The Chronicles of Shamballa

Chapter XIX: The Path

"Here we are, the forest- it's right up ahead," said Raza looking out of the window.

The carriage stopped because the horses refused to go ahead. They got out of the carriage and looked around. The sky was dark and thunder began to rumble in the sky. It was afternoon but there was no sun, the clouds began to gather and the wind began to blow. Kali reached after them and let go off his horse, the carriage turned around and the driver quickly rushed off with it.

The five of them stood in front of the entrance to the forest. A small piece of open land gave way to the tall trees up ahead. The landscape looked frightening- something was definitely crawling around in the trees.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Weeping Forest!" remarked Raza as his old memories returned to him.

"The mountain must be beyond those trees, look! Up there, I see the peak!" Carey pointed out.

"Well what are we waiting for?" remarked the Princess and bravely walked ahead.

Raza stood and watched the others walk into the woods. He was not sure that he wanted to be a part of this team anymore. But soon his greed took over and he bravely walked after the others- he knew he was risking his life but he also thought of the prize he would get....they needed him to show the way and he would take advantage of that.

"What a strange weather, tsk! Monsoon is upon us, we might have to take shelter somewhere," the Princess remarked.

"I'm glad you are here, Princess, I wouldn't be able to make half of the journey without your help," said Carey.

"Hmm, no problem, there's something I want to ask you though, um, do you have any sort of mental sickness?" she asked with a straight face.

"What? No! What makes you say that?" asked Carey.

"Well it's just that you've been acting strangely for a while now, you know, collapsing, getting unconscious, blabbering strange words," she said walking ahead.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, I think I'm having visions, seeing things that I cannot for the love of god make sense of!" he replied walking behind her.

"Visions? Are you sure you're not hallucinating? Maybe it's just the stress-" she replied cutting down the leaves off the bushes and clearing the way.

"I'm a man of science and logic, I don't believe in the supernatural but I can't explain this strange feeling that tells me that I have been here before," replied Carey.

But she had already walked too far ahead and was barely listening to him. Minutes later, she suggested that they should stop and take rest under a huge Banyan tree. The rain would come soon and that they should prepare some shelter and a fire. Raza was strictly against the idea, he argued that they should reach the mountain as soon as they can. But the Princess had already decided...

They sat up camp under the huge tree and Ram Babu lit a fire. Kali stood guard like a soldier and watched the surroundings, something in his gut was telling him that they were being watched.

“It is inauspicious to take shelter under a Banyan tree... these people do not understand... spirits rest here, oh my God! What have I gotten myself into?" Raza nervously kept thinking as he sat down at a distance from the tree.

"What is he afraid of? He looks nervous!" Carey remarked as he sat down by the fire.

"Sahib, this place isn't safe, I know you don't believe in such things but there is something evil lurking around," Ram Babu remarked handing him some water.

Carey didn't respond this time, he was beginning to suspect the existence of the supernatural too. What happened earlier at the docks, when he was floating over his body, how could he explain that?

The Princess sat by the fire looking sombre as the clouds began to roll and the air began to smell of fresh rain. But the shade of the tree was so huge that barely a drop of water fell upon them. It was a good idea after all to take shelter from the rain, Indian monsoon could be treacherous and it brings along lots of diseases along with it.

*Creak*

A faint sound of a twig breaking in the distance alarmed them. Kali immediately drew his weapon, he wasn't going to let anyone hurt the Princess or her friends.

"What was that?" Carey remarked as each of them exchanged blank looks.

Raza immediately ran towards them and began shivering in fear.

"They are here, oh no, we're going to die!" he whined.

"Shut up! You i***t, nothing has happened yet, it must be an animal," reassured the Princess.

*Creak*

Again the horrifying sound was heard at the distance. Kali and the Princess exchanged looks and he immediately knew what to do. He walked towards the source of the sound, carefully grabbing his weapon. Everyone's heart was in their mouths...

"Shoo! Stupid animal, shoo!" he said, "It’s a wild boar!"

The others relaxed and Kali turned around to return towards them.

"We could have killed it! I hear wild boar has excellent taste!" remarked the Princess jokingly.

But Kali felt something lurking behind him in the dark. He turned around and saw a disfigured hand stretching out of the dark, it's claws reaching for his throat. And before he could do anything, he was dragged away into the darkness of the forest, his screams echoing in the cold air.

The others immediately got on their feet.

"What sort of animal was that?!" Carey remarked, frozen with fear.

The Princess had no idea what had just happened. Were the myths and legends true? Was this forest haunted?

Whatever it was, she was not going to let her team mate die. She drew her sword and ran after Kali. Carey saw her and dropped his mug and ram after her.

"Wait! Princess, it's not safe!" he called her from behind.

Raza and Ram stood there shaking in fear by the fire.

"D- Don’t worry- these things are scared of fire," said Raza as he sat down hugging the dying fire.

Both of them sat shivering in fear as the forest echoed with horrific screams and roars. Carey was running after the Princess and she was stumbling through the thick canopy to rescue Kali, there must be a distance of a few meters between them but it was easy to get lost in the bowels of the dreaded forest. Kali’s scream kept echoing as he was being dragged away deeper into the forest. The Princess kept calling out his name, trying to find him while Carey only cared about her safety. She followed the drag marks on the ground. Carey was finding it difficult to keep up, he was not built for strenuous physical activity. And then it stopped! The screams died down- dead silence fell across the forest, even the rain stopped falling. The Princess stopped and looked around fearing the worst, she still couldn’t find Kali and the drag marks ended near a tall bush. Carey came in huffing and puffing and looked at her.

“What? What is it? Where’s the man?” he said panting hard.

The tall bush began to shake violently, something was coming out. She drew her sword and prepared to attack. But she was surprised to see Kali coming out of the bush, covered in mud and dirt, breathing hard with a knife on one hand and something that looked like an animal claw on the other.

“Kali? You- are you all right? What happened?” asked the Princess in disbelief.

“I managed to escape but I took a piece of it,” he said showing them the claw.

The Princess and Carey looked at what he was holding in his hand. It was a severed fist that looked like it belonged to some animal and yet it had the characteristics of a human hand. It was blue in color and had black nails protruding out.

“Wha- What’s that?” Carey asked.

“What attacked you?” asked the Princess.

“Not sure your highness but it isn’t that easy to take down Kali, that thing has met it’s match, it attacked me from behind like a coward, I couldn’t see it’s face but I’m pretty sure that it’s not human,” replied Kali as he cleaned himself up.

“So the stories are true- there’s something evil in these forest!” remarked the Princess.

Carey couldn’t believe what he was hearing- Evil spirits in the forest? His belief in reality was beginning to crumble, all that he knew about the world seemed like a drop in the ocean. There are indeed other things around him. The Princess ordered the group to get back together. Kali cleaned himself up and showed the severed fist to the others. Raza jumped in fear, he mentioned that he had seen that thing before- his stories were true. Kali smirked and put that thing in his satchel, he wanted to keep it as a souvenir- this man did not fear death but welcomed it. The group finally got together and started to move towards the mountain after the rain subsided. They could see its peak getting clearer as they got closer. Carey looked at Kali and saw a red hue around him- what could it mean? Why was he seeing colors in people? He rubbed his eyes and it was normal again but he was sure now that the further he went down the path to locate Shamballa, the more dangerous it was getting, they have to tread with caution.