Cholukan in Hell

 

 

When Cholukan had subdued the Gold-Scaled Dragon, and turned it to his service—but that is a different story—he directed the beast to thrust its great head through the veil that separates our world from Hell. Squeezing its eyes tightly shut, the Dragon used its horns to pierce through the invisible fabric, and when its head had penetrated the netherworld it disgorged Cholukan—who had ordered the Dragon to swallow him—from its throat. Carefully keeping its eyes shut, the Dragon assured the Holy Monkey that it would honor its promise to return for him when it heard Cholukan play the agreed-upon tune on his enchanted flute, which also served as a walking stick and fighting staff.

“When you return for me,” the scribe of the Gods vowed to the Dragon, “I will not be alone.”

“I wish you success in that endeavor,” the Dragon replied, before withdrawing its head through the tear it had made, which immediately sealed up behind it. Now Cholukan was alone, and he turned to seek out the woman he had ventured into Hell to rescue: the beautiful virgin, Bhi Tu.

But the mission he had set for himself would not be an easy one, and the Dragon itself—though formerly an enemy of Cholukan—had warned him against it. For one thing, the Dragon had advised, if the Gods realized Cholukan was risking his life and very soul journeying into Hell instead of tending to his duties as their scribe among the mortals, they would be displeased—particularly his mistress, the Ruby Empress. But also, as anyone knew, should any creature not of Hell gaze upon that place and its inhabitants, their eyes would be burned right out of their skull. That was the reason why the Dragon had kept its yellow eyes tightly closed, and it was the reason Cholukan had squeezed his own eyes shut before leaping from the Dragon’s jaws. If he were to find Bhi Tu in the vastness of Hell, overcome her abductors and return her to the mortal world, he would have to do so as a blind man. Or rather, blind monkey.

He could only assume that Bhi Tu had not been able to keep her own eyes closed all this time; probably her sadistic captors had even forced her to gaze upon them. Though if she had indeed gone blind, then perhaps there was a better chance that she could return the love of a yellow-furred macaque instead of a handsome young man. Cholukan felt guilty for this consideration, but his love for Bhi Tu was that overwhelming.

It was the young mortal girl’s uncanny beauty that had so captured his simian heart, but it was this same beauty that had inspired three demon hags to kidnap her.

Every youth in Bhi Tu’s village had ached at her beauty since they were even too young to understand what that ache was. By the time Bhi Tu blossomed into womanhood, those same youths now understood their ache all too well, and each young man sought to take the girl as a wife. But Bhi Tu wanted none of them, would not listen to their avowals of love, and spent all her time playing with her friends, to whom she swore one day she would marry a prince or a man of great wealth who could take her far from this too-simple village.

One day while neglecting some chores that her frustrated parents had assigned their day-dreaming daughter, she wandered out into the grassy hills in search of her silly friends, and along the way she discovered a lovely flower, the likes of which she had never seen before, its petals shining like silver hammered paper thin. No sooner had she plucked the silver flower when she spied another just ahead, glittering in the tall grass, so she went to it and plucked it, too. Then another gleamed ahead…another…until Bhi Tu found herself standing before the mouth of a cave she had never before encountered, in the side of a familiar hill. Curious, she stole closer, and she could see that an abundance of the mysterious silver flowers grew in the shadowy interior, upon the floor of this new-made cavern, which she assumed an earth tremor had opened. Bhi Tu ducked her head and stepped across the threshold of the cave, and the moment she did so three sets of strong hands with long talons fell upon her arms and snatched her hair, dragging her deeper into the darkness. Behind her, the mouth of the cave rumbled shut as if it had never existed.

From a distance, just as she was about to call out to Bhi Tu, one of her friends had seen the beautiful girl step inside the cavern and had even glimpsed the trio of figures within as they seized hold of her. She turned away and ran to fetch Bhi Tu’s parents and other villagers, but when they converged at the hill they could find no trace of the cave. They did not doubt the friend’s story, because she was overwrought with fear and sorrow, and because at the base of the hill they found several strange flowers with metallic silver petals, and yet Bhi Tu’s parents despaired, not knowing how they could ever claim their daughter back again.

Cholukan was by chance visiting their village during this time, charged as he was to walk among humans and relate back their doings to the Gods. He had grown familiar with Bhi Tu’s beauty, from afar, but he had never approached the girl to speak with her, self conscious about his bestial homeliness. It was because of Bhi Tu that he had been reluctant to leave the area and had lingered longer than he would have otherwise. And so when he heard of the girl’s fate, he knew he had to act, even though her captors were undoubtedly demons from Hell. Bhi Tu’s friend had seen them only briefly and from a distance, but had said they appeared as grotesque hags. Grotesque hag demons would surely not harbor good intentions for a lovely young virgin girl.

