Chapter 93

Rabba ve, everyone!

Thank you for all the love, comments and likes. Wish I could say more but for now, connection issues and a tumultuous load of work hinder me from speaking any further. Thank you dear varshapan for being sweet enough to tell me that you can be patient about the updates. And Jammykins! I am so in love with your favourite day...You went there as a representative of Arhasia, I feel. Love you for being so understanding of Mr. Sobti...Would however like to welcome our new visitor Khareshelley: Welcome dear shelley, to Arhasia. On behalf of all my readers and Comrades, I would like to say, its wonderful having you aboard! Do enjoy your visits to the Inn, henceforth! And dearest ShahinChaudri...for now I shall give you a big warm hug for commencing your Forum existence by giving me you very first post and I will reply to your PM immediately. I do not know if I will get the time to pass on your messages to my dear friends here but for this update, you will have to forgive me for I am in earnest and there is much to do and I cannot do you justice here. Thank you dear for crossing paths with mine!

Chapter One Hundred Sixty Seven: Closer

Kushi frowned and looked over her shoulder while still holding onto the reins as firmly as she could. She was not certain if she had heard the spoke of the back wheel squeak but presently the cart had started to wobble disturbingly.

"I think there's something wrong," she said to herself, or probably to the horse who simply kept riding on.

As the cart rode through the forest, leaving tracks in the ground, it began to sway horribly and Kushi gasped, "Yes, there is definitely something wrong!"

She pulled at the reins of the horse, in her attempts to stop the ride, but before the horse could obey the yank of the reins, one of the back wheels of the cart came loose and that corner of the carriage tipped to the ground. The loud thump with which the back of the cart had landed frightened the horse and, neighing in panic, it raced faster, dragging the cart along with it while Kushi struggled at the reins, pulling and yelling, "No! STOP! You have to stop!"

But the horse, leaping over a huge protruding root of a tree, panicked even more when the cart suddenly weighed and refused to move because the corner without the wheel had wedged itself against the root.

Neighing wildly, the chestnut horse plunged forward, breaking the cart in two, and Kushi felt flat on her face on one half of the cart, her knees on the hard wood and her hands still holding onto the reins of the horse as the horse dragged her at an alarming speed through the forest.

"NO! NO! STOP!" She yelled, "STOP, I tell you!" She struggled from her kneeling position, pulling at the reins to try and make the horse stop but it was not responding to her demand.

To make matters worse, in its panic, the horse had left the safe path along the periphery of the forest and had begun coursing her deeper into the forest, away from where the reassuring sun could be seen between the trees.

The deeper the horse rode, the darker the forest got, with the trees growing thicker and closer.

"No, no!" Kushi whispered, her eyes filling with tears and then, with all her fraught strength, she cried out and gave the reins a furious yank.

The reins snapped from the horse's gear, and the cart-sledge slid to a stop in the middle of the forest. The panicked horse, however, did not stop running and escaped into the forest, leaving Kushi stranded flat on the cart board, a strip of the useless rein in her trembling hand.

Groaning from the fresh aches in her knees and her arms, she gradually managed to stand up on her feet and step out of the cart.

Casting a glance towards the trees through which the horse had vanished, she threw the rein down, muttering things under her breath, and then her eyes fell on her gown, making her gasp and hastily pat the dust off her pretty dress.

After ensuring the spotlessness of her white gown, she marched in a temper to where the other half of the cart lay, picked up the bouquet that lay in it unharmed, inspected it for any signs of damage, and finding none in it, she cheered up and prepared to leave.

But she didn't move, for she was in a fix, knowing not which way would lead her out of the forest and which direction the Village was. She was marooned in the middle of the forest and she looked around helplessly, trying to ascertain her position in the little light that penetrated through the closely growing treetops.

She was contemplating thus, with the bouquet held reverently in her hands, when she heard the sound of horse hoofs galloping over the forest floor, heading in her direction. She looked up, hoping to find the chestnut horse returning in guilt of leaving her behind but her eyes widened in amazement when a familiar black horse stormed through the trees to stop right where the broken cart was, a little distance away from where she was presently standing.

Lord Arnav had led Shadow through the forest, keeping his sturdy hoofs galloping right along the tracks that the cart had made in its maddened race.

