◻Juggling The Jumbles◻

At times I stay transparent, but the fancy masks neglect my existence. But worry not. With the march of truth, I will rise again.
~ REMEDIES.
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"She needs our help!"

He mumbled as he packed some unusual leaves and scented sticks in his tanned brown, pleated leather satchel. Grabbing the glass jug, he guzzled the water down his gut in one go.

"But what could have gone wrong that she had hurt herself?"

He shoved the phone inside his pocket while his hands hurriedly rolled the loosening folds on his elbows.

"Come along. Time to unleash the truth." He said as he pulled him along.

Panting breaths and jagged steps made them surpass the little junkyard in the front to reach the lovely flowers of the garden. Crumpling the crunching leaves and stomping the faint perishing flowers, they stepped out of the patternless black iron gates.

Tushant rushed his steps as the pooling beads of sweat soaked his skin, turning it red with burning stabs of the noon shine. After some time, he looked back only to find the other man gaping at the two-story house walled by a glass verandah. His lips muttered inaudible sounds, making Tushant wave his palms at him.

"Thinking, are you?"

"Something is not right."

Stating that, he took a thin lilac stick and lit it with a green glass lighter.

"Have some sense, t. This broad daylight. Above that, you are in public and-"

Ignoring all his caution, the man lit up the stick that emitted some purple fumes. Tushant gazed clueless at his actions while resting his palms on his thighs to relax the tension. He could witness the fumes gradually becoming nefarious, reflecting dark shadows in the aquamarine skies as they were held in the direction of their house.

What could this mean?

"Holy heavens!"

Muttering it, the man ran. He opened the gates ghastly ajar. Tushant accompanied him as a rush of confusion trickled his nerves to annoy him.

"She is at the right-"

"I know."

He turned the knob to enter the hallways, where he was greeted by a woman whose face looked paler than usual.

"Ayya-"

Creases filled her aging temples as those curious eyes read the strange person.

"Maa, idhu-"

"I'm heading up. Get me a few jugs full of water."

His rushing steps were strong enough to make Tushant grab the two steel-plated copper jugs from the table. Climbing the stairs with erratic steps creating a croaky noise, they reached the door that was half opened with no glint of the morning allowed into it.

Strange! She never stays alone in the darkness.

"This is the effect."

He rolled his wrists to join his palms and recited a phrase between his lips. He then opened his pouch to pull out everything possible.

"Is there something that I could do?"

"Stay here. I will ring this bell every five minutes, and if I don't, then light this brown incense and let its vapor pass through this coiled fern. Got it?"

His timid blinks and rigid stares earned him a hit on his ankles.

"Ouch! I'm sorry. But how would I? Should I enter and light it or-"

"Enter in and light it. Let us inhale the vapors. It should do."

"Should? Aren't you sure?"

"Not until the cause is found."

He twisted the ferns to knot them in the middle with a twisted, thin rope. Trickling some water on the wavy twisted leaves, he shook them off.

"But will it hallucinate or does it harm or will it-"

"Don't panic, Tushant. It's more of an emergency medicine." His firm hold interjected him. He opened his palm and handed the fern and sticks. He grabbed the two jugs and ran in, ignoring his dizzy gazes.

~•🔲•🔳•🔲•~

Oh. My holy heavens!

He looked at the drops of blood, some rotten and dried with pungent red drips rippling on them. Covering his nose with his palm, he entered carefully enough not to make a move to bring any light into the space.

"Kimaya?"

His words went unheard. But through the shifting twists she made on the floor, he could glimpse her reddened nose tips. Her once tidy, smooth strands were messed in every angle, hiding her clamoring tides. The blood-mopped strokes around her made his heart sink deeper into the dark craters.

Too vicious even for a mare.

"Kimaya!"

His voice made her hurry to face the walls. Her blood-caked fingers left their prints as she crept along.

"Turn around!" He said while ringing the antique golden bell that echoed in high intensity.

"Kimaya?"

"Yewh sownd-uh str-ange!"

Her wheezy voice made him ring the bell again to get her attention.

"Kima-"

"Ain't me your Imay?" Her fingers tapped the walls in a dole whip.

My Imay?

"Foolish than I thought!"

She twisted her torso so fast that he couldn't respond. In a moment, her eyes lost the brown whirls that were fading to the shades of clouds. Her quivering limbs, crusted with blood, caught his throat. Some stray strands trespassed her cheeks. Those igneous vessels branching in her eyes caught his attention.

"It waz yewuh!"

Why is her voice strident?

