'Twitch'
'Twitch'
A small tender paw twitched a little as it hit some kind of gelatinous membrane. Its hind legs stretched out slowly in an attempt to feel out its surroundings as they barely landed on a gelatinous membrane. All movements subsequently stopped after that one attempt.
A long-time later, the hind legs once again stretched in order to feel out its surroundings as it landed on a gelatinous membrane. This time, its legs weren't fully stretched.
The same process repeated many times over a long span of time until finally when its hind legs touched the gelatinous membrane, some kind of external force slowly pulled its body forward. Its body naturally complied with the wishes of the membrane as its body tried to move forward. It struggled to move forward; its moving space was cramped and restrictive while its surroundings felt…strangely delicate to touch.
As it struggled to move forward, the force acting on its body also increased in accordance with its efforts and finally…it squeezed out of a squishy door and peeked out into a whole different world.
Its body slowly followed after its head and finally, covered in a layer of murky blood it lay on a hard surface. Its legs kicked in habit and felt its surroundings were seemingly…different.
Surprise! Excitement! Fear!
As it felt things that were foreign and incomprehensible, it lifted its heavy head and tried to call towards that familiar membrane to wrap its body in that cozy embrace once again.
'Aiee'
'Aiee'
A furry leg suddenly embraced its body while a tongue licked its face. It felt fear for a second due to the sudden foreign touch, but a familiar warm feeling slowly crept into its senses through the furry leg. It felt slightly different but also similar as compared to that gelatinous membrane.
'Aieee'
'Aieee'
Excitement! Relief! Joy!
The pup cried out, leaking its cute voice for the first time for the entire world to witness its birth.
After crying for some time, the pup slowly felt tired and began to sleep. The furry leg that had embraced it till now slowly moved it to one side, next to another similar looking puppy.
After that….. It was a long night.
-----------------------
As the first warm rays of the sun shone on its face, the pup woke up in a lazy manner as it opened its hazy eyelids and tried to 'see' its surroundings.
It felt weird to 'see' for the first time when all of its previous senses were shared to it by the membrane. The pup didn't have the necessary intelligence to comprehend the beauty and significance of its action of opening its eyes and being able to gaze into the world. It was barely half-a-day old.
There was another pup on its right that felt familiar to its own for some reason and another three on its left that too felt familiar.
Its body was no longer covered in blood but had a sparkingly clean fur just like the others; a mysterious phenomenon indeed.
The pup suddenly felt two foreign presences approach it. It felt curious, apprehensive and afraid as the two foreign presences stood before it.
"#$@### #$#$#@ *#$##$ @$!@@&*"
"!#@ $##@# ##@ *^*%%$ @#@"
"@$# @#...@ #$#....@! @#!.....od"
"@ # #^& @*&@#..wh..# #@# 5 ….al….es^"
"Yes … &^$$^ ... yes …2#$%& ..will …do … %&"
As some incomprehensible sound reached out from the two foreign presences and reached its ears, the pup felt confused before gradually, a faint trace of intelligence flickered in its eyes.
The feeling of intelligence was present for a second before vanishing on the other. But, after each subsequent flicker, the feeling of intelligence became more and more pronounced.
Two projections came out of one foreign presence as it touched the pup on its right a few times before another set of incomprehensible sounds followed after its action.
"#@$%^ % ...vitals.....normal... # %@#% ..."
Next, the two projections touched its body a few times in multiple places and performed many scary actions before retracting back to the foreign presence. Another set of incomprehensible words were spoken by the foreign presence.
The two projections repeated the same action to the three pups on its left after which they slowly disappeared along with the foreign presences.
Later, a warm presence hovered above it and the other four pups as it slowly licked each of their tender cute puppy faces.
'Mother!'
The pup cried out in its mind as a series of cute squeaks leaked out of its mouth in response followed by the hungry cries of the other pups.
'Food!'
A warm liquid flowed through its mouth for some time as it relished it with delight after which the pup stopped eating. It was fully satiated.
Eat! Sleep! Move a little!
