"What?" Prakash exclaimed in shock when his body began to turn a deep shade of blue while a sickly feeling permeated throughout his body, further weakening his strength. One of the trio of pigeons rushed into the cave to swoop in on its prey as it saw the weakened state of Prakash.
"Damn it," Prakash cursed under his breath as he entered into a battle-ready state. He couldn't understand the reason for the failure in his transformation which made him fall into such a passive situation.
His perception of time slowed down and the actions of the charging pigeon became clear to his eyes. Gritting his teeth, Prakash clutched the floor on all fours as he posed like a tiger that was about to begin its sprint.
"Aaah!" With a bellow to rouse his fighting spirit, Prakash charged towards the pigeon and jumped into the air, intending to exchange one of his limbs in order to claim its life.
'Puck'
Unfortunately, his expectations proved wrong as the pigeon retreated towards the entrance of the crevice faster than it had charged in and joined with its companions. They patiently encircled the entrance to the crevice and gazed at his direction in greed.
A small pool of drool had already formed on the ground before the trio, but they still persisted in their wait. They wanted to exhaust the strength of their prey first before swooping in to deliver the kill.
"At this rate, I'll die. Instead of sitting here to await my death, I'll fight for my survival." Prakash charged out of the cave with a resolve to preserve his life, no matter the cost. Even if he were to mortally injure himself, he could nurse his body back into perfect health by taking a dive into the murky waters below.
The moment Prakash stepped out of the crevice and felt the rays of the Sun fall on his body that was now a deep shade of blue, his skin emitted sizzling sounds and instantly formed blisters. The blisters turned into a deep shade of black and popped like a balloon that was pricked, releasing a black viscous liquid that emitted a foul stench.
"Aaargh!" Prakash screamed out in pain as he felt like his body had been dumped into a pit of blazing fire that sought to evaporate his entire existence. His skin filled with blisters began to peel off, revealing the soft flesh underneath while a cooked smell wafted into the air from his burning flesh.
The burning odour of his body along with the nauseating stench of the black liquid repulsed the three birds to such an extent that they immediately took off to the skies. Even the Gharial whose body was crawling on the mound towards the crevice took a swift u-turn and dived back into the murky waters below. It scurried away from the location like avoiding a plague.
"Aarrgh," Prakash rolled on the ground in order to doze the flames but that act didn't help him in the slightest. It wasn't as if an actual flame had manifested on his body in order to burn him but it was more like his body was cooked in a microwave oven.
Due to the slope of the mound, the rolling body of Prakash accelerated towards the edges and eventually plunged into the murky waters, giving rise to sizzling sounds as if a couple of water droplets had fallen on a frying hot pan.
The burning of his body continued even while underwater; moreover, what was shocking was the fact that his body hadn't begun to heal yet. It seemed more like the healing effect of the water became ineffective on his body under the influence of this strange phenomenon.
Pain! Pain! More pain!
The skin on his body was the first to have been burned off, followed by the muscles that lay beneath it. Now, even his tendons and ligaments began to burn. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't control his sinking body, and his mind was a mess.
A series of barks, growls, images of a dog simulating various poses, and the swimming of a fish; all sorts of smell, sounds, and images danced in his mind making his thought process go haywire. The more his body burned, the greater the amounts of such mind jumbling mess seemed to be earthed out. Yes, he felt as if his body was being purified from many influences that he had subconsciously absorbed into his body.
As the burning continued, his mind started to get cleared of the mind jumbling mess one by one as each image, sound, and smell began to vanish into a puff of smoke. Almost a minute passed by in this fashion when finally, the burning of his body seemed to have been finished as the surrounding water began to immediately heal his charred body.
Tendons, ligaments, muscles, bones, organs, and skin; every burnt part of his body began to rapidly heal, bringing him back to life from a semi-dead state.
Prakash gathered a tinge of strength in his healing legs as he slowly began to swim ashore. He neither knew the reason that caused his body to burn under the sunlight nor the reason as to why the burning odour repulsed the other creatures.
