48 The Flexible Karmic Art (Part-2)
Other than breathing, the pigeon showed no signs of life. It was like a puppet whose strings were currently tied to a pole, neither alive nor dead.
"Come now, use your Convert Skill on it; I have already erased its ego, so you probably wouldn't expend any Karma to make it yours," Prakash said as he patted the body of the pigeon as if they were old pals.
On hearing his claims and seeing the unmoving body of the pigeon, Vikram thought about having a go at converting it.
Purple smoke gushed of his body and transformed into mini Shaggy that entered into the head of the pigeon upon his will. After manifesting his 'Record', Vikram noticed that he had expended only about 10 Karma when a connection had formed between him and the pigeon.
It was a wonderful experience to be able to control such a huge creature that was about twice his height. Upon his mental inputs, the eyes of the puppet pigeon shot open as it craned its neck and gazed at him. Strangely, he didn't feel fear when such a monstrous creature looked at him in closeup, all thanks to the connection he now shared with it.
"Take it for a ride," Prakash stepped aside as he motioned for Vikram to control the pigeon and take a short test flight.
"Sure," Vikram replied with excitement as he climbed onto a small object that was placed nearby which acted as a platform that brought his eye level on the same level as the pigeon.
Purple smoke gushed out of the pores on his skin and coagulated into a cocoon that wrapped around him and shattered to reveal a tiny spider from within. In a play of legs that executed a series of nimble manoeuvres, the spider weaved the silk produced from its spinnerets (silk-spinning organ) into a thick rope. It then fastened the rope around the neck of the pigeon in a manner that wouldn't choke it and dissolved its transformation.
Vikram then climbed onto its back and comfortably sat with his legs positioned around its neck while his hands clutched onto the silk rope. Upon his mental input, the puppet pigeon walked forward while craning its head back and forth for each step.
After it had taken a few steps, the puppet pigeon stopped walking as the face of Vikram who sat on it became pale. It looked like he was about to vomit due to the head bob of the pigeon that rocked his insides.
Pigeons bob their heads when walking for two reasons: one, to stabilise their vision, and two, to gain depth perception.
The pigeons have side-mounted eyes, unlike humans and owls which have forward-facing eyes. As pigeons have monocular vision rather than binocular vision they bob their heads for the depth of perception.
The pigeon's eyes function much better with stationary images and therefore as the pigeon takes a step forward the head is temporarily left behind. The next step jerks the head forward again and so on. This allows the bird to correctly orient itself.
"I should make a note not to ride it on land," Prakash burst into laughter as he saw the pitiful plight of Vikram. It was like Vikram sat on a bicycle in order to ride it but fell down after being unable to maintain his balance; this being the case when the bicycle was stationary.
"Ahahaha," Prakash rolled on the ground in laughter as saw Vikram's pale face that looked like an idiot when placed next to the blank looking face of the puppet pigeon.
It took awhile for Prakash to regain his cool and dust his clothes that got dirty. This set of clothes was lent to him by Vikram when he saw the youth's semi-naked appearance with just a single piece of cloth draped over his lower half.
It felt like a long time had passed since he had last laughed as his mind felt refreshed. With his renewed mental clarity, Prakash began to think about the stuff they might require for their journey and the methods to obtain them.
In the meantime, the puppet pigeon had already walked to an open spot outside the makeshift stable and flapped its wings on Vikram's mental input.
"Woohoo," Vikram exclaimed in joy as the puppet pigeon took off into the air and began to fly through their base.
The moment the people busying about their respective tasks in the base gazed at the pigeon that abruptly appeared in the air, cries of fright and warnings echoed all throughout the base and immediately, a horde of insects took off into the air and charged towards the pigeon.
The insects that numbered in the hundreds stopped in the air in shock as they gazed at the figure of their leader atop the pigeon who seemed to be having the time of his life.
Upon seeing the horde that took off into the air in a false alarm, Vikram made the puppet pigeon descend down to the ground in order to apologise to the people.
