The tales of Archnilius

A fictional story based on the real event of Cyclone Phailin

The first sensations that Phailin felt was contradictory to each other. He felt crushing weight on him but same time his body felt lighter. He tried to open his eyes but he couldn’t remember where he was or who he was. His body felt strangely new.

 

Slowly, painfully, he opened his eyes and tried to comprehend on where he was. He thought it was easier to comprehend at present than who he was. It was dark; pitch black with few colours flashing now and then. He blinked twice, making sure in the process that his eyes were really open and not having a really vivid but weird dream. He shut his eyes off completely and waited for a few moments and opened them again. Pitch black darkness and nothing had changed. But maybe, it was him who was doing the changing. His eyes adjusting to the new surrounding and becoming stronger, adapting quickly to the new world he was in. With every blinks his vision was becoming stronger, the earlier pain in his eyes lessened and he could almost make out a vast stretch of bottom of an ocean. ‘I’m in an ocean?’ he thought to himself. ‘How did I get here?’ Then he shook his giant head and tried to focus one thing at a time.

 

He slowly took in the surroundings. He was in the belly of the sea, right on the water bed. Nothing living was in his vicinity. He was lying on his back, with his legs stuck up above. He pushed and floated a foot and turned back around the right way. He felt that his body was rapidly gaining in strength and adapting quickly to the new surroundings. He felt strong. The only pain now he felt was inside his head; as he still couldn’t remember how he got here or who he was. But he yearned to find out.

 

Many miles from where Phailin was re-discovering his strength and wondering who he was or how he got there; there was the submerged town of the ocean folks. It was a huge town; as big as any of the largest country that comes in your mind. Ocean folks lived here and came back here when they had to rest. Many of the folks you know like fishes and large and small fishes and other ‘organisms’ that live and breathe under water. But there were folks who have never been known to exist as well. You will be surprised to know that many merpeople, many ocras and other exotic beings was a resident of Archnilius; the Submerged City. Most of the ocean folks were quite shy and didn’t like their world above them: the world inhabited and dominated by the Man. So most of them stayed out of their reach in their own home and town but even here there was no respite from intrusions from the man and their kind. Centuries ago, when mankind was probing deeper and deeper into the ocean and to find out all the secrets there was; Poseidon came to their rescue and set up this huge town by his own brand of magic. He sealed this town up with a great invisible barrier which could never be located by mankind. Even a being from the outside world landed right in the middle of the town, they would not be able to see anything as it is always pitch black to them. Since then, Poseidon had entrusted his daughters to look after all the ocean folks, big or small and protect them from the outside world.

Queen Consuela Poseidon the XVth was the current keeper of the seas during 2013 when this happened. Consuela was overseeing the repairing that was going on in her hall after it was terribly damaged after her huge fight with her mate �" no longer though �" she corrected herself sternly and left her feeling both broken and sad.

‘Don’t think about that now,’ she reminded herself for the umpteenth time as she turned her back on the fishes repairing her hall and swam out and over her town for some peace and quiet. ‘It was necessary and it couldn’t have been done in any other way,’ she kept telling herself as she shook her long hair and moved to her tower. She really wanted to rest the rest of the day.

 

Even though Archnilius appeared as dark and a pitch black place to the outsiders; it was hardly so to the inhabitants to the ocean folks. It was full of colours and bright folks either singing or talking to each other, although you would need eyes and ears of an ocean being to really feel the place. Petro, a sea urchin who lived was dutifully rolling away towards the end of the world and back, as he knew it. But, scared though he was, he could never refuse the queen who is always so polite and understanding. Just the thought of the queen made him swell twice his size; being so small and insignificant he’d never even thought that anyone would give him a second look �" let alone the queen. But the queen knew and cared for all ocean folks; big, small and tiny. Petro had met the queen only few weeks ago where he was collecting dust bunnies for later as the queen had emerged from behind some wild thickset of plants looking plainly disturbed in body and mind. Petro had halted in his task of collecting as he eyed nervously the demigod swim by. But even in her occupied state, her eyes fell upon Petro and ever so kindly with a snap of her fingers collected him a day’s worth of dust bunnies. Petro smiled and managed to stutter a thank you before Queen Consuela swam away.

