Decades later, when the valley children told stories by the river, they would sometimes say, "There was a man who climbed the mountain and became Aayirathil Oruvan." They treated it as myth, a tidy ending. Those who had actually known him would smile and say, "He was one among many who chose to live with purpose." And some listeners would feel that strange stirring—the same one that had nudged Kavi at seventeen.