husband, an Aryan mother who had never let her precious daughter be removed from her eyes from the moment she was born; was now forced to let both her husband and daughter part from her as the Aryans families continued their great migration southwards.

If the heavens could weep, they wept now.


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