 

Petro kept rolling away into the dark ocean and wondered what really the queen had expected him to find. But he didn’t question the queen as he thought she might have her reason to ask a favour of him and as to why she chose him and not one of her many mer-soldiers. So Petro just kept rolling on with the Queen’s words in his mind, “keep an eye out for anything unexpected.”

 

Phailin’s head stopped hurting few moments ago. He stopped wondering where he was and concentrated now on himself. He realized that even though he felt as a tourist in his own body; his body seemed to know that it was his and was changing dramatically. His short legs took a shape of long, powerful fins and his tail grew longer, stronger and in curls. His elongated back grew spikes and he found a forked tongue in his mouth that reached his gnarly torso. His hind fins were so strong that it could take the entire weight of his heavy body if he cared to stand on them. His senses also heightened greatly.

 

“Thank you so much for your help in mending the hall so quickly”, Consuela said to the fishes that recently repaired the hall of her home as they all smiled took her leave. Her face rapidly lost the smile as she was alone again and went back deep in her thought. Confused, and in hope to end the eternal tussle within her, she thought to consult her one friend and confidant, her little half sister Rhiannon.

 

Consuela smiled and wondered how just the thought of her sister cheered her up in this darkest of times. She was beautiful, intellectual and practically logical. Her analytics wowed her often. She had a caring nature which matched her compassionate and loving heart. Yet she loved to spend her days whiling away her time playing and sleeping and never shown much interest to help her run Archnilius.

 

She knocked on Rhiannon’s door twice before entering. As usual, she was lying on her bed, snoring slightly with her tail up in the air and mouth hanging open. Consuela had to stifle a giggle every time she saw her sleep in the most comical of ways ever.

“Ria, Ria! Wake up!” She sat down beside her, shaking her little sister in the process.

She woke with a start. “Huh? What? What happened?” She woke with a start and eyed her sister sitting there. “Ela? What’s wrong?” she asked, straightening out of her bed.

Ria at once sensed that something was bothering her big sister otherwise her smile would not have faltered the way it just did. Ela didn’t say immediately. “Come with me to the top. Just need to talk to someone for a while.”

 

Few moments later, both sisters were sitting on a little stretch of a sandy beach of a tiny, uninhabited island. Their newly formed feet still in the water, admired the beautiful painting of the artist hidden in the clouds. The birds were flying and chirping in the woods of the island, the sun constantly giving the reddish glint of light as it slowly started a descent into the other world and a light breeze touching the skins and brushing their hair in a slow, melancholic motion.

“It’s so beautiful, this world. Makes you forget for a moment about the savages who inhabit it.” Ela spoke, her voice barely audible over the slowly breathing sea.

Ria rolled her eyes. This was usually how her sister chose to start any difficult discussion with her which almost always turned out about herself. Nevertheless, Ria did not speak sensing Ela’s extra sensitive mood.

Without looking at her, Ela continued, “It just makes me wonder �" even doubt myself �" that whether we are doing the right thing; shielding our world from theirs.”

“Let us walk for a while. I have always loved walking.” Ria said standing up, as though she completely disregarded Ela’s words. Ria was sensing something was really wrong and her sister was pondering upon how best to put it to words. So Ria thought maybe distracting her might help.

Ela raised an eyebrow but acquiesced to her request and stood up. After walking in silence for a while Ela spoke abruptly. “I had a fight �" a real one �" with Phailin.” And she stopped and started breathing heavily, her shoulders heaving, slowly tears trickling out of her hazel eyes. Ria hurried back and hugged her quickly and let her cry all out before she calmed down. She just held her, patting her back voicing soothing sounds.

After a while, she relaxed and started walking again. “He was being stubborn and adamant and I couldn’t reason with him! And what’s worse, I can’t reason with myself that what I did was right!” Ela sobbed again.

Ria’s senses immediately stood on high alert. She had sensed a lot of disturbance in the current as she had slept but she had no idea that this had taken such a serious turn in such a short while. Last she had heard was about a little fight that her sister and Phailin �" her mate �" had about being invisible to the world outside. That was just a few weeks ago and ultimately Phailin had agreed to whatever Ela had said and everything was fine.

 

“What happened?” Ria asked slowly. “Well you know he started the same way as the other day. He didn’t like staying hidden from the world we know is out here. At first he wouldn’t let me speak! He started rambling on and on about the same thing. Exasperated, I told him that the savages won’t let him be a part of this world. That’s when he got violent and said then he’d take of their world and make them part of us. The Ocean,” Elsa added, as Ria had her eyebrow raised inquisitively.

