The night passed by, Armaan and Veer spent half night talking and the rest half they naturally fall asleep, Sukirti was in her own little world, half of her worries was gone upon finding Armaan but the tension had not subsided completely. But, she knew that they will have to wait till morning as it is too dark to move any further and all three of them were tired and hungry like hell. The two sainiks who had managed to escape told their leader about Veer and Sukirti's arrival. The leader was happy to know that finally Sukirti came in his reach but got angry hearing that she is not alone and they have managed to save Armaan.
Sapana, who was sitting in the corner of the room and crying and worrying for Armaan, Also heard this and her heart got relief on hearing that Armaan is with Veer and Sukirti and nothing has happened to him. She was smiling to herself when, the leader came to her in anger and pulled her up by her hair.
"Ouch!"
"I made a big mistake leaving him alive but not you, not at all. I myself am going to finish you."
Sapana's eye goes as huge as an owl's when she hears this. She stumbles back in fear. There was no way she could escape from this place. The sainiks were guarding that place in all four directions. She had lots of stuff going on in her mind at the same time. She felt as if all of a sudden the ground vanished from below her legs, she kneeled down on her knees and buried her face in her lap and started crying, again. She says to herself, "Armaan, looks like I am not going to see you ever again."
***************
Sukirti is standing against a tree some distance away from where Veer and Armaan were, she was facing away from them and thinking about from where to start, coincidently the cat chase had lead them to Armaan but that's not going to happen every time.
"You okay?"
Sukirti turned around to see Veer some distance away from her. She smiled a little and nodded her head yes.
Veer says sincerely, "Look I am sorry about last night -"
Sukirti turns, facing him completely and says, "No problem...really I am fine."
Veer still continued, "I know I shouldn't have said liked that but, it just came out..."
Sukirti sighed and walked near him, put her hand on his shoulder and said, "I think this is the third time I am saying - I am fine. Don't worry about what happened or what you said," smiled cutely at him and added, "Duffer!"
Veer raising his brows, "And I think this is more than infinity times I am saying I am not a duffer," adds with and evil smile, "Teacher."
Sukirti gasped, "Veer!"
This little interaction definitely didn't go unnoticed by Armaan.
***************
Sapana was still crying.
A woman comes in and walks to Sapana, sits beside her and put the dish she was holding on floor and said, "Eat the food dear, you cried a lot...now get some energy."
Sapana looks up at the women. Her cheeks were wet with tears. Now even if she wanted to cry there were no more tears left to shed. Sapana spoke between sniffs, "I am not hungry and anyways what's the point of eating now... I will be killed soon..."
The woman puts a calming hand on Sapana's shoulder and says, "Putri (Dear one for daughter in royal tone) I know this guy is not nice and he does not care for anyone except for himself. But you and your friend do care for each other," she pauses for a moment and then continues, "if not for you than eat it for him. Also, your other two friends have also found him and they will soon save you too from this place. And till than you have to fight and this can only happen if you eat something hmmm..." She looks at Sapana to see if her little speech made any effect on the poor soul or not.
Sapana smiles lightly at this and says, "Yes, I guess you are right I have to fight for myself, I can't give up so easily, after all, around Armaan I am always acting like I am strong no matter if I am a girl, I guess it's time to prove myself right. You know what? I will fight and save my butt."
The woman smiles, "Now, that's the spirit...common eat something and take some rest...you have lots to face in coming days."
***************
Veer, Sukirti and Armaan starts walking not knowing which way they are heading to, but they have to start some way sooner or later; all three hoped that the path they have taken leads them to the right place.
Armaan starts a conversation, "SO, seems like you are right Veer - Naaglok is big."
Veer looks at Sukirti from corner of his eyes as her replies, "I know I am right. It is big and this is just a small forest, there is a lot more," he say the last bit facing Armaan.
