A Bao A Que

Long ago, I read the Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges and it inspired me to take a shot at my own interpretations of these creatures of lore inside of it (since that really is my jam).

Starting at the very beginning is the ‘A Bao A Qu’ - a creature often left out of the traditional creature books which made the depiction of it all the more fun. The A Bao A Qu was an immortal entity from Malay mythology, which was said to reside within the Tower of Victory in Chittorgarh, India. This alien like creature slumbered at the base of the Tower’s spiraled staircase, only awoken when a man begins to climb the stairs in the pursuit of reaching the top, where he will achieve the state of Nirvana. The A Bao A Qu closely and somewhat curiously follows the man, in a shapeless and translucent state, giving off a blue glow - becoming more defined, solid and colourful as the pair progress further and further up the Tower. As the climber becomes closer to achieving Nirvana, so does the A Bao A Qu become closer to reaching its perfect form; contorting and bending from it’s multiple forms.

However, the climber almost always fails to reach the top of the Tower, and when the A Bao A Qu realizes this, it shrinks back, losing colour and form that it had developed, before falling down the staircase to the entrance again, where it again takes its shapeless and sleeping shape.

It is said that the A Bao A Qu’s cry of failure is so soft it is as the rustling of silk, and when touched, it feels like the fuzz on the skin of a peach.

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