Invincible Naga

Chapter 3 Mysterious Bond

A few months ago, Senan killed a giant cobra. This misdeed hindered him from revealing the nightmare and fang mark to Pakirappa. However, he had been definite that Pakirappa would go for snakes rather than for him. He would advise Senan to worship the Naga idol consecrated in the Sacred Grove in the KG estate to escape the wrath of the Naga that would befall him, which Senan strongly disbelieved.

From astrologers to Pakirappa, he had always heard that he should not harm snakes in any way. Snakes frequented Senan in dreams, creeping out of the darkness behind his shut eyelids. To scare him, Senan thought. To save and bless him, the astrologers said. Though they never meant to scare Senan in dreams, he was so terrified by their appearance and took them as chilling experiences of nightmares since they forbade him sound sleep.

However, he regarded the nightmares with snakes as the throwing back of his inner fear. When they manifested before him in real life, he confronted them furiously, ignoring the astrologers' warnings about harming snakes.

While reading his horoscope and predicting things according to the positions of stars, the astrologers used to exclaim, 'Oh! My God! Snakes frequent you in dreams?'

Senan believed that people like astrologers would assist him in escaping such recurring nightmares. When he insisted on it, one of the astrologers said, 'Why do you want to escape it? It's a boon, not a curse. They'll never harm you but will protect you.'

'Protect me? Snakes?' Senan chuckled.

'You're too silly to comprehend such things. Don't harm them by any means, at any cost,' the astrologer warned him. Senan took the astrologer and his warning silly.

He considered the snakes trivial and, hence, despised the relevance the astrologers attributed to them. He was unable to refute it, though. Instead, he annoyed the astrologers to the point that they refused to read his horoscope.

Senan set fire to his horoscope to break the irrevocable tie with snakes and believed that he burned them to death. Nonetheless, snakes continued sneaking into his dreams from somewhere at night. They neither spared nor bothered Senan. In most of such dreams, they always appeared on all the paths of his journey as a close companion seeing him off. They would watch him till he vanishes at the farthest ends.

Those paths were unknown to him and were wild, narrow, and winding leading through dark woods and undergrowth. Later, when he reached the farmland in the wild woods, he recognized them all. Occasionally, he thought about disclosing it to Pakirappa. After giving it a second thought, he abandoned the idea because Senan would not be able to convince him.

The Dhani had asked Senan to tap the rubber trees on alternate days whenever Pakirappa had been to his village. Senan was well-experienced in it. Pakirappa was unwell the last time he returned from his village, and he asked Senan to continue tapping for two more days.

During the second day of tapping the rubber trees, a hump-nosed pit viper bit him because he forgot to put on gumboots. It was lying curled up in the bed of fallen leaves, with its head slightly raised and waving like an antenna. Moving from one tree to the next, Senan felt a heavy strike on his feet. He screamed upon discovering the hump-nosed pit viper.

His cries and shouts echoed across the hill and caught the attention of two laborers on the areca nut farm. The alarmed laborers came running to him. Being afraid of a lethal death, Senan almost fainted.

'Chenna, what happened?' They repeatedly asked to wake him up and sprinkled water on his face like heavy downpours.

As soon as Senan regained his senses, he showed them the snake further away. Seeing it, the native laborers folded their hands in reverence and chanted some mantras. Although it was audible, Senan could neither understand nor accept it. He begged them to capture the snake to take to the hospital so that he could get administered the proper antivenom fast. They ignored it as if he had been bluffing something.