Chapter 14 : Kaéndran

crossing the land with an absurd speed , From a very high Height in mid air , Vriksha and with him , The four ministers were flying in the white light created  by Chetanya , The light was surrounding them all around and they were standing still , but yet they were moving and flying,It was like they were on a vehicle that was carrying them ,  Vriksha looked down from there and he saw ,the rivers , Villages and kingdoms were passing in just moments.

Sunanda who was standing beside Vriksha , Trying to break the silence there she said ,

"It seems today ,There are a lot of things happening at the same time , Sir are you not interested in the matter , what happened with the queen ?"

Vedant who was standing behind Sunanda casually asked ,

"Yeah that's what I want to ask too ,I'm sorry sir , But aren't you too relaxed about That matter?"

Vriksha tilted his head and looked at both Sunanda and Vedant while laughing ,

"What imagine of mine , do you guys have in your minds , I'm not an emotionless fool ," Vriksha turned his head and started to look in front with a serious expression he said ," I'm concerned too like , What could had forced the gods to summon an apsara who left the heaven , What if it is too dangerous for her , What if the heaven is under attack by the Asur (Demons) , Huff .... There are a lot , But what can we do , we. just have to keep our focus on what we can handle right now , And what is it?"

Chetanya and Abhiru who was behind all of them nodded there head , Seeing that Sunanda and Vedant also nodded their head and all at the same time said ,

"The matter of Kosala kingdom , Sir!!"

*****

Kaéndran , the place where the beauty of heaven , The Apsaras resides , The Kaéndran was placed below the actual heaven , The place once was the one of the most beautiful  places in the three worlds , But now this place's beauty was nowhere to be found , The sky was dark red colored as if it was dyed with blood , Like after a fire in the forest, only ashes remain, the nature here looks like that.In this  horrid scene under a shrivelled tree ,Apoorva was trying to tie tightly the piece of cloth to Subhadra's half cut arm ,That she ripped from her Sari , that she wore during her sons birthday ceremony , The golden borders that was shining brightly from her red sari was completely soaked in the blood of Subhadra , Subhadra who was howling loudly in pain was now just very quietly moaning in pain Intermittently ,Because now his body was slowly becoming numb due to excessive bleeding ,

"It's....Okay ... Just... listen....Come ... here .... I ..... tell ...."

A small whisper came out from Subhadra's mouth , listening that Apoorva hurriedly took her ear near Subhadra's mouth to listen clearly , what she wanted to say  .

"Yes , I'm listening , Speak."

Slowly while stuttering and in her trembling voice Subhadra spoke ,

"I .....felt ...only two Apsaras.... on Bhulok(Earth) , But..... I ....was only able to  summon you alone."

"What?! ..You summoned me ?"

Subhadra made a face of a crying baby and she started to speak. Eventually her crying became more and more painful and loud.

"Yeah.... I'm sorry ...."

Placing her hands on Subhadra's face calming her down Apoorva said ,

"Hey, hey ,why are you crying? , Don't cry !"

Still in a crying voice Subhadra constantly asking for forgiveness from Apoorva ,

"No , Because of me now you are stuck here too ?"

Apoorva with a shocked and confused face asked immediately .

"What?! "

When Apoorva asked that , Subhadra became quiet , for a while there was only silence and in this silence Apoorva could only stare at Subhadra and wait for her to reply , Then at a sudden from Subhadra's hair some petals of flower appeared and these petals flew to Apoorva and they started to form a shape and eventually after a while it became a letter in which a long paragraph was written , Apoorva started to read it .

"Sorry Apoorva it's hard to even breath now so I am going to tell you everything with this letter ,

Some time ago , The gods of the gods , Lord Indra was cursed by sage Durvasa , He cursed lord Indra and all the gods to be bereft of all strength, energy, and fortune , The curse affected the gods they became powerless and  the heaven crumbled and came down in ruins , But when the curse spread here in Kaéndran , It started to take physical form and it devoured one guard , The curse corrupted his mind ,Although the curse was supposed to be take strength, energy, and fortune but because it had now its own conscience The guard corrupted by the curse started to kill everyone and started to turn them into some mindless creatures ,He is unstoppable now , Because even the gods can not do anything about him , If they come in contact with him there power and strength that is already gone , it disappear more and more ,And without any strength their whole existence is destroyed .

That's why the gods closed the gates to enter heaven from Kaéndran .

I summoned you here not for me, but some apsaras and some divine kids are hidden in the temple Jyotirshirsha . please save them....I'm sorry Apoorva, that I summoned you here in this dangerous place and because I used my last bit of power to summon you here and the tiny bit power that I had left , I used in this letter , I'm sorry Apoorva ... now you can't even go back , I'm sorry ... I'm sorry ."

