Kama: Liberation(Vol-II)

Chapter 8. The Younger Brother

First came the firstborn son of the Eagle,
Second came the son of Lord of the Forest,
At last, came the second son of the Eagle.

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Indumala woke up not on the Alpha's throne, but a soft bed, her body sinking in its sheets like an anchor down the deep ocean.

With a thrumming head and a tangy aftertaste in her mouth, the comfortable surrounding really didn't match. She rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to remember the events from earlier. A ringing sensation numbed her ears, goosebumps pricking the back of her neck.

Plopped on a stack of pillows, she craned her head to find another human inside this glowing golden hut. He was a young man around her age, with flaxen hair and a fair complexion. He grinded herbs and hummed a song. Instead of questioning who this person was, her mind was enraptured by the tune. It was familiar to her, a thread that connected her to the distant past.

"Amma used to sing this to me when I was in Gandhar," she blurted. The dizziness in her bones calmed down, the buzzing whisper of memory-bees uttering sweet nothings. Her body of flesh remained stuck in the humble hut, but her soul travelled to the far land of Gandhar, journeying under the starry carpet of night. "I remember."

It was so unfortunate that Gandhar was destroyed the most by the plague. She lost so many– Amma, sisters Ambika and Ambalika, their husbands, even she died herself. And there was the little boy whom her older sister had adopted. Her heart ached at the thought of joyous memories fleeing away. Indumala's shoulders slumped. The plague had snatched so many innocent lives.

Rushing into the melodic chaos came an epiphany. A gasp hitched in her throat. The little boy? He isn't little anymore.

Birds quarreled atop the hut's thatched roof.

Raksa...

You...you are my little friend? My soulmate?

"He is a big man now," she murmured. "Older to even me..."

"I don't know whom you are talking about, but after the initiation ceremony it's possible for you to be in a tricky, inebriated state." The young man rose from his healing work and offered Indumala a shabby green concoction. "I am Soham, son of two Saints. I hope you are aware that you are in the valley?"

Indumala stared at him perplexed. He was dressed in white garbs, palms coated in yellowish paste smelling so leafy and fresh. She sniffed the concoction and scrunched her nose. "Must all medicines taste bitter?"

"Well," Soham grinned, "most do."

Indumala looked around. A sip of the drink made her vision clearer and tidied the unorganised thoughts of her mind. "Where are the others?"

"Your Baba will come to meet you soon. I am a doctor, and I was asked to treat the Luna and guide her after the initiation ceremony."

"What ceremony?"

"Initiation ceremony."

Indumala chugged down the drink in one go and forked out her tongue. "This tastes so bad. Why must I have this?"

"To relax your brain. You had a first time experience and a rather heavy one."

"You speak as though something great happened."

"Yes. You ate."

"Well, humans eat."

"Logically speaking, you aren't completely a human. Not anymore."