Chapter 02 : Book

The room he enters is full of skeletons, weapons and cobwebs. Sheer amount of skeletons and weaponry was baffling. "Something big might have happened here". Most of the skeletons were damaged. Were they fighting? Were they also looking for the book?

It was as if no one was down there in ages. Some kind of sound caught his attention .

"Who goes there?" 

..............He continues on his path removing cobwebs when the sound is heard again. He turns around only to find a giant spider rushing towards him. Its hissing sent shiver down his spine. Without a second thought he ran ."Fuck! For real."

His feet get stuck in the cobweb. Spider jumps on him and grabs him by torso. The struggle doesn't go for long as spider slows down eventually coming to rest. With all of his strength Aryaman pushes the giant spider away.

"This stuff is...... Is it blood" Aryaman is covered in spiders blood. Just moment before spider attacked, he got hold of a dagger from near by skeleton which he thrust into the spider. He grasps for breath and continues on his path.

"Its a dead end". According to Yazir, book is somewhere down in these ruins but I don't see any path ahead.


He stares at the wall for some time. "There has to be a secret passage somewhere". He knocks and pushes various stone bricks but nothing happens. With no path ahead, he sits beside the skeleton."Yesterday I was taking part in a championship surrounded by cheering crowd. Now I find myself surrounded by weird people, dead people and giant spiders. It seems you were in a better situation than me. I don't know what happened here but of all , you seem different. You smell of royalty. Your shield , armor and that sword ......."


Sword catches Aryaman's attention ."Don't mind if i take a look at that sword of yours." He removes it from his hands and lifts it in air ."What material is it made of? Looks nothing like the ones back home. It looks new.........."

On the shinny surface of the sword he finds something weird . He looks behind then looks in the sword again."Sigh! Who would have thought this, more so who came with such a trick "

He looks in the sword and moves sideways. He raises his hand and touches the spot on the stone brick. With a tick sound, secret passage opens up."Your stuff may come handy, so don't mind me taking it for a while."

He removes the armor set as well as the shield."Looks good on me."


With better equipment at his disposal he marches ahead. He takes the stair down that leads him to another room. This one has a giant door. On both sides of the door are wall carvings. One on the left depict people worshiping the sun and the one on right depict people worshiping the moon. But something is weird..... it only has one moon.

But the carvings on door are different. It depict some sort of war. As he turns towards the door a loud nerve-racking scream spreads across the room. Who could have screamed like that? Door opens slowly. Aryaman could feel the pressure from behind the door. Finally the beast come out. Its huge.

" You must be joking "

An axe wielding bullman only heard of in myths as minotaur appears. It walks slowly towards Aryaman. He is stuck to his place in fear. Beast raises its axe and slashes across Aryaman. He comes to his senses in time and dodges the attack but shock waves threw him far away. It screams again.

"What an attack! If i were late by a second....."

He thought of running but it was not that simple. Showing back to it could have been deadly. What could he do in such a situation? Fighting it was't an option.

It was risky but he decided it was worth taking. So he prepared for the dash. As soon as he dodged its next attack, he ran as hard as he could but to his surprise beast threw its axe towards him. He was staring at death when in reflex action he put his shield to defend. To his surprise he defended the last attack successfully although force of the attack threw him further back.

Fight.......
Slash.......
Defeat........

Aryaman thought he heard someones voice. He looks around but finds no one other than the beast.

Use me......

He heard the voice again. He looks at his sword and sees his own reflection. He clearly sees fear on his face."........."

Recovering its axe, bullman prepares for another attack.

Now attack...........( Weak voice )

Aryaman slashes as hard as he could. White light comes out of his sword which injures the beast. Bullman bleeds as it screams in pain . Aryaman slashes again this time at its legs. Bullman falls on its knees ."You are powerful. Without these I would be long dead but I ain't dying before i return home. Its good bye for now."

Aryaman and Bullman attack one final time. Last attack shatters bullman's axe and makes severe damage. Beast tastes defeat. Condition of Aryaman wasn't any better. Those light attacks drained him of his energy but with destination in sight he pushes his way through the door into a room filled with crystals.

In middle of the room he sees a beautiful crystal chest with a book inside. Aryaman takes a sigh of relief. But how to open it ? It has no locks to pick. As he looked at the chest carefully...."This seems familiar. Where have I seen it? Oh! Ya, this is the same material as this sword." 

Chest reacts to the touch of the sword and opens. He finally gets hold of the book." So much trouble for this tiny book ." As he opens it, luminescence engulfs him.

Chapter 01: Whereabouts

Those words were like breath of life. Finally someone with whom he could communicate and get an idea about his situation."You can speak my language",asked buoyant Aryaman.

"Yes , indeed"

"I need your help. I don't recognize this place."said Aryaman hastily.
"Calm down",said old man. You look weak and hungry. Have some food. We have enough time for talk.


Aryaman was indeed hungry, so he nodded. Old man clapped and entered women with fine looking cuisine. Wherever he looked all that was served was meat. Aryaman ate like a beast that devours flesh of its prey.


"You don't appear to be from here",asked old man. Everything about you seems different.

"I am Aryaman",he replied. I am from India. I was in middle of a competition when my parachute malfunctioned and somehow end up on a deserted beach. I came across scenery i couldn't recognize.


Old man's interest peaked.


"More importantly, I saw duplet of moon. Isn't there supposed to be a single moon?" Then i was hit hard on head by someone and brought here by people outside.

