The slope was not easy to climb, but they climbed it. They arrived at the entrance covered in dirt and out of breath. The opening was not wide. It was, however, extremely tall. Hunter walked through the opening first. He expected darkness, but found a warm, inviting glow. A stone staircase with deep steps dipped and expanded before them. The path started out narrow, but widened until it reached great proportions.

“That’s beautiful.” Tiyana remarked.

She was staring at two small rivers flowing from fountainheads at the top of the staircase. The water burbled up and ran down the length of the steps on the sides of the staircase.

“It is absolutely fascinating. The whole room is illuminated by it. What is that effect? I mean, what is causing it to do that?” Hunter asked his scientist wife.

Hunter watched as light radiated from the water flowing down the steps. The water painted the walls and ceiling with sublime colors. The colors seemed to fade and change ever so slightly with the rippling and burbling of the water. The effect was almost iridescent.

“I don’t know dear. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Tiyana said.

For once in Tiyana’s life, she did not scientifically analyze the situation. She simply drank it in. Hongo kept silent as he warily fingered the hilt of his carbon-steel utility knife.

“Well, I’ll be darned.” Hunter said as they reached the bottom of the staircase.

The stairs opened up to a great, lithic hall with the glowing water dripping, burbling, and flowing everywhere. The water flowed down the walls. It spurted forth in fountains. It ran in little rivers down the sides of the room. It even dripped from rounded stalactites far up in the ceiling down into luminous pools. Hunter, however, paid no attention to the water. The walls drew his attention. The walls were covered in permanent sandpaintings drawn in meticulous detail. No frames covered them, the multicolored bits of sand just stuck to the rock walls.

The paintings depicted Vedic beings in mythological scenes. Hunter recognized some. He saw the ruddy-complexioned Indra, with four arms, carrying the Vajra septre, which gave him control of lightning bolts, along with a giant mace, a diamond-studded net, and a great bow. He saw familiar scenes like Indra slaying Vritra, the tyrannical dragon who stole the world’s water supply. He also saw very unfamiliar scenes. In one, Agni, the fire Deva, fought Vritra’s brother Vala, the stone giant, in a monumental coliseum built into the natural landscape of a valley surrounded by Himalayan mountains.

One painting caught Hongo’s attention. It showed Indra’s net in exquisite detail. In the picture, the net expanded limitlessly across the far reaches of outer space. A reflective gemstone sat in each link of the net and each gemstone reflected all the other gemstones. More impressively, however, each reflection reflected every stone again in an infinite series of reflections. The luminous water flowed down over the picture in a thin sheet, creating the effect of a prism on it and causing a clinquant rainbow of colors to emanate from each gem.

“This is too much.” Hunter exclaimed. He went on, “These walls are incredible. Where are the Egyptian gods, though? I don’t get it. There’s no overlap in here.”

“We can always get a spectroscope in here. See what we can see.” Said Tiyana.

“Yeah, we can. Let’s keep going and see what we find.” Said Hunter.

The trio walked and walked. Periodically, they saw ornate doorways guarded by pillars and statutes and incredibly detailed artwork. Eventually, they reached the end of the hall.

• • •

The trio walked out of the hall and into a vast circular chamber. A pool of luminous water lay below platforms that comprised the floor of the room. A platform circled the outer edges of the room. Another, wider one stretched out across the length of the room. An opening to the water lay in the center of this platform. The floor platform rose up around the edges of the chamber.

The chamber and the platform rose up hundreds of feet into the air. Elegant doors behind small porticos sat spaced periodically along the rising, circular platform. The porticos sported classical columns with decorated triangular architraves. As the trio entered the vast chamber, the tile beneath them gave way slightly under the pressure of their combined weights.

“Ah, No!” Hongo yelled and instinctively looked up. He saw the room taper off towards the ceiling hundreds of feet above him, but he spotted no traps. Hunter and Tiyana ducked.

“No traps this time. I have high hopes for this place.” Said Hunter.

“Well, hope in one hand and crap in the other and see which one fills up first.” Tiyana retorted sardonically and uncharistically crassly.

She went on, “I don’t trust this place any more than I trust that abysmal labyrinth.”

Hunter replied, “No, I don’t believe that. We’re in Shambhala now, the transcendent kingdom of the Kalki Kings. The Kalachakra Tantras describe this as a place of utmost tranquility and fulfillment. The soothing water, the intricate sandpaintings, the way the rocks seem to naturally arrange themselves along the hall… this is it. We are in paradise.”

Tiyana sighed heavily, looked at Hongo, rolled her eyes slightly, and shrugged her shoulders. Hongo met her gaze and shrugged back.

Hunter made his way over to a nearby door. The architrave was fifteen feet high. Hunter placed his palm on the tall door and stroked the old hardwood.

Tiyana and Hongo, meanwhile, wandered into the center of the room. As Tiyana looked into the hole in the middle of the room, she felt liquid dripping on her head. As she looked up, she shrieked.

