1 Chapter - 1 - Transmigration?!
Sometimes I ask myself
"Do 'What If's' truly exist?"
And then in a stroke of luck
The universe replies back
"Why Not?"
All your dreams, thoughts and beliefs
Are an extension of the
Probabilities in this Universe.
Just as your Life
Is an act of Being and Creating,
So is the Universe
An act of Expanding and Becoming.
What you think and imagine
With your tiny consciousness,
Has already been thought, imagined,
And perhaps even created
By this infinite Universe.
The Truths and Mysteries of this Universe
Are more than what you can
Understand and comprehend
With your limited knowledge and logic.
And thus, in these "What If's"
Lies the power of 'New Beginnings'
_______________________________________________
'Pit-pat...pit-pat...pit-pat-pat-pat-pat-pit...'
Large drops of glistening water sparkled in the dreary sky, rolling down leaves, splattering on the hard stones before breaking into zillion pieces, sinking into the mushy ground below, joining together to form narrow rivulets crisscrossing over the stony ledge and dripping down the sides.
The hand lying motionless on this web of running water suddenly flickered with life. A sharp blinding pain struck the mind , jarring Rihanna into consciousness.
"Unghhh...!"
The pupils were moving from side to side under the tightly closed eyelids as the brows crunched together in pain and listlessness.
Rihanna tried hard to open her eyes, but the eyelids felt like they were glued shut. The pain was bizarre – like every bone in her body had been broken to bits and they were cutting into her flesh and muscles. She could only feel and experience the pain, yet she had no control over her body.
"Ughhh!"
She grimaced, her already pale and tiny face distorting. A sharp, almost burning pain shot through her body, right from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. She could feel her body convulsing, her mind almost numb and exhausted.
'How.....why am I...still...alive?'
As the thought flashed in her mind, unknown to her, a dark purple light slowly emerged out from every pore in her body. Like a light sheen, it spread around her till she was completely cocooned by this flowing light.
Even as her consciousness slowly faded, she could feel a warmth quietly merging into her body, relieving some of the pain, relaxing the muscles, till finally the pent up exhaustion took over her senses and everything turned quiet.
---
"Gloop! Gloop! Glub-glub-glub!'
A series of strange but constant sounds broke thorough the air, not too loud, but continuous enough to invade the eerie silence of a dreamless state of mind. The eyes moved under the eyelids again, then her eyelids slowly flickered open. The burning heat of the sun made her grimace, her eyes narrowing into slits. Rihanna blinked a few times, then tried to move her head.
"Ughhh!...."
The pain made her eyes open wide, slapping her mind into total alertness. She looked above and blinked. And then she blinked again.
'There are.....two suns in the sky?!'
She tried to turn her head. Flashes of memory made her frown. She was with her colleagues....in a car....they were on Bumla Pass when the weather suddenly changed and it started snowing....the surrounding suddenly disappeared in a thick fog....then their car hit something.....the last she remembered was seeing a brightening flash of light in the car as it hurtled towards the edge...
'Am I dead?.....No, I am feeling pain so I can't be dead. Then am I lying somewhere below the cliff? How long has it been....and where are the others?'
Rihanna tried to move her head again. This time the pain was much lesser, more like the dull ache from overly exhausted muscles. With much effort she looked around – she was lying on top of a large ledge jutting out of a cliff. The top of the cliff was lost in a haze of dark black fog. It was even darker than the smog of the cities!
Looking back at the sky, she stared at the two suns in the sky.
'This is really bizarre...either I am having a problem with my vision....or maybe.....maybe I have already been found and sent to a hospital....and maybe this is the effect of the medicines.....yup....I am hallucinating....that must be it.'
Rihanna felt a bit relieved at this sudden insight. After all, she couldn't really feel any intense pain....pain which was bound to accompany a fall from a cliff. And since she was not dead, the only other answer could be pain med side effects.
'Well....since I am dreaming, might as well look around to kill time.'
After a lot of grunting, groaning, cursing and physical exertion, Rihanna finally managed to prop up half her body with her arms. Exhaling deeply, she looked around, then pulled her body to the edge of the ledge to take a look at what was below. Or rather what her imagination had painted all around her.
