Feral – A SciFi web series – Chapter 1
Every third night after the twin moons rose above his head to shine bright making the sun from earlier in the day shy of its luminosity, Agumbe stayed up the whole night watching the fight of the Garudas on the smaller of the two moons and then shifting his gaze to the creature that fetched water on the bigger one. He moved his head rapidly, twisting his neck and unblinking to create an illusory effect of the dragons and the woman. His astonishment knew no bounds when he returned every time this event occurred and watched the distant ball of light animate with life.
Agumbe kept a record of the number of times he has done this since the time he noticed it for the first time, about one hundred and fifty four times is what the white marks on the tree next to the spot in which he had discovered this informed him. Funny that to him the count one hundred and fifty four made no sense, neither did the structure that rose sky high around the twin moons or the very brown pillar that he had used to mark his count. Last time he had wondered about this, Mani had made a great fuss about it and continued to stare at him until he stopped thinking about it.
Mani was his older brother. From what he remembered, Mani was his only sole companion and he followed him everywhere he went except on the third day after the twin moons when he quietly slipped away after consuming the food that they had hunted and Mani had closed his eyes. Tonight had been easier than before, as Mani had gone straight to the ground and flat after the last bite that he had pushed down his throat. A loud sound came out of Mani’s mouth and he slid down under the protruding rock and turned his back to Agumbe. Agumbe had held his breathe the whole time and waited for Mani to quiet down. As soon as the shifting of Mani’s body had stopped, Agumbe swallowed the last morsel that had been stuck in his mouth and rushed to the spot.
Agumbe rested his small, dirty palm on the rock next to where he sat and leaned back on another. He stared ahead on to the valley below and the far mountains that hung from the dark sky just below his moons. The quiet whisper of a creature comforted him and he listened to the sound coming from inside his body. That slow rhythmic thumping against his chest had slowed down even more and softly sung his lullaby. He closed his eyes and the cold wind gushing down from behind him into the valley made the hair on the back of his neck stand. He drifted off into what he could only perceive as oblivion.
Agumbe was in another world now. He could not recognize anything around him. The strange surrounding kept getting stranger as he unwillingly moved through it. It was as if he was not the master of his body. He looked down at his moving feet and commanded it to stop but to no avail. He instead started moving faster towards a blurry vision. As he moved along, he watched the brown pillars move behind him. He saw his brother, Mani sleeping under the rock drift past. He saw the path that he always took to reach his spot disappear behind him and then suddenly he saw the valley approaching and the twin moons becoming a giant. The light from the moons became brighter every step and hurt his skin. He rubbed his body but the pain only seemed to increase. As the crevice approached his body shuddered in cold and fear and then the valley loomed ahead as his vision was consumed by it. He gulped his final breath and fell.
Agumbe woke up in fear and faced the dead of the night in stupor. He tried to move his hand that would not listen to him. He remembered the world that he was in before this, now it was his arm’s turn to disobey him. He looked ahead to see if he was at the bottom of the valley. He had not moved an inch and sat at the very spot he had drifted. The moons now had faded away and a grey screen covered it.
As if his body was rebelling against him, a scream came out of his mouth and thundered down the valley. His eyes bulged and hurt as he tried hard to blink the pain away. He moved his other arm and stood up. The unwilling arm fell down like the log from the brown pillar and hung on to his shoulder. He knew that he had left his arm behind in the other world. A cold feeling lurched up his chest when he thought about helping Mani find food.
Just as he started loathing in his inability he felt a twinge in his fingers and then on his palm. He moved his fingers and lifted his palm. As he slowly gained control over his limb, he felt elated and screamed out in full control. He was the master again.
The twin moons by now disappeared gave way to the early sun light that streaked through the sky illuminating the valley below and then his own spot around the brown pillar. Agumbe reached out for the brown bag made of the creature skin that he had killed earlier this week, slung it around his shoulder and walked away to his home. It had been a yet another strange night.
With every step, that he took towards his home Agumbe remembered the other world that he had visited and the drifting path. He was happy that his path was back in its place and his spot would not disappear. As he came near his home expecting Mani to be still with his eyes closed, he noticed a grey cloud like object rise into the sky. He peered hard trying to understand it but could not. At that point, he heard Mani’s scream. He commanded his body to run and so it did.
