Ancient - 2. Vision

Chapter-2: Vision

Abraham immediately grabbed my right hand and in a swift motion mounted us on his white horse which seemed unbelievably calm facing those giant lions.

As those wild animals noticed us on the horse, they intensified their raucous roars and accelerated their speed against the boisterous wind. I shuddered and leaned back against Abraham’s naked torso. He got his strong hands around me to pull the reins of his horse. His horse neighed in response, hefting his hooves up in the air.

“Just trust me.” I felt his hot breaths against my ear. I swallowed and prepared myself for whatever was coming next. “Zephyr, tame the dragons of fear and worry!”

Is he talking to his horse?

I couldn’t get the chance to muse over my own question because Zephyr chose that moment to fan out his white wings from either side of his shoulders which were fascinatingly extended to his stifles.

The pack of savage Lions was a few feet apart from us when Zephyr fiercely flapped his long, wide angelic wings. I exhaled deeply in terror and excitement.

I saw Abraham’s grip tightening on the reins. “Hold tight!” I was sure his words were directed to me. Without any delay I put my hands over his.

Zephyr leapt in the air upwards, strung out his elongated wings. I felt my heart sprung out of my chest as the wind whipped my face.

“WHOA!”

Zephyr was flying. I was flying. Fucking flying! I looked down at those lions which were looking smaller by the moment.

“You’re safe…for now!” Abraham shouted to defy the dominating current of air around.

I relaxed my stiff back a bit and leaned behind. I decided to give in to the fight with stubborn wind and closed my eyes. When my anxious nerves somewhat subsided, I was able to feel Abraham’s heart thudding against my back. My own heart’s pounding was audible to me too.

“Where are we going?” My eyes were still closed.

“Sacred Land. We have to cover a very long distance in less than two days.”

My eyes snapped open. “No Way! I need to go to my home first. Maybe my parents are still there waiting for me. Maybe Chance is there looking for me.”

“I already told you—”

“I know what you already told me but I need to be sure. I just need to be sure.” He emitted a defeated sigh.

“Fine, but we can’t stay there for long.”

I nodded. I gave him the directions and in less than five minutes Zephyr landed on his hooves to the ground in the front yard of my house, folding back his wings which became invisible the next moment.

Abraham got off the horse first and looked around. Once satisfied that nothing dangerous was around. He gave me his hand and helped me to dismount Zephyr.

I raced inside my house and checked every room but there was no one. I felt helpless. I felt like a failure. I sat on the edge of my parents’ bed overrun by their memories. During this whole time Abraham was quietly and patiently standing beside me.

I traced my hand on the clean red floral bed-sheet. This was my mom’s favorite. Inadvertently, my trailing hand touched something under the pillow. I tossed the pillow aside and found an envelope. It had written Happy Birthday, Axel over it. It was my mom’s writing. I slightly open the envelope, took a peek and closed it back. My eyes welled up with tears. Abraham moved towards me but stopped a few steps away. He didn’t say anything, just stood there. Perhaps, it was his way of saying that he was with me.

“Your name is Axel?” I slightly nodded.

“Tomorrow is my eighteenth birthday,” I said to no one.

“I know. The six of us share the same birthday.” I glanced at him in surprise. I wanted to ask him a million questions but this was not the right time.

I slid out my phone from the front pocket of my jeans and put it on the bed. Once again I longingly stared at the envelope and finally stuffed it in my pocket.

I pulled myself up on my feet with a determination.

I want my parents back. I want my best friend back. I want this world back. I want everything back and I will get everything back.

I went to my room and Abraham followed. I opened my closet to bring out a green t-shirt. I quickly got rid of Abraham’s shirt, handed it back to him and wore my own t-shirt. Once Abraham was clothed I knew it was time for us to leave.

“Let’s go. I’m ready.” Abraham curtly nodded and led the way outside.

The sky was getting redder. The thunder was more blaring and the wind was unrealistically ferocious but the bigger concern at the moment was that Zephyr was not where we left him. “Something is wrong.” Abraham agitatedly surfed his eyes around, keeping his right hand behind his shoulder over the haft of his sword. I stared at him. “Stay with me.” He ordered in a whisper. I swallowed down the growing panic and nodded hesitantly.

From nowhere something jumped on me and I stepped back screaming. Abraham instantly drew out his sword from its scabbard.

I spotted the creature and shouted, “NO!”

Abraham scrunched his brows in suspicion. “This is Pooh. My dog.” Pooh was busy scuffling around my legs, completely ignoring the presence of Abraham.

