Senan fell back slowly, like a leaf falling from a tree in a breeze, and lay on the earth. He was sinking into a deep, dark oblivion.
Chandu was stuck in fear, and he looked around. He cried as loudly as he could, not to awaken Senan but to send his fearful voice far away through the woods. There was none at the other end of the call he made. So, no voice came in as a response.
Chandu bent down to Senan and tried to wake him up. Senan had been lying unconscious. Chandu looked at the Shesh Naga idol, frightened, and wished vainly that Senan should not have touched it. He even feared that snake venom would have affected Senan as a curse from the Naga.
Chandu even thought Senan would die in a few minutes as the venom would reach all over his body. He could only look at the hills where the Malakudiyas live, where they treat people infected with snake poison. There was no one for him to plead for Senan's life.
He kneeled before the Naga idol and wept, 'Naga, please save us.' Tears coursed down his eyes. He was still a devotee who waited for a good turn of events.
Meanwhile, behind Chandu, Senan was regaining his consciousness. At times, as he opened his eyes, he could see the ambiance vaguely appearing and disappearing before his eyes simultaneously many times. He felt exhausted and sleepy. His eyelids were drooping. Somehow, he lifted himself from the earth and managed to sit.
Soon, he felt that something vehemently emerged from his body, moved away fast like a whirlwind, and disappeared into the Naga idol in a fraction of a second. He felt a void at that time and was dumbfounded.
Chandu, who saw Senan back in his senses, became glad and moved towards him. Touching his shoulder, Chandu asked, 'Are you alive?'
Senan was looking at the Shesh Naga idol quietly.
'We should not touch such idols of Nagas. particularly situating in such sacred groves in the forests. The idols which can connect with nature is very powerful in their manifestation,' Chandu opined. Senan looked at him doubtfully. To support his own statement, Chandu said, 'I've heard so from the elderly people in our village.' Thus, Senan nodded in agreement.
'Are you lightheaded now?'
'What happened to you actually?' Senan shrugged off Chandu's queue of queries following it.
He never imagined revealing his experiences to Chandu, as he would take him for a fanatic. However, Senan also kneeled before the Naga idol, barely looked at it, and wished for nothing.
Simultaneously, some energy gushed like a stream onto the midpoint of his forehead from the idol. It stayed so for a minute and was cut off. Since Senan could not stand with these bizarre experiences, he shrieked out, looking at the sky, and wept bitterly. Chandu was so terrorized that he kept watching Senan from a distance.
He kneeled before the Shesh Naga idol and cried aloud, 'I never thought it was you. Otherwise, I'll never come here.'
Chandu stepped slowly back from Senan, leaving a great space between Senan and him. Also, he had been equipping himself to run away and save himself from Senan.
(to be continued ...)