Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2026
This haunting story unfolds as a confession from Saradiel, a Sri Lankan elephant master and outlaw, to Loku Hamuduruwo, the chief priest who has come seeking the wealth Saradiel has stolen over five years of raiding. Through Saradiel’s narrative, we learn how he became both hunter and hunted.
Saradiel was raised by his mother to master elephants, particularly the mighty tusker Mahasen and the fierce Jamila. After his mother’s death, he lived as a village outcast, eventually encountering Wilfred Miller, a British soldier with the Ceylon Rifle Regiment. During a Poson night hunt, Saradiel saved Wilfred from Jamila’s wrath, discovering the Englishman spoke fluent Sinhala and possessed unusual depth.
Their relationship developed into an intense love affair conducted in the jungle’s hidden places. Wilfred, fleeing from his manipulative former lover Victor in London, found freedom with Saradiel that he’d never known. Through Wilfred’s unsent letters to Victor, we glimpse his internal struggle between his past and present loves. Meanwhile, Saradiel experienced something entirely new—being loved openly in daylight, being called beautiful, having someone speak his name with tenderness.
The relationship gave both men hope for an impossible future together. But tragedy struck when two village boys—Kamal, the headman’s nephew who had helped Wilfred find Saradiel, and a young monk—were discovered together and executed by British soldiers with the villagers’ complicity. This brutal reminder of their world’s intolerance foreshadowed worse to come.
Victor arrived in Ceylon, demanding Wilfred return to London or face exposure. In desperation, Wilfred convinced Saradiel they should flee together to New Zealand or Australia. But as Saradiel prepared to abandon his elephants and homeland, he realized he would lose his identity entirely—his language, his mastery, everything that made him who he was. He hesitated too long. When he finally went to meet Wilfred at their rendezvous, he found only a note and signs of Wilfred’s body being dragged away—Victor had killed him.
Saradiel retrieved Wilfred’s body, stole money from Victor, and began his five-year career as an outlaw. But contrary to the priest’s assumptions, Saradiel didn’t hoard his stolen wealth. Instead, he used it to help other outcasts escape—young people fleeing arranged marriages, forbidden loves, or unbearable situations, just as he and Wilfred had tried to do.
The story concludes with Saradiel revealing he has nothing left to give the priest. All the money went to those who needed freedom. He dismisses the chief priest, content to dream of the impossible life he and Wilfred never got to share—a simple home in the jungle, domestic and peaceful, free from the world’s cruel judgments.
Lalini Shanela Ranaraja is a multi-genre creative from Kandy, Sri Lanka. She holds a BA in anthropology and creative writing from Augustana College in Illinois, USA. Her writing appears in Entropy, Off Assignment, Random Sample, Sky Island Journal, Transition, and elsewhere. Discover more of her work at www.shanelaranaraja.com.