So it was that Cholukan, who had recently bested the Gold-Scaled Dragon, commanded it to vomit him into Hell.

 

***

 

As an agent of the Gods, not quite divine but no simple mortal animal, Cholukan possessed marvelous attributes, and one of these was the ability to leap so high and so far that it was as though he were flying. But without being able to use his sense of sight, he was afraid that he might leap straight off a cliff into a lake of molten lava, or onto a field of sharpened knives like countless blades of grass, and so he walked along very carefully, tapping his staff like the cane of a blind man.

Fortunately, another of his attributes was his amazing sense of smell, and his flat monkey’s nose sniffed at the air constantly in the hopes of catching a whiff of Bhi Tu to guide him. He had become familiar with Bhi Tu’s scent in the village. The virgin’s fresh golden skin and glistening obsidian hair formed an odor particular to her, which had nearly driven him mad in close proximity. (As mentioned, however, Cholukan had never dared draw too close to her, and wondered if he would have dropped dead of bliss if he had.) But so far, as he tapped his way along rocky paths, the only smells that wafted to Cholukan were the stench of rot and burning flesh, the iron tang of blood, vomit and feces and sulfur.

The Holy Monkey’s hearing was uncanny, as well, and he knew by heart the village girl’s tinkling giggle, her joyous soaring laughter, her clear and childish voice in song, even her petulant sobs when her parents wouldn’t let her have her way. Therefore he tilted his head this way and that as he traveled on, tireless and alone, too driven to admit to exhaustion or loneliness, but the only sounds that were carried to him on the hot breeze that sprinkled him with ash and burning embers were the wailing screams and hysterical weeping of the damned, and the bellowing roars and cackling laughter of demons.

Cholukan knew that it was only a matter of time before he put himself in danger, so he was not surprised when it came. He had followed his current path into a cavern (he could tell by the drop in temperature and the close echoes of his tapping stick), hoping this tunnel might connect with the one from which the three hags had opened a doorway to the mortal world, and he came upon an open chamber in which he heard muffled moaning. He was sure a number of the damned were held prisoner here, no doubt restrained in some form of torture or other, and apparently with their mouths gagged or even stitched shut. But he could not open his eyes to view them…not even when he realized that tending to these prisoners was a demon, which he became aware of when he heard its claws shift on the stone floor and felt its hot, foul breath wash over him.

“Ho! What is this?” the demon growled in a voice like three people speaking all at once: an insane old man, a drowning woman, a shrieking child. “A monkey among the damned? Have you blundered here by some unlucky accident? Animals need not suffer as humans do. You must be a foolish monkey, indeed.”

“It is no accident that I am here,” Cholukan told the demon, whose form he was actually grateful remained hidden from him, since its voice alone was terrible enough. “I am Cholukan, scribe to the Gods, on a sacred mission, so I would advise you to let me pass.” Of course, “sacred mission” was not true, but Cholukan was a monkey and thus a trickster—usually quite gay, filled with laughter and good cheer, always amused by the antics of silly humans, but the severity of his love had made him miserable, since great love is always an affliction like illness, and naturally his journey into Hell had further made him somber and in no mood for play.

“Oh? Well I am Udnet, a murderer in life turned captain of demons, and I have the ability to see into a man’s heart and tell when he is lying. I don’t know precisely what your lie is, strange monkey, but I can see a lie glowing bright in your heart. How dare you try to trick me, and speak so imperiously to me—you, a mere beast?” The cacophony of blended voices rose in a wild cry. “Prepare to join the Muted on the Wall of Living Nails!”

Cholukan could hear the claws of the demon’s feet skittering on the rock floor as it charged him, and he calculated the nearing heat and stink of its breath, so he ducked low and dove into a somersault, rolling under whatever attack the demon threw at him. Above him he heard the demon cutting through the air with its arm or a weapon; he dared not open his eyes to see. But as he came up on his feet again, behind the demon, Cholukan lunged mightily with his staff as if it were a spear. Though the blunt-tipped stick did not pierce the demon’s back, it connected solidly. The sharp blow combined with the demon’s forward momentum caused it to lose its balance.

Cholukan heard the demon cry out in thwarted rage, followed quickly by pain. There was a heavy thud, mixed with the wet splitting of flesh and the crunch of splintering bone. Then, Cholukan heard nothing more of the demon, besides the faint patter of dripping blood. He knew that whatever the Wall of Living Nails was, it had claimed the demon captain Udnet himself.