His thoughts trafficked him while the itches in his gut exploded through his lips. He rang the bell erratic enough, alarming the perching birds to hoot away.

Why isn't he coming- Shit! I shouldn't have rung the bell.

He convinced his fidgeting thoughts while her unusually strong holds tightened around his neck. His nostrils flared, and her blood-soaked sweat began to knot his stomach.

Human blood!

"It hurts you less than how much you have hurt them all."

She caught his wobbling jaws. Her fingers played with his thick beard. He tried to move his chin but felt a palpable force repel him.

"Poor, poor thing! Chem chreem chm."

"Me? Hahaha! You never know who I am. Subtly silly!"

He retched his words to provoke her bitter churns. But her white eyeballs stayed steady.

"In the first grain, he gave me the body,
Second grain gave me four limbs to crawl,
The third grain lets the soul of life howl,
Thus came the joy of mirth and merry.
Hmm, Mhmm Naa Naa Naa Naah."

His veins began to throb in his neck while his hands fisted tight. Her cruel grin and melancholic hums chewed his every being.

"Mourns of death faded, so does the cruel tides,
Life has begun its game of rides and slides,
The knight of heart had risen with a new dawn,
Oh my soul, be his righteous pawn!"

"Who- What are you?"

"Haahaa. Haahaa. Seems like the knight of the hearts doesn't know his slave."

Through the corners of her shoulders, he could see the curling shadows slithering towards him.

"Leave me, or you will-"

Awooo! Shanqwa. Shanqwa- Awooo!

The sudden shuddering chimes cautioned every inch of his skin, gurgling in unknown guilt.

Am I coaxed? Or-

"Woow- Woow. Awooo!"

The raspy barks were strong enough to blow even the scanty doubts out of his scarce head. He glimpsed a four-limbed, cerulean shimmering shadow run towards him.

"Awooo! Wooow Waaauww!"

"Lord? Huh- Lord Bhairav?"

The moment he attempted to join his palms, his feet trembled, making him grip the table nearby. The black shadows glimmered aureus as they melted down to join the lengthened shadows of the girl who stood frigid.

Why is he seeping into her shadows?

"Oh! A poor old soul in the facade of a human."

She bit her tongue while her fingers plucked the peeping white hairs from his beard, making him clasp his lids tight. He muttered some words between his lips while she arrested his quivering lips.

"Should I remind you that your powers are not the same?"

The lurking shadows turned to shades of deep mauve with a slimy luster adorning them. When he tilted his head, he could glimpse the deflecting golden spokes radiating out of the swirling void. Slowly he could see a gigantic snake, adorned in amaranthine skin and golden hexagon patterns, slither towards him.

This can't be true! Nooo!

The royal crown on its head was embellished with an oval stone half blizzard ebonic and half spectral, shimmering with the seven colors of life. It was knotted with golden thorns and twigs on one side, while spring blooms, and perching birds were carved intricately on the other.

"Shesha?"

But why is he guarding the pretha?

Bombarding queries woke a throbbing pain in his temples. In a moment, he felt something compress his thighs. Sooner he saw her feet pressing the ground as her snowy eyes pried his legs.

"How could you harm- Argh!"

A heavy pain shot up his torso while his limbs felt tingling and dead.

"It was your mistake! Your fault had cost our lives."

He could sense palpable havoc lingering in the air.

I'm missing something. This is unreal! Not the time to-

"Now is our time! It's time for us to fight!"

The slit tongue of the serpent licked his ears. It stretched its jaws to show the numerous sharp fangs and the bubbling green fluids oozing at the corner of its pouches.

"You have no idea what you have cost."

He slowly straightened his spine while steadying his feet.

Seek the truth! Just get it done! Gregg- ghrook ghrook-

Dribbles of tears screamed their frights on his cheeks. With a struggling jerk, he let his tongue tip curl to hit the palate while his thumb and pointers smooched each other.

"You can't escape the truth!"

Her shrieks shrilled in his ears. Eventually, everything faded into nothingness.

~•🔲•🔳•🔲•~

"Aum! Thath Purushaaya Vidhmahe."

The pricking shudders crept to crawl down his nerves. He quaked the iffy odds while some serpentine curls woke behind his heart, racing upwards to his throat.

"Mahadevaya Dheemahi."

Harsh whips of split his skin. His luminous amber skin oozed some sanguine fluid. He traced some drops to smudge them between his fingers.

"Thanno Rudrah Prachodayaath!"

Stating that, he joined his palms and sipped in some air that made him sigh out the infuriating boils within him.