'Thump'
The puppet pigeon had a rough landing due to the lack of control of Vikram but thankfully, it was uninjured. The moment it landed, the surrounding people involuntarily took a step back in fright.
From the crowd, an eight-year-old boy ran towards the pigeon without a single trace of fear and stood in Vikram's line of sight.
"Leader, give me a lift," The child exclaimed in anticipation as he raised his hands to the sky and began to jump with excitement.
"Haha, sure," Vikram said as one of his men walked forward and lifted the child high up until Vikram could pull the kid beside him.
Seated beside Vikram atop the puppet pigeon, the eyes of the child glowed with excitement as he gazed at his mother in the crowd.
"Mother, I'm taller than you now," The child laughed sheepishly as he motioned his hand from above his head towards the direction of his mother in a display of comparing their heights.
"Don't worry ma'am, it's safe," Vikram comforted the worrying mother as the puppet pigeon flapped its wings and took off into the air.
"Yaayyy," The child cackled in laughter as he witnessed the Lego structures on the ground look tiny and marvelled at his surroundings. But after the pigeon gained some more height, the child seemed to have lost all interest while a trace of fear flashed past his eyes.
"Ahh, I forgot about our poor eyesight," Vikram thought as he mentally rebuked himself.
He hadn't noticed it because he had his eyes transformed in order to have a better vision while on flight, but the child only had to depend on his primary vision. Beyond 6-7 feet, everything would be a blur to him.
Vikram immediately decreased the altitude of the pigeon until it hovered four feet above the ground. The child immediately began to laugh and exclaim as he gazed at the changing scenery in marvel.
When he felt that the child had his fill of excitement, Vikram made the puppet pigeon descend to the ground and safely dropped the child with the help of another warrior.
After that, the puppet pigeon immediately took off to the air once again and swiftly flew in a direction opposite to the base towards a spot on the fifth floor.
Prakash had just walked to the place where people had huddled together to watch their leader fly in the air atop a pigeon when he saw Vikram take off to the skies and travel away from the base.
"I guess, he still intends to set the people trapped in the cinema halls free before our departure," Prakash thought as he gazed at the surrounding boisterous atmosphere that had suddenly calmed down.
The surrounding crowd of people were looking at him with complex gazes. They didn't know how to treat this newcomer. He had combat prowess on the same level as their leader and also seemed to be close to him, not to mention the fact that he hadn't taken the initiative to converse with any of them till now. So, the people didn't how to approach him.
Prakash felt awkward under the gazes of the crowd as he hurriedly walked out of it. He didn't want to form connections with these people since he was going to leave them soon anyway. Moreover, he was also taking their pillar of hope with him.
If they came to know that he was the cause that prompted Vikram to leave the base, Prakash couldn't fathom the drastic measures they might take against him. Their lives had been invariably affected because of his actions.
Prakash walked back to the makeshift stable and patiently waited for the return of Vikram. A minute later, a disappointed figure sat dejectedly atop a pigeon that descended before Prakash.
"How did it go?" Prakash helped Vikram to climb down from the pigeon's back.
"It's hopeless," Vikram gave a forlorn sigh as he continued, "I saw at least 20 pigeons and 3 eagles camping in the reception area of the cinema halls. There was also a woodpecker that came from god knows where and is currently making a hole in the door," Vikram felt weak.
He thought that if he could rescue the people trapped inside the cinema halls, it would be quite a boost to their base. There were a total of 11 cinema halls in their shopping mall, with the largest of them capable of housing 600 people and the smallest capable of housing 200 people.
On an approximate estimate, even if he could rescue about half the people tapped there, that would still amount to be more than 1000 people which was equivalent to half the population of their base.
"It is probably a Black-rumped flameback that you saw. They are occasionally spotted in our city. Remember the one that made annoying sounds near your bedroom window at 5:00 AM every single day during your first year at university?" Prakash said.
"Ahh yes. They both look the same," Vikram continued, "But that fact is irrelevant, how can we chase them away with our little strength. One or two pigeons and I could deal with them but there are about 20 pigeons there even on a conservative estimate not to mention the 3 scarier eagles."
