Chereads / The Cosmic Game / Chapter 4 - The Sage and The Snake

Chapter 4 - The Sage and The Snake

A large man dressed in ragged pieces of black cloth entered a dimly lit cave. As he walked towards the source of light he felt a knife on his neck. "So this is where you were hiding all along", said the large man in a hissing voice. The knife bearer whispered meekly, "I am not afraid of you, vile creature". "Is that so?" asked the large man, hissing. Suddenly the hand of the knife bearer was forced to move away by something seemingly invisible. His hand moved away from the large man and towards his own throat something wrapped around his limbs like shackles constricting his movement. There were a bunch of snakes all over his body wrapping him in their grip. The large man's eyes transformed into that of a snake. He picked up the knife bearer by his throat and threw him across the cave. He walked over silently towards the man now lying on the floor. The knife bearer knelt on both his feet still wrapped by snakes, He was a short heighted man with long hair and a thick beard in an orange dhoti and a leather chest plate along his torso, he was horrified as he looked at the face of his assailant. As the dim light fell over the large man's face his facial features came into view. He had slits in place of a nose, he had scaly lips and scales in place of skin and he had small, beady eyes with thick eyelids and small pupils. "You, you're a Naga!" said the knife bearer with a disgusted expression while struggling for his breath as snakes wrapped themselves around his neck. "Still not afraid?" hissed the large man with his snakelike, two-pronged tongue slithering out.

"I will never be afraid of hideous creatures like you", said the short man. "Hideous, you say?" shouted the Naga."We are still better than you Deva scum", continued the Naga angrily. The short man looked at the Naga and said, "I am no God, I am just a servant to them, a spy is all I am". Join the short dagger resembling the weapons of The Devas" hissed the Naga. The Naga then balled up and tightened his fist. The snakes started wrapping themselves tightly and some started strangling the spy's throat. Suddenly, the voice of an old man echoed throughout the cave saying," O' valiant Naga warrior, spare that man's life for now". Upon hearing the voice the Naga turned around swiftly and knelt, bowing his head with his one hand balled into a fist sticking to his chest. The sage wore a white dhoti and white angvastram and a janau ran across his torso, He was tall and his face barely looked older than 40 still he had a great white beard and long white hair. The Naga said in a respectful but nervous tone while looking at the ground, "O' great Asuracharya, I know of your alliance with The Naga King, I am sorry but I simply cannot allow this man to leave this cave alive, he has ventured too deep into the lower lokas, he has ventured too deep into the Naga territory, he has ventured too deep into Patala Loka, he simply knows too much and due to that he shall not leave here alive". The old sage thought for a moment and said, "No need for apologizing, brave warrior, Stand tall with your head held high, you are simply duty bound. What you say is true my child, he shall not leave this place alive but also as you said he knows too much". The old sage continued, "Now isn't it your duty to find out what he knows?" The Naga stood up and looked at the sage replied, "Yes, my lord, it is".

The spy looked at the sage and shouted, "I shall not open my mouth in any case especially not in front of you, Asuracharya". The sage looked at the man and said, "You as well as I know that I will find out what's going on in your mind soon anyways and I have many methods to get the information out of you, so why don't we just skip to the part where you tell us everything you know". The man angrily replied, "Never". And then started chanting 'Om Indrãya namah' repeatedly. The sage looked at the spy with disgust, he turned to the naga and told him, "Continue what you were doing before but don't kill him". The Naga grinned sheepishly and replied, "Yes, my lord". The Naga started to strangle the spy again. The spy croaked and gasped for breath now and then. The Naga continued, the snakes crushed every bone in the man's body one by one. The dimly lit cave was filled with the horrified shrieks of the spy. The Naga loosened the grip of his snakes on the spy, the spy coughed out a horrendous amount of blood. The Naga got close to him, knelt, and asked him, "Still wanna remain silent?" In response the spy spat blood on his face. The Naga, now enraged, wiped the blood off his face and continued to torture the man. The snake strangled the man as the sage watched. The man's face swole up and became red while his eyes popped out. Suddenly the spy closed his eyes for a moment while chanting the same thing over and over, his face looked at peace. He then opened his eyes and looked around for the sage. The sage noticed this and signaled the Naga to stop. The Naga stopped and the sage walked over to the almost-dead spy and commanded, "Speak". The spy croaked meekly, "I just received word in my head from above, it's coming, and he has awakened". Saying this, the spy bit his tongue off and died on the spot.

 

The sage backed away one step at a time with a shocked expression on his. The silence of the night at that moment grew increasingly haunting and discomforting. The Naga broke the silence by asking the sage, "My lord what did he mean by that gibberish that even you are dumbfounded". The sage replied, "Brave warrior, you must not speak of what happened tonight with anyone but your king, carry my message to him, tell him that what we feared is coming true, something grave is headed our way, a war unlike any other ever before stands at our doorstep. And tell him, in the eye of this upcoming storm stands he who has been asleep, behind him carnage, bloodshed, and utter destruction shall follow, he shall wreak havoc upon the fourteen realms. Tell your king that 'his' powers have awakened.