FF Arhi: Himalayan Magic - Part 8 Updated Page 21 - Page 6

This part got a little too long so the Ahem ...Ahem will have to wait a little bit longer :-(

'Khushi, do you have any idea how we can get out of this God forsaken place?' he asked her quietly.

'I '. I don't remember. What about you?' asked Khushi lines of worry creasing her forehead.

Arnav turned around and looked back. All he could see was dense forest. The last of the light was beginning to fail, and he knew that once darkness came, neither of them would have any chance of surviving the night on this bare mountainside.

'I think it would be best to go back to the overlook first. I think I will be able to find the path once we get there' shouted Arnav over the wind which was getting stronger by the minute. It looked like the heavy rain was going to turn into a storm very soon. They hurried toward the overlook and finally reached it.

'What the ____?' exclaimed Arnav raking his sodden hair.

'What is it?' she asked, knowing very well that they were in real trouble.

'There are too many paths leading out of this god damned place!' he said, his eyes tense and worried. 'I am not sure which one I took coming up here.'

'Oh!' she gasped. It was getting dark rapidly.

'We will have to take a risk here and take one of these paths' he told her. 'In any case we can't really stand here all night hoping that someone might find us.'

'You are right, ' she said agreeing with him. 'Let's go.'

After walking for about twenty minutes, they realized that they were lost.

'I don't think that it took me this much time to reach the overlook' said Arnav looking even more tensed than before.

'What are we going to do now?' asked Khushi reflecting his worry.

'I think we should continue on this path,' he told her. 'There might be village nearby.'

They continued walking on that path for another fifteen minutes. The light from Arnav's cell phone had run out as the battery had died, plunging them in semi darkness.

'Damn! Khushi, stay close to me,' he told her urgently, 'and if we get separated ----- you lie still. Understand? Just don't move. I'll come looking for you. Got it?'

'Yes,' she said. 'A..Arnavji, I __' Khushi was unable to continue as her teeth started chattering wildly. The storm was getting worse and temperature had dropped considerably. Arnav realized that Khushi did not have her shawl on her.

'I told you to get a jacket back there at the shop. You wouldn't listen to me, would you?' asked Arnav irritated. He unfastened his leather jacket, and wrapped it around her.

'How was I supposed to know _____Aaahhh!'

Suddenly the ground slipped beneath them and sent them sprawling in agony into a void below.

Khushi came to her senses buried under a pile of leaves, her teeth chattering like machine-guns. The storm was howling across the rough, steeply sloping ground where she lay. Where was Arnav? She staggered to her feet, calling his name. Her panic sent energy racing through her frozen limbs, and she floundered desperately forward, oblivious to the rain lashing her face or the rocks against which she stumbled. The altitude was making her head spin, and she became aware that the fierce wind was whipping her calls out of her lips hurling them into the chaos around her. There was no sign of Arnav. Remembering his final instructions suddenly, she sank to her knees again. The cold was acute, and she slowly became aware of aches and bruises all over her body. And Arnav? Was he looking for her, even now, shouting her name into the driving storm? Or was he lying unconscious on the ground, perhaps badly injured?

Huddled against a tree, she agonised for long minutes. At last, aware that the cold was going to paralyse her limbs pretty soon, she made up her mind to press on. She blundered forward again, squinting her eyes against the driving rain, desperately praying that Arnav would be waiting for her somewhere in the chaos ahead.

Clumsy and stiff with cold, she clambered up something that looked like a slope. It was horribly treacherous ground, a scree of sharp rocks, and she stumbled and fell painfully several times. Finally, out of desperation she began to call Arnav's name again and again, until her voice was hoarse; and then ''.

He came looming out of the darkness ahead. Sobbing she rushed to him, flinging herself into his arms.

'Arnavji! Thank God you are ok!'

He pressed his lips to her forehead, his arms tight around her, and held her without speaking. When her shuddering had begun to ease off, he looked down at her.

'We can't stay here, Khushi. We've got to find some kind of shelter'..even if it's only a rock overhang. Can you walk?

'I'm fine,' she smiled through her tears.