A smile crept over my face watching Pooh playing around me. Maybe I hadn’t lost all my loved ones. I enthusiastically picked him up in my arms. “Where were you my little friend? You have no idea how happy I am to see you.” I scratched the area behind his ears; he had always loved it. He licked my face in appreciation which made me laugh.

“We should leave.” Abraham nudged my attention.

“But Zephyr?”

We both looked around to find nothing. Pooh, abruptly, jumped out of my arms and started running. I rushed after him and so did Abraham.

“Pooh! Stop!” I hollered after him but that idiot kept running.

“Let him go!” Abraham suggested. “Racing through this empty road and yelling may draw unwanted attention.”

“I’m not abandoning him!” I concluded leaving no space for argument though I heard him huff.

Finally, Pooh halted and I scooped him up in my arms again, scolding him.

Right then, I heard some distant roars. “Axel. Let’s go now.” Abraham said from behind.

“But what about Zephyr?”

He took a few steps to stand next to me. “We should leave.”

Abraham was unblinkingly gazing right ahead. I knew something was not right. I followed his gaze to find the bloodied remains of Zephyr’s body a few feet ahead of us. The middle of his body was torn open. The crowd of flies had mobbed over the mess of his guts. His once beautiful wings were shredded to feathers with the stains of blood on them. Half of his head was eaten and…and his eyes were still open.

“Oh my God!” I felt sick. If I hadn’t compelled Abraham to visit my house, Zephyr would be alive right now.

I began shaking. Abraham instinctively came behind me and held me tightly. “It’s not your fault. Don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault.”

“I need to…” Abraham let go of me. I handed Pooh to him, ambled to the left side of road and puked. Once I was done I spat a couple of times to get rid of that bitter taste in my mouth.

The roars sounded nearer this time. “It’s not safe for us to roam around in the open in such circumstances. We have to go.” I saw Abraham looking away from me and from the remains of Zephyr.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s no one’s fault.” He met my gaze. “We have to leave now.”

I’m sorry, Zephyr. And with a last glance in the direction of remains of Zephyr we left along with Pooh.

“Now, how do we get to the Sacred Land? Do you have a plan?” I asked him while trying to avoid the stirring emotions hovering my mind.

“We’ll think of something. We’ll have to think of something.” We kept walking in silence until we reached the outside of my house. “Let’s get inside. We can’t leave this city unscathed without a plan. Until then it’s safer to stay inside.”

We entered through front door. Abraham checked the whole house twice and locked all the doors and windows.

We moved into my bedroom and sat at the end of my bed. In the meantime, heavy rain had begun to pour outside from the red sky.

The grimacing look on Abraham face made me sure that something more was up.

“What is it?” I asked cautiously.

“Rain has started.” He mentioned like it explained everything.

“It’s just rain.” I tried to shrug off the unknown danger waiting for us in his next words.

“No. It’s not just rain. It’s the rain which is going to drown this whole world, except Sacred Land, in the next forty-eight hours,” he stated in a grim voice.

“And there is no way we could get there in next forty-eight hours due to Zephyr being not with us.”

He nodded and I began to sulk while Pooh was busy tussling around my bed.

“Pooh, what are you doing?” I chided in annoyance.

“Why doesn’t your dog bark?” Abraham asked out of the blue.

I gave him a stern stare. “Pooh. His name is Pooh.”

He gave me an apologizing look. “Why doesn’t Pooh bark?”

“Pooh is a basenji dog which is a breed of African origin. They’re known for their tightly curled tail and the inability to bark.”

Abraham ducked his head down. “Zephyr was with me since I was five. He was like an older brother to me, a true friend.” I felt terrible listening to his nostalgic, anguished words. He looked vulnerable with that pained look on his handsome face.

I put my hand on his clasped hands. “I’m sorry, Abraham.” He never cried but I think I saw him shedding some silent tears.

A sudden strident collision against the front door startled us and we sprang off the bed.

“What was that?” Soon the rowdy roars followed the collision and I got my answer. The gang of lions was back.

Abraham promptly yet carefully looked out of windows.

“Lions have surrounded the house and are throwing themselves against the doors and walls. They will be inside in no time.”

My throat was constricted with fear. I was going to die. “Now, Now what?! What do we do?!”

Abraham look past me and furrowed his brows. “What is Pooh doing?”

I looked back and found that Pooh was anxiously trying to get under my bed while scraping the wooden floor in process.

The barbaric creatures bellowed vehemently outside and the blatant noise of collision against the doors, windows and walls sounded more urgent and powerful.

Abraham ignored everything and ran towards the bed. He hastily lifted Pooh off the floor, handed him to me and sturdily pushed the bed aside.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to find a way to save three of us.”

