Previous Chapter: Vansh: The Mangled Man
Chapter 2: Vansha Bhoomi
The sun peeked lazily through the fog as birds chirped in the distance. Vansh opened his eyes slowly, greeted by the modest scent of earth and firewood.
He sat up inside a small hut, its thatched ceiling filtering the morning light in golden strands.
Across the room, A man tended to a small pot over an open fire.
Anirban, a generous, kind young man, No older than thirty. Who let Vansh sleep in his hut during the night after the terrifying experience in the forest.
Anirban turned and noticed Vansh was awake. Kindly, he wished Vansh a very good morning and sat beside him.
“So, can I help you with anything else?” he asked gently.
Vansh shook his head. “You’ve done enough. Letting me stay the night was already more than most would do. The others… I could see the suspicion in their eyes.”
Anirban gave a faint chuckle. “They’re just cautious. Strangers rarely pass through"- "But you seem very kind to invite a stranger over"
Anirban smiles and tells Vansh how he has been living alone for a long time now and a little company can be very refreshing.
His father died of sickness years ago, and his mother passed away just a few years back.
Vansh nodded, appreciative. Aside from such tragic life, Anirban seem to be very kind and soft hearted.
Vansh later stood up, he looked past the huts.
There were tents clustered together. British tents.
“Those tents outside,” Vansh began, “how long have they been there?”
“Only a few months,” Anirban replied. “The British are mostly exploring the forest and mangroves. They don’t often come this deep into the village.
But when they do, it’s never good. Ever since their arrival, they’ve forced many restrictions. They force the local villagers from passing certain areas.
They act like, its their own. Exploiting our forest for their personal gains, these restrictions have taken a huge toll on the local's business.
The fishermen, who stretched their nets far once are now limited to a small lagoon. The village fishermen, now had to compete to provide even the basic necessities to their family.
Most have left the profession comepletely. Now only Subroto Da and Jitendra Kaka remain as both live alone and don't have a big family to feed. Jitendra Kaka is too old to try anything
new and Subroto Da is just stubborn to let go. Both compete too far for far too little. Even the rich, Mr.Ghatak, the richest man here, is facing trouble.
The British restricted over half his area too. He has well established Honey business, well enough for him to have the only two storey house in this village.
His honey business used to thrive but now his collectors can’t enter the deeper forest. He too must be facing a certain level of loss”
Anirban paused, then added with a grim smile, “But God doesn’t spare tyrants. Often British men disappear in those forests. Maybe a tiger… or a snake or even a crocodile.”
Vansh’s body stiffened. The image of the bloodied old man from yesterday flashed in his mind.
“Have they seen the tiger?” Vansh asked carefully.
“They suspect so, even made a hunting party a few weeks ago. Many from our village had also joined for the money” Anirban said. “But tigers don’t usually come near the village. I think it’s divine warning. A message.”
Vansh nodded, hiding the fear bubbling inside him.
Anirban glanced at him thoughtfully. “You’ve seen many British, have you? Where you came from?”
Vansh’s eyes dimmed. “Five years ago, my brother Navendu and I assisted a British hunter. Navendu was the translator. I helped with the equipment.
When the hunter left, he paid my brother and gave me a hat. A beautiful thing. I ran home, proud. Wore it every day.”
He hesitated. “Then, one day, while I was playing with friends by the market area, three soldiers noticed my hat. They marched up to me. Asked if the hat was mine.
I shouted with the little vocabulary I had, ‘Gift! Gift!’ They didn’t care. They battered me and they took my hat”
Anirban clenched his fists, but Vansh shrugged it off. “What bothers me most is how they see themselves. Always above us.”
Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by a loud scream. They rushed outside, only to be met with horror. A man’s body lay torn apart—face shredded,
limbs scattered. Blood soaked the white sheet cotton beneath him.
“The dhoti… I recognize it,” Vansh muttered. “It’s him. The old man from the forest.”
He stumbled away from the crowd and collapsed inside the hut. Later, Anirban joined him, shaken. “I’ve never seen nature this cruel to someone. Poor man was barely recognisable.”
Vansh stood abruptly and began packing. "I know, I'm not sure if that is a tiger's doing myself. Regardless, I have to leave now. I can't afford to stay another day here."