The rider's eyes were trained unblinkingly on the trail and he paled when he saw the change in the manner of the tracks, certain of the reason to be a loosened wheel. When Shadow passed by a tree-root, Lord Arnav's eyes spotted the first half of the cart sprawled on the floor and a terrified, "No!" escaped his mouth.

He stopped Shadow and got down hastily, looking around frantically.

"KUSHI?!" he called out and then his eyes fell on Kushi, standing a few distance away, her gaze surprised.

Anger roared in his eyes as he took furious strides towards her and Kushi could only stand and stare at the incomprehensible expression on his face and at his unexplainable presence in the forest.

He came to her with such force that the air in her lungs was knocked out in his crushing embrace and the bouquet fell to the ground.

He stood there, pressing her to his chest and Kushi could only stand there stiffly, her face pressed against his shoulder, unable to make sense of what was happening.

Next moment, he had released her but before she could calm her racing heartbeat, his warm manly hands were cupping her face and she stared into his wild eyes, "Don't you DARE scare me like that again! UNDERSTAND?"

Kushi was staggered, "What?" her feeble voice reached out to him and it angered him that she was clueless.

"Didn't you know the cart was broken?"

She shook her head innocently, his hands still cradling her face.

"Foolish girl!" he barked, withdrawing his hands, "It is deemed by common sense that you ensure if a cart is fit for riding before getting into it!"

She nodded, fearing his anger more than feeling guilty for overlooking her common sense.

There was a moment of awkward silence at the end of which he asked her, "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head and he sighed, partly out of relief and partly out of exasperation at how she always fell into little messes, and that was when he saw the bouquet on the floor.

Kushi had spotted it too and, bending down hastily, picked it up. She kept her gaze fixed on the bouquet, not daring to look at his face, as she brushed off the invisible dust on it, "I must take this to Jiji as soon as I can."

"I'll send OmPrakash to take it to the Village; you don't have to go," said Lord Arnav sternly, "The procession will begin shortly and you won't make it back in time."

And having reasoned thus, he casually slipped his hands into his pockets and felt a ring in his right pocket.

Taking it out, he offered it to her, "Di said it was part of the ritual to give you this."

"Oh! I had forgotten all about it," confessed Kushi, opening her palm before him so that he could hand it over.

But instead of placing the ring on her waiting palm, he coolly turned her hand over and began to put the ring on her ring finger.

Gasping, she withdrew her hand before he had even begun putting it on her and the ring fell to the forest floor, bouncing on a dry leaf that lay on the ground.

He frowned at her, "What did you do that for?"

"You may not believe in rituals, sire, but an unmarried woman cannot let a man put a ring on her finger...unless it's her engagement," said Kushi, looking away and clutching the bouquet to her heart for strength, because she didn't know why but her hands were trembling.

"I don't believe in rituals, true, which is why nothing is wrong if I put it on you," he bent down and picked up the ring, and before she could react, he had taken her hand again.

She pulled her hand away and took a step backward, earning his profounder frown, "Stop fussing, Kushi!"

"I won't," said Kushi, looking at the ground fixedly, "I cannot let you wear that on me!"

"Why?" he was adamant.

"Because..."Kushi began remorsefully, words tumbling on their own accord, "Because I am giving myself to something I can never dream of possessing."

She regretted her words the moment they left her mouth but it was too late.

There was a disturbing pause in which she struggled to keep her eyes trained to the ground, even when a longing clawed at her to look up and read his reaction to her words.

"What are you talking about?" mumbled Lord Arnav confusedly.

The tremor in his tone made her look up at him, and her yearning gaze reached out to him as her words did, "What we converse, what we do, what we fight over...everything is for nothing."

Cold ropes snapped free inside of him and he breathed out, "You think so?" he frowned, "You think I keep letting you mess around with me and annoy me for nothing?"

She was dumbstruck for it was not the answer she had expected of him, "Are you telling me that... do you mean that...you mean something by it all?"

The question swapped him back to his senses and the muscle in his jaw jerked when he gritted his teeth, "Stop asking too many questions and just do as I say, beggar."

She scowled, hurt and angered, "You speak sweet words one moment and the next you are a horrid creature! I cannot and WILL NOT do what you want of me!"