Abraham stooped down, bent his knees to rest his weight on them and knocked against the wooden floor several times. He pulled out his sword and plunged its tip to the floor and dragged it against the fringes of a large rectangular wooden plank rather forcefully. Once he was back to the point where he started he tilted his sword and that wooden plank came off. He sheathed his sword back and removed that thick plank. I took it from him and with some efforts slanted it against the wall.

There was a circular iron door a few inches underneath the removed wooden plank. It seemed that this old rusty barrier was embedded in the floor with perfection. There was no lock or key-hole on the door. Its surface was just plain.

What the fuck that thing was doing under my bed?!

Abraham tried to open it with the help of his sword but in vain.

“Do you know how to open it?” He asked me while still working on the closed door.

“I-I have no clue.”

“Think harder!” He yelled.

I heard the clamoring of shattering glass. I could sense those beasts and their monstrous bawls nearer. The hair on my neck stood up in terror.

“I can’t think!” I yelled back.

“Okay. Okay. Let me think.”

“Think faster!” He closed his eyes while I heard the crumbling of front door. “Dammit Abraham!”

“Maester Edwin Blagden once said that you’re one of the three keys.”

“What?!”

He opened his eyes. “Put your hand on this door! Hurry!”

I didn’t ask anything and hurriedly knelt down to put my hand on the door. With the touch of my hand the barrier began to glow and with a creaking noise opened upwards.

We didn’t have the time to even sigh in relief. I took Pooh and jumped right through that threshold.

I landed on a heap of hay along with Pooh. I quickly moved aside with Pooh. Abraham threw his sword and then began climbing down through the wooden ladder I didn’t notice before. On the very first step of the ladder he took the hold of barrier door through a handle which was on our side of the door and pulled it down.

“Come here! We need your touch to lock this door again!”

I was able to hear the clawing and rumblings against the door held closed by Abraham.

“Now!”

I drew myself out of my trance and climbed the ladders with hastened steps. Once on the same ladder as Abraham, he put his free hand around my waist to keep me still. I raised my trembling hands and touched the door once again. It beamed just like before and we knew it was locked now.

Both of us, at last, sighed in relief and let go of the ladder and fell on the pile of hay. His hand was still wrapped around my waist. We kept lying there to catch our breaths.

“That was close,” Abraham muttered.

“But you saved us,” I whispered.

“We saved each other.”

“Modest.” To that he chuckled and then all of a sudden fell silent.

“What happened?” I asked staring at his sad face.

“It just feels wrong?”

“What?”

“That I’m smiling and laughing when not more than an hour ago I lost a loved one. Zephyr.”

I sat up. Abraham took his time and then followed my lead. I looked in to his glistening eyes. “Sometimes it’s okay to cry, to mourn over the loss of your loved one.”

“I’m not allowed to do that. My priority is to keep you safe, not to—” He couldn’t complete as he tried to blink away his tears. He seemed ready to break down any moment but something was stopping him.

I hugged him…tightly. “It’s okay. It’s okay. You can let it out,” I whispered while he melted in my arms. He burst out in tears. I kept mumbling It’s okay caressing his back while he sobbed.

Abraham slowly pulled back wiping his tears. “I’m sorry for my outburst.” He was trying not to meet my gaze.

“You have nothing to be sorry about. Feeling better?”

“Much better.”

We got on our feet. Abraham lifted his sword and hung it around his back. He glanced at me and kept staring into my eyes. “Thanks.” He brushed off the hay threads matted in my hair. I just smiled.

We looked ahead and found another iron door a few feet away. This door was big; even bigger than any door I had ever seen. Abraham, Pooh and I moved to the door. There was a flaming torch hung on the right side of the door. Abraham took that torch without any delay while I used the same maneuver to open this door. The door shined and then with a squeaking sound opened slowly.

On the other side of the door was a passageway of a tunnel. The walls were of some metal and the smell inside was surprisingly pleasant.

“What place is this?” Abraham seemed to be in awe.

“The bigger question is that what the hell this place is doing under my house?” I was actually shocked.

There was pin drop silence around us. We quietly kept walking for a long time, maybe hours in anticipation as we had no idea what danger was lurking for us at the end of this passageway, if it ever ends.

Finally, when hunger and thirst struck us and we had not enough stamina to move ahead we found another door. This door was identical to the one at the entrance of this tunnel.

I took some deep breaths.

“I hope this is it.” I prayed.

“Let’s see.” Abraham seemed exhausted too.

I ambled towards the door and stopped a step away.

What if the end of our life is waiting for us on the other side of the door?

“What happened?”

I looked back at Abraham. “I’m scared.”