“Hunter!” She cried out and pointed ominously.

Hunter and Hongo looked up to see great links in gargantuan iron chains. The chains moved. They lowered a large, rectangular block of opaque frozen material into the center of the room. The frozen block rapidly melted to reveal an elephantine monster. The creature had an animal face with large tusks and a long, elephant-like snout. Shimmering turquoise scales covered the aquarian body. Two short, coiled feet sprouted from the creature’s rear. The feet looked useful on land, but the creature could move through water like an eel with its long scaly body. As the creature’s head obtained freedom from the frozen block, it began violently swinging back and forth as it tried to break the rest of its body free. The trunk extended and expelled a triumphant roar.

Hunter turned quickly and gasped under his breath, “Makara… the vahana of Varuna… it’s real…”

As Hunter mumbled his words, he fumbled for the Benelli M4 Super 90 shotgun that he had bought from a shady Pakistani arms dealer in Lhasa. The gun had a collapsible buttstock that allowed for short-range use and was modified with a special magnesium alloy to make it incredibly light. Hunter had paid a small fortune for it, but appreciated every penny as he hiked up the Himilayan mountains with it strapped to his back.

As he raised the gun, the monster, Makara, broke free from his cryogenic bonds and fell towards the hole in the center of the room. Tiyana shrieked again, ducked, and rolled away. As the monster fell he nipped at Tiyana, but his menacing jaws snapped shut many feet over her head.

The monster hit the water and disappeared immediately. Hunter looked down into the pool and saw a large slithering form weaving and bobbing its way through the glowing liquid. Hunter fired a few rounds into the pool, but they had no effect. Meanwhile, Hongo had launched into full combat mode. He ran at a three-quarter sprint to the edge of the pool with his assault rifle poised, shouldered, aimed, and ready. Back in Lhasa, despite the underground arms dealer’s unusually exotic panoply of weapons, Hongo had conservatively selected a tried-and-true AK-47. When he reached the brink he opened fire, but his rounds had about as much effect as Hunter’s. The creature seemed to anticipate their moves and responded accordingly, moving its massive bulk through the water at an incredible rate of speed and with perspicacious dexterity.

“Hongo, he’s too fast!” Hunter called out from across the room. Hunter saw Tiyana lying prone ten feet behind Hongo with her pistol drawn and aimed at the other side of the room. She was covering Hongo’s back. Hunter panicked. If the creature swam to the north side of the room and attacked from that direction, Tiyana would be vulnerable. Hunter determined not to let that happen. He acted, as usual, on impulse. He did a sloppy cannonball into the water.

“What? Hunter!” Hongo shouted.

“Shetri.” Hongo uttered a Swahili curse and unloaded his entire clip into the pool, hoping to distract the beast.

Meanwhile, Hunter’s cannonball created a large splash and the monster noticed the vibrations. It took the bait and moved towards the south side of the room. Hunter swam back to the platform as quickly as possible and climbed back up onto the land. As he looked behind him, he saw the monster rapidly gaining ground. Hongo, luckily, had bought concussion grenades rather than fragmentations and he pulled two of them from his belt. He pulled the pins, released the spoons, and dropped them into the pool. Four seconds later, a loud blast erupted from beneath Hongo and Tiyana’s platform. As a wave of water shot south from the center of the room and splashed Hunter, he looked down into the pool. The creature jerked violently as the blast sent him careening off course. He quickly recovered, however, and kept coming at Hunter. Hunter ran for the nearby door as the creature broke through the water’s surface, extended his trunk, and roared again. The creature lunged at Hunter, but moved too slowly and bashed its tusks against the pillars of the door’s portico. The stone pillars shattered under the immense pressure of the mammoth tusks. As Hunter scrambled deeper into the hall, the creature shot its trunk through the doors and wrapped it around one of Hunter’s legs. Hunter jerked his leg forward, but the trunk pulled it backward and Hunter fell on his face. As the creature dragged Hunter towards its gnashing teeth, Hunter pulled his utility knife from the sheath on his leg and sunk it deep into the thick, turquoise skin. The trunk went slack and released its grip as Hunter kicked it aside.

Across the gap, Hongo violently jammed a new banana clip into his Kalashnikov, drew a long breath, aimed at the monster’s head, and froze. Between Hongo and the monster a tall, austere man clothed in white robes walked across the water and held up his open palm, indicating to Hongo to stop.

“Stop.” The man commanded in a loud, but firm voice.

Hongo lowered his rifle by an inch, but called back in an equally firm tone, “Move now or die, Bwana.”

The man kept his body facing Hongo, but turned his head in the creature’s direction and spoke to it, “Makara, avastol chronan!”