After walking for some time they head splashes of calm water. Two nights and a nearly half day was about to pass by without any food or water. Not just hearing the splashes, but all three of them was so thirsty that they could even feel chilled water in the atmosphere. Turning in the direction from where the churning of flow of water was making a noise, they surely find a small creek making a journey towards a big river may be miles away from where they stood. Drinking plenty of fresh and cool water and killing their thirst three of them resumes their adventure.
All three had been quiet and in their own thought. From which Armaan had plenty of unanswered questions forming in his head.
Starting from the starting, or at least that what he thought to start from, "So, how did you found out that we are captured?"
Veer shrugged, "Sukirti's mom and Naagdev," and looked at him as if that was the easiest question on the questionnaire.
Upon hearing this Armaan got another obvious question from his point of view, "Huh..?"
Sukirti could sense that Armaan's question paper was soon going to led towards the topic that involved nothing more but her. So, to ignore hearing about herself she started walking ahead of them.
Armaan continued, "Isn't her mom in...I don't know what is the place called where I was born, if this place is called 'Naaglok'?"
Veer cleared, "I mean her real mom who lives in Naaglok and the place where you were born is called Insaanlok. Also, Naaglok is a territory inside Insaanlok itself, along with few more loks(worlds)"
Armaan getting more and more confused, "I am still confused at that part but will ask more about it later, okay so, whoever this Sukirti's mom and Naagdev is, how did they found out?"
And the questionnaire begins.
"Well, her mom is Naagrani."
"Naagrani?"
"Naagrani means Maharani (Queen) of Naaglok."
"No ways! Queen? So, that means Sukirti is Rajkumari?"
"Yes, she is Rajkumari - the so called 'only' princess of Naaglok."
"Wow, lots of suprises this Naaglok holds. Do all those in Insaanlok know about this territory? I surely didn't, and even though I hate history I could hundred percent say that we never studied anything about this topic in any of the history classes."
Veer laughs, "Dude, Naaglok is a secret place, as I said it is situated inside a forest in the Northwest of India, the forest is located on the map but no ones has ever been survived to walk that deep inside the forest to come discover Naaglok."
"I see, so you are saying there are other territories like Naaglok?"
"Yes, you don't want to know any more than that."
"I surely don't, I am having enough by just knowing this much."
"You know I never thought that I will be walking in some jungle of Naaglok with my one and only best friend that is as normal as a person can be."
"Yeah, I also never thought, that my best friend was not complete human, but half snake."
"Hey, I am not a snake; we are 'Wishful' humans."
"Yeah, yeah same thing for me, anyways moving ahead. Are you serious, Sukirti is some kind of royal?"
"As serious as I can be!"
While Armaan was busy shooting questions and Veer was rapid firing the answers, Sukirti had made enough distance between the guys and herself. But, she suddenly, stopped dead in her tracks when she thought she heard something more than now, just mummers of Veer and Armaan talking.
Realizing what it was that she head, she aggressively turned in her heel and yelled, "Veer!"
Hearing her frantic voice both Veer and Armaan stopped talking and jerked their head in front to see Sukirti quiet a distance ahead. Clearly seeing that Veer didn't understood what was up, Sukirti ran her way back towards them. She put more effort in her legs when she saw two men coming near Veer and Armaan from behind their backs.
One of them had just raised their sword and was about to slash Veer, but before that can happen Sukirti pushed Veer out of the way, making him push Armaan and both of the guys fell down by the sudden reaction of Sukirti.
"Aaahhh" Both Veer and Armaan jerked their heads up and got on their feet as the realization of what just happened hit them like a hurricane.
In vein of saving Veer, Sukirti was now on Veer's spot. As the sword slashed through her upper right shoulder joint all the way down to her left lower waist. She bit her lips as hard as she can, but no able to help it she wailed out in pain and squeezed her eyes shut.
The men had cam a swift as a hurricane left a rough damage by leaving a big diagonal scar on Sukirti's back.
Veer's eyes got big, he stretched his hand out in terror, "SUKIRTI"
And everything faded and next she hearing emptiness and seeing nothing else by blackness all around her.
***************
Precape...
Love, Guilt, Danger!
Next Part: Chapter 13
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