Onish had learned the parkaya pravesh vidya (the art of entering another body) from his guru to experience animals' lives when his love for them had become an obstacle in his path.
Thinking of it now, it was also one of the
One just needed to find the opening through which the host soul had left the body. And if the body hadn't started decaying, you could seize it. That was it.
The hardest part was leaving one's own body and making sure no one would possess it or destroy it.
Onish's train of thoughts was interrupted when he sensed a gust of wind swept over him.
Before he could do anything, he felt something tightening all around him, searing his already damaged subtle body.
Horrified, he checked himself. A wispy black net was consolidating all over his soul. He tried to wriggle out of it, but it was of no use. The net had covered two-third of his soul in a short time. The struggle was futile.
The subdued fear flooded him. For a moment, he thought he had done for. However, Onish cleared his mind with the help of the chanting.
He quickly looked around. There was nothing but trees and bushes. The black shadow was floating in the air, strengthing the wispy black net.
Onish dived towards the nearby tree.
Trees are a very peculiar creation as they can shelter a discarded soul. A discarded soul can even forge a bond with it and thus can share its physical body. That's why in some cultures people worship or dread a tree especially --peepal, banyan, babool, neema, and ashoka trees.
Onish entered the thick trunk. He rushed towards its roots, where its soul resided. The trick worked perfectly. The wispy net was now trying to cover the tree's soul as well.
However, it was not a permanent solution. It could only delay the predator.
Once the soul of the tree got trapped, he would be the next. Onish came out of the tree through its root while maintaining the connection with its soul.
He looked at the perplexed shadow, extending the net. Evidently, his hunter was confused. Maybe it was the first time he had confronted such a situation. He must have been wondering how a soul could expand so much all of a sudden.
Whatsoever, Onish knew it wouldn't take long for the black net to cover the entire tree's soul.
Therefore he decided to flee as far as he could go without breaking the connection.
He was about to plunge into the earth when his gaze fell on an army of ants carrying a dead spider. The idea that he had dismissed countless times flashed again in his mind. But this time, Onish didn't reject it outright. He knew the implication of possessing a body. However, he was also aware that he couldn't escape the shadow in his soul form. No matter how many trees he sacrificed.
He carefully checked the spider. Fortunately, Its body was in perfect condition.
Onish extended his spiritual sense and guided his soul to the dead insect's mouth.
In a flash, his soul shrank and he was in the spider.
Onish didn't know what happened afterwards. Because, as soon as he gained control over the spider's body, he spread his awareness to every cell, checking how many of them had died entirely and were beyond repair.
Only six out of his eight legs were in working conditions.
Physical pain that he had forgotten these days began to torment him.
He could do nothing to alleviate it, for he didn't know spiders' ways.
So Onish ignored it and thought about the current problem.
He had no idea whether the black shadow could still track him down. It was just a gamble whether he had won the bet was yet to be seen.
Moreover, these ants wouldn't leave their prey so easily.
Onish didn't dare to move his legs. He decided to endure the pain silently and wait for the right opportunity to arise.
The ant carried him through bushes and grass. Sometimes his body would catch in straws or grass blades. They yanked him hard, causing him great agony. He struggled not to twitch his legs which were tightly clamped in the ants' mouths.
Around one or two hours later, Onish sensed a strange liquid secreting from his belly. The fluid turned into silk as it came in contact with air.
An idea hit him. How could he forget such a thing about spiders?
Onish examined the fluid with a golden hue, gathering in him. He observed the nozzle-like glands carefully. It didn't take him long to get the hang of it.
Whenever his body got stuck in grass blades, Onish began to fasten his threads.
The ants were too busy to catch his sly actions.
They kept hurrying to their colony, unaware of their captive's treachery.
It took Onish some effort to stop himself from tugging the thread and spring into the air. The ants were gripping his four legs tightly in their mouth. If he made any effort to free them, they would tear him apart. So he waited patiently.
After some ten or so minutes later,
The ants had met a blockage in their calculated path. So they put their captive on the ground and they all went to remove it.
Onish was waiting for such an opportunity to arrive. He tugged the thread and flew in the air like a fly. He kept jumping from one bush to another till he was on a tree. He was exhausted and dying from hunger. However, it was not the time for these things. He needed to look for a good hiding spot where he could take some rest and conjecture some plans...
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After some good search, he finally found a hole in a branch. Onish wove a web over it and decided to take some rest.
His two dead legs had come off during his escape. But for his relief, they were regenerating. He reduced the physical activity to a minimum level so that sleep could embrace him. But it didn't come. Time slipped by as he lay still in the hole, tangled in his web.
With the blushing of the east, the night fled. The loud chirping of birds filled the foggy morning. Plants began to smile as the golden rays played with their leaves.