Prakash reached the water surface and used a protrusion along the mound as support to climb up. After he felt his feet plant firmly on the mound surface, a sense of stability calmed his restless body. Wriggling in the waters without any sense of support while he could neither control his limbs nor think about his survival was a traumatic experience, the likes of which he never wanted to experience ever again in his life.
His pace was slow, his body wobbly, while his mind felt exhausted. He wanted to lay down in some corner and rest but was afraid that some random creature would gobble him up immediately. He needed to find a safe haven to rest his weary body, but he didn't hope for much. After all, due to the aroma released from his body, any creature that roamed in the vicinity would be immediately attracted to his location.
As he stood before the familiar crevice, Prakash fell into deep thought. The crevice was the most suitable shelter he could spot in his vicinity but it wasn't safe. Any small creature could easily enter it and corner him; the painful experience with the three pigeons gave him a stern reminder, safe havens could at anytime become a cage that trapped him.
A gush of purple smoke seeped through the pores of his skin and coagulated to form into his 'Record' that displayed his various attributes like always. Prakash noticed that there had been some noteworthy changes that took place in his Karma attribute.
First of all, the rows belonging to 'Fish 2' and 'Fish 4' had completely disappeared while only 10 units had been reduced in the Karma of the 'Dog'.
"Does the value of my comprehension affect the quantity of Karma consumed during the transformation of a particular creature?" Prakash wondered.
He already had a long list of questions to bother about pertaining to his transformation, not to mention the weird dreams he had been experiencing every time he hadn't been conscious.
"Wait a minute; if I could gain that Karma or whatever after killing a creature and use it to transform into the said creature, then…" Prakash began to get excited as a formula began to appear in his head.
Previously, his mind had been completely occupied about reaching to his son's survival, but now that he was stranded alone in a completely foreign location and had some breathing space, many ideas began to pop up in his head.
It wasn't like he had lived under a rock till now, he had his fair share of watching science fiction movies and games. He had taken a passive approach to survive until now. Maybe, if he had taken a different approach, things might have turned out different.
"I shouldn't get carried away; one step at a time to reach my goal," If he planned his actions well, timed his movements, and executed them perfectly, the positions of hunter and prey might be reversed.
"Mobility is a must due to my small size. In order to gain mobility, I must kill insects like butterflies, mosquitoes, and wasps. Birds are too strong and beyond my reach, I must not fall in their radars." Prakash inspected his surroundings and gathered his bearings.
He couldn't find any objects that bridged out from the mound he stood on, and all the mounds he could observe in his surroundings with his poor sight seemed to be small. His only option now was to travel to other mounds until he reached land. The land area around his vicinity had been completely submerged underwater due to the tsunami, so in order to travel to the nearby drylands, he had to proceed west.
Thankfully, the Sun had just risen up a while ago so he could find the appropriate direction towards the West. It was a strange feeling when he gazed at the skies and couldn't observe the clear image of the Sun like he used to before. Everything was blurry, like an oil painting where a multitude of colours were mixed. It was like he had developed extreme myopia.
The only way he could find the general location of the Sun in the vast skies was by determining the intensity of light entering his eyes as he scoured through the vast skies. The direction where the intensity of the light entering his eyes was the brightest and hurt his eyes the most was where the Sun shone.
Determining the general direction to West based on the Sun (this is not an accurate way to determine directions due to the rotation and revolution of the tilted Earth that makes the direction's of the Sun's rise vary from north-east to north-west during the four seasons) Prakash walked to the edge of the mound.
"Here we go," Prakash readied his mindset and dived into the murky waters.
'Splash'
Prakash swam forward in a steady pace, in order to not lose breath when unforeseen circumstances arose, which were bound to happen soon due to the fact that his body began releasing the familiar aroma once again.
"Damn it," Prakash cursed this aroma the most. It was this very aroma that was like a radar on his body that alerted every creature in his surroundings.