It had just been a few seconds after old man Ishrafil told me of the origin of the world when I heard a droning sound which was somewhat muffled by the walls.

"Our ride is here," the old man exclaimed as he stepped out, "let's proceed before it raises too much dust."

I could see some dust being kicked up by some wind. The sound that I heard was very similar to a humming bird but it had more lower end bass. I followed the old man out. We turned around the corner of the corridor and into the open field out back.

There I saw it for the first time. A gold disk made up of octagonal sections about two feet in diameter. It had silver feathery wings spaced diametrically opposite to one another and were flapping so swiftly that they were making that loud droning sound. The body of the golden disk was made up of a honey comb structure and the edges were like sprockets.

The old man walked towards it and it gently came down to about six inches above the ground as the droning sound reduced. He stepped up on it and crossed his hands.

He said, "Come now! Make haste."

I asked, "W-what in the world is this?"

Lord Ishrafil said, "A cherubim, it's our ride. Now stop hesitating and come on."

I walked towards it, although I was hesitant. It descended to a comfortable elevation to step on it. I placed one foot on it and at once I felt the quiver of the flapping wings. Leaning forward, I shifted my weight and put my second feet up on it. Instinctively I stood sideways on it like a surfboarder.

Old man Ishrafil asked, "Why sideways? That won't do you any good. Now stand properly and we shall go."

I did as he said. The flapping of the wings intensified and we began to rise upwards. The old man had crossed his hands and calmly looked at me and said, "Why do you appear so clumsy? Just relax. Cherubim's are intelligent enough to keep your centre of gravity balanced. Let your body loose and enjoy the ride."

The cherubim began to pick up speed and it tilted forward on its own to keep the acceleration from throwing me off. Whenever it had to turn, the honey comb disk stayed in place without moving and the wing just moved around perpendicular to the direction of motion.

So at times we moved forward, at times sideways like a crab. It proceeded to move at incredible speeds and the surroundings seemed to blur. It angled upwards and flew in a straight line. I turned around and saw the entire city of Alkapuri behind me rapidly becoming smaller until it looked like a cluster of many colourful dots.

As I turned forward I saw the glass dome which had enclosed the entire city. It was so clear; I almost missed it at this breakneck speed. Now that I did notice it, a feeling of fear swept through my inner workings. We were heading at a high speed, straight into the glass.

I asked the old man, "Are you sure it is alright to ram ourselves into this glass panel?"

He said, "Of course it is," and rolled his eyes.

I believed his words; after all he is one of the archangels. So I took a deep breath and braced myself for the impact. As we reached closer to it the cherubim picked up even more speed and tilted my body to an almost horizontal position, such that I would ram head first into it. Before I had a chance to react and cover my head, I hit the glass wall. Unlike my expectations it just flexed and pushed forward with me. What I thought was a thick glass dome was actually a thick film of sorts.

It was like a bubble but much stronger. As the cherubim pushed forward it formed a dome around my body all the way till the disk on the cherubim and made a sudden, popping sound. The bubble had formed around the cherubim and completely covered my body into an elliptical dome.

I touched it with my finger and it was like a sheet of thick rubber.

When I did overcome the initial shock of banging into the dome, I saw that I had come out of the confines of the city. The entire place was blackened and dark. There was no sound except the sound of empty space, like when you place an empty tumbler against your ears.

Although it was dark, I could see the dry and barren expanse of ground around me. The dome and the city moved out of my point of view. The old man as I could see was with his eyes closed and hands folded. I assumed that he was in deep thought contemplating the mysteries of the universe until I saw a stream of drool dripping through the edge of his lips. That man was fast asleep.

As the cherubim picked up speed its inertia deformed the bubble and pushed it closer to my head. Now we were again moving at a very high speed without the resistance of air. The old man and I were horizontal again but this time I couldn't feel anything since the bubble was shielding me.

Within a few moments I could see some light across the horizon. It was beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful sunrise I had ever seen.

It gave out a bluish green light as it rose. Within a few seconds it became brighter and I could clearly see my surroundings. I was flying far above a grey barren land dotted with the occasional craters here and there. That was when I realised where I was, and there was only one way to confirm. I looked up and paid attention to the sunrise and my suspicions were confirmed.

The bluish green sunrise was no sun, it was our beautiful blue earth. It was not a sunrise it was an Earthrise! We were no longer on Earth, the craters and the white barren ground below could mean just one thing. I was on the moon!

Forgetting that he was fast asleep I turned towards the old man and called out to him, "Hey are we on the moon? -- oh yeah, right you're drooling in your sleep --"

Just then I heard a slightly metallic but still very ladylike voice, "No I am not drooling in my sleep and yes we are hovering over the moon surface, ETA destination six minutes."

Slightly startled, I asked, "Who said that?"

"I did. I am unassigned cherubim number zero nine. Your transport device for your trip to Mount Kailash," said the same voice.

"You can talk?" I asked.

"Yes Sir I can. I am encoded with the synth-soul created by Lord Ishrafil and I contain a real-time updating database of everything happening in the multi verse, including Alkapuri. You can call me 'Cherubim number zero nine' for your convenience," she said.

