by Jasmine Walt
The words spill out without hesitation. “Day after day, many of us mortals die. That is inevitable, yet the living wish to live forever. On the other hand the immortals, including the goddesses we have met on this journey so far, want to be mortal. Isn’t that the greatest wonder of all?”
The dwarf is pleased with his answers, his mouth wrinkling in a sly smirk.
Yudi is surprised and strangely satisfied at the depth of his knowledge. So Mimir was right. It was important to go through the process of learning at Arkana to prepare for the tests life would have to offer. For once, he is happy to have toed the line, and he finds that there is no sense of ego in realizing this, just that he is happy to have done the right thing and to have saved his friends.
Kubera bobs his ugly head. “Well done, Yudi.” He takes a bottle with a transparent liquid from the folds of the cloth tied around his waist over the sarong. “Here is the Elixir.” The bottle glints as he hands it over. “Remember, all three of you have to drink it so that you can get through the next stage of your journey unharmed.”
“So, where is the Gateway to Saturn, then?”
In reply, Kubera looks to where Artemis hovers stationery in the centre of the lake. The dwarf raises his right arm in farewell.
“Wait, what do you mean—?” he asks, then is distracted when he notices Tiina stir.
As he turns to bend down to help her up, he finds that he is no longer thirsty. In fact, when he touches his side, he notes the wound is gone, and his clothes have returned to their original untouched condition. Both of his companions appear to be sleeping peacefully, their clothing intact. Tiina’s hair is all in place, its usual long and glossy self once more, as if she has just washed and set it.
He touches Tiina’s cheek and she smiles at him sleepily.
“Open your mouth.” When she obeys without a murmur, he pours a little of the clear liquid between her lips and waits for her to swallow it, then pours a little into his own mouth. It tastes like water, and is just as neutral in smell as it is transparent.
Rai sits up, rubbing his eyes. “Did we fall asleep?”
“Yes.” The bottle is almost empty, and he hands it to Rai, glad there is just enough to go around. “That’s the Elixir; drink it up. Finish it.”
His companion takes it from Yudi and is about to drink it when Simh walks up to him, butting him on the shoulder with his head. The lion cub opens its mouth as if asking for some. Rai shrugs and pours the liquid into the cub’s mouth, then he tilts it to his mouth, but there isn’t anything left. He lifts the glass bottle upside-down and captures the last remaining drop, swallowing it.
Yudi’s lips purse into a frown when he spies the questioning tug of Rai’s mouth. “All done?”
Rai nods and places the bottle on the ground, and after digging a hole in the soft dirt with his bare hands, buries it so as not to spoil the appearance of the beautiful scene. Then, while washing his hands in the lake, he asks, “Well, what’s next, then?”
Yudi and Tiina look to each other and laugh. It feels good to lighten up after the intensity of the last few hours. He gazes at her, love swelling his heart and warming his body, and she turns to Artemis, who is once again bobbing up and down, impatient to move on. After getting to his feet, he pulls her up, and embracing her in a familiar gesture, kisses her forehead.
“You know I am never going to let you leave me now?”
“I’ll remind you of your promise when we come face-to-face with Shaitan.”
Yudi begins to protest when, realizing that her old habit of baiting him hasn’t changed, he decides to give her a dose of her own medicine. “Whatever makes you say that?”
“We’ll see if things don’t change when he offers you his kingdom as his son.”
“Ah! You are right. Between you and Shaitan? There’s no choice.”
“Hey!” Her body grows rigid as she tries to pull away from his embrace.
“Two can play at this game.”
“You are catching on fast, Yudi. It’s no fun if I can’t provoke you anymore. So, where to next? Where is the Gateway?”
Remembering the same question he had asked of Kubera, he searches for the dwarf, but the mysterious guardian is nowhere to be found. “Uh! I believe we were told to follow Artemis.”
Rai gets to his feet as well, dusting off the mud from his clothes. “Should we?”