"Aum Namah-"

"Haahaa! Escapism isn't the key, Aatman."

Those words made him kneel on his knees at the endless thick fluffy clouds racing beneath him.

"Mahodhya! I can't withstand the riddles anymore. I accept my defeat." His tears welled up to stay cooped up on his lowered lids.

"Hari Hara! Haahaahaa."

The blazing rays revealed an obese man adorned in the silvery shine of stars with a bold red dot adorning the wrinkles between his azure eyes.

"Aatman, would you tell me why your powers were abandoned in the Nyaya Sangh?" He brushed his hands to outline an irregular figure.

"I broke the rules of Dharma."

"Can you elaborate it?" He raised his hand while seating himself on the rock carved out of cotton clouds.

"I should have waited for my turn to visit the prapanja. But I chose to break the chakra of Kaal out of my selfish deeds." He bit his lips hard enough to twitch his nose.

"How does that affect the prahars of the kaal?" His voice toned coarser than usual.

"It- it would either slow it or derange the regular spins." A strange thrill made his words lisp.

"And... Have you ever realized how your position as Hridhayaatmak had affected it?"

Those icy waves unlocked the path his pragmatic senses had left unexplored. His trembling torso bleated at the decaying pits that had been resurfacing.

"If he had realized, he wouldn't have cost so many of us, Rishi Gautama!"

"Who has the audacity-"

He dodged his head to look behind. His anger diminished as the spines of truth poked his thick skin. His eyes studied his three-foot form with an amethyst glowering snake coiled in his waist.

"How could he-" He paused as his legs stood up without him realizing it.

"He is not just one, but a man among the thousands who lost their karma in the hands of your flaws."

A glint of green clouded his sight. Through the vapors, he could see the boneless pounds of flesh creeping towards him with their sharp nails and blazing ruby stares.

"Noooo!"

When he exhaled his fears, he could witness the fat-bellied little figure weep with tears in the shade of gold. The revelation crippled every fiber of his being. Ruffles of quietude crammed the air.

"Mah-Hodh-yah! How cruel I have become." His palms thrashed his cheeks as his prints blackened his fragile skin.

"This isn't the time to repent."

"But why wasn't I summoned?"

"Certain deeds have their way of repentance. Now is your time. Don't let the yudh of a thousand years perish within the hands of nothingness."

He patted him on his arms and slowly stretched them. His glowering hands titled the handle-fitted urn, which earned him some stupefied stares.

"Why am I offered the elixir?"

"Hah! Aatmak. The Thrikalyasadah has given you a chance to settle the turmoils."

He poured the gritty golden liquids that woke his skin with the coldness it had long forgotten.

"Does that mean I will be accepted back?"

His eyes moistened with tears that glided down to taste sweet on his lips.

"Only niyama of karma can determine that. You have three prahars left. Do what you can and be aware of whatever you do." He raised his palms, letting some metallic spark revive his lost strength.

"I, the sishya of Gautama parampara, avow my duties!"

He sipped the sweetness that burned all the soreness that chewed his gut and the curbs that predated him for a while. The heavy shimmers glared his sight. But he had his answers.

FOOTNOTE:

Maa: A Tamil word to address a woman with respect.

Idhu: A Tamil phrase that stands for 'it is'.

Dharma: Sanskrit word for righteousness.

Rishi: Sanskrit word for sage.

Nyay Sangh: Nyay is the Sanskrit term for truth, and Sangh is the word for court or official body.

Kaal: Sanskrit word for time.

Prahar: Sanskrit word for divisions of time. A day was considered to comprise six prahars.

Thri-kalya-sadah: The term 'Thrikal' indicates three indications of time, the past, the present, and the future. Sadah is yet again a word for court.

Hridhay-aatmak: Hridhay is the Sanskrit word for heart, and aatmak is a word for soul. Together it denotes the man who rules the heart and its elements or the knight of the heart.

Niyama: Sanskrit word for a rule.

Karma: Sanskrit word for the sum of one's good and bad deeds in every birth.

Sishya: Sanskrit word for disciple.

Parampara: Sanskrit word for a clan.

FACTS TO KNOW:

1. Shesha is the coiled serpent who guards and comforts lord Vishnu, the protector of every world.

2. Gautama is a sage from the revered seven sages, the saptarishi. His name refers to the light in the dark; hence he is the one who connects the world of life and the realm of death.

Two more chapters to bid Adieu to this tale. But will the Aatman be able to set all his wrongs right? If yes, how far would he strive?

Ever in your memory,
🪢..Yaris..🪢