"I am Yazir"replied old man. I am chief of the people who brought you here. Apologies for their behavior but they don't know how to handle strangers.
"Apologies accepted but could you tell me more about where we are right now?"

Yazir took out a scroll from his wardrobe and showed it to Aryaman. "Open it". It looked like a map but made no sense."This is a map of Mithos. Right now we are in the outskirts of the ruined city of Rahh",explained Yazir.

Baffled at what he saw,".......You are kidding right?" What about seven continents and four oceans that Earth has?

"Young Man, I don't know about the Earth and continents you speak of."

"hahahaha......."Aryaman kept laughing as it made no sense."If we are not on Earth then where are we?"
"We are on Mithos"spoke Yazir.

".......I don't believe you......"
"What about duplet of Moon and a wall of fog?"asked Yazir sarcastically. 

Those words changed the whole atmosphere. He realized Yazir wan't lying... 


"I need to know more...?" 
"Ask me anything?"

"What is that dense fog which surrounds this place?"
"Its some sort a barrier. No one knows what lie beyond."

"Duplet of Moon?"
"They are there since my birth"

".....If I am really on Mithos then how did I come here?"
"That i don't know."

"How to go back home?"
"Don't know.......wait! There is something that might be of your interest."

"......"
"Follow me."

"To where?"
"To the ruins not far from here."

He agreed. They made their way to the ruins and reached there in no time. Aryaman was amazed by the sheer size of carvings. "These are the ruins of an ancient civilization that once dominated theses lands. But one day catastrophe came through a gate and destroyed their civilization."

"Gate....What kind of Gate?"
"I don't know but legend speaks of a book they left behind. If you can find it you may be able to find a way back home."

"........"
"Worth trying don't you think"

"Fine. So where to look?"
"Right here"

Yazir pulls a lever on wall that opens a trap door, "The hell....."
"Best of luck finding that book"

Aryaman is flushed through the underground veins into a dark room. "Son of a.......Where is this place?" He walks through the narrow corridor into a room unaware of the dangers ahead.

Prologue

Where It all Began



Thousands of People have assembled at Lions beach to witness one of the greatest moments in the history of modern sports. We are moments away from the final round of the First World Skydiving Championship. After five rounds, five contestants have made their way into the finals. They are Mitch(New Zealand), Adam(US), Jacobs(Egypt), Lee(Korea) and Aryaman(India).

Contestants will dive from about 2000 meters and criteria to win is to land safe on the finish zone in the middle of the ocean by opening parachute at the lowest distance from the touch down. Participants are taken by the copter to their starting point. First to dive will be Adams .

Adam is an ex marine and has a wealth of experience in such events. He has jumped...............He is now in a free fall. He has opened his parachute. Adam makes a perfect landing. He waves at the crowd. We have the data on Adams and its 252 meters. He has bested himself by 23 meters and recorded the best figures in the competition.......Three cheers for Adams......

We have our second contestant ready. Aryaman is a former IT professional who quit his job following an altercation with board members. He later joined sky divers association a years ago where he has received training for this competition. He recorded the height of 291 in qualifying stage. He needs to improve by a lot to have a podium finish.

Cheering crowd watches in ecstasy as Aryaman jumps out of the copter.

Has he drifted away from his path? .......

Strong sea breeze dragged him away from his path as nervous crowd watched on. He was 250 meters away from the ground and still no signs of parachute opening. "Has the parachute malfunctioned".

SPLASH

We have an accident shouted the host. Officials rushed towards the scene. Competition came to a halt. Tensed and dejected crowd was asked to leave. Officials kept searching for Aryaman but found nothing.

While all this was going, Aryaman woke up to a new reality.

"........"Coming to his senses he found himself alone on the beach. "Where the hell am I," he wondered. He was bewildered, after all he had fallen from 2000 meters yet he was breathing fine on a sandy beach instead of being dead, drowned and broken. He looked around in surprise, barely recognizing his surrounding. In northern direction a large rocky mountain looked like an ideal place to get an idea about the place.

On the way he failed to find any human. Standing near the rock he realized how huge it was. As he climbed half way through, he saw a huge wall of dense fog surrounding the beach.

From top, Aryaman now had a better view but he was in for a rude awakening. It didn't look like the place he saw from the copter. A long stretch of trees in one direction and ocean in another surrounded from everywhere by dense fog. It was clear to him that he was somewhere else but where exactly.

With no option left he returned to where he started. It grew cold so he lit a camp fire from the material gathered on the way. He began contemplating on the events. Many questions came to his mind; "where he was", "how he end up here", "what happened to people and competition".

As if things were not weird to begin with, what he saw in sky made him question whether he was alive or dead. "I must be dreaming....haha" as he pinched himself to pain. "Oh dear its not a dream.." What lie in the sky could not be explained. He rubbed his eyes to ascertain himself only to be left high and dry by the majestic duplet of moon.

"This no longer make sense. Am I really alive". As he was brooding over it something hit him hard and he fell unconscious. On regaining consciousness, he found himself surrounded by people barely clothed. "Where am I?" he murmured. In came a well dressed man and everyone bowed. That man looked like their leader. He ordered his men in a language Aryaman didn't recognize. "Hey why are you tying me. I have done nothing" he kept shouting but no one gave an ear.

Aryaman was taken to their settlement. He was untied and pushed into a large tent where he was welcomed by an old man, "How are you young man".