It's an odd sight.
A conical muddy mound bang in the middle of a cosmical realm surrounded by vast lands of shifting terraneous hills, that remains unmoved despite the chaos of the elements around it.
It is inhabited by a husk. A husk that is the body of an oldened being from the mortal realm and has been in stasis for eons now, such that the realm's crooked tenants have sought refuge in the unmoving yet still breathing husk.
GASP!
The body inside suddenly opened its eyes. Or at least it tried to.
Why can't I see anything?
Before it could comprehend what had happened to itself, a brief passage of wind flew over, reminding it that it wasn't alone.
"So you're finally awake?"
"I..." the husk spoke unsure of its situation, "why can't I see?"
"It's better you don't. I have blocked your vision. The realm dwellers haven't been kind to you I'm afraid. You've become an unwilling host. Can you feel it?"
And indeed it did. Thousands upon thousands of creepy crawlies building their home, sheltering themselves and feeding its spawn upon its unsupervised husk. It wanted to scream but it realized that this was its own doing.
"How long have I been like this, Gandharva?" it tried its best but couldn't recall the being's real name. So it stuck to what it had identified itself as during their first sighting. A Gandharva.
"Hard to tell, eons perhaps. Do you miss the mortal world Sanit?" the celestial being asked, addressing the husk by a name long forgotten.
Ah, I'm Sanit.
"I never thought I would...but it seems a half-life of regret and eons of nothing but fruitless penance has definitely driven a hole into my heart."
The husk could make out several things now besides the incessant scurrying of infestations around it.
That it was and still is a male. Sporting a body that had withered over his indefinite time in the other realm.
His abilities, his senses growing while his mentality, his psyche eroding into himself as he willfully forgot what he wanted to.
Which was everything that had happened on Earth.
"How much time has passed on Earth then?"
The Gandharva sighed and looked into the far horizon, his robes flying without a wind to caress, "enough time that your mortal plane has become as unrecognizable as you."
"And the people?" Sanit, or the husk, gulped in somber wonder.
"What people?" the Gandharva's answer was both shocking as well as expected.
It made Sanit ponder over a lot. His surrendered life, his academic pursuits and his past that had ingrained in him a sense of defeat and escape as the first response to everything challenging.
A reluctant life full of regret.
"Get me out of this claptrap I'm in." He addressed the Gandharva who he knew was floating around somewhere.
The husk slowly fell apart. Cracking like old clay as its inhabitants cleared away and the man inside stood up with eyes still closed.
"How do I look?"
"Ghastly. I'd really recommend you not look at yourself now."
"Thank you for your frothy words." Sanit stared at the floating being, still as majestic as the day he had come here.
"You still look the same."
The Gandharva chuckled, "I'm immortal remember."
"That must be nice, now can I still go back?"
"Sure but do you really want to? You spent an entirety convinced you didn't have a place there."
"I was wrong then." Sanit paused before adding, "I have no place here either, after all. A husk is all I've accomplished to become."
"Then allow me to grant you a body of your past self."
Sanit's eyes widened, "You can do that?"
"I'm not as weak as I was when I met you so yes I definitely can. More importantly you should ask yourself if you can inhabit the body with ease."
The Gandharva didn't wait for him to reply and instead began to construct from thin air, a floating blob of flesh which then elongated to accommodate parts of nerves, bones and skin to finally resemble a body that flopped to the uneven ground with a thud.
"That's you, when you came here."
As much as he wished for, not much recognition stemmed from staring at it so Sanit turned to the Gandharva, "ok, so how do I...?"
"Sit cross-legged as you were. I will take care of it, just close your eyes."
Sanit obeyed, feeling himself slowly relax into a position that he had become comfortable with.
And when he opened his eyes this time allowed by his own actions, he saw directly at the vast cosmos above them before sitting up, his bare body feeling the pinpricks of the ground.
"That was a bit anticlimactic." He said and then looked down at himself.
"As it should be. Remembering your own rebirth is never a good sign."
Sanit stood up, entirely naked and stretched himself. Still getting used to his new body.
"Why don't you try exerting yourself a little?"
"You mean like a mock battle between you and me?"
The Gandharva laughed out loud, "heavens no, I'm a Gandharva. I enjoy the arts more than combat. I would make a disappointing partner so I suggest you spar with the beings here."
"Huh, I thought I had defeated them."
"Almost but you lost interest midway."
But the plan had to be dropped as soon as Sanit began to cough out loudly, his new body unused to the sudden changes being put through it.
He dropped to the ground, clutching his chest and wincing in pain.
Pain. It's good. It's the first thing I've felt in this body since before.
"You alright?" he heard the Gandharva asked a little concerned. Sanit nodded and stood up.
Wiping his mouth he said, "I think you should just send me back. Exactly where I came from."
The Gandharva nodded and turned to form a rift in space time, while Sanit gathered his thoughts, looking again and again in disbelief at his body.
"Feels as if I've lost my sense of humanity and all that made me human."
"Oh you'll get it back. You just need to learn it all again."
Sanit watched as the malformation spread out further from the Gandharva's machinations and the glow of light stared at him. "Through there?"
The Gandharva nodded and stepped back.
Sanit paused before taking the first step, "will we meet again?"
"Our fate isn't set in stone. So one can always hope."
Alright then, hereI go.
And just like that Sanit stepped into the rift.