When Apoorva finished reading , the letter completely ,Trails of sweat drop fell from her head , Making an Worried face placing aside the letter , Apoorva looked around her vicinity , The place she knew was really became an hell ,

"Why are you saying sorry , There is a way in temple Jyotirshirsha to Bhulok , I can go from there , So don't worry."

Apoorva was still holding Subhadra's hand , Hearing Apoorva that she will go to Jyotirshirsha temple , Subhadra held her hand tightly ,She knew that she made Apoorva to came in a place that is turned into hell , So trying to stop her in a Remorseful voice she spoke but because of the immense pain her body became numb , It looked she was just muttering whatever was coming in her mind ,

"But everyone outside there , Is now turned into those creatures, Don't go .... You will too become like them .... please stay here .... , They are dangerous ....Yeah .... You know .....I was hidden in Jyotirshirsha temple too..... I was safe there .... But They all were hungry , hidden there for so long , So some of us just came out for food , But they were killed and turned into cursed creatures ..."

"Where are the others who came with you?"

A small whisper came out from Subhadra's mouth ,

"I don't know "

After this whisper Subhadra became silent again and with her one eye closed without moving even a little bit she laid there , Time passed , Apoorva still didn't knew ,what she should do , Stay near Subhadra in her last moments or go around and ask for help but as Subhadra explained , There was no one to help her , So she just sat there whole time looking at Subhadra .

After a while suddenly Subhadra opened her eyes and asked ,

"Apoorva are you there ? "

Suddenly listening her voice Apoorva replied in a firm tone ,

"Yeah , I'm here "

Still talking intermittently Subhadra whispered again ,

"I .....forgot to..... tell you.... before... but there is something you should do now !!"

"Okay I'll do it , What is it ?"

"Someone.... tell me I don't remember who , But that someone said that from left here in a river you will find a lotus flower, that is yet to bloom , And in it you will find something , give that thing to your first born ."

"On left "

Apoorva stood up and saw on the left side of that tree , there was a river but the river was made out of Subhadra's blood , Then she saw in this shrivelled land a single lotus plant , She looked at Subhadra for a bit , then she said to her ,

"I can see the flower , I'll come soon , okay "

Apoorva ran toward the lotus flower and after reaching it she  plucked it immediately , Then taking it with her she ran back to Subhadra .

sitting near her in the pond of Subhadra's blood , Apoorva showed that flower to her ,

"Look, it's the lotus flower , Should I show you what's inside ? ."

Subhadra was barely keeping her eyes open now , She didn't reply to Apoorva , Or to say she didn't hear Apoorva because , now her all senses almost became numb.

"Okay then , I will see it ..."

Apoorva pulled the petals of that lotus flower hurriedly , When she looked inside of it she saw a small white round pearl , She picked it up between her two fingers ,She looked around it ,Something was delineated on it , It was a symbol of a tortoise , Apoorva looked at with admiration because the detailing of that symbol was so beautiful and precise that anyone can wonder how someone can do this type of precise work  on this small pearl ,After looking at quite a while she snapped out and hastily checked Subhadra , The arrow in her eye still piercing through it and the blood from the eyes covered her left side of face completely ,

Apoorva took her mouth to Subhadra's ear and whispered slowly to check out if Subhadra was still conscious or not ,

"Subhadra ..."

"Ki .... kill..."

Apoorva was terrified to hear this ,

"What ?! ... What ?!"

All of a sudden when water form her right eye was sliding through all around the right side of her face ,Subhadra grumbled at once , As if it was her last breath and the life was going to leave her body after this ,

"Kill me , I too came in contact with that curse , So soon I'll be a cursed creature too just like them , Before I turn into that , Please kill me ."

Apoorva with her trembling voice and spinning her head denying with what Subhadra just said ,And with her face covered in sweat replied,

"What?! ... No .. Subhadra ... I can't ."

But when Apoorva looked at Subhadra , Her body was already became lifeless , When Apoorva looked closely , She saw that , Where Subhadra's eye's pierced by an arrow , The arrow came out from there, on its own , And as it completely came out , a black goo liked liquid  started to emerge from Subhadra's stricken eye and in just a moment , This black liquid conjugated in mid air and formed a bubble like shape , Then forthwith it fell on Subhadra's body and swallowed her completely,Subhadra's body disappeared in an instant , Seeing this Apoorva crawled back far away in fear and she started to inhale breath loudly with a horrifying look on her face , Then she saw , that the black liquid thing , became bigger and bigger and now , it even had dozens of hideous red Colored eyes and a mouth that was dripping out the black liquid , After a while this thing started to transform its shape into a creature , Couple of limbs grew out and as this creatures one limb placed on the shrivelled tree , it breakdown and fell on the grown.

"THUD"

The creatures hideous and gruesome eyes looked straight at Apoorva and moving its face on her direction it roared loudly ,

"KHHAAAAA"

<  Chapter 14   >Ends