Invincible Naga

Chapter 27 Senan's Return

Pakirappa could not comprehend why those who went together returned separately. Chandu, who came back first, was frightened, confused, and fast in each step. He could not respond to Pakirappa for a long while. He rushed in as a sudden storm that could jerk even the strong trees.

Senan came back long after Chandu returned. He was sleepy, lethargic, and slow at every pace. Both were not talking to each other. Pakirappa rightly assumed that something dangerous or mysterious had happened between them. They were reluctant to mingle with Pakirappa and stayed as though they shunned each other. Moreover, Pakirappa feared that if he insisted Senan reveal the incident, it would end in a brawl.

As soon as Senan got onto the sit-out, he fell onto the floor and slept. He did not notice Pakirappa. After a while, Pakirappa asked Chandu whether they had been to the Sacred Grove and if Senan had paid obeisance to the Naga. Chandu did not utter a word until he found Senan sank into deep sleep.

This time, Pakirappa again asked Chandu, 'What went on there?'

This question has been repeated so many times and has been left unanswered since Chandu arrived. At that time, Chandu was scared that Senan would emerge from nowhere.

'Why are you so confused?' Pakirappa asked him.

Chandu stared at Pakirappa for a while, thinking that he had plotted all this.

'Has he killed any snake?' Chandu asked furiously.

'I don't know.'

'You know, you know well, and you know everything about him.'

'How do I?' Pakirappa exclaimed and stood confidently.

'I think you know that he killed a big snake. That's why you were not accompanying him to the Sacred Grove.'

'No, no, that's not the case,' Pakirappa replied hastily and smilingly, to convince him.

'Then why did you send me alone with him?' Chandu asked retaining all the fear in his voice. Pakirappa imagined that Senan would have faced the wrath of Naga there.

Pakirappa had asked Senan to keep a piece of the mundu he used to wrap around his waist over his pants while working on the farm. Whenever someone inquired about his torn mundu, Senan replied that it was caught in the barbed iron fence. Pakirappa supported it. Senan had taken that torn piece with him, as Pakirappa had advised him to offer it to the Naga.

Chandu believed that Senan visited the Sacred Grove with him to pay obeisance, repent, and pray for the crime he committed against the Nagas they worship, who protect nature. Pakirappa did not accompany Senan out of fear of the worse outcome that would befall him.

Pakirappa remained silent and stooped his head down. Meanwhile, Chandu had been looking at Senan to confirm that he had been sleeping.

'Tell me what went on there,' Pakirappa told Chandu in a low voice and gesture.

'Something strange went on with him. I thought he would die or disappear.'

'What strange thing?' Pakirappa asked anxiously.

'He fell dead as soon as he touched the Shesh Naga idol.' Pakirappa was startled to hear it.

Oh! No! He shouldn't have done so. Why did he touch that?' He asked Chandu and suggested, 'You could have stopped him.'

'Before I could say or do anything, he fell dead. Since he regained himself, he was someone else. I feared it was Senan at all. It also lasted for a few minutes. His movements, facial expressions, and gaze made me take him possessed.'

'Possessed?' Senan opened his mouth widely, and a sharp screech jumped out of his gullet.

'By some ghost or something like that,' Chandu still had the shudder in his voice and face.

'No ghost will ever imagine approaching a Sacred Grove of Sesh Naga. It's absurd!' Pakirappa said, and with a constraint in his voice and stammering, he asked, 'Did he offer a piece of cloth there?'

'No, I found it in his hand while he was lying unconscious. Thus, I knew he had killed a snake. You also know it. Why didn't you tell me this before? I won't even keep company with such people. I'll become a part of such dangerous experiences and the wrath of Naga if it isn't forgiven. Seeing it in his hand, I scampered from there, leaving him alone.'

Chandu got down to earth from the farmhouse, lit his torch, fixed his headlamp, and said, 'I'm leaving. I wouldn't be able to do anything for him. I'm so afraid.'

'Stay here. You can leave after he wakes up,' Pakirappa suggested.

'No, no. I must leave.' Chandu said, and walked away, making a peculiar screeching sound of disgust, and beating the wild grass on the way with the big bamboo stick.

Pakirappa could not account for Senan's experiences at the Sacred Grove. He felt like being caught in some peril. He sent Senan to the Sacred Grove to offer a piece of cloth from his mundu to Shesh Naga and apologize for the wrongs Senan committed against the snakes. Pakirappa had also asked him to take a vow not to kill snakes.

Pakirappa slowly approached Senan, who had been in a deep sleep but was not snoring as wildly as he used to. While watching him closely, Pakirappa understood that Senan had fallen many times on the way back as the soil and fallen leaves were found stuck on his clothes and hair. 

Pakirappa slowly opened the closed fist of Senann's right hand. The piece of cloth was not in his hand. Although Pakirappa was upset that Senan would have lost it on the way, he did not dare wake Senan up and talk to him then. Yet he checked his limbs for the snake's fang mark. Nothing was there. He was relieved, but only to an extent.

(to be continued...)