Anirban stopped him. “Are you sure?”
Vansh replied "My sister in law, Navendu's wife, is pregnant and has fallen ill, its been weeks and I have to deliver a medicine before it's too late for both the mother and the child.
My brother brought her to a nearby village, to the best doctors in ayurveda and they have failed to cure to her. This medicine I have, is from the city and might actually be her best option"
Anirban stood there as Vansh walked past him. Anirban realised how important each day might be.
Anirban later agreed, He insisted on escorting Vansh out the village.
Both step out the hut and started walking. As anxious Anirban was for letting Vansh leave, Vansh’s mind was racing. He couldn’t forget the eyes of the dying man.
As they reached the outskirts of the village, they heard another scream.
A crowd had gathered—another body lay mangled. A British man this time. His body gutted, head reduced to a pulp.
“This is no tiger,” Vansh whispered, horror in his voice.
Anirban looks at him away.
Vansh later explains to Anirban what had really happened the day before.
How he found the oldman, how the body earlier that morning was the same old man's and about the creature that he saw. It sure wasn't like any creature Anirban had ever heard of.
Anirban and Vansh, now start walking back to the hut. On the way back, they saw a man sitting in the mud, crying.
Sobbing. teh strange man clung to Anirban’s legs, shaking.
Vansh somehow managed to seperate the two and calmed the stranger down.
“This isn’t a tiger,” the stranger said between sobs. “Animals don’t do this. This is cruelty. And cruelty belongs to man.”
“You have any idea?” Anirban asked.
“It has a name .... Bira,” the man said. “A demon. The creature follows its master"
His eyes widen as he says "A man. A truly evil man.”
“A man controls it?” Vansh asked.
“Yes,” the stranger said. “Bira is always hungry. Whoever controls it… must have to feed it. tons and tons of food.”
I've only heard about this creature and the sight of such horror even scared a Hunter like me.
Later , Vansh admitted to the stranger, “I saw it. A glimpse. That thing is real.”
Anirban and Vansh then started to return back to the hut.
They discussed who might be capable of feeding such a creature. The conclusion was obvious— Mr.Ghatak. He's Rich, powerful, and with motive. But how could they confront him?
“I have to leave,” Vansh insisted. “I can’t waste another day regardless.Besides…
if it’s targeting villagers or the British, why would it go after me? I have encountered it befoer and it left me unharmed. Perhaps it won't hurt me”
Considering Vansh's strong commitment. Anirban reluctantly let him go but followed him to a distance, watching.
On their way. They passed Ghatak’s large two-story hoouse. The man stood at his door, visibly anxious. As clearly his men who once collected the honey now refuse to enter the forest.
“If he’s the mastermind, the idiot has cornered himself,” Anirban thought. “He should've known this would frighten everyone away from the forest, now not a single soul step outside the village for him”
Vansh kept walking, as he passed by the neighbourhood. Something strange Slowed Vansh down. An uncanny noise—wet, squelching.
He slowly turned and peered into a crack between a hut's partially closed window.
There, crouched atop a pile of fish, was a creature. Humanoid in shape, but with skin black as soot and disturbingly thin. Biting an entire fish head in one go.
The sight of the creature's teeth grinding and the fish head squelching in its mouth as it chews it runs chills down Vansh's spine.
Vansh froze still, as if he'd lost his ability to think. Suddenly the creature stopped. The creature just stood still, not moving an each before slowly standing upright.
Long Fingers, it appears to look as if someone had just put only a layer of thin skin over the skeleton of a 12 year old boy.
Moments later, it started to turn around. Quiet as a cold breeze. Its locked its gloomy, deep sunken eyes on Vansh, and its jagged canines dripped blood. The creature was unsettling to look at as it just stood still,
gazing outside the window, menacingly.
Vansh bolted.
He ran into Anirban, who was still watching Mr.Ghatak’s house.
“It’s in that hut. I saw it.”
“That hut… that’s Subroto Da’s,”
"Why would Ghatak want to kill a fisherman?" Anirban whispered.
"It was eating from a pile of fish" Vansh whispered back.