“I suppose,” Yudi replies uncertainly, then follows Rai as he steps into the lake.
They wade through the water, which at its deepest, comes up to Yudi’s waist. Tiina hangs onto him, as the water is almost chest-high for her. Then Artemis sinks under the surface of the lake and vanishes.
Rai makes it to the spot where Artemis was earlier and similarly slides through an unseen tunnel. Holding hands, Yudi and Tiina arrive where the others vanished, then Yudi turns around and signals to Simh. As if he had been waiting for permission, he dives in, and together they ease through the tunnel hidden under the surface.
They follow Artemis, who has switched on her headlight, providing enough illumination to light the way, and emerge one by one, bobbing up on the surface of the waves near a beach. The three of them laugh and dive right into the waves. Even Simh joins in for a while before retreating to watch them from the beach. To recover from the swim, Artemis stays stationery just above Simh’s head.
The lion reaches up to snap playfully at the small spaceship. Artemis retreats a little, then comes right back to where she was earlier and Simh chases Artemis again, and before long, they are engaged in a full-blown game of dodge.
Yudi, Tiina, and Rai continue to frolic in the waves for a while longer, simply having fun, trying to stay in that feeling of not-having-a care-in-the-world for a little longer.
At last, they emerge from the tide onto the golden sands. The three of them lie near Simh, who having eventually tired of the game with Artemis, rests his head between his front paws to take a nap in the sun. Completely spent, the three give in to the sheer pleasure of the sunshine beating down on them, drying them off. A sense of wellbeing emanates from them, and they remain motionless like colourful wall lizards.
22
“Are you sleeping, Tiina?”
It takes her a minute to find her voice, so caught up in the serenity is she, but finally she replies, her tone husky with relaxation. “No.”
Yudi rises to his elbow and kisses her on her forehead, her closed eyes, her nose, and finally on her lips, continuing his journey down to the hollow of her throat, her breasts, her navel and the secret place between her thighs, until her entire body is enflamed.
The once serene beat of her heart is replaced with a growing restlessness until she opens her eyes at last, brings his head up, and kisses him with the pent-up intensity of a lifetime. The days pass in a haze of building a small house just by the beach, and the nights in lovemaking. They discover the sheer pleasure of each other’s company, becoming so self-sufficient in that warm cocoon that the world reduces to just the two of them.
Tiina gives birth to twins, who they call Luv and Kush. Life has changed for Tiina overnight. They are completely dependent on her, and her love for them knows no bounds. Nothing could be more important to her than her children.
My life before them was good, but it wasn't complete. It is as if she has discovered this well spring of love within her, always there, though she just didn’t have anyone to share it with. It was great that she found Yudi, but the children make her life complete.
So this is how living life should be. Just taking it a bit slower and we'll keep on going with our way of living as the years pass.
In that utter peace, watching the children grow up, it seems that nothing could ever go wrong she thinks watching them frolic in the water.
“Watch me, Mother,” says Luv, and, to her horror, he runs into the sea, dives into the waves, and disappears underwater.
“Luv!"
She dives in after him and brings his limp body to shore, where Yudi wades out to greet her. They frantically try to revi
ve him, but he is not going to breathe again, and, giving into the horrible, sinking feeling, that incredible sense of overwhelming loss, they cling to each other and Kush and weep. Tiina shakes away the hand on her shoulder and then, angry, turns around and uses her fist to shove away whatever is there.
Rai blocks her and says, “Come back to the real world, Tiina. You’ve just been dreaming.”
She opens her eyes and blinks back cold tears. “That was horrible!”
“It’s just a nightmare,” Yudi murmurs.
“Well, these tears are real,” she says stubbornly, touching her cheek, “and the grief I felt was real.”
“What was it?”
Now that she is awake, the entire dream seems like an illusion and she hesitates, wondering what the significance of it is.
Am I pregnant? Her hand automatically goes to her womb. Does this mean I should not have children? Why twins?