Abraham smiled and walked to me. “I’m right here for you. Whatever is on the other side of this door, we will face it together.” I smiled back. Pooh began circling around us as if assuring us that he was with us too.

I looked ahead at the closed door. “Okay then. This is it.” I pressed my palm against the door. As expected it glowed but this time without any noise the door opened.

As soon as the door was opened I was smitten by a wave of overwhelming fragrance of Jasmine flowers. I greedily inhaled their irresistible aroma.

On the other side of the door was a garden, a big garden. The strange thing about this place was that there were only shrubs of Jasmine plants in here which were arrayed in numerous rows. The sky above them was blue and cloudless. I was happy to see that it was not raining here; on the contrary, the sun was shining and its rays were solacing. The breeze around was soothing.

“Is this heaven?” I was spellbound with the beautiful view before my eyes.

Abraham hung the torch back on the side of the wall and stood beside me. “Maybe.” I could tell from his voice that he was as mesmerized with this scenery as me.

I once again devoured the beauty of nature in front of me and stepped inside this stunning garden.

As my feet touched the ground of this place I felt my senses clogged up. I couldn’t breathe. It felt someone…something was sucking life out of me. I fell on my knees to the ground. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Abraham was yelling my name again and again but I never responded.

It seemed like the path to my senses through my mind was narrowing with each passing moment; Abraham’s shouts faded away and then there was darkness, sheer darkness.

I sensed nothing, no pain, no comfort, so sorrow, no joy, no hatred, no love, no death, and no life, nothing…just nothing. I was quite sure that I was somewhere in the middle of heaven and hell.

A glimmer of light gleamed in the middle of that total darkness and I saw heavy mist around. Slowly and steadily that mist dissipated and I witnessed a series of flashes one after another:

A well-armored large army was marching towards a prodigious castle; a black snake with six heads was etched on the red rectangular battle-flag of that army as their emblem. The same symbol was also visible on their banners.

A snowflake fell on an autumn leaf which was floating in the pool of blood.

A pair of hands was clasped together in prayer.

Two teenagers were running and laughing on an open green field; the boy was in black attire and the girl was in red dress. Their outfits seemed to be of an ancient era.

A heart-wrenching cry was echoing in an empty passageway of a palace.

A huge podium was situated right in the middle of a desolated grand arena. On that podium was a flaring fire with withering flames which were touching the sky.

The boy I saw earlier in black attire was still in the same clothing and was fervidly kissing another man, who looked like a soldier, on the top of a tall tower standing firmly amidst a river.

The back of a guy who was naked and was witnessing a palace being engulfed in impetuous heaving flames before him and was doing nothing.

The body of a beheaded soldier was lying on the bank of a river. A thick black string in which a big single white pearl was threaded in was clung in his bloodied hand.

Then, these flashes began to appear repeatedly but this time in a rush like someone had pushed the fast forward button; along with those flashes I heard some names echoing in the background.

Maddox

Aurelia

Felix

Alistair

Harman

After sometime everything stopped with a deadly silence. A few moments later I opened my eyes and gasped for air. I found myself back in the Jasmine garden again.

I was on the ground. Abraham had cradled me in his arms. He seemed sickened worried. “Thank God! I thought…I thought…”

My throat felt dry. “I’m…I’m fine.” I’m lying.

“What happened to you? Are you sick?” I could see the rush of emotions flickering across his face.

I carefully sat up but Abraham never let go of my shoulders. I tried to stand up. Abraham stood up first then pulled me up to my feet while Pooh was busy sniffing around me. “I need water.”

“Oh. Okay. You just wait here. I’ll look around for some water.”

“Okay.”

“You’ll be fine on your own, right?”

“I’ll be fine, Abraham. And pooh is with me, so go.”

“Don’t go anywhere. I won’t be far. Just shout my name if anything goes wrong.”

“I promise I will.”

Once assured of my well-being, Abraham left in search of water. I looked down at Pooh. “What’s happening to me, Pooh? Am I going mad?”

Pooh conveniently ignored me. I slid my hand in the front pocket of my jeans to take out the envelope my mom readied for my birthday. I slowly opened it and pulled out the gift. It was a big single white pearl threaded in a thick black string; just like the one in the bloodied hands of that beheaded soldier in my vision.

TBC.

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  to Emi (The Eminent MGK), Silentdreamer, Lilansui, Jeet01, JimP, Dcdrell, Terry P, Ninecila, Gulab Jamun, BrianM, Jnoel87, CLJobe, Chip321, Chipper66, Jt_hooks, Gregg, Frosenblum, Ricki,

Librent, Lol101a and all my readers. Thanks for making my day  

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