Harsha asked Mage if he would come back with us and he agreed. I could see that he was worried, but since Harsha had Shantanu's blood in him, it was all right for Mage to obey. We reached the ocean bank and Harsha and I got ready to take the plunge. Mage stared at us, as if waiting for something to happen. "Do it," he said, shutting his eyes in fear. We looked at him blankly. "I can't jump into water in my present form. My body will start burning," he said. "But we don't know how to transform you," Harsha said.
"You have to kill me."
"What?!" we both exclaimed.
"The fi rst time you kill me, I will turn into a creature of the water- since water is where life originates and all things alive today were once part of the ocean. When you kill me again, I will become myself, a creature of the land."
"But don't you feel any pain?"
Harsha asked.
"I do. But I was born this way. I am made of several animals and two extinct creatures- the Giant Anole and the Indus River Dolphin. Shantanu had access to the genes of those animals and he used them to create me so that I could be transported to Anunirva."
"Okay…so what should we do now?"
"Light a fire and burn me," said Mage. We did as he told us, though both of us felt horrible as we watched his body twist and turn in the fl ames. And after what seemed like an eternity*, though it was only for a few minutes, the fl ames were extinguished and there was Mage- turned into a gleaming dolphin. He plunged into the water at once and looked at us. Harsha and I got on top of him and we bade Robin goodbye.
"When we reach the cave, we will not change Mage back," Harsha told me. I looked at him questioningly.
The oldest player for the 8th World Cup in 2003 was the Namibian skipper Jan
Leonardus Louw at 43 years 7 months. And the youngest was - no,
not India’s wicket keeper Parthiv Patel, but Talha Jubair of Bangladesh, who was 17 years 2 months old. Parthiv, 8 months older than Jubair was a medium pace bowler. 