Onish left his web during the afternoon. The hunger was killing him, and he couldn't bring himself to eat the trapped insect. After trying many methods, he discovered how to suck the sap of the leaves. When he had his fill, he made another web and hid in it. He didn't dare to leave the body as he didn't know whether the shadow was still searching for him. Onish spent two days eating and spinning new webs.
It was the afternoon of the third day when he sensed the presence of someone under the tree. He looked at the newcomer. He was a lanky fellow with messy hair.
A fine net was over his shoulder.
He looked exhausted and disappointed. The newcomer threw the net beside the tree trunk as he sat down, leaning against the tree.
The stranger undid the pouch tied to his waist and opened it...
The loud chirping noise came out of it as if the pouch had a whole garden full of birds within. He rummaged the pouch and took out a parrot with colored feathers.
The newcomer gave the motionless parrot a concerning look as he placed it gently in his lap.
He searched his clothes clumsily and took out a small jade bottle. The lanky man carefully opened it and dropped some greenish liquid in the dying bird's mouth. It must have been a precious medicine as the newcomer securely put it back in his clothes.
He continued staring at the bird, but its condition didn't improve. He gently stroked the parrot's feathers, whose life was ebbing out with each passing moment. The man's large black eyes welled up.
Onish, watching all this from his web, was bemused by the unusual concern in the bird catcher's eyes. Yes, no matter what was wrong with that pouch, Onish was sure the newcomer was a fowler.
However, he didn't know why the hunter was crying over the death of a parrot. Onish reckoned, by the chirping noise coming out of the silvery pouch, that the hunter's magical pouch must have at least a hundred birds.
The parrot's soul came out of its body from its head, making Onish more curious about the bird. Only an awakened or blessed soul could leave the body through
What was it? It didn't get reincarnated. He sensed no natural force guiding it to the next womb as it always used to do on the earth.
When a human being or a cow dies on the earth, Yamdutas (messengers of death) bring it away. However, other beings are guided to their next womb by nature itself.
Onish had seen it countless times, with his own eyes.
But here in this world, the soul got dissolved into thin air. What sort of world was it?
Or was something wrong with the parrot's body? He mused.
Suddenly an unsettling thought struck him.
What if he left the spider body and he too got dissolved into the air? He hurriedly checked his soul. There was nothing wrong so far. But he had no way to make sure that nothing would change in the future. Technically, he had not fully possessed the body yet as the body had many glands yet to be mastered. Besides, he still had two legs missing.
He could not help but worry. His experience in this world so far had taught him that anything could happen to him. He thought about the souls trapped in the black pearls. They must have been human souls. Perhaps only an animal soul got disintegrated.
So If he really wanted to survive in this world, he would need a human body. However, in this dense forest, his chances of encountering a dead human body were very low. Moreover, he could not roam freely in this forest. Many predators would like to meet a wandering spider.
He looked at the dead parrot lying still in the hands of the crying fowler. The body was still warm. If he possessed it, he could fly and look for a suitable body in human civilization.
Onish made his mind. He retracted his soul and flew out of the spider. His spiritual sense scanned the dead parrot. After finding the brahmrandra, he entered into the dead bird.
The first thing Onish did was to let the grieved fowler know that his loving parrot was still alive. Then he examined the parrot's body thoroughly. To his surprise, he didn't find anything wrong with its body. This made him really baffled. Even the pranic veins were fine. How did the bird die then?
If someone dies with old age, their pranic veins get too thinned. But this was not the case with the parrot. Onish rechecked the body.
When his spiritual sense was passing the parrot's stomach, he sensed powerful pranic energy inside it. He quickly took a look. It was a pearl glowing with faint blue light.
As he prodded it, dense pranic energy erupted and filled the bird's stomach. Onish now knew how the poor bird had died. There was no way its soul can withstand so much pranic energy.
However, for Onish, it was a heaven-sent gift. He quickly guided the dense energy in the cracks of his damaged subtle body. Though it would not mend it, the energy could fill the gaps and strengthen his casual body. Moreover, it could help him in possessing the bird's body.
As Onish's control over the body grew more assertive, the condition of the parrot started looking up.
The fowler thanked the forest god again and again when he saw his pet's breathing getting stronger. He took out his jade bottle again and forced Onish to drink a few more drops. The greenish liquid was fiery in taste, but it had powerful vital energy. So Onish drank it greedily and was looking for more. However, the fowler put it back.
Seeing the sun was going down. The fowler decided to leave for his home. He tried to put the parrot into the pouch, but It refused to go in. So, he let it perch on his shoulder. He picked up his net and made his way through the dense forest while grumbling how the parrot had scared the shit out of him.