"What is that? A bat?" Abhaya asked herself sleepily, rubbing her eyes while pulling her shoulder blade back to stretch. She looked up to see giant, bat-like wings swooping down from the tall, skeleton of a tree.
Aagney always hung from the tallest tree in The Land of the Dead. Ironically, this was the one Abhaya chose to take her nap under. Had she listened to the deer and kept progressing through The Land of the Dead, Aagney would never have flown down to meet Abhaya.
The bat-man hybrid stood the height of the smallest trees in The Land of the Dead, probably ten feet or so, and his wingspan spread as far as Aagney's monstrous height. Upon closer investigation of the creature approaching her, she noticed a human-like face atop the bat body before her; Aagney was not happy.
"That's not a bat; it's a pitr like the deer said! Where has the deer gone?" Abhaya spoke to herself once more, frantically looking around for her guide who was then long gone. Abhaya tried to pack her things as quickly as she could, shoving the ancient map and her other belongings back into her bag and then throwing it over her shoulder. Although she broke into a sprint, she was not fast enough--Aagney blocked the path with his giant wings.
"Where are you headed?" Aagney asked with a sly smile upon his face.
Before replying, Abhaya looked closely at Aagney, the son of fire. He appeared angry and unkempt with scraggly facial hair and tired eyes, and he reeked of a vile must. Aagney's face was also badly scarred from his decades of living in the treacherous Land of the Dead. It was appararent that many adventurers like Abhaya felt threatened enough by Aagney to raise a sword or knife to him.
Upon her observation of Aagney, Abhaya gathered the courage to reply.
"I'm headed to The Ocean of Milk," she said nervously.
"Well, you're not far off!" Aagney replied excitedly, putting on a front in attempt to not scare Abhaya away.
"No one is accompanying you on your journey?"
"I had a companion... I'm sure they will be back any minute," Abhaya lied.
Aagney stepped closer to Abhaya, now just inches from her face.
"I know that isn't true. I saw your deer friend go back into the forest you came from."
Caught in her lie, Abhaya didn't know what to say. In her head, she was mapping out her escape route, but on the outside, she put on her most charming smile and replied, "Oh, yes! The deer is simply gathering some fruit for us to eat on the last leg of our journey."
"I will accompany you until the deer returns, then. A beautiful woman like you should not be wandering The Land of Death alone, you know," Aagney replied as his wings morphed back into human arms and he shrunk down to Abhaya's size.
"Thank you, but you don't have to do that. I will be fine on my own until the deer returns. I sincerely appreciate your offer," Abhaya said as she attempted to step around Aagney.
Aagney grabbed her shoulders and said, "No, I will be accompanying you. Not only will I be coming along on your journey, I will be making you my wife and you will bear my children."
At this point, Abhaya had no idea what to do. Her only hope was the deer, and she knew it would not be returning to save her after she neglected to follow its instructions. Accepting defeat, Abhaya began to pray to the Matrikas as Aagney morphed back into bat form and swooped her into his wings.
Author's note: At the end of the last story, I introduced Aagney. I didn't want the pitr to be something that wasn't well-incorporated into the story, so I chose to make a "chapter" solely focusing on the idea of a man taking a woman against her will for whatever reason. In many cultures, including Hindi culture, woman have been seen as the damsel-in-distress who is in need of being saved by a man. I wanted this idea to be prevalent in my story, as it's something that has come up in many of the required readings for this course as well as elective readings I have done for the course. In this video, the role of woman in Hindi is widely discussed, and also the idea of pitrs. As the next installment will probably be the last, I might have to wrap up this storyline a little quicker than I'd like, but perhaps I could add two additional stories versus the one I originally planned. Abhaya's future is now in Aagney's hands, which I believe is something that was unexpected from the beginning of the story, and I am so pleased with where it's going.
Image Information: Yama, God of Death obtained from Learn Religions.