"What's meant to be..."
A blurred vision of pouncing wolves silhouetted at the horizon, far away outside the cabin's broken door frame, in front of Akhil. He can hear their roar, the dead horses' foot stamps, and the stink of the decaying bodies that raiding over them towards him. They are dooming on him from all the sides. He's alone and knocked out.
He lost a lot of blood and it pooled around him. He didn't notice but Priya, too, is bleeding from her head all this time. Both their blood is mixed and is drained towards the center of the cabin where the messed up charcoal drawings of a star is there. It is past 4 in the morning, the sun is about to come out from horizon.
Mochi's army is few steps away from the cabin, a broad smile on her cut open cheeks made her creepy face even creepier. Her Greedy eyes shimmered even in the dark. She is about to get her youth back. She just has to sacrifice Priya and when the first light falls on Priya's blood, it turns into a magical potion that will grant a young body to whoever drinks it. She is going to drink it. It is for this moment she waited all these days. And now, finally, the time has come.
The blood pool of Akhilesh's and Priya's drained and lined itself along the drawings in the room. The first ray of light that enters the world even before the sunrise had fell through the crack in the cabin's roof onto the blood lining star drawings. And suddenly the blood radiated with golden brilliance.
The wolves reached the cabin before the Mochi's army and they jumped into it. Akhilesh is sitting there, just few feet away from them, watching it happen, helplessly. Mochi is just steps away from her dream coming true. And then a wave of shock swept away from the charcoal drawings in the cabin. As it passed with the lightening speed, the time turned dead slow all along its way. Akhilesh felt like a force is knocking him to a trance like state. It felt like an invisible force passing through him. Everything around him slowed down. He saw the wolves that jumped stuck mid air in front of him. The time froze around him. Nobody seems to feel it but him. The look on the Mochi's face says she too knows what's happening; the face that contains all the disappointment in the world. She didn't expect this would happen.
All his previous lives flashed in front of Akhilesh's eyes. The roller coaster ride of timeline.
No leaves moving in the forest, no wind chiming, all the beings froze in middle of the acts they are doing, the tides stayed mid air, clock stopped turning, nothing in this universe is moving. The fabric of time stopped to flutter as the ultimate power of the worlds, Arakhan, met Akhilesh.
"What's happening?" asked Akhilesh, he isn't feeling pain anymore, as if he is not in the physical world anymore. In fact he isn't. The mixture of his and Priya's blood spread over the ritual star, shone with the pure first ray of light opened the portal to the realm of timeless spiritual world to him. Where, Arakhan is waiting all this time to meet him. Arakhan is the first one to master all the elements of universe, he dates back to a long time when the earth isn't even created in this parallel universe. And now, Arjun is in front of him, Arakhan, the ultimatum.
"What's meant to be" replied Arakhan. He appeared like a vague embodiment of half fire and half water, quenching each other continuously yet not exhausting forever.
"I don't understand" said Akhilesh. Everything around him turned into spirales of all the colours he ever know. As if he is inside a kaleidoscope of rainbows.
The fire and water figure of Arakhan smiled.
"Am I dead? Is Priya safe? I should stop Mochi or she will kill Priya, where is Priya, Where Am I?" Questions stormed Akhilesh. His heart became unrest, his soul which is appearing like normal human body all this while started to spread out as the scattered sand particles in the space does. Arakhan put his hand of the fire half of his body on Akhilesh. A chain of flames ran through all the scattering particles and held them back together into the shape of Akhilesh's normal body. The unrest in him rested. The chaos in his heart settled down to peace.
"You are in spirit realm," said Arakhan. Arakhan's voice felt to Akhilesh as if coming from his own mind. As if he is talking to himself, "Who are you?" asked Akhilesh, confused. "I'm you" said Arakhan. Akhilesh seemed more confused, "and you are me" added Arakhan.
"What is happening?" asked Akhilesh.
"Come with me" said Arakhan and walked into a black circle, floating beside him. Akhilesh followed. They came back to the forest, to the cabin. But nothing's moving. Akhilesh saw himself inside the cabin, Priya on his lap, wolves mid air in front of him, a whole army of dead just outside the Cabin. It's like god paused the movie of earth for a tea break. For a moment he thought what if the time didn't freeze at the right time, He and Priya would be dead and the wolves would be piercing the flesh off them. A shiver swept through him, all his body particles disheveled for a moment and got back to shape.
Arakhan and Akhilesh are standing in front of the Mochi's horse. The fore legs of the horse are stomped in the mud while the hind legs are in mid air. The look on mochi's face is full of rage. The others don't even know that they stuck in the time freeze, but the look on the Mochi's eyes say she knows it.
"It all started because of this witch" said Arakhan pointing at Mochi. Mochi's eyes raged furiously. Her dark iris turned into a red hue. She is able to hear them and see them. "If you don't stop her now, she will become invincible forever. Then she spreads her filthy arms on all the worlds and makes everything in the universe miserable."
"I'm not one of you people, I don't belong in this war," says Akhilesh, "I just want to save Priya and live with her. I can't stop someone so powerful like her?" said Akhilesh looking at Mochi's cold, scary face, "I'm a just a normal man" he said.
Arakhan smiled and said, "Listen carefully, normal man, I'm about to tell you who you really are!"
(To be continued...)