Chapter 1 A Life of Comfort
Ayaan lived in a quiet town surrounded by fields and low hills. His life was peaceful and predictable. Every morning, he followed the same routine—school, homework, helping his parents, and reading before bed. He liked knowing what would happen next. Adventure existed only in the books he read, never in real life. Yet sometimes, as he stared out of his window, he felt an emptiness he could not explain, as if something important was missing.
One afternoon, during the monsoon rains, Ayaan helped his father clean an old storeroom. Inside a broken trunk, he found a thick book covered in dust. It had no title and smelled of age. When he opened it, a yellowed map slipped onto the floor. At that moment, the air felt strangely still.
