Kaliya Daman

The cattle had been dying at that bend in the river long before anyone worked out why.

A cow would wander down to drink. Within moments it would stagger, go down, and not get up.

Not once. Not twice. Often enough that the cowherds had quietly started steering the whole herd well clear of that stretch - the way people learn to avoid a place without ever saying out loud what is wrong with it.

Even the trees along that bank had begun to wither, leaves curling brown with the water right beside them.

What was in the water

Kaliya. A serpent of terrible size and terrible poison.

He had been driven out of his true home in the ocean by his ancient enemy Garuda, and had taken refuge in a deep pool of the Yamuna - because, for reasons of his own arrogance, he had decided Garuda's power could not reach him there.

His presence alone had made the water lethal to anything that touched it.