"You don't have to, I can make you," he said threateningly, and stepped towards her.

"Why?" she stepped backwards, still angry, "Because I am a beggar?"

He paused in his steps and then a smirk broke on his face, "Exactly!" he neared her, "Can you dare deny, Kushi, that in everything you do and say, you are trying to beg attention from me...?"

Kushi was shocked by his theory, and stood still, "I DO NOT!"

"Really?" he smirked, having come very close to where she stood now, "Then why do you let everything happen in such a way that it would bring you always to come to me instead of keeping away?"

"You do that too!" she said in defense and then her back pressed against a tree and her hands reached back and clutched at the sides of the tree.

"Are you telling me that, in a way, I am a beggar too?" he leaned towards her, his hard palms pressing on the bark of the tree on either side of her face.

Her heartbeat rose and she closed her eyes, "Please, sire, I must go to my Jiji."

"Not until I'm finished with you," he whispered, his breath so close to her forehead that she was certain she would faint with the heat rising in her blood.

"What do you want?" she pleaded weakly.

"I want to put the ring on you," he whispered resolutely, nearer to her ear.

"You cannot," she mumbled, feeling his hot breath on her ear.

"This is my land and I can do what I see as pleasing to me."

Her eyes snapped open and she looked into his eyes, his face too close to hers, "What if what is pleasing to you may not be pleasing to me...would you still do it?"

"If it harms you, I will not."

Kushi's lips parted in astonishment, "Why do you speak so? I don't understand what you are intending by these words of yours..."

"I will give you an answer if you let me wear the ring on you," said Lord Arnav, "And you better hurry for the sun is setting and the procession will begin soon."

Worried suddenly that she will not be able to take the bouquet to her sister in time, she stretched out her hand reluctantly, "Why does my heart tell me this deed is not right...?"

"Everything I do is always right, Kushi Kumari Gupta," said Lord Arnav as he slid the ring onto her ring finger.

Before withdrawing his hand, he ran his thumb possessively down the ring finger and then looked at her with a wild light in his eyes.

She blushed and moved away, clutching the bouquet to her, the ring glistening gold in the setting sunlight that feebly fell through the little space in the trees.

Wordlessly, he took her hand, the one on which he had put the ring, and led her to Shadow. After assisting her to mount on horse, he climbed up behind her. His chest was pressed to her back and her fear of being on horseback vanished.

Instead, a blush crossed her cheeks as his strong arms slid around her waist and picked up the reins that were before her.

He leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Interestingly...this gown doesn't look bad on you. Your choice is quite impressive."

Kushi's blush deepened and she was relieved he could not see it. Suddenly she sensed his nose brushing against her hair-bun, breathing in the scent of the flowers in her hair.

She closed her eyes, doused in the moment, until his voice made her open her eyes again, "Kushi, will you do something for me?"

Kushi's heart fluttered. He was requesting her to do something for him? FOR him?

"What is it, my lord?" she responded feebly.

Lord Arnav's tone was serious, "It's the first time I am letting my Di out of the Castle premises after a long time."

"I know that, sire," Kushi nodded obediently.

"Will you give her company, then, never leaving her side?"

"Me?" Kushi was surprised by his offer, but elated too, "Certainly, sire, I will take care of her and the child she carries. Not because you wish it so but because I want to."

Lord Arnav's spirit soared on hearing her words and a smile lit in his eyes, as he tugged at the reins and sent Shadow speeding through the forest and towards the Castle while the sun slowly set and the winter winds blew to welcome the cold night.

I know you will all worry about what is to come. But TRUST ME. I have always told you that this tale is a "rewriting" of the IPKKND Plot and hence you know I cannot trail from the original path. However, I have also told you repeatedly that the "rewriting" is with the aim to "perfecting" the Plot that broke many hearts. So trust me, my dears, when I tell you that you will love the Tale for though there is only one way this story can move and the characters can develop, I promise to make that one path a beautiful fulfilling journey. Brace yourselves for what is to come, and though Arhasia is tormented by cold winter winds, there will be warmth at the heart of it all...TRUST ME.

P. S. Though Aura's Wonderful Pictures are of a Star Class apart, here are some pics that I could not upload since I was on my break when the concerned chapters were being posted.