The memory of being with Yudi, having a family, being a mother—all of this brings hidden desires to the surface. Feelings that she is not familiar with rear their heads, yet she is unable to put them into words. What do I want? Her emotions are still raw and she’d rather leave them alone for now. She conceals the weird sensations in her heart until she has figured out what to make of them.
Simh nuzzles her, and she puts her arms around his neck and, burying her face in his soft fur, lets him comfort her for a few minutes. Then she gets to her feet; her clothes have dried in the sun and are stiff with salt. After picking up her sword, which she had earlier placed next to her on the sand, she heaves it into place on her back-scabbard and looks at the other two.
23
“We’d better be going.” Yudi gets to his feet before lifting up his sword and hanging it in its secure belt around his waist.
Tiina searches for Artemis, who appears magically from where she has been hiding. They follow her up the beach into a grove of palm trees, which grow close to the water’s edge. It is cool under the trees after the sunshine on the open beach and they walk through the large grove for almost half an hour before the trees thin out.
As they near the end of the grove, they hear sounds of struggle. Simh growls and Yudi places his hand on the cub’s head to quiet him. He turns around, putting a finger to his lips to indicate they should be quiet. They move with caution, taking care to conceal themselves behind the trees.
Abruptly the trees end, and in the clearing ahead, two giants of immense proportions spar with each other. One is male, for he is wearing a yellow sarong wrapped around his legs in the traditional style such that it is tucked in at the back, leaving his legs free to move. Around his waist is a saffron loin-cloth. Towering above them, almost twenty-five feet tall, his bare torso is covered in sweat and specked with dark hair, and he has long matted black tresses ending in large sideburns. Around his neck is a massive snake, which is stationery and not particularly bothered by the fight.
This one is well put together; definitely can’t call him ugly. The giant is in good condition; the muscles on his upper body are well defined in a six pack. The same couldn’t be said about his fighting partner.
She is a little shorter than him, still towering above them at almost twenty feet, and is thinner with straggly grey hair. Like her male partner, she is dressed in an identical sarong. Unlike the bright yellow-ochre coloured clothes of her companion, her sarong is a dirty brown, almost the same colour of her skin, which shines likes polished ebony. The sarong is pleated in the front in concession to her femininity and tucked in at the back, so that it can lend her legs freedom of movement. She is also bare from the waist up, her pendulous breasts sagging almost to her waist. On her ankles she wears large silver anklets. The tinkling of their bells is a womanly sound, which is at complete odds with the brutality of the scene.
Then he notices something very strange. Just below her breasts, she has an additional mouth in the centre of her stomach, from which there is an occasional flare of purple fire.
Ugh! Disgusted by her ugliness while simultaneously feeling sorry for her, he turns away and starts as Tiina taps him on the shoulder. He indicates to her by hand signs that they should try to creep around the fighting giants, until they are past them on the other side.
Tiina shakes her head, her mouth an O of alarm.
Yudi nods insistently and turns to Rai, who comes up to them.
“Don’t look them in the eye—” he begins to whisper when Yudi places his hand to his mouth, cutting off the words.
He glances toward the sparring giants, making sure that they have not been noticed, then indicates the same to Rai, who glares at him with disbelief. The clearing beyond extends for miles on each side; their best chance is to try to creep around the giants, and hope that they are not noticed.
With Artemis leading the way and Simh bringing up the rear, the three of them scuttle to the right until the trees thin out and don’t afford much cover. Yudi pulls out his sword and Tiina mirrors his actions. Together, they race around the monsters, as they are halfway through the clearing, Artemis darts to the left, toward the giants. He speeds up, wondering what she is up to, and to his disbelief, she makes an arc around the monsters and sails serenely under the overhead arc created by the grappling giants.
He has almost reached the other side when a sixth sense makes him look around. The beasts have stopped fighting, and the giantess reaches out her massive palm and grabs Artemis. As he is about to turn to come to her rescue, Artemis slips through her fingers—he swears he hears the spaceship giggle—and then she sails toward them.