"Such a long name is not really convenient. I'll call you Cherry as a short form for cherubim," I replied.

"As you wish Sir. Reprogramming reference name to Cherry for your DNA signature completed. ETA destination two minutes," she updated me.

While I was speaking we began to move further away from the moon and darted towards Earth. After a few minutes, I felt a bit claustrophobic.

That was when I realised that the bubble dome around me was smaller than it was before. I asked cherry, "Hey cherry, why is the bubble becoming smaller?"

She replied, "There is no atmosphere on the moon so it stays expanded but as you enter the exosphere it begins to contract and become smaller, on account of the atmospheric pressure."

By the time I could ask her how much smaller it would become, it was already hugging my body. I felt like I was in a straight jacket. Unable to move I stood there silently wondering how much more constricted it will get. I began to get short of breath when suddenly the bubble around me popped and the air came rushing inside my lungs. It felt great to move freely again. The same thing happened with the old man but he was still fast asleep. I was in awe of this man's lack of situational awareness. While I was looking at the old man in disbelief, both the cherubim stopped moving.

Confused I asked cherry, "Why have we stopped?"

She explained in her metallic voice, "We are overhead our destination. We will now descend by the fastest route as instructed by Lord Ishrafil. ETA destination: 30 seconds."

I thought to myself, we are at an absurd height in the sky, as I could barely breathe well in the thin air. How are we supposed to descend to the ground in mere 30 seconds? I felt a sudden jerk and I was being pulled downwards rapidly. My feet appeared to be fastened to the honeycomb board but the wings had disappeared.

While plummeting towards the ground accelerating with gravity I wondered if this thing had a parachute. The ground came rushing towards me at a frightful speed. I tried to calm my nerves by shutting my eyes but the force of the wind was pulling my eyelids apart forcefully.

My hands were flung upwards like a rag doll. As I watched the ground rapidly closing onto me, the pace of my heart beats increased. A hundred feet or so from the ground the silvery wings suddenly appeared but they weren't flapping.

That was when I noticed that the wings were not having a physical form but were wispy gaseous streams that when moving swiftly, appeared to be like feathers. This steady stream of gas, slowed my fall. Even though my knees were being pushed against the honeycomb board, I was relieved that it had a mechanism to land me safely.

About 25 feet from the ground; the wing like gas began to flap slowly at first and aggressively in a split second. My fall was entirely broken and I was having a slow descent for the last few feet. One foot above the ground we came to a complete halt. This was more exciting than the most thrilling rollercoaster I have been on.

On stepping off from Cherry I looked for the old man. He was nowhere to be found. I heard a sudden thud and saw something slamming into the ground. I turned around and saw that it was the old man. He had landed behind me, though not as gently as I did. Worried for his safety I ran towards him. I could hear a mild stutter of sorts; I assumed it was the broken cherubim. When I reached close it dawned upon me that the stuttering was of the old man snoring!

That old bat slept through the entire ordeal. I took a stick which was fallen on the ground and nudged his head a few times to wake him up but it was of no use. A few more knocks and till nothing. Finally, I pretended that I had a cue stick and struck straight on his forehead. It left a circular bruise, but that seemed to do the trick. He finally woke up.

"Oh! Have we arrived? I seem to have a splitting headache. Don't know why? It has never happened before on cherubim rides." said the old man.

"How would I know?" I said with a straight face.

Honestly I was surprised that the old man got a headache from my hit and didn't feel a thing after falling down from the sky. Now that we were there I was preparing myself to see this Mother that everyone spoke about.

I asked the old man, "Why didn't we just teleport here? It would have been much easier than riding here."

He replied, "Well, if you remember from the story that this place is inside of the barrier that my Father created. One of the properties of the barrier is that if anyone teleports trying to reach inside or close to the barrier, they will be tossed to the opposite end of the universe instead. So the only way for anyone to come here is on a cherubim and being guided by an archangel. Now let's focus on the task at hand."

He held his palm over the hole on the ground and extended his ring finger downward. The cherubim levitated upward and each honeycomb structures folded onto one another, from the outside to the inside until only one hexagonal section was left. A hole opened up in the centre of it and it slid onto his finger. I followed suit and held my palm on top of Cherry and she also folded onto herself and slid on my finger.

On closer inspection it looked like a golden hexagonal nut with slight rounded edges. It felt weight less and she was perfectly shiny, similar to the material of the core.

I walked up beside the old man and said, "Let's go."

"Well we can't go unless she lets us, so wait right here till someone comes for us." he said.

Then he took a deep breath and yelled out, "I NEED TO DISCUSS SOME URGENT PRESSING MATTER AND WOULD LIKE TO SEEK YOUR COUNSEL."

When he finished talking/yelling, a cow came out from the woods. Ishrafil began to walk towards the cow and I followed. He placed his palm on the cow's head between his horns and said, "How have they been?"

The cow let out a light, "Mooo."

Astonished I asked him, "Did you understand what the cow said?"

He smiled and said, "Not really. I like to mess with first-time visitors."

We both had a small chuckle, mine more pretend than genuine. The cow turned around and walked into the woods. The old guy signalled me to follow the cow.