This was its daily routine. After a couple of weeks had passed in such a fashion, its vision began to clear up, enabling it to see well. It could also walk for a few steps without falling and do many other significant activities. After a few more weeks had passed peacefully, its food changed from what its 'Mother' provided to another liquid that was offered in a bowl.
It was difficult during the first time as it struggled to swallow the unfamiliar food, but it was easier to eat from the second meal onwards.
As days passed in such a routine fashion, one of the pups suddenly disappeared. Two weird presences appeared and lifted one of the pups and talked in a semi-comprehensible manner.
"Darling! #$..... cute.. $^&%^ but.. #%^^& please."
"#%^&* okay..4 if you want $%*^% it should… % ^&%..."
Days passed uneventfully after that while the incomprehensible sounds were starting to make more and more sense as the pup listened to them regularly in its routine life.
One fine day, two more presences approached the remaining four pups and eventually lifted one of them.
"Ohhhhh! Choo cutee! Awww….Prakash!"
"No worries. I'll buy it for you. It will be your valentine's gift."
"You're the best!"
"Though it's not a tiger, it should suffice for now."
'Smack'
"Choo cuteee! Let me hold it, Anita."
The pup found itself being carried away from its brethren by the two foreign creatures as it wailed and struggled in their arms.
------------------------------
The purple snake with the head of a dog was as thin as a hair as its head slowly crawled out from the lead-acid battery and began to head towards the body of Shaggy.
As it was crawling back, its faint sentient eyes gazed upon the myriad purple snakes of all shapes and sizes drift out from the bodies of dead fishes and insects as they drifted along the water currents.
Some of the purple snakes had already dissipated into the water while the others were also on the verge of dissipating completely.
The dog-headed purple snake approached a dissipating snake and began to eat it up. It seemed as if the dissipating purple snake had neither the strength nor the necessary sentience to even mount a struggle.
Its body had a marginal increase in thickness while there were other paltry changes that had occurred to its dog face and snake body as it completed eating the dissipating purple snake.
The dog-headed purple snake then went on an eating spree as it readily gobbled up all the purple snakes that were in its range and patiently lay in wait for other purple snakes to drift into its range of attack.
Every time the thickness of its body progressed to a certain degree, it would slither towards the battery and burn the accumulated image fragments in its body as arcs of electric currents passed through them and eventually turned into purple electric arcs.
Time tickled in its ever-consistent steadiness as the long night eventually became day.
The dog-headed purple snake was still lying in wait for more purple snakes to show up in its range. It wouldn't stop until the body of Prakash could no longer store any more purple smoke.
There were many changes that had occurred during the night. Many parts of the house had caved in due to the turbulent water flow while the undercurrents had changed directions multiple times.
The body of Shaggy had eventually ended up on the surface of the water body while the dog-headed purple snake slightly opened the jaws of Shaggy to allow for breathable air to reach Prakash.
It had also gradually moved the battery towards a spot in the water that lay atop a pile of debris which was situated closest to the surface of the water body where the body of Shaggy floated.
The dog-headed purple snake had experienced significant changes to itself. There were innumerous image fragments that crisscrossed chaotically in its snake-like body and created bizarre shapes, actions, etc none of which would have made sense if Prakash happened to observe it again. Furthermore, its dog face was the one that had experienced the most drastic of changes.
There were sharp gills that grew on its neck regions with each gills being a mixture of thin straight lines that opened and closed in a consistent frequency. A thin hair-like projection grew on both sides of its nose and floated eerily in the water currents.
Finally, its face looked to be a fusion between a dog and multiple species of fishes. It had the basic skeletal structure of a dog but its two sets of eyes thinned to a narrow slit on the sides of its face, its nose further elongated to the front and was covered in numerous fins. Its ears had morphed to look like horns with a huge elongated hole in its midsection where a tiny valve opened in its interior that signified the previous ear-hole. Its mouth had moved further down and was covered with three rows of sharp shark-like teeth.
There were also many scaly patterns that adorned all across its body starting from its face and imbued a murky purple tinge to its tone. It looked grotesque to the extreme.