Cholukan heard the muffled sounds of the “Muted”—the demon’s restrained captives—again, and he felt guilty that he could not free them from their bonds and take them with him out of Hell, but what was he to do? Hell was full of the damned, and he could not save them all. Whether they were sinners who deserved their torments or innocent victims taken into Hell unfairly, like Bhi Tu, it did not matter. Cholukan was here to rescue one soul and one soul only. And so, as badly as he felt, he continued his journey onward, deeper into the labyrinth of stone.

 

***

 

Cholukan encountered many more of the damned along his travels through the tunnels, and numerous other demons of apparently multiple breeds and forms, but he was able to defeat or at least escape from all of them. There was the pool in one cavernous chamber, from which a number of yapping, yelping demonic beings emerged. He was able to outrun them, listening to their awkward finned feet slap against the rock floor, and they apparently gave up the chase so as to return to the water, perhaps unable to breathe for long out of their element. In another chamber he had to push his way through a dense forest of hanging bodies, damned prisoners apparently suspended from hooks, who pleaded with him for release, all the while dripping their blood on his yellow-furred head and his blue silk robes.

In one section of tunnel as hot as a furnace, the rock walls of which Cholukan was careful not to touch, another demon burst upon him from out of nowhere and knocked him onto his back on the hot stone floor, almost causing him to open his eyes in surprise. When the demon leapt at him again he thrust out his staff, and as a result of his fighting instincts or just sheer luck the creature impaled its own eye on the end of the stick. Maybe all it had was that one eye, and a huge one at that, for Cholukan was sprayed with its juices. Whatever the case, the dead demon tumbled sideways to the ground, and Cholukan regained his feet, withdrew his staff from the beast’s skull, and continued wearily onward…battered and burnt and bloodied.

 

***

 

At last, shuffling dejectedly and nearly convinced he would never find his love, nor even find his way out of the infernal maze, Cholukan realized he was inhaling a familiar scent, an intoxicating perfume that did not belong in Hell. He quickened his pace, but no longer tapped his cane, afraid the sound would give him away. Soon enough, he heard faint weeping ahead, in a voice he knew too well. The Holy Monkey found new energy in a powerful surge, his heart filled to bursting with love for the village girl Bhi Tu and hatred for the monsters that had dared spirit her living soul to the netherworld.

Squatting down behind a stalagmite, Cholukan listened to the voices of the demon hags, just ahead in an open room of the cavern’s network. In their raspy and croaking voices, they were saying:

“Your great beauty will be ours, maiden!”

“Sip by sip we will take it!”

“We will be more beautiful than any demoness in Hell!”

“More beautiful than once was the Ruby Empress, in Heaven!”

Such blasphemy, Cholukan thought, enraged and ready to burst into the open right then and there, but next he heard the sobbing voice of his beloved:

“No! No, please! Please let me return to my village!”

“Ha! There is no returning from Hell, child!”

“But I came here as no sinner! Through no fault of my own!”

“Oh no? Do you not think vanity is a sin, silly mortal?”

Cholukan heard Bhi Tu spit at the demons. “I can not blame you for wanting to steal my beauty, hag! Look at you…all of you! Like the posterior of an ape, are your faces!”

Ah! thought Cholukan. So Bhi Tu could see them, her eyes not burned out of her head. The demons had obviously cast an enchantment to protect her eyes, then, fearing that her beauty would be disfigured before they could steal it for their own. Once they had done that, what would be left of poor Bhi Tu? A mere husk? No! He would not allow it!

In response to Bhi Tu’s angry taunts, the three demon hags screeched in unison. Cholukan feared they would advance upon the virgin girl then, and realized he could no longer delay. And so he jumped out from behind the limestone pillar, and shouted, “Ho, demons! I am the Holy Monkey, Cholukan, scribe of the Gods, and I am here to undo your wicked schemes!”

Now the demon hags wheeled about to face him, for he heard them screech in unison once more, shocked and furious. Then the trio were upon him like three converging whirlwinds.

Never had Cholukan fought so fearsomely, and here he was without benefit of vision. He twirled and swung and thrust his staff, his nimble body spinning and rolling. Claw-tipped hands raked deep grooves in the flesh of his cheeks and tore his blue silk robes to tatters. But one of his fierce jabs caused one of the hags to choke horribly and fall away, her throat crushed. (For demons, having no souls and thus not immortal, could be extinguished like a creature of the mortal world.) He speared another of the hags in one ear and out the other, then planted his sandal on the demon’s skull to jerk his staff free again.

The remaining hag fought all the more desperately, leaping upon his back and gouging at his throat with her nails, with the intent of opening his veins. Cholukan dropped his staff and reached up to pull the hag off him. His fingers found her wrinkled face and long fleshy nose, but beneath that he felt something like the mouthparts of a mosquito, including a long quill-tipped proboscis. He took this straw-like growth in his fist, bent forward and threw the hag off his back. Not letting go of her life-stealing proboscis, with his other hand balled into a mighty fist he struck her repeatedly in the throat until the squirming monstrosity went still at his feet.