The cliff was quite a bit above the ground. At the foot of the cliff, large boulders spread out, slowly becoming smaller as they moved more inwards. The earth was damp, almost mushy. Some weird flora and fauna grew on these boulders – grass with large long leaves, flowers with very sharp needle like petals. They looked like some random mixture of tropical with desert varieties.
The grass became more lush and bountiful as they traveled more inwards till they merged with the outer edges of a forest. The tree-line was sparse, with broad leaves, bushy foliage and thick and long trunks.
Weirdly, the ground itself was black....or probably dark brown? And the more it spread towards the interior of the forest, the darker tone it appeared. A dull gray mist, or maybe smoke hung close to the ground in places, giving the entire forest a spooky aura.
At places she could see puddles of....was that water?! Wow...it looked dark enough to be mistaken as tar! Even from this distance, she could faintly make out some creatures jumping about in those puddles. The weird sounds which had woken her up were being made by those creatures.
'How come I don't remember seeing such a forest along Bumla Pass before?'
As Rihanna pondered over where she might be, a black dot dashing through the forest towards the cliff caught her eyes. As the dot came closer she realized that it was a rabbit – albeit it was extremely fast, and was as big as a large hare. But it was white and fluffy, and the panic in its large red eyes made it look as adorable as a cute little rabbit.
A whip-like shadow was chasing it.
The rabbit ran to the foot of the cliff and jumped onto a large boulder, its body trembling in fear as it stared down at its nemesis.
The whip like shadow was too fast for Rihanna to see what it was till it came to a sudden halt some distance from the cliff.
'Is that a snake? But that's as thin as a rope!'
The thin rope like snake rose half into the air. It's silver body sparkled in the sunlight. Tiny slit like eyes gauged the distance between itself and the rabbit. And then it spit out a thick mucous like substance at its prey.
The rabbit trembled, then leapt off to another boulder as the spit hit it's previous spot.
"Hsssss...Bang!"
The place where the saliva hit the boulder sizzled for a bit and then suddenly erupted in a small explosion. Tiny chunks of stone flew in all direction, rendering Rihanna speechless. Her eyes almost dropped out of their sockets as she clutched onto the sides of the ledge and peered down in shock and bewilderment.
'The snake spit out explosive saliva?!'
The rabbit, now standing on a different boulder, suddenly changed, catching Rihanna's attention. Its white fluffy hair was now standing up stiffly like fine needles of a porcupine. And its red pupils had dilated till its eyes seemed to be filled with blood-lust. Rihanna's mind was reeling as she watched the cute rabbit throwing out a number of hair-needles at the snake. Instantly the body of the snake was covered in innumerable thin but bleeding wounds.
The thin body twisted in pain, almost curling back onto the ground. Then with a shrill screeching and hissing sound, its entire body stood up in the air till only a part of the long tail was still on the ground. And it started spitting balls of saliva at the rabbit like bullets from a machine gun.
The rabbit was unable to attack back since it was busy jumping, scampering, diving and dodging this continuous attack. Many of the spit-balls hit its body, immediately burning off its skin. The white fluffy body had turned into black burnt splotches, and even the flesh inside was thickly charred.
The burning of its body seeped away all energy, and within moments the rabbit fell to the ground, waiting for approaching death.
The thin snake open its jaws – a very wide mouth filled with thin but razor sharp teeth, and bit down on the head of the rabbit. The stomach of the snake was expanding and contracting as a huge amount of saliva poured out onto the rabbit's head. The rabbit's body convulsed for a bit till the saliva burned through its brains, and then it hung lifelessly from the snake's jaws.
The snake turned and just as quickly disappeared into the nearby forest, probably to enjoy this delicious feast in peace.
Rihanna could feel her entire body shuddering as she pulled herself back onto the middle of the ledge and then lay back down. Nausea hit her and her insides churned, but she held down the rising desire to puke. Her mind was filled with what she saw as she stared at the sky. And the two suns stared back at her, mocking her ignorance and stupidity.
There was no way that this was medicine induced hallucination. No dream or hallucination or nightmare could be this vivid, this detailed and this long. Even from this height she could smell the stink of burning flesh and blood. But if this was real....
'Where the hell am I?! And how the hell am I supposed to return back to my home?'