Moments later, Subroto walked out. Unharmed.
Anirban’s heart sank. “It’s him.”
Both Anirban and Vansh fled the scene before Subroto could notice.
They decided to hide amongst the crowd of villagers. Vansh exclaimed we are just delaying the inevetable.
Anirban nodded. “Then it’s not Ghatak. It’s Subroto. He must be using Bira to scare off the others. With fewer fishermen, the river’s all his.
even giving Mr.Ghatak a rough time.”
-“But what now? He’ll send that Bira after me.”
When all hope was lost they saw the sobbing Strange man again.
Who now carried a gun with him, walking past that crowded area. The man noticed the two and stopped.
"I thought you were leaving" Said the Stranger.
Anirban whispers "We know who the master is. Vansh has witnessed the creature being fed by a local"
Vansh asks "is there anything you could do to help us? can you kill it?"
The stranger then reveals "I was one of the men the British hired to join them in their hunt parties. I am from Assam
and have only heard about this creature in folklores. Hence, My knowledge is limited but I too need this creature gone,
so that the Britishers find the area safe again and I can get my promised paycheck" - "But how?" asked Anirban.
Vansh suggests “If we don't know how to Kill the creature, maybe we can just kill the master”
Anirban tolds Vansh to flee with the Strange man while he goes to confront Subroto. “He doesn’t know I know about the Bira yet. I’ll have a better chance.”
Vansh hesitated. “Be careful.”
Anirban later nods at the Assamese man "If the creature shows up. Try Shooting it as it probably won't atttack someone unfamiliar"
As Vansh and The man slipped away as Anirban approached Subroto’s hut, gripping a small knife from the market behind his back.
Anirban knocked on his Door.
"Subroto Da, Hello"
Subroto answered and greeted him kindly.
“Come in, sit,” Subroto offered.
Anirban stepped inside, cautiously looking around for the beast, while saying "You know how it has been lately, I've been worried since you too often go outside the village"
Subroto in a kind voice replies "Oh I too am planning on staying indoors, But someone has to feed the village. It was very thoughtful of you Anirban"
then insisits Anirban to sit and as Subroto turned to fetch water, Anirban raised the knife to stab him.
But before he could strike, a force struck him like thunder. He got thrown across the room, blood blooming from his shoulder. The creature loomed over him, breath hot and foul.
Its eyes burned, gazing his soul.
Subroto stood back in shock looking at the knife lying on the floor, ready to give the last command.
A shot rang out.
Subroto staggered, a bullet through his chest. Vansh had fired a bullet straight through hut's cracked window.
The Bira let out an eerie howl as Subroto begs it to save him, the beast then scrambled out the window, dragging its master to his boat and disappearing into the thick fog of the mongroves.
Vansh and the stranger entered. The strange man has saved Anirban.
“You can use a gun?” Anirban asked.
Vansh then revealed that he had leant how to use a gun from watching the Hunter he and his brother used to work for.
The strange man just smiled and nodded.
"Its still not safe, we failed to kill him." said Vansh.
"I don't think so" said the stranger "He'll probably just bleed to death out there"
Later, The stranger goes back to the British tents to deliver the good news
And unfortunately Vansh had to spend another night in the village as the day had already come to an end.
In the dark, gloomy mangroves. A boat on the still water. In that boat, was the master of the beast. Alone, swiftly floating in the misty mangroves.
Subroto couldn't utter a word, the pain was unbearable. Gasping to catch his breath as his lungs fill with his own blood. Not every man meets a fate of drowning in ones own blood.
Suddenly, He hears something in the water. Maybe its a crocodile. Then he could feel the boat rocking, the thing was definitly not a crocodile. His eyes coudn't focus and the moon light wasn't bright
enough. All he could see were the sparkling yellow eyes. The creature hissed at its master. The master was no longer able to provide him with fishes. Subroto started crying, screaming for help
but the boat had come too far. He could slowly feel a sharp pain gushing in. The creature had sunken its teeth deep into the man's leg. The sharp pain was later followed by an outburst of a deadful
pulsating sting. The creature had torn the flesh off his bone. All the man could do was scream, after a few screams the forest sunk back to the ghastly silence.