No, no, don’t come this way! You are going to lead them straight to us. Barely has the thought crossed his mind when the male giant glances in his direction.
Giving a mighty roar, he raises his enormous sledge-hammer like finger and points in their direction.
“Run for it!” Yudi puts on a burst of speed to reach the trees on the other side, and keeps going through the undergrowth, closely followed by Tiina and Rai.
The giants crash through the trees behind them. The thought of being a tasty morsel of food for the oversized monsters, or more precisely, the second mouth in the female’s belly, drives Yudi to keep running.
With adrenaline pouring through his veins, and his heart pounding as if it were to leap out of his chest, Yudi keeps going until he is out of breath. Simh is faster than him and overtakes him, disappearing among the vegetation. To make sure that Tiina and Rai are still with him, Yudi turns, and his aching legs finally force him to slow down and he comes to a standstill next to a fallen tree. Blood beats in his ears so he can no longer tell whether the giants are chasing them or not.
Tiina and Rai come to a stop next to him and collapse on the log beside him. Artemis glides in next to him, almost next to his ear, and alights on his shoulder. Another giggle seems to chime from her, though he cannot be sure.
“Don’t ever do that again,” he pants to the spaceship. “Were things getting so boring that you had to liven them up?” Then turning to Tiina, he says, “She sure has a strange sense of humour.”
A nervous laugh escapes her. “I can do without such a scare again!”
By now, the sun has dipped under the horizon, and as their breathing returns to normal, Rai says, “I hope that is the last we see of horrible gigantic beasts. Did you see the female?” He shudders.
Yudi nods. “Shall we keep going before it is completely dark?”
Both Rai and Tiina agree, and they continue with Artemis once more leading the way. Within a few minutes the forest thins out again, and a natural path appears, which seems to have been used by others before them. They follow the route single file as it runs through a clearing and then into a field filled with rows of flowers.
The sky fades to purple with stars twinkling. In the distance at the end of the path, not more than a kilometre ahead, Yudi makes out the gopuram, a traditional temple tower. He silently points it out to Tiina and Rai.
“The temple of Shaitan!” exclaims Rai.
The th
ree of them stop to take in the sight. Just behind the gopuram, Yudi spies the twin moons as well as the rings of Saturn.
“Now I really believe that we are on Saturn.”
“It’s beautiful,” breathes Tiina.
As the others admire the scenery ahead of them, Yudi’s attention is drawn to the flowers on either side of the path. Sunflowers, except they are much larger. He walks up the path, admiring the blossoms. Each is at least a foot across with massive petals. The rows closest to the path reveal that hidden among the rows of sunflowers are people bent over the flowers, harvesting the seeds. One of the flowers leaps out, lengthening its stem, elongating its petals, and neatly slices off the head of the closest man. The flowers are carnivorous, like elegant Venus Fly Traps, he realises in horror, and the beings bent over them are not harvesting, but are each bound to the thick stalks like sacrificial offerings.
Another flower changes shape, and this time he spots its vicious white teeth as it bites off the head of the man attached to it. The people are likely drugged, for there is not as much as a whimper from the victims.
Yudi hears Tiina stifle a scream, and figures she has spotted the disgusting tendencies of the flowers, too. With unspoken consent, as if by not acknowledging the horror of what they see it would fade away, they don’t stop or exchange any comments, preferring to follow Artemis, until they reach the end of the path and cross over the threshold of the outer courtyard of the temple.
Shaitan built the temple to represent his dominance over the home of the gods, which was said to have been on the Himalayas. The central constellation of one main and four smaller gopurams temple towers symbolizes the five main peaks of the mountain range, and the moat around it, the surrounding ocean. They cross over the dry moat and pass through the outer wall, walking through nearly fifty metres of open ground, which separates the outer and inner walls. The temple is accessed by a bridge to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west, which is how Yudi, Tiina, and Rai enter.