take 2 of my novel

Ajay stirred on the cold marble floor, his joints aching and his head throbbing from the smell. He slowly sat up, his shoulders brushing against the squishy, rotting wood of the unkempt benches. His eyes opened to a blinding flash of light, which once he recovered from saw the view of a large, dirty room. In front of him lay his two friends, their eyes darting behind their eyelids in a restless sleep, their faces filching and their fingers twitching occasionally. Beyond them lay a rotting mess, flies and worms working through decomposing wood that littered the once white floors, emanating a stench that matched that made him want to willingly go to a public restroom. The towering walls were surprisingly clean, yet were broken and weathered in some portions, revealing a lush green outside.

Ajay stood up and wiped off his clothes, a task that was counterintuitive as the grime smeared across his pants. Oh well. Sighing loudly, he examined his surroundings in hopes of spotting anyone or anything that might indicate their current location, an attempt that seemed fruitful as he discovered a pink granite lectern inscribed with letters, although of what language he wasn’t able to decipher from the distance. He began nearing the lectern, but hesitated. What if it’s dangerous? I should wake them.

And he did, with a great deal of procrastination, Gareema and Avik were awake, albeit a bit grumbly. They both looked around while breathing with their mouths, a precaution to ensure that they do not pass out from the fumes. Once they were done examining their surroundings, Gareema wondered aloud,” I think this is what it meant when the manuscript said that all outsiders shall go through the shrine. This is a shrine. Look,” she pointed at the ceiling, which Ajay could faintly see was a statue of what seemed like a dancing ram made of marble, although barely distinguishable as the background was white as well,” that shows one of the twelve gods. This also explains the lectern.”

She did not emphasize any further and began navigating her way through the muck, an annoying habit of hers that was based off the assumption that he and Avik would all of her boring 6 hour analysis reports and remember every single obscure detail she might have mentioned in it. Ajay and Avik looked at each other in mutual annoyance toward Gareema, then began following suit as no better solution came to mind. They made their way across the middle of the room, trying to step only on the sparse sections of the floor not plagued by the rotting goo, a precarious task indeed considering that attempts at not getting his shoes dirty led to him nearly being covered in filth.

As they arrived at the lectern in their dejected state, she lifted her head and looked at them, a gleam in her eye that usually indicated good news or more work for them (PS: both are the same.) “There is a message written here, the same message in 15 languages. There is English, the old kind, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, and some others I can’t recognize. It is something about trials and all that.” She waved her hand in the air, roughly pointing at the rusted metal door that stood behind the lectern, its frame encrusted with gems, a few of which had fallen off onto the ground. It had strange swirls on its surface that, when Ajay squinted at them, were revealed to be intricate designs that hinted the majestic look it must have held in the past.

“We are supposed to go through it and forge our own path. Its words, not mine.” She began towards the door, then stopped abruptly. A low growl sounded through the door, one so deep and loud that it shook the whole building, making dust cascade down from the fixtures above. Ajay froze, air in his lungs refusing to move air. He bit his tongue, a desperate attempt at not screaming out loud. Whatever was on the other side grunted, a deep noise that set mist flying into the room through that gaps in the doorframe. As the mist hit him in the face, the scent of fresh meat forced its way up his nose for a second before it was sucked back as the creature took a deep sniff before bounding off into the woods, what must have been its gargantuan feet resonating shockwaves for nearly a minute after its departure.

They stayed still for a minute to ensure that whatever was outside was really gone, then Gareema tiptoed back to them in a hurry and silently questioned Avik with an expression, hoping to consult his vast knowledge on the topic of wildlife.

Avik looked troubled, his eyes locked onto the door while he tugged lightly at his wispy goatee, then he looked at them gravely and delivered in a whisper,” From what I can tell, that sounded like a large canine, larger than anything I’ve seen. Its footstep sounded like paws, although I can’t be sure.” Ajay looked at the door in awe. He had expected to encounter many perils on this journey, as one might expect when entering another world, yet actually being at risk of harm after such a short time made him realize the true implications of what he had signed up for. A giant wolf. Usually he would have laughed at the idea of massive wolf hunting, yet when actually faced with one, he realized the true implications of its dangers.

Yet his train of revelation was broken as a soundless thump landed on his back, Gareema’s fist colliding with his back, knocking the air out of his lungs and snapping him back to reality. He disapprovingly glared at her, then grudgingly returned his attention to Avik who promptly explained,” canines hunt by smell, although how this one was able to distinguish our smell from this dump’s, I have no idea. It may have been that it was tracking someone else, but I doubt it. Going out right now would be suicide, although we don’t have to worry about making too much noise. They aren’t too keen with their hearing.”

With that he paused, then added in an even quieter note,” There is one thing we can do to make sure that it won’t be able to track us again, although it’s not gonna be pretty.” He ended with that and left them to figure out what he meant, which Ajay realized with a sickening groan was that they would have to conceal their olfactory presence by… ugh, smearing themselves with rotting muck.

Gareema also appeared have understood her assignment, her face contorting into a slightly alien-looking grimace, her abnormally large nose wrinkling into a dotted rough landscape, while her pitch black eyes squinting in an expression of grim anticipation. As ajay himself contemplated the horrors of rotting wood and maggots, his mind wandered off in search for some alternative to rubbing filth, a decision he regretted instantly.

A loud thud sounded across the room, followed by a loud growl that graveled across the room, its waves disturbing the flies feasting on the wood, causing them to rise in a wrongly intimidating swarm of angry buzzing, one ajay expected to subside within a reasonable 15 seconds, yet it persisted, growing even more agitated in response to another growl ripping through the air. Yet surprisingly he was not nearly as scared as he had been last time, which did not comprehend as the implications of a second visit by a possibly hungry beast were much heavier that it’s first.

Heavy footsteps approached the door, their resonance across the floor mesmerizing. Ajay stared at the door where the sound was originating, wondering why he felt so compelled to take a break. He really wanted to ask Gareema and Avik if they could just plop down some where and take a break. He turned towards them to see that they were already taking a break, waddling around on the floor. Ajay sighed a sigh of relief, then happily rested as his head onto the floor that seemed to be made of a super comfy pink cloud. Just a few feet away from him, the wolf looked at him. Where did it come from? Eh, who cares? It had a magnificent nose, black and shiny like polished leather and etched with thousands of small and large lines that weaved their way across the landscape like a river that had broken off into an intertwining delta. Ajay stood up, welcoming the cool breeze that rustled his hair, then reached out with his right arm and caressed the smooth cloth that coated its maw. Or was it fur, perhaps. Hehehe.  

The wolf opened its jaws and let out a puff of mist, which doused ajay in refreshing splash of warm water. It opened its massive jaws and revealed its gleaming teeth, the sharp edge catching the light emanating from... Where? And to be fair, why was there a large wolf in front of him?

Ajay eyed the wolf suspiciously, but grew more comfortable as the cloud beneath him became plusher and the song mellowed, he forgot his worries in a short while as the wolf began to approach him, or he began to approach the wolf. As his footsteps were within only a few clouds of the wolf, a bone chilling cry cut through the air, stopping ajay abruptly in his path. The cry sounded like a wounded animal, yet the pith indicate its human origions.