'Come on,' he said, 'let's get moving.'

Clinging to Arnav, Khushi stumbled onwards through the storm, her mind slowly becoming as numbed and dull as her legs. A weary hopelessness had begun to settle inside her ---- an exhaustion that was draining her strength inexorably. The man beside her was a tower of strength, and she leaned more and more on his indomitable will as they made their stumbling way down the treacherous scree, the hurling rain lashing at them with insensate venom.

Whenever she stumbled, his strong arms were there to catch her, raise her to her feet, and urge her onwards; but she was becoming weak ---- partly because of the long journey, which had now begun to hit her. Her legs seemed to be filled with lead ----- they dragged in the soil, and she was too weak to lift them over obstacles, and her shins crashed painfully into the sharp rocks. Except that she was becoming dulled to the pain. Dulled to everything.

In her dream, they were back in the gazebo outside Raizada mansion. Arnav was blowing into her eyes trying to remove the dust from her eyes. He was moving away from her. Aap jab bhi mere paas aate hai, meri dil ki dhadkane kyun tez ho jaati hain? Did she say that to him? Everything was so hazy. She felt her head swaying steadily. Was she flying? She was in a peaceful place. She could feel the strong beat of a heart. Jab mein tumhare paas aata hoon, tumhari dil ki dhakane meri dil ki dhadkano se mil kar ek ho jaati hai '.. There was Arnav, magnificent in his grey suite, his molten brown eyes watching her with that half-smile that always sent shivers down her spine'..

Reality returned slowly, unwillingly to her mind. The storm. The rain. The darkness. And the cold ____ terrible, penetrating cold that was squeezing the life out of her. She discovered herself in Arnav's arms, her head lolling under his chin ___ she could hear his breath coming fast and ragged as he bore her through the snowstorm with untiring, safe arms. God, she couldn't let him do this! How long had he been carrying her?

'Put me down,' she demanded weakly. 'Put me down!'

'Shhh!' His chin was rough against her temple.

'I can walk,' she insisted with feeble petulance. 'Put me down, Arnav-----'

'You will not be able to walk two steps,' he said, his voice rough and tired. 'Khushi, don't struggle like that, Goddamit!'

'Put me down,' she gasped, trying to thrust him away with irrational, nerveless arms. 'You don't even have a jacket ___ you'll kill yourself like this!'

'Shut up,' he said grimly, bowing his head against the rain. For some reason born out of exhaustion and shock, a puny rage had gripped her. She beat at his shoulders, with her fists, cursing.

'Laad Governor,' she gasped in weak fury. 'I hate you!'

'I don't feel too kindly towards you,' he snarled, clutching her even tighter, and stumbling onwards through the blackness.

'I have always hated you,' she sobbed, giving up the struggle at last. 'I hated you from the moment I first saw! You ---- you ____'

'Just shut up Khushi,' he told her harshly, his voice heavy with exhaustion.

'I won't shut up,' she blubbered irrationally. 'I want to be put down---- I don't want you even to touch me___'

'Right___I'll drop you down the next crevasse we come across, okay?'

'That would suit me just fine,' she said, half opening her eyes against the driving rain.

And then she was sliding to the ground, her strength-less legs folding up beneath her. Anger surged through her feebly. He was going to leave her to die, her in this never-ending rainstorm! How could he be so callous?

'What have you put me down for?' she demanded.

'A hut,' he gasped, the wonder coming through the roughness in his voice.

'Pick me up,' she demanded, not understanding him.

'You wait here,' he commanded, his breath coming huge, exhausted gasps, 'I'm going to try and find the door.'

'Don't leave me!'

But her squeal was lost in the wind. She stretched out her hands to him in misery____ and touched a wall. The cold, rough, unmistakable wall of some human habitation. Then the last words Arnav had uttered percolated through her tired mind. A hut! He had brought them to a hut! She lay back on the ground, joy seeping slowly and steadily through her.

Just you wait Mr. Raizada, Just you wait.

The doggone girl is mine!

Arhi:Himalayan Magic ' Part 2

Arhi:Himalayan Magin ' Part 3

Many thanks for PM