“Oh! But then they would all die! They can’t change like we do. Sadly, that is the only thing that separates us from them. They hate changing.” Ria said. “Yes I know. And when I said no, shocked, he attacked me!” Ela exclaimed.

Ria’s eyes was wide in shock. After she calmed down, she said, “So, did you use dad’s ugly stick?” Ela turned to her sister and after a moment, they both started laughing. As they laughed, Ela felt the worry and the tension temporarily leaving her mind as she felt fresh and more alive than she had felt in a long time.

 

Both sisters sat up (both had fallen down laughing) on the sandy beach in approaching dusk and hiccoughed to seriousness. “Stop calling it that, Ria!” Ela giggled. “Well, it makes you smile.” Ria shrugged. “Well, if you must know, I had to use it,” Ela pulled a face. “What did you do?” Ria asked, half afraid, half curious. “Well, I had no choice. He was gaining on me, and I thought to end it once and for all. I locked him out of Archnilius, removed his every thought and cut him out of the ocean bond flow. Now he can never return to us, assuming he somehow gets his thoughts back and he will never remember what he wanted to do in the first place.” Ela finished, with a tone of awful finality in her voice.

Ria seemed dumbstruck by Ela’s remark. “You shouldn’t have done that.” Ria finally managed to say after a minute of silence.

More silence greeted her words. Ria thought that Ela also felt the same way she did. “Well, I thought it was bit harsh but I needed to finish this for once and for all. I was really irritated and just wanted it to be over with.” Ela almost whined to her little sister. It was very unusual for a queen to whine about the things that she had done; it was almost as if she had acted on impulse and anger and now was filled with guilt about her actions.

Ria slowly started to reason. “I never disputed your desicion, El. But cutting him off the ocean bond flow was a very risky thing to do. By doing that, you’ve cut him entirely out of your sight and you cannot see what he is up to now. And Phailin was also one of us. So you can never be sure about how he looks like now.” Ria stopped speaking, but more to catch her breath and to give herself time to think about what might come next.

“Yes you are right. I realized that right after our fight. I then immediately summoned Pedro �" a sea urchin I met few weeks ago �" and told him to keep an eye out for anything unexpected. Don’t think that I sent him unprepared!” Ela continued as Ria looked to interrupt her with shock. “I gave him few speed up jolts should he comes across anything ... scary.” She halted before saying the last word, as if she didn’t want to believe it to be true.

Ria didn’t say anything more after that. She just looked towards the horizon, where the sun was finally kissing the edge of it. Pretty soon it will be dark, she thought. Ela abruptly started speaking, “It’s just that... I felt that he was so very right. The beings here are incapable of change and they will continue to be savages till the very brink of their extinction. And I fear that it may be very soon if they did not learn to adapt to their environment instead of changing everything to suit their needs.” She had a nasty edge in her voice, as if she was accusing them for her recent plight.

Ria spoke on the same matter. “Well you are very right about that. But you have to say that not all the savages are savages.” Ela didn’t respond to that.

 

“Come back sister, we need to get back, it is dark”. Ria called out to her. Coming out of their discussions, she saw that the sun had set quite some time. She stood up quickly and started for their home, together.

 

 Phailin felt strong, powerful and magical. He had realized that he was something magical and he felt something that somehow compelled him to start moving upwards. What was pushing him to do it he didn’t know; he just felt the need to swim to the surface. And he was amazingly quick with his long and powerful fins and curled tail. He was faster than any ship, submarine or even an airborne jet. As he neared the surface of the ocean he felt the light outside this world. He sensed it rather than saw it as he had no hindrance in seeing what was ahead of him in total darkness of the ocean previously. He felt huge power was waiting just over the waves. He felt his pulse quickened with mounting excitement and he moved quicker than ever just to see what was waiting for him out there.

 

Ela and Ria were just approaching their home when Ela saw Pedro hurling towards the palace with incredible speed and within seconds he crashed in the wall and lay absolutely still. Alarmed, both the sisters rushed towards him and tended to him. He seemed to be exhausted and totally shocked. Ela tended to him and whispered silently till he came back to sanity and recognized his queen.

