Firuz felt his body reduce to dust; it was a queer feeling. He didn't feel any pain, rather he felt liberated. Even though his body disappeared, he could feel himself the weight of his flesh, feel the warmth on his skin. He frowned it was not his body, but of someone's else. He closed his eyes, focused on that strange feeling.

Thud! It was soft at first, like a beating of hooves.

THUD! THUD! THUD! his mind rang with billions upon billions of heartbeats, raging like angry gods...

"Arghh!" groaned in pain; a hot knife searing through is consciousness. He reeled back, disoriented. Silence filled where once a million hearts rang in clangor. He found himself falling, diving towards the earth at a startling speed. He broke through the surface, hurtling deeper into the dark recess of the world... and the darkness engulfed him.

He blinked and the world once again came into focus. He could see the tunnels; dark caverns leading into deep unknowns. Firuz took a sharp breath as he looked at his body.

The veined whorls on his body were mottled with golden specks, crawling along the delicate black lines. He took a sharp breath as his gaze followed the gold speckles dancing on his skin. 'What are they?' He asked himself, but deep inside he knew.

[Editor's Note: whorls are spiral patterns ]

Firuz remembered the strange world of rolling green fields and the ball of fire in the sky and the great blue rivers slithering across the great expanse. He had merged with Zama; the gold flecks and the memories were a proof of that. He closed his eyes, searching...

Thud! a faint whisper of life breathed into his ear. It was unlike any sound he had ever heard. It didn't even feel like a sound, but more like a feeling. He opened his eyes, they were different; specked with the faintest trace of gold that almost drowned in the black of his beady eyes. He turned towards the east. Thud! It was there! He could feel it.

He wormed through the tunnels, somehow faster than he remembered. The tunnel became a dark blur as he hurtled towards the sound. He turned, left, left, right, middle fork; and soon the tunnels opened to a deep canyon. Giant scales flashed before his eyes; lustrous, black, and speckled with grey blotches, rippling as the scales moved past him.

THUD! THUD! Firuz could hear the call again. He inched closer, slithering through the dark tunnel towards the snake. He felt a strange calling, a distant a memory, and a silent whisper. "Touch it!" startled, he jerked back. His eyes searching for a stranger, but all he found was the dark walls and his unbridled fear.

"Touch it!" Once again the whisper came, but now it came from deep within. He braved his fears, staring at the overlapping scales, flowing like a dark river. "Touch it!" He lurched forward and his body shone with golden luster. His body slipped past the obsidian scales and merged with the snake. He was no longer a galvi, but a great serpent, poised between the deep layers of the world. He could feel the earth pressing in on him.

He struggled and felt the tepid walls close in on him, he found it hard to breathe. He stopped staring at the dark earth before him. The tunnels were gone, no way to crawl through. "How could he move?" Firuz wondered, the pressure on his body and this strange new body made it hard for him to think. He stood stuck between the earth. The longer he stayed, the harder it became. He could feel his body being crushed under the weight of the earth.

Firuz hardened his scales and found a little relief as the walls stopped in their assaults. He heaved a sigh of relief, but a terrible pain coursed through his body, it felt as if someone was peeling off his scales. He howled in pain as he thrashed around. "Come on!" He tried to emulate the rhythmic movements of the snakes. "Up and down, up and dow...argh! It's no use. It hurts so much. Why did I do that?" He struggled once again, but this time to get out of the snake's body. He remembers the feeling when he was dreaming; he closed his eyes and focused on that feeling.

Suddenly he felt almost weightless. The tunnels around him returned. He sighed in relief as he remembered about the snake, he jerked towards the snake, found it struggling; purple blood oozed out of its glossy scales. He was stuck and the earth was merciless in its assault. Slowly it closed its jaws and the snake was reduced a purple mess.

Firuz cringed at the fate of the black snake. "It could have been me..." He could still feel the weight of the earth of his body and the tearing pain. He shook his head as he tried not to think about it. His eyes grimly stared at his body as the golden flecks reflected in the darks of his body. They were more than before, swimming in the black whorls on his body. The golden flecks responded to his gaze as they gathered together, forming a strange pattern. They whispered to him and he listened, drifting into a distant place.

He saw a gnarled black tree, gold veins coursed through its obsidian body. Silver fruits hung from its crook fingers. He felt a strange calling from the tree, calling out to him...

Firuz reeled back from the vision as the reality once again came to him. His brow furrowed as his mind wandered towards the obsidian tree, with silver fruit. "It felt so real!" He couldn't help think about the golden veins. He dropped his head and stared at the golden rule on his body which had already started to melt into the river of black and gold. "They are the same. Same as that tree." He pursed his teeth as he turned towards the west. The silent whisper once again came to him, and at that moment he knew what he must do...