“Raised as a virtuous child,

Thrust into the dangerous wild,

Survived as the scum I defiled,

Marched with the party I riled,

Locked into a prison I smiled.”

“Grown into a sinful man,

Reincarnated with a food can,

Second life as a man,

Reclaimed virtues as I ran,

Became victim to the greed of man,

Killed my family as they fanned,

Willed my revenge as I panned.” —Ramblings of a Sinful Man.

…

A three-headed beast ran through the trees, using an animal trail wide enough for its massive frame. Each of its steps raised splotched sounds due to the wet ground, the rainwater splashing high as a result, the mud mixed into it covering the sides of its body.

Spanning the height of a person, its speed allowed it to travel a large distance with each step. It had four hooves, tough to withstand rough rocky runs. It had the head of a cow in its centre, a goat on its left, and a sheep on its right, the horns of each long and curved.

Holding the horn of the cow head was Re’Kha, crying as she held a bag dear to her, unwilling to drop it. It was the first and last gift her master had given her, his life’s legacy.

“Master, I’ll avenge you.” She tightened her hold on the horn, her ears trained to the surroundings. Everything was dark, her eyesight lost in a battle before. In this short time, she wasn’t able to adapt to her situation, feeling lost.

The warmth spreading in her chest was her solace, the words of her master resounding in her mind, “Remember Re’Kha, the air is your eyes. Feel it, open up to it. Master’s gift will pave the way to your plight.”

She crouched low, in fear of bumping into any obstacles along the path, her head tucked well beneath the height the beast’s horns extended to. The warmth spread from her chest to her abdomen, travelling to her legs, stopping at her toes.

Another surge of warmth spread from her chest, towards her hands, ending at the tips of her fingers. The final warmth surged through her neck, flushing her face red. The tinge of green spread through her blue hair, mixing with it, resulting in an emerald colour.

From underneath her Tikka jewellery dripped a drop of blood, the colour varying from red to green as it cascaded, turning red when it fell on her clothes. A change enveloped Re’Kha, her heart thumping with increasing intensities, the sounds of two heartbeats resounding in her ears, synchronising into one in a matter of seconds.

Sweat dripped from her forehead, mixing with her tears, tinged with a trace of red. Faint whirring sounds echoed in her ears, drowning the sounds of the three-headed beast’s hooves hitting against the wet ground.

“Feel the air!” Her master’s voice resounded in her head, in a loop, rising in intensity with each passing moment.

“Aaaah!” Re’Kha screamed, unable to bear with the pain any longer, the darkness around her morphing, now filled with noise—turning into multicoloured grains. The grains slowly lost their lustre as the noise grew louder, their colour dimming, eventually becoming monochrome.

Grey sand littered everywhere around her, flashing by with terrific speeds. They had a nature of disorder imbued in them. They moved like the waves of a river, fast, the currents unable to be impeded by anything.

“Focus!” Whether it was a hallucination conjured by her subconsciousness or a sorcery of sorts, but her master’s voice resounded again, guiding her at moments she strayed away from focus. Under his shouts, she sensed the noise flow—its disorderly but streamlined flow etching in her mind—around her, the disorder reducing by a notch.

They didn’t conform to anything of substance, forming a flow that continued to move past. Due to their monochromatic colours, Re’Kha was unable to make heads or tails of them.

Outlined before her were three grey clusters, their relative velocity zero, positioned within arm’s reach. An arm-thick streamlined cluster hovered from the cluster in the centre and extended to her right, stopping below her area of focus.

“My hand!” Re’Kha shouted, her emotions pitching without control, linking the arm-thick streamlined cluster to her hand through the presence she felt.

She lightly moved her elbow, noticing the arm-length streamlined cluster move about its centre. “I can see my hand’s movements!”

The fact that she could perceive her hand even after losing her eyes made her tear up from happiness. The streamlined flow around her was still full of noise, noise she couldn’t filter for the time being. It was similar to rainfall, disorderly, splashing when coming into contact with any object.

Re’Kha focused on her hand and the three clusters—horns belonging to the three heads of the three-headed beast—before her, ignoring everything else. The more she focused, the greater she could perceive, even sensing vague outlines form in the grey sand clusters.

Her right hand held the horn of the cow head while her left held the bag securely. The three-headed beast had made a semi-circle around the hill, proceeding to the foothills of the mountain range.

The three heads gazed at the rocky mountain before it, exhaling a powerful gust of air. The cow head mooed once, jerking its head a little, alerting Re’Kha to hold tighter. Re’Kha reflexively tightened her hold, brought about by years of training in her clan.

The three-headed beast kicked its hooves, jumping as it leapt from one rock to another, skipping ample distance with every leap. Rocks fell under its wake, weakened after the rain. The three-headed beast moved deftly, without losing its balance, faster than when it was on the ground, showing its racial advantage.

The trees grew sparse, the rocky terrain unsuitable for their growth. Trees became shrubs while shrubs became vines, eventually, even grass stopped growing.

The chirping of birds could be heard from behind, suffused with fear and panic. Droves of birds took to the skies, losing balance mid-air, falling to the ground and trampled by the beasts that ran. The legs of the running beasts grew weaker, unable to support their bulky bodies. It was like a wave of death was approaching them. With every step they took, their skins festered while intense pain assaulted them.

The three-headed beast kicked its speed up a notch; the two heads on the side planned the path, ensuring its travel continued unabated. The wind slowed down as they headed up, the rocky terrain bereft of any life.

The noise in her surroundings died down, largely occupied by grey sand, each particle placed farther apart as compared to before. Underneath her was a dense cluster, forming a layer, below which was none. The three clusters before her condensed as she focused, no longer distracted by the noise, barely outlining a rough figure of the three-headed beast.

Followed by a jump, the three-headed beast landed on the peak of the mountain. The mountain range outlined in her vision as grey sand art, akin to a sleeping dragon. Re’Kha looked forward, gazing at the path on the mountain range she had to tread on, tears streaming from her eyes once again, “Thank you, master…”

“I can see once again.”