“My queen!” he started but faltered at once to the royal presence and sheer weakness. “Rest, Pedro, you will find your strength soon. In the meanwhile tell me what did you see that made you come back so quickly?” Pedro didn’t hear it, but there was a carefully suppressed anger and excitement in the queen’s voice. Pedro’s voice took a sordid tone as he started to speak, “I kept moving as you said and there was nothing but darkness. I was getting irritated so I used one of your charms to move forward, but as I was slowing down for moving for quite a while; I saw something. Something that made me stop with shock. I cannot describe it, as it was a being but not from here and did not look like the savages either. Whatever it was, it was big, big and scary with spikes and tentacles and I didn’t think about anything else and I used up all the charms you gave to come back here,” Pedro paused, as if unsure whether he had faltered in providing the queen what she had desired. The queen looked at him and smiled, “Fear not, you have not done anything wrong. Relax, close your eyes and let me see what you saw.”

Frightened, Pedro closed his eyes but he was too scared to relax in front of the queen. “Please relax Pedro.” Her voice was even more mesmerizing when it was all darkness and nothing to see. Somehow, Pedro focused on the monster that he saw and hoped the queen will see it too. And she must have seen as well, because few moments later the queen told him to open his eyes, thanked him for his help and let him go. He was very scared but he believed that his queen will do the best she can as she always has. Comforting himself a little, he rolled on to his home.

 

That was not the case with our queen. She was gulping frantically, grabbing Ria’s hand and dragging her away from the castle to its top where no one was there and began to cry hysterically. Ria let her calm down as she knew her sister better than she thought she knew. Although she was very emotional, she didn’t want anyone but her to see her in these vulnerable states. But she pulled herself very quickly and seemed ready to tell Ria what she really saw inside Pedro’s mind that had her so torn up. It had to be big. As if Ela read her mind, she spoke, “O yes. It is big. I have never seen this before. I can’t describe what I have seen. Something big will happen very quickly.” And she kept staring up, unblinking; seeing something that was apparently invisible to her.

 

Phailin broke the surface of water suddenly developing the sense of ever heightened smell and smelt the air and the different smells it was bringing to him. He opened his eyes and spotted a tiny patch of land nearby and moved towards it.

Now he observed his body changing quickly to the new surroundings, taking a giant, humanoid form. He took in the new surroundings before something inside him saying to look inside his own brain and find some different parts that he was not aware of. He felt that he was part of this world; yet somehow he had ended up in the bottom of the ocean. He looked up and saw the heavens beckoning, the clouds parting and the sun shining. Yet he felt something very tangible between him and his surroundings. But before he could really put his finger on what it was; he felt disrupted by few annoying things poking his back. He turned around and didn’t immediately see anything. Then he looked down and saw a tiny vessel on the sea and some tiny, insignificant beings were throwing or shooting something at him and shouting at each other. It did not hurt him, but it was irritating and very difficult to concentrate on himself while this was happening constantly. He tried to shout out “leave me alone” but instead a growl came out and the wind suddenly gathered up an immense force and knocked the vessel over into the sea.

Phailin was surprised. He thought maybe it was a coincidence but something told him that it wasn’t. He tried again. He raised his hand up in the sky and pulled it down swiftly looking at the overturned vessel. Again, the air gathered up above his hand and moved with so much ferocity that it would have been impossible to break the tiny but sturdy vessel into 2 clean halves.

Phailin felt elated. He thought he must be a leader; a divine power in this mundane and simple world. He thought he must be here to change it; to give a new shape; to redefine this bland place. Reaching quickly to this calculation, he tried out his powers that felt very new to him. He closed his eyes and tried to make the connection with the environment which proved to be very easy. He could feel the breeze in his thick, yellow locks. He could feel it waiting for his command. He wanted to feel more, find out more about this world he was there to shape. He took a deep breath, trying to decipher what comprises this earth. He could smell almost everything around but there was a rotten smell coming from somewhere afar. A smell that was so rotten that he almost wished that he hadn’t had this heightened sense of smell. It was so bad that an immediate repulsion for whatever was generating it. He wanted to blow it out of his nose and out of this world. He raised his hands again, both hands this time and started commanding the winds.

 

“What do you think that is, El? What do you think? It is definitely not part of our Ocean because you’d have seen it coming. What will you do El? What is your plan? Or is there a plan?” Ria kept rambling in nervousness and they rushed towards the surface again. Their last short visit to the top seemed a lifetime away even though it was merely few hours. Ela said nothing. She gritted her teeth and swam up, up towards the surface. She had a fairly accurate idea who it was and why she didn’t see it coming. Nevertheless, she kept moving while shooting a stern look at Ria who instantly fell silent.

