VOOM!
With a loud sound that seemed like the air was been sucked in, I found that we had appeared inside a forest that was filled with tall pine trees. These trees however were covered with layers of snow, and I could barely make out the thick layer of it carpeting every surface around us in the surrounding darkness.
Cough! Cough!!
The old man coughed terribly like he was suffering from the worst cold I could ever think of. My mind shook with concern as I saw him bend over and retch strongly that I almost thought he would vomit a lung or two.
"Are you- alright?"
I asked cautiously.
"Hmm…. I should be fine after a meal."
He answered me after cleaning up his mouth with a handkerchief he had pulled out from his coat. There was a pitiful smile on his face as he looked around to gain his bearings and I could see his eyes light up as he looked in a certain direction.
Numerous lights were stretching into the distance in that direction showing that there was civilization.
He started walking purposefully in that direction. We walked in silence for quite a while and it wasn't until I could clearly see the shape of buildings in the distance did I finally get the courage to ask.
"Who was that man? That attacked you?"
The old man smiled.
"The idea of what precedes the other, the body or the soul? This is a question that has been debated by various schools of thought since times immemorial."
He completely ignored my question.
"Does the soul determine the body or the body determine the soul? In creation, which comes first?"
He tilted his head to look at me.
Looking at his warm brown eyes that had lost all traces of that crazy streak he had when he was attacking the flame elemental, I decided to answer him.
"I usually avoid such questions as I do not know. This is something that can only be answered by the one who creates us. Humans are not capable of creating life."
The old man went quiet at this. It was like he had heard something he did not like at all and I began to get worried if I should say more. But before I could get to it, I heard a loud rumble followed by a sharp whistle.
TOOOOOOT!!!
I turned in that direction and saw something that left me shocked.
'A train!?'
It was indeed a train! And a rather long one in fact!
We had approached the edges of the town and there was a train track that served as a boundary of some sort that went around the town. I just realized that the building in front of me that I had been looking at was actually a train station and there were even a few people who were waiting to take the last stop home.
"But I thought… "
I nearly voiced my doubts out loud.
Even though I had been quiet all this while, my brain had processed the magical fight that seemed to have been dragged out of the most ridiculous fantasy that I have ever heard of and given it the most rational explanation I could think of based on my knowledge.
I was no longer on Earth as I knew it.
I was no longer on Earth. This was some unreal magical world that existed in some unknown dimension or maybe countless light-years away from our solar system and I was now here.
How did I get here? I have no idea.
Why was I in a bottle? I had no idea.
Why can't I feel my body? I am probably a soul.
That was the only thing I could barely be sure of considering the old man's obsession with souls. I was now a soul in an unknown land filled with magic. So why was there a perfectly functioning train here?
"You thought there couldn't be trains here?"
I heard a familiar voice and I suddenly froze!
"' How could they be here if this is not Earth?' Is that what you're thinking?"
The voice had a mocking tone to it but that only increased my horror. I turned my sight to look at the old man's face which was covered with a mocking smile, his eyes didn't seem as warm anymore and it just increased the sense of fear I felt.
What does he know? How does he know!?
These two questions swirled around my mind and I couldn't answer him. His smile widened as he lifted his head up and approached the station.
The people around completely ignored his presence as he walked to the edge of the tracks.
WHOOSH!
A gust of steam went out as the train stopped to pick up the passengers. It looked really old, like a Victorian-era product. As it still used steam, I could have guessed that technology was not as advanced in this world.
But I couldn't as my mind was filled with complete fear of the unknown and I could feel myself starting to panic. The air around me suddenly felt cold and I could feel my consciousness flickering in and out.
"Calm down."
A voice from above spoke out and I raised my sight to match the gaze of the old man. He looked at me quietly before repeating himself.
"Calm down."
His eyes were really a nice shade of brown. It was a color I had never seen before on earth, at least as far as I can remember.
A loud bump suddenly snapped me out of it and I noticed we were already on the train. A man in a thick brown trench coat had dropped his suitcase as he walked past us, the contents spilling onto the cold metal floor.
The old man didn't even turn in his direction as the man cursed and fumbled to pick up random pieces of paper, books, and tiny odd bottles here and there.
None of the occupants of the coach offered to help either. They were all seemingly out of their thoughts or too focused on dealing with the cold weather that they didn't notice the pitiful man who had accidentally kicked one bottle under the chair the old man sat on and had to lay down on the freezing cold floor to reach for it.
"The soul is the basic building block of every living thing. A person is only considered dead when they are said to have lost their soul. The body remains, the soul leaves."
The old man started speaking like no one was there and I took my attention away from the man in the brown trench coat to listen to him.
"But why does the soul not remain also? Why doesn't it cease to exist? Why does it leave? Where does it go to? Is the soul immortal? Does the teachings of secluded religions on reincarnation hold true?"
The old man's voice got increasingly softer until it became a whisper. It looked to me like he had sunk into his thoughts once again and I couldn't help but ponder these questions along with him.
There were many explanations from earth to the questions he asked but they were all religious if not mythological in nature.
As far as I could tell from all that I have seen, the old man was a man of science. Something like belief held little sway over him and unless he had cold hard facts, he would never be convinced of any answer I would give.
But I had to ask.
"Why do you believe that the soul doesn't perish? Are you so sure that it does leave the body at the time of death? Maybe it jus-"
I paused.
I paused as I remembered my current state of being.
'Am I dead?'
That was the question that I had failed to consider even though I had realized that I was a soul. How had I died? When had I died? I couldn't even remember the last thing I could have been doing, all my memories had turned completely fuzzy.
But the fact that I exist in this state should prove something.
I could see the old man smiling while my mind was in turmoil.
"The existence of the soul is intrinsically connected to the power of a being, their intelligence, and even their hierarchy in the world. That is why humanity is at the peak of the world, it is all because of our souls."
At this point, I could not completely understand what the old man was talking about as it sounded like knowledge out of my realm of understanding. But something about what he said resonated with me.
"So basically, the qualities of any being is determined before birth by the soul? Doesn't that render the idea of hard work and persistence useless?"
I had to ask as I didn't think I was someone innately gifted myself. I had worked hard for whatever little success I had gained so for me, this was not a theory I could accept.
"Hmm, that is one of the paradoxes I face also."
The old man polished the surface of the briefcase by his side with his fingers.
"The soul determines talent, that is a fact."
'How are you so sure?'
I really wanted to ask.
"But it is also a fact that with constant training, someone can get stronger, faster, and smarter. This in itself doesn't make sense as it makes it seem that the soul and body can be one entity but can it really be so?"
The old man started drumming his fingers as the train whooshed by. The naked branches of snow-soaked trees brushed past the window by us and caused a rattling sound. A boy sitting on the chair beside us jumped into wakefulness from the sudden sound and held tight to his mother who tried to console his erupting sobs.
The man in the brown trench coat who was sitting just in front of them let out disgruntled noises at the boy's crying but said nothing about it. Everyone else on the coach just acted as if nothing was happening, there was no difference between the atmosphere within the train and that outside.
"Is the soul and body one entity? If yes, why does it separate during the time of death? If not, why do they affect each other so much? Where does the connection lie?"
RUMBLE!
Before I could consider the old man's question, sudden darkness descended on the coach and I realized that we had entered a tunnel.
It didn't last for long though as the tunnel was seemingly short. But as we emerged from the tunnel and light filtered through the windows of the train once more, my vision met a disturbingly eerie scene.