When Raghav woke again, the world felt different.
Cool air brushed against his skin.
His body was wrapped tightly in a soft white cloth.
For a moment he simply stared upward, confused.
The ceiling of the cave was gone.
Instead, endless sky stretched above him.
Blue.
Vast.
Silent.
His body rocked gently from side to side.
Slowly, his mind began to understand.
He was lying inside a small wooden structure.
A boat.
A very small boat.
Barely large enough to hold his tiny body.
Each passing wave caused it to bounce lightly on the water.
Raghav's heart sank.
So… they abandoned me.
A bitter laugh echoed silently in his mind.
Even as a newborn child… he had been discarded.
First his wife betrayed him in his previous life.
Now in this new life, he had been thrown away like unwanted trash.
The cruelty of people truly had no limits.
He stared quietly at the sky.
Forget the past.
Thinking about his previous life only brought pain.
That life was over.
Dead.
Gone.
This was his life now.
And yet… even in this life…
He had done nothing wrong.
Still, he was abandoned.
Raghav felt tears gather in the corners of his eyes.
He wanted to cry.
To scream at the sky.
But he forced himself to remain silent.
His tiny body was too weak.
If he cried loudly…
A fish might notice.
Or worse.
A bird from the sky might swoop down and snatch him away.
He had no strength to resist anything.
So he simply lay there.
Quietly.
As tears slowly rolled down his cheeks.
Time passed.
Or perhaps days.
Raghav couldn't tell.
His body drifted between sleep and wakefulness.
Sometimes the sun burned brightly above him.
Sometimes the sky darkened and filled with stars.
Between those moments, he slept.
Endless, heavy sleep.
His weak body demanded it.
Every time he woke, the ocean stretched endlessly around him.
No land.
No people.
Only water.
And silence.
It felt like he had been floating for an eternity.
This world is strange…
Even the sky felt different somehow.
Clearer.
Deeper.
More vast than anything he remembered from Earth.
One time, when he woke again, something unusual appeared above him.
Raghav blinked slowly.
At first he thought it was a cloud.
But clouds didn't look like that.
High above the sky…
A massive shadow floated silently.
His eyes widened.
It was an island.
A gigantic island floating in the air.
Mountains.
Trees.
Even waterfalls flowing from its edges.
It hovered in the sky like a god's forgotten land.
Raghav stared in disbelief.
What kind of world is this…?
His tiny hands twitched weakly.
He wanted to call for help.
To shout.
To let someone know he was here.
But the ocean around him remained empty.
No ships.
No birds.
No voices.
Nothing.
Only the quiet sound of waves rocking his small boat.
Raghav closed his eyes again.
His mind felt heavy.
Sleep slowly dragged him back into darkness.
The last thought that crossed his mind was simple.
If no one finds me…
Will this ocean become my grave too?
The tiny boat continued drifting across the endless sea.
Toward an unknown fate.