Chapter 188

Chapter 269: Brutes Bared

Barefooted, Kushi raced across the stormy lawn, just as the dark horse rode towards her.

When he had come to stand before her, Shadow neighed aloud, restlessly tossing his head.

Rain poured on them as Kushi reached her hands towards his towering head, "What is it, Shadow? What has happened?"

Her hand touched his snout and he calmed down enough to let her caress his wet forehead.

"Tell me," Kushi whispered fearfully to the horse, her lips close to horse's dark forehead, "Tell me where he is..."

One couldn't have been quite sure if he understood her but he bent his forelegs, indicating that Kushi climb on him.

Her fear for her husband was so consuming that it surpassed her fear of riding on horsebacks.

In a deft move, Kushi swung onto Shadow's waiting back, her legs straddled on his either sides.

He had no reins or saddle on him, so she held onto the tuft of mane at the back of his head.

Rising in resolve, Shadow thrust his head into the darkness and set into a wild gallop.

The horse carried Kushi through the sheet of rain, his hoofs trundling through the wet forest floor and trudging over the branches and leaves that were scattered on the path in wait for their passing.

As they made their way through the uncanny darkness of the forest, Kushi's eyes tried to see through the wind and rain.

All at once, she saw something lying on the floor in the distance.

She dug her bare heel against Shadow's side and the horse came to a stop.

Hastily dismounting from the horseback, Kushi rushed through the rain towards what had caught her eye.

Her heart skipped when she recognized her husband's shirt from what he'd been wearing that afternoon in the library.

But when she had reached the place, her heart stopped.

He was not there.

It was only his clothes, lying wet and stained with blood and dirt.

Her knees weakened and her legs gave way.

Falling to the floor on her knees, her trembling hands reached forward and drew the stained shirt to her chest.

Her disbelieving eyes stared at it as her eyes began to fill with water that was not born of the rain.

Her desperate eyes looked around the forest, her head turning this way and that. But there was no sign of her husband.

Only more darkness and dread.

Weeping, she sank her face into his shirt, her pale hands pressing upon his last presence. "Arnavji..."

At that very moment, a strange sound echoed from the distance.

Kushi looked up.

She wasn't sure what it was that she had heard but it wasn't made by the trees and it was not from something that was dead.

Getting on her feet, she picked up his clothes and rushed back to where Shadow stood watching warily.

Draping the clothes across his back, she pressed against his dark neck, beckoning him forward to where the sound had been heard.

But he withdrew a step, eyeing the darkness fearfully.

"Shadow..." Kushi yearned to him, "What if it is him? We need to find him."

The dark horse remained rooted, his master's wet clothes cold upon his back.

Kushi realized he was terrified of something and that he wouldn't move even if prodded by force.

"Stay here, I will return," she told him.

A cautious neigh rose in his throat but she didn't wait to hear it.

Lifting the sides of her heavily wet black robe, Kushi ran through the forest, uncared by the bruises her bare feet were bestowed with by the savage forest floor.

As she made her way through the trees and over the dense protuberant roots, she realized that after having met her husband, many of her past fears had quelled themselves to nonexistence.

She was fearless of darkness and had even ventured solitary through a forest in a nightly storm. She knew she'd think it a miracle, when morning came, that she'd ridden the night on a horseback, a feat she had been certain, she could never do.

Thunder rumbled overhead, as she made her way through the thick rain and cold.

Just then, she heard the sound again and this time it seemed to be much closer.

"Arnavji?" Kushi asked into the night, looking into the darkness before her.

She didn't see her footing and tripped over a tree root, falling face first to the wet forest ground.

Groaning, she lifted herself up on her hands and knees, her face looking up at the tree that had done her the soreness, when all of a sudden, she froze.

Through the space between the trees before her, she saw something moving.

Remaining crouched where she was, she crawled closer to the trees, her robe dirtied with mud.

Hiding herself behind the hugeness of one tree's trunk, she perched against its roots and peered from the side, into the rain.

Her heart stilled and her eyes widened in disbelief.

She had assumed it could be true from all the signs and all the things she'd managed to connect but she couldn't believe it was possible.

Staring, afraid to even blink, she helped herself to her feet, aligning herself against the tree.

It can't be...

Braving herself, she stepped around the tree, unable to believe what her eyes were seeing.

Lightning flashed over the sky and she saw it unmistakably.

There, in the dark heart of the storm-ridden forest, were two creatures brawling, beasts of massive size: a huge dragon eerily blue in the moonlight with his bat-like wings beating like the wind and a huge white tiger with fearsome black stripes, his claws and fangs bared in raged combat.