The Snake Inside

Chapter 6

- Where am I?

Amar woke up in an unknown place. He was in bed and silk sheets caressed his body. He looked around him. He could swear that the bed on which he lay was golden, and the whole room was littered with gold and precious stones. It was very spacious, richly decorated and rich; everything inside was a sign of wealth and shone. There were mirrors in gold frames, beautiful ornate furniture, and thick carpets on the floor.

But the general impression of the room was not pleasant. It was somehow dark, dark and ghostly inside. Rare lights did not give enough light to the room. The walls were uneven, as if they were sides of fresh, dug soil.

There was a small, low table beside the bed. Amar looked up at it and noticed that there was a bottle on the table full of some beautiful liquid in which all the colors of the rainbow were mixing. Amar looked at the bottle well, but couldn't understand what it was; however, he realized that it must be something very valuable.

He got out of bed and made an effort to get out of the room. But just catching the door knob, he felt the familiar vibration of power that revealed the presence of the semi-deity.

"Go back, Amar, to the bed," he felt a voice.

"Lavantika? Where are you? I can not see you!"

"Here I am," said the semi-deity behind him. Amar turned around and looked at her. He had forgotten how beautiful she was. Lively black hair was falling to her waist, and her body rested upright on a thick, curved snake's tail. She was dressed in very beautiful clothes that revealed a good part of her body. "Why did you get up?"

"I wanted to look around," Amar said. "Where am I? How did I get here? I feel pretty well, and the last thing I remember was that I was bitten by a snake. What happened to the poison in my body? Why am I not dead?"

"One by one question, Amar, to answer you all," said the goddess with a smile. "You're in Naga - loka, the deepest part of the underground city of Patala," Lavantika said. "I brought you here. You are welcome to stay as long as you wish."

"So it's true what they were saying about the underworld! And why am I not dead?"

"The poison of the snake that bit you is in that bottle there" and she pointed to the bottle where the colors were mixing. "But it's not just ordinary liquid. The process of extracting the poison makes it a very powerful substance. More powerful than anything you have ever seen in your life. The liquid from that bottle is something new I made and has more power than anything else here in Patala!

But you're still weak. I advise you to lie down and rest!"

"Sure, I will. But Lavantika, it would be much better for me to go out and take a walk outside in the yard. Is the sun shining outside? I want to see the sun! Why is it so dark in here?"

"Sunshine in the underworld? There is no sun here Amar. All the light you see here is artificial."

And indeed, all the lamps that shone gave the interior a cool, unpleasant glow.

"Is there a garden in this palace?"

"Of course there is."

"I'd like to take a walk!"

"All right, you may. Just don't strain too much!

"Thank you!"

Amar left the room and headed down the wide corridor through the door that he saw from afar. He was right; that door led to what looked like a garden, but everything in it was made of artificial materials. In the middle, there was a waterfall in which the water flowed through natural stones. The only natural thing here was the rocks, and Amar stared at them sadly.

A rock caught his attention, and Amar looked at it well. It was a stone statue of a Naga man holding a knife in his hand as if he was about to hit somebody with it. The statue caused him unusual feelings, and it seemed to him he had seen it sometimes in his life. But when?

"You like The Petrified?"

Lavantika approached him from behind and looked at him with a meaningful look.

"Yes, that sculpture makes me feel .. I don't know, somehow very unusual. I have a feeling that I have seen it before!"

"I'm not surprised," said the goddess.

Amar looked around, and his face slowly received an expression of discomfort.

"Lavantika" he said after a long pause and his eyes bowed "there is no sun even here. Everything is dark, and I can't live here. I want to go back home?"

"Amar," said Lavantica, "don't hurry. I didn't bring you to Patala for no reason. You have a job to do here."

"What job?"

"I won't reveal it to you. What should you do and how to do it I'm leaving to you to discover."

"But Lavantika! I don't want to work here plus? I want to go back to earth, I want to see the sun! My parents are waiting for me to come back, they will worry if I'm not there! How do I go away?"

"The sooner you do your job here, the sooner you get a chance to return to the surface," Lavantika told him. "It all depends on you."