The White light Calling - 14
Episode 14:
They ran and ran.
The hard and pushy branches scratched their cheeks and hands. The sloped and slippery path made them skid along, but they never stopped nor did they leave each other’s hand. With a tight grip, they slid along like two dew drops rolling down on a petal.
Once on a steady ground, they stood and took deep breath. Paval felt warmed up because of the sudden exercise. Adrenaline was pumping and her mind racing.
They were in the middle of nowhere in a totally dark, dangerous hill, not knowing how or where to search for that one soul for whom they had just risked their lives.
"Ok, now what? "Paval who was still breathless looked at chemba. They couldn’t even see their faces clearly. Though it was a plain, it was still dark surrounded by humongous looking trees in a little distance.
They walked slowly towards one point of light that seems to come from a distance. Chemba surprisingly didn’t feel any irritation on her back like paval while sliding down on that rugged path. Then she remembered the backpack she was still carrying.
She had exchanged her lighter bag with vikki’s heavy backpack on return and she had run down with it on her back.
Well good for them. If it turned out late, at least they might have something to eat. She thought smiling.
They had walked quietly for not more than a minute to reach the moon lit clearing. paval suddenly pulled chemba back .
“What?”
“Shsh..”
“What??” chemba whispered.
“I don’t know. But I feel that something is not right here. Do we have anything else besides this torch for defense?”
It was then they heard the rustling.
They stood still, chemba thought her heart would burst out.
“what was that?”
“I don’t know”.
They knew now.
It came out of a heavy bush with hungry stomach swaying to the sides. The moonlight had illuminated the huge being in a very eerie way. It was a big male tiger.
“Oh…my…god..”paval stood transfixed, But only for a second.
“Chemba. I will buy some time. You check whether you have anything in that bag to bag this guy.”
“Ha..can you hold him for that long?”
“God knows..Let us just try.” saying that, she slowly ..very slowly inched her way and made a semicircle to move away from chemba.
The tiger recognizing the movement, slowly turned its huge body towards the moving form. But the only slow part was turning; the speed with which it sprang on paval was that of a lightning.
Chemba gasped and jumped on a rock to see what had happened to paval.
Paval had cleverly wedged herself into a rock tripod where the big tiger could only throw paws at.
“Chemba make it fast. It won’t take long for this beast to change direction.”
Before paval could finish the sentence the tiger had turned towards chemba.
Chemba feverishly pulled out everything from inside the bag..
Empty paper cup, powder soup mix..
The tiger understood that it had a better option. It turned its full attention on her.
Paper comics. Lens cleaner..pocket knife..
It jumped down from the big rock with its tail swaying and tongue slurping.
A picture of selvi. Gps locater..mini tool set..
The huge form had only a few feets away from chemba now.
A box of toblerone chocolates?? Oh for God’s sakes vikki…
She pushed in further.
Something huge at the bottom. A big box.
”Oh lord..It’s stuck”. She tried to wriggle it free from inside.
The cat was near.
She pulled the box out and opened it with shaking hands which scattered the contents.
“Chemba …..hurry up..” paval shouted alarmingly.
The cat turned angrily towards paval, ran near her and roared. An angry gesture, like it was saying “shut up you idiot…”
Then it turned towards chemba and walked. This time a little faster.
She felt through the contents of the box.
It was that tranquilizer gun. Only, it was not a gun. It was a medium sized metal bow and some small but thick - like the barrel of a ballpoint pen- with needle sharp ends.
She could smell the cat now. It looked like the cat thought that there was all the time in the world to catch this fantastic prey. It was just few feet away from her now.
“Chemba” paval cried from behind the tiger. She sounded so close.
Chemba who was fidgeting with the bow looked up.
Paval had come out of her hideout and stood before the angry tiger like a voluntary prey.
“Grrr…”
The happy tiger made a huge waltz and jumped at her all at the same time.
Paval could see the huge form flying up .. jumping higher to reach her.. to fall right on her with its huge mouth wide open. She thought she saw a droplet of saliva falling down in slow motion.
She stood dumbstruck.
Only inches away from her, instead of falling on her it fell down on the hard stone. And then, It didn’t get up. A confused paval looked up at Chempa.
There she stood.
In a perfect posture of a professional archer, straight and confident and her hands still in the bow, eyes still squinted, hair slightly blown up. In the moonlight silhouette, she looked like a surreal poster of a lost kingdom princess to paval.
Chemba stood still. She then slowly looked up.”I hit that thing. Didn’t I?”
“What on god’s name was that?”paval was so surprised.”And how did you.. you looked so professional..like a…”
“princess?” a smiling chemba finished for her.
“what?”
“am.. nothing”
“Like a professional archer. Did you learn it.?”
“nope. I am holding this thing first time in my life.”she said and added “may be in this life” she shrugged.
“huh.. “paval still was awed.
“must be very powerful. It just fell down in half flight”
“Yeah”
“And what did you just do there? You tried to sacrifice yourself for me?” chemba looked at paval with eyes lined with tears.
“I don’t know. I just felt like doing it.”
They stared at each other for some time and then paval cleared the air by announcing “Ok.. Now we should plan what to do next.” she slowly gathered all the scattered stuff and put them in the bag.
“we need to find him.”
“where and how?”
“I know where?”
“Where?”
“We must follow the white light” chemba said.
They walked on with the GPS locater in hand. Chemba tried to bring her memory back on finding that cave they used to rest on that day. She remembered how close the white light looked from there.
It was a sufficiently bright gray lighting, with the full moon shining straight above their heads.
Chemba could suddenly see the long silver line that dropped perpendicular to the earth in distance.
"The falls." She gulped, goose bumps raised.
“where to?”paval came from behind.
“there” chemba pointed at the silver line exactly when a bright shaft of white light sparked up into the sky, very near the falls and illuminating it.
Paval was spellbound.
will shine....
