Dreamy Red

Episode 23 - Mystical Moksha

It was all white and hazy. I tried to rub my eyes to get a clearer view. But I got stunned as my hands were not solid. They were a faint bluish transparent film instead of human flesh and skin. I sadly realised that I was dead. I looked down at myself to see if I was floating through the air. Yes, I was really dead. Though I was not floating, all of me was the same bluish transparent figure and I didn't feel the ground under me. I put my hand through my body and it passed easily. I started panicking. I never thought of life after death, life in a soul state as possible. I tried to pinch myself. But my fingers passed right through my hand. I swallowed. Though I didn't. How could a ghost swallow?!

I looked around. It looked like the same cave where I was dead but with whitish smog everywhere. And there were puddles of water here and there instead of the pond.

At a distance, I saw a tall whitish form moving towards me. It was a mystical creature. Not a human, but a weird white-coloured horse-like creature with lots of parts from different animals. As it came closer, I noticed the details. It had a silver-coloured spiral unicorn horn on the front of its snout. Its ears were small and round with the inside pink in colour like that of a mouse. The body, the neck and the hair at the back of its neck were all that of a horse. The hair was shining bright silver with a few strands hanging over its eyes and ears. The mouth seemed horse-like but with weird dark black thick human lips. The eyes were also human. Beautiful white pointed ovals with black circles in the centre, thick black eyelashes and pinkish fair eyelids. But no eyebrows. On the snout was a small nose like that of a dog which did not look related to the rest of the body. It was black and moist with two tiny nostrils flaring open towards the end. And below the mouth was a long white furry goat beard with the same kind of hair as at the back.

Behind its mouse ears were a pair of large dark walnut brown moose antlers with many branches. The legs were muscly and fat with pure white and long fur like that of a polar bear but lengthier than even what an average horse would have. It made the creature look humungous. The pair of forefeet had five sharp black claws like a cat while the hind legs had a pair of feet like that of a pig, two pointy black hoofs on front and two small ones hanging behind, but amongst the furry skin unlike skinny like a pig. I bet that would make it run fast.

On top of its horse body was a large pair of white folded wings like that of an eagle on each side. And on the back there was no hair nor a tail of any animal, instead, there was a vicious white-scaled snake with abnormally large fangs hanging on the corner of its mouth. The snake was long enough for its face to be close to the horse's face. It reminded me of the snake I saw in the depths of the pond with hunger in its eyes.

The creature was only about a few feet ahead of me. It was five times bigger than me. If it was going to kill me, it would be effortless. But since I was already dead, I did not feel any fear. The creature gave a mild gentle smile when it was near me. The large teethed ugly horse mouth was showing the rosy gums which looked disgusting. I didn't want to anger the creature by showing my disgust, so I managed to fake smile back.

The creature spoke enchantingly, "Welcome, my dear." The voice echoed through the cave and it sounded melodious like that of a young lady. On hearing that voice, my disgusted feeling dropped and a smile emerged on my face heartily.

"I'm Moksha, the nymph of this magical cave", she said enchantingly. I was surprised because as far as I knew, a nymph was actually a beautiful maiden in Greek mythology. Though she was a mashup animal, she was beautiful, not like a human girl, but beautiful in her own way. Then there came another voice from behind, "Ssss, don't waste time on this one, Mokshi. Ssss. Let me finish it. Ssss." It was the white snake speaking that had come forward with its face adjacent to the beautiful Moksha. Actually, the snake though vicious-looking was a bit pretty with its forked tongue protruding out every now and then. Although, its voice was like an aged woman with hissing sounds in between. "No, Nirvana. We have to welcome our guest. After all, she is the special one", replied Moksha warmly.

I was standing there clueless about what was happening. Was I dreaming or was I really dead? Was this Moksha actually a god? Moksha in Hindi means the state of existence in the form of a soul. Nirvana also means the same.

"What is this place?", I asked eagerly. "This is the land of the Aathma, my dear. It looks so beautiful, isn't it?", Moksha exclaimed. Aathma means ghost, I mean dead soul. "Does it mean I'm dead?", I immediately questioned in fear. Moksha gave a mocking neigh and a calm laugh. "Not exactly. You are neither dead nor alive", replied Moksha calmly.

What could that mean? I was even more confused than I was before. "You can be saved", she said reassuringly looking at me. She then lifted her right leg just like how a cat would do and pointed it to a huge hourglass behind her. I hadn't actually noticed it all the while. It was big, covering almost the size of the entire cave. It was made of thick transparent glass with three wooden pillars holding it. Lush green vines were hanging all over the edges. Inside it, grey-coloured sand was falling down continuously but slowly from the top chamber to the bottom chamber. Both chambers were half full.

"That's your time in your soul state. If no one saves you before all the sand falls down, you will die and go to heaven or hell based on your karma", said Moksha with a hint of sarcasm.

"Ssss. She's just pulling your leg. You can't be saved. Ssss. Who is there in the wilderness to save you anyways? Ssss", said the evil Nirvana hissing as much as she can. Although she had a point. Even if Twinkle realised that I was in trouble, I didn't have hope that she would be able to communicate it to my family and bring them down to the spot where I lay unconscious. Even if they did, I was sure that it would be too late by then. I prayed that at least they found my body after my death so that my carcasses are not lost among the many others over there.

I was in a befuddled state of mind. I didn't feel sad that I was going to be dead because I was never afraid of death as the most important people in my life were long gone. In fact, I would be meeting them in heaven, if it did really exist. But I was a tiny bit sad that I didn't do any justice to Nishanthi by finding the killer before my death. Just then it struck my mind. If I was really in the land of the Aathma, Nishanthi would have been here too. "Moksha, do you by any chance know a girl named Nishanthi, who died a few days back?"

Moksha sat down with Nirvana's body whirling around in the sky adjacent to her. "Sit down. We have a lot of time to discuss things", said Moksha calmly. I too sat down on the rocks. But I felt nothing of the rocks. "Let me think", said Moksha and immediately a large scroll of white paper appeared in front of her. She unfolded it using her paws little by little glancing at whatever was written in it. After reading a while, she wrapped it again and when she retreated her paws from them, the scroll disappeared into thin air.

"The name Nishanthi is in the scroll of death. She didn't come to the land of the Aathma as her death was quick", said Moksha. "Ssss. If you want to know who killed her, wait a little while, ssss, you will die and go to hell. Ssss. Then you can ask her. Ssss. But you won't able to do anything about it. Ssss", hissed Nirvana meanly. I scowled with disappointment.

"Moksha, what did you mean when you said I was the special one?", I asked fervently ignoring Nirvana's comment.