 

Phailin had already realized that he could only control the wind and not the other elements around. He could feel them, but could not command them as was doing the wind. Water felt strangely alien to him. Nevertheless, he had wind and if wind touches the water it can create a lot of devastation. He closed his eyes again and started to command the wind to form a cyclone over the ocean as he started to build it up and pull it down to the surface of the water when he heard a voice that made him stop and look around and find the voice.

 

Ela was there, right in front of him, carried all the way to his head by a wave. He didn’t know who this woman was in front of him but he clearly recognized the look that she was giving him. Dislike, hatred masked by fear was clearly etched in her beautiful face that reached her eyes. Somehow he knew better to talk to this woman as because clearly to him; she didn’t come here to talk. Phailin roared and shot a blast of wind towards her that knocked her out of her wave and into the water.

 

Panting, Ela had no doubt. This is what Phailin had become. She must stop him. He was controlling the wind! How did that happen? It was completely unexpected. But she had no choice. He was there threatening the world yet again. So this time she had to be ruthless and merciless that she hoped she’d never have to be. She closed her eyes and summoned The Trident; her dad’s ugly stick according to Ria. But this had an awful ring of finality as she gripped the trident in her hand and created a wave towards Phailin again as Ria watched from afar. She knew better than to get involved in this, this thought sullenly as she eyed Phailin catch her eyes and falter just a second before he shot off another blast of strong winds in her direction. She deftly moved away this time and conjured another wave to keep going at him. Phailin kept shooting and she kept avoiding until she was thrown away again.

 

Phailin roared and joined the two cyclones that he had building up over his head. It had become massive gathering up speed and distance as he motioned with his hand and it started to move towards land and lowering its menacing tail into the ocean. The waves weren’t listening to her anymore. The storm was too powerful and swayed into their will. The sky wasn’t visible anymore and darkness had formed even though the sun continued to shine.

 

Ela realized that she could never beat him this way. She touched The Trident with her fingertips and closed her eyes. In an instant, she grew into a giant form of her human reflection and confronted Phailin.

“Phailin!” She yelled and jumped at towards him. Phailin roared and shot winds at her but it was of no avail as her giant form was more powerful than his shots. Scared for the first time, Phailin tried to turn and shoot his spikes at this woman. He might have been successful too, but he couldn’t see what happened. He felt a heart ripping pain in his torso and saw that she had pierced him with her trident. Moaning loudly, he fell into the water. As he was falling, he thought that he had known this woman as she had cried over him. He remembered that he had done something wrong. Maybe he wasn’t the saviour he thought. Maybe he was wrong. But all he managed to realize that his name was Phailin.

 

Ela collapsed in her regular form with a giant spike stuck in her stomach. Ria got to her quickly and gently lowered her into the water. She was unconscious. She let the water do its work as she prayed to father. “O Please, please father, return my sister back to me. Please, Please O Father, there are still lives to be saved. O Please father the world is at its end,” and then whispered slowly to her sister’s fading form, “Ela don’t leave me, I can’t do this without you. I don’t know what else to do. Please come back to this world. Don’t join father yet. Come back to this world. Come back to me.” Her last words were not audible, just her lips moved as tears flowed down her pale cheeks.

Ela’s wound was slowly healing and her father was helping her daughter heal so that she could rescue a world that has largely denied their existence. Slowly, Consuela opened eyes and both the sisters hugged each other. Smiling slightly, she whispered, “I saw dad. He told me what I need to do. I need your strength sister,” “You have it, El. Now and always.”

Both of them swam towards the raging storm started by Phailin. Ela called the water in the clouds and called them down over the storm. She then commanded the waves to move away, to push the temptation away. She pulled the water down creating an unusual tidal effect. All with the help of her sister and the power of her father’s ugly stick.

 

It was very close, but she managed to dissipate the maximum impact of the storm to a bare minimum when it hit the land. And all the dwellings and the hindrances the savages had made paid off in finishing off the storm altogether.

 

Author's Note

This was the story behind the cyclone the struck India in October 14 in 2013. These events described here took place in between 4th October to 14th narrated by my own fictional prospective. Let me know in the reviews how you enjoyed it.