Chasing Your Ghost
This short takes place in a world that I’ve thought about to no end. It features Moksha, a girl who used to worship The Mother along with her family and others. Through their worship they gained the power to control flames to an extent. They lived in a dessert area on the outskirts of Purujai called Lashoka. This in an ungoverned area that only the Children lived in. Below is a map of the world I’ve developed.
Eventually the king over in Purujai, Agnibahu, decided that he could use some of the children in a circus type event where they would perform their feats. This would bring in some money the state needed. When none of the children agreed to take part in his show he slaughtered most in anger, and took the remaining to be enslaved as his performers. Moksha is the only known escapee, and she watched her brother, Daav, beg and plead for her as her was dragged away. She settled in a town in the southern region of Purujai, and was taken in by strangers who became a new family to her.
This new family consists of Chitra, her son, Sukhwinder, and his wife, Indra. The character on the far right, Gita, comes into play later in the story. She is Agnibahu’s sister. One day she angers him and he punishes her by having one of his servant chop off her arm.
Getting back to the main crew now! After taking Moksha in, she becomes a sister figure to Sukhwinder. They discover Indra is pregnant on accident while having dinner. This stresses all four of them. With the disappearance of the children The Mother has taken away the sun as punishment for the humans that have wronged her. Crops fail to grow, prey animals grow erratic, people get cold.
Once Indra gives birth to their baby and names him Avyaan, they try their hardest to feed him. Tis is not enough. One day Moksha comes home and finds that he has passed from malnutrition. This is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Moksha decides she must make cahnge.
In comes my thesis! Moksha doesn’t know how to make this change. She decides she must ask The Mother for assistance, and heads to the ruins of her home where she hallucinates the spirit of her brother and chases him to the top of the temple only to collapse when she realizes she was just chasing his ghost.