Invincible Naga

Chapter 4 Winding Path

When the jeep grunted and growled to get through the slatestone-withered, jagged, narrow, walkway-like path, it faced an unexpected hairpin. Suddenly, they got close to a big male Sambar deer on the apex of the hairpin turn. The driver could maintain the jeep's control since he had been well-experienced in off-road driving. Otherwise, it would have turned into a tragic blow for them all.

'Uff! My God! It's a narrow escape!' The driver screamed when he fully bent the jeep to get around the hairpin and avoid the deer simultaneously.

The deer leaped to its right side and scampered off. It traveled a considerable distance with each leap. Senan pondered how it gracefully threw itself to a greater distance while galloping to escape them.

'See how it sprints!' Pakirappa said. While glancing at it, he struggled to maintain his squat pose.

'I haven't taken the rifle. Or else, we'd have shot it. You know, its meat is delicious. We had it last month,' the Dhani said.

Three of them, except the driver, paid attention to the way the deer vanished from their sight. For one, it was delicious food; for another, it was a magnificent animal; and for the last, it was a creature just like himself. Each of them looked at it from different angles. Nevertheless, it disappeared at the same endpoint of vision for all of them.

The driver's attention was on the precariously deep left side of the path and its slender edge. The path was too constrained for the enormous wheels of a jeep to move ahead.

Tremendously growing wild grass and shrubs often concealed the path, particularly making its bends and curves hardly found. The Dhani said that it had been a walkway for the hunters and Malakudiyas in the past.

In some places, it was paved with gravel from the streambed that would have flowed away during the rainy season. It was neither cemented nor concreted. The stones left back hither and thither to indicate the path ahead. Alone, the big black slatestones could stick on against the gush of water down the hilly terrain, but it made the path more challenging to get across.

Again, the jeep had a sudden throwaway, and Senan could not sit intact. Pakirappa was vehemently thrown down to the floor. There was no crying, no chaos of any kind. Shortly after, he quickly regained his posture, and the jeep had been moving forward. Senan had never witnessed such a recurrent deliberate fall of anyone with no attempt to avoid it.

Pakirappa had been reluctant to enter the Dhani's jeep wearing shabby clothes dipped in the foul smell of rotting rubber latex. But this time, Pakirappa agreed to go. Moreover, the Dhani showed interest in taking Pakirappa with him since it had been a case of emergency.

Hearing Senan's painful cries, the Dhani said, 'Don't worry. We're getting to Bairu; we'll get the medicine. They'd be preparing the remedy for you now.'

Senan thought the Dhani would have sent someone to the Malakudiya Chief to get the remedy administered promptly. Amidst all these, the jeep suffered a heavy jerk. Following it, Pakirappa recovered himself from beneath the seat and regained the squat pose on it. He then clasped his hands around his legs and held them close and tight to his body. He was confident on his face, as though he had planted himself deep in the jeep.

He held his face a little upright, and his lips elongated. Pointing at Senan with the tip of the jaw, Pakirappa said, 'Now you'd be thinking that we'd have sent someone there, but none.'

'They prepared the herbal remedy considering the physique and psyche, and the snake bit him,' the Dhani said.

Meanwhile, the jeep increased its speed despite the hairpin turns, blind corners, and steep curves waiting at many points along the twisting path. The Dhani was a little scared of the way the jeep was speeding ahead. He touched the driver warmly and said, 'No need to hurry. The chief's wife would have predicted our departure. They'd be preparing his remedy now.'

Initially, the herbs were collected, and the remedy was prepared after the patient was brought in. Since it led to many critical issues, it became impractical for them. Later, the chief's wife could predict the departure of any snake-bitten patient with every detail needed to prepare the remedy. Senan was amazed at it and wondered how it could be so. But he didn't dare ask the Dhani about it.

Long ago, there had been a route leading to the hilltop territory of the Malakudiyas from the road down at the hill foot. It passed through the scary, narrow space amidst enormous rocks, like serpentine-deep trenches. Only mountaineers, experienced in climbing hills and large rocks, could pass through it.

A few laborers, including Pakirappa, and the Malakudiyas traveled through it. Some men who dare not to get into it may climb and descend to the other side of the rocks. Pakirappa had told Senan the roof-opened tunnel-like path would cause a scary feeling of being caught in something inseparable at some points during the journey through it.

Once, Pakirappa passed through it, when he had a third attack from the hump-nosed pit viper. But, to his surprise, he had no symptoms. So, he kept it a secret and set out to Bairu's hut for the remedy. He had no idea if he would get there. When he reached Bairu's hut, he found that they had not prepared any medicine for him since the chief's wife had an intuition that someone frightened of the snake's venom would visit them.

Since he showed no symptoms of snakebite, they did not give him any remedy. They did not let him sleep either, as some symptoms may be concealed in deep sleep, and the patient may die. They watched over him till the morning and found Pakirappa healthy.

He returned despite their objections. The tribal men saw him descending the hilly terrain through the rocky tunnel and informed Bairu. Thus, they knew that the patient had left.

Amidst recollecting all these, Senan again heard Pakirappa's falling as though someone had thrown him down heavily. It sounded like all his bones were a loose bundle of logs.

'This time, it's a horrible one. He'd have cracked one of his limbs,' the Dhani said, but gladly.

But none of his limbs were broken. Pakirappa again resurrected from the thousands of sounds he was broken into. It went on until they reached their destination on the hilltop.

(to be continued...)