The creature immediately slithered back into the water. After it submerged, it darted off out of sight. Hongo lowered his gun a few more inches. Hunter tepidly peeked out from the hall. Tiyana cocked her head and looked suspiciously at the mysterious figure bedecked in the achromatic toga. The man narrowed his grey eyes. He had a curly white beard and close-cropped, wispy hair. A bright green laurel wreath crowned his head. A large gold ring with a glimmering medallion in the center clasped his robes together above his chest. His shoulders were bare and in his right hand he held a tall, silver staff in the shape of the caduceus.

“Travelers, you have entered a forbidden adytum. We must hold a palaver.”

“What?” Hongo said.

“He wants to have a conversation.” Hunter shouted from across the room.

Hongo looked back at Tiyana.

She met his gaze and answered, “Alright, let’s talk.”

“Please, follow me.” The man said as he beckoned to them and walked off toward the rising circular staircase that rose up hundreds of feet toward the apex of the room.

As they followed the robed man, they passed hundreds of doors, all decorated with paintings and statutes. Stone gargoyles guarded many of them. Their legs grew weary as they endlessly circled the room, getting ever so slightly closer to the ceiling with each revolution.

“Are we there yet?” Hunter teasingly asked their host.

“Are you brave enough to vex the Makara, but not hardy enough to climb a staircase?” The tall, austere man with rigid posture turned around and his tight-lipped expression broke into a winsome grin.

“I am still soaking wet, so that makes me heavier than all of you.” Hunter retorted.

The man continued smiling and walking. The combination of the high altitude with its thin air and the long journey up the steps left Hongo and Tiyana too short of breath to participate in the small talk. Eventually, they reached the end of the platform. They saw large iron rivets sunk into the stone walls holding brackets from which the iron chains that once held the Makara hung. Their host stopped abruptly and faced a large pillar that decorated a part of the wall.

“Kubatier gura imul suabush ata babku. Zed zed uni zed uni uni zed. Malmech.” As their host spoke the final word the pillar began spinning. It rotated around to reveal a large cavity. Their host stepped into it and beckoned for them to do the same. They all crammed themselves into the cavity and the man spoke again.

“Fermech.”

The pillar rotated again and they found themselves on the other side of the wall in another stone hallway. A roaring noise rose up in their eardrums and grew louder as they traversed the hall. Eventually, they reached an opening and found the source of the roar. A river flowed through the mountain and they saw a small barge moored to a dock.

“Let us embark. The river will take us to my abode.”

Tiyana almost protested, but she held her tongue. The barge did not look particularly reliable, but she assumed that their host knew the surroundings and would not endanger himself. They all boarded the barge and shoved off into the stream. The current took them through the mountain at a rapid pace. Soon, the darkness of the tunnel gave way to light coming from a visible end. As they approached the light, a visceral fear set in. At the end of the tunnel, they saw the sky, clouds, distant Himilayan snow-capped mountains, and nothing else.

“What is this? Where are we going?” Hongo demanded to know.

Their mysterious guide smiled. “Prepare yourselves.”

“For what?” Hunter said. He received no response.

Tiyana, Hunter, and Hongo looked around for an opportunity to get off the barge, but the strong river current and vertical tunnel walls offered no recourse. As they reached the edge, they saw that the river cascaded out of the side of the mountain in a magnificent waterfall. Hongo felt his stomach rise up into his chest as he saw the extreme height and vast emptiness between himself and the valley floor far below. In the center of the barge, a thick, tall tree trunk stuck out. A large metal ring adorned the top of the trunk. Just as they crested the edge of the waterfall, their guide jammed his staff into a socket and used it to turn a rudder to position the ring so that it caught on a hook that hung from a tightly coiled metal cable. The ring slid into place, and the barge hung suspended over the vast emptiness of space below it. The cable created a zipline that extended for hundreds of feet across a cloudy gap between two mountains. The momentum of the barge set the zipline in motion and they careened across the space, quickly closing the gap between the waterfall and the nearby mountain. They looked around and saw mountain ranges off in the distance. Below, they saw thousands of feet of air, a few misty clouds, and a blurry image of the valley floor covered in green shrubs and small streams far, far below. Hunter tried to make out their shadow on the ground beneath them, but due to their extreme altitude, he could not see it.

“I never cease to enjoy this view. It is remarkable. One must stop to appreciate creation as often as possible.” Said their guide.

Hongo had a slight fear of heights. He closed his eyes. He felt queasy. Eventually, they reached the other side of the mountain range. A rocky outcropping supported a well-kept, brightly-painted monastery of Tang Dynasty architecture. Their barge came to rest in a field of soft grass near the building’s entrance.

“Welcome travelers. You must excuse me. I have not had guests in many centuries.” Their host said.

“Centuries? You must mean decades, right?” Said Tiyana.

“Forgive me, I forget that you all currently enjoy only about a century of life. Again, I have not had guests in a long time. Come now, the day grows old, let us break bread together and have our palaver.”

“Sham-freaking-bala.” Exclaimed Hunter with a wide grin.