“Oh monkey! Monkey!” cried Bhi Tu behind him. “You have saved me from those wretched crones! I know you, monkey, from the village where I live.”

“Yes, maiden,” Cholukan replied as he released the dead hag’s weird mouthpiece, his back still turned to Bhi Tu. “I have come to return you to your home.”

“Oh monkey,” wept Bhi Tu morosely, “look what they have done to my beauty! Poor me…oh look at me!”

What was this? Had the evil hags already begun to sip away Bhi Tu’s immeasurable beauty with their greedy mouth-straws? Horrified at the thought, already lamenting, Cholukan whirled around and opened his eyes to gaze upon his beloved Bhi Tu.

In the seconds that his eyes drank in Bhi Tu’s beauty for the last time—the seconds before his eyes were burned away like two balls of crumpled paper—Cholukan saw that the girl stood against a rock wall with her shackled wrists connected by chains to two stalactites. She wore a white robe, dirtied and somewhat ripped. And it was true that Bhi Tu had looked better. Her hair was in disarray and in need of washing. Smudges of dirt marred her bared arms and her cheeks and neck. She even sported a few dark bruises here and there, and a number of faint scratches including one across her forehead, but no wounds that would not heal perfectly. The demons had not yet stolen even the tiniest sip of her immense loveliness.

Cholukan dropped to his knees, delirious with agony as his eyes melted away, leaving two empty hollows of bone. He felt around him on the rock floor, searching for his fallen staff which doubled as a flute, so that he might play the special tune that would alert the Gold-Scaled Dragon and summon it to return him and Bhi Tu to the earthly plane…but in his anguish he couldn’t locate it. For now was he truly blind.

Helplessly, Cholukan lifted his head and cried into the darkness, “Bhi Tu…tell me, please, and soothe my pain…do you love me now? Will you be the wife of the scribe of the Gods?”

“What?” the Holy Monkey heard the virgin blurt in shock. “Me…the wife of a monkey? Are you mad?”

“But I have saved you! I can bring you back to your parents!”

“Bah!” Bhi Tu spat. “Such a thought! Better I should remain chained to this wall for all eternity than be married to a furry beast!”

Overcome more by the pain in his heart than by the pain of his dissolved eyes, Cholukan pitched forward then onto the stony floor, unconscious.

 

***

 

When Cholukan awoke, he found himself cradled in the arms of the Ruby Empress, who sat upon her jewel-encrusted throne in Heaven. Coiled like an obedient dog nearby was the Gold-Scaled Dragon, who had courted the goddess’s favor by seeking out Cholukan on its own. Having discovered him, the dragon had swallowed both the Holy Monkey and the screaming, protesting virgin Bhi Tu so as to deliver them to Heaven.

Cholukan gazed up into the Ruby Empress’s face in great confusion, thinking at first that he was dreaming. For one thing, he could once again see! Understanding his surprise, the Ruby Empress smiled and explained:

“Foolish child…when the Gold-Scaled Dragon told me of your plan to rescue that mortal girl from Hell, and coughed you up so that I might see your maiming for myself, I wept in great misery. But taking pity on you, despite your rebellious act, I collected two of my ruby tears and placed them into your skull so that you might have sight once again.”

“But…but my mistress,” Cholukan said in awe, “I believe these new eyes of mine must be enchanted, and enhance the perception of beauty, for you appear more radiant and splendid in your loveliness than any goddess or mortal woman I have ever seen!” Indeed, the ancient Ruby Empress was so youthful and stunning that tears of rapture trickled down the monkey’s scarred cheeks.

“Your new eyes do not deceive you, my beloved pet. My beauty has been restored by a spell I have cast upon myself…with the help of a friend of yours. But I must insist, use your new eyes wisely, dear child. You must perceive the earthly world and its denizens more clearly henceforth. Do you promise?”

“Oh yes, yes, heavenly one!” Cholukan wept, embracing his mistress as she held him on her lap. “My love is only for you, from now until the close of eternity!”

“Very good!” said the Ruby Empress. “We shall celebrate your return with tea…and then you can tell me, and the other Gods, of your mischievous adventures in the underworld.” The goddess then clapped her hands to summon a new servant girl to bring tea for them.

Into the Ruby Empress’s chamber came shambling a bent and hideous hag, with a wrinkled face and long fleshy nose. Whimpering under her breath as she brought forward a tray bearing teapot and cups, Bhi Tu kept her eyes lowered in humility.

And drinking their tea, Cholukan and the Ruby Empress and the Gold-Scaled Dragon laughed in wonderful delight.