going under

As soon as he was in it, the cold hit him. Waves upon waves. He gasped and immediately, water rushed in. His nostrils, his ears, his eyes were being blinded. He closed them shut. They felt red and raw. The water rushed him along. He could imagine, and that was the last thought he had of anyone other than himself, he could imagine his two captors, one standing there watching him still, the other turning around and moving away. ‘Time to go. Our job is done.’ ‘No, we need to make sure he’s dead.’ Hūr knew Ra would not protect him. This was not his territory. This was the land of the goddess Indu. He was going to be swept away by the currents of her wrath. It wasn’t wrath per se. More like the currents of her power. His mind began to feel fuzzy. His thoughts were slowing down. The pain, the fear of death, all rushing in. On the other side of his closed eyelids were the waters under which he was submerged, and soon would be lost to. He didn’t know how much longer he could hold his breath. He felt something brush his feet. A primal fear courses through him. Would he be eaten alive? Were there man eating fish in the waters of Indu? He didn’t think so. In all the time he’d been here, he’d never heard of them. Dolphins yes. They were supposedly blind. Flesh eaters, no. He gulped. Choked. Coughed. Another burst of water had rushed into his throat. Choking. Constructing. Salty. His chest was hurting. Tightening. Lungs begging for air. None was forthcoming. Smooth, skin pressed against his feet then brushed past. He whimpered and wondered if he should open his eyes. He did and the water rushed in. Before it did, he saw a huge shape. The fear came in stronger. But something strange happened. He stopped fighting. He wrapped his arms around himself, and let the water carry him as it desired. He was going to die, what was the point of fighting it in these last few moments. He didn’t achieve nirvana or clarity of the mind and soul. But something happened in the last few seconds before he died. He saw an earth that was unlike his. People had small suns in their houses. They could talk to others on small metal squares. They moved around on metal camels or elephants, no these were neither. Huge birds in the sky that carried people in their stomachs. And then it zoomed in to one man. Somehow, Hur knew that this was his namesake. So many years from now, this man would complete what hur had begun. What was that? Hur didn’t understand it either. It had something to do with the mage and the purple stone. Somehow he had the feeling that the mage was not the one pulling the strings. For one odd second, he believed the stone was sentient. Then his mouth opened, water rushed in, and Hur the first was lost to the waters of the mighty Indus.