They both enter the jungle. It was dark and moist night with no signs of light. Chandu suddenly takes out a glow stick out of his waistband. The girl was amazed to see the glow stick. The big dark jungle suddenly had a fading fluorescent green glow. Chandu looks at the girl, "Follow me", and starts walking.
The girl obeys the order and slowly starts walking. She's still in a daze and Chandu realizes that. Chandu turns back, holds her arms and starts walking. After a silent 10 minutes, the girl speaks out.
"Where are we going?"
Chandu now bit dejected by the same question again and again, looks at her, "You will know," and starts walking again.
"Where is this place?" the girl asks.
Chandu finally unable to control his patience, "Listen lady, my objective is to take you where you actually belong. I can't answer your questions. That's not allowed from my side."
"Not allowed? By whom?" the girl asks again.
Chandu takes a deep breath and controls his anger, "By no one. Can we walk so that we can reach our location?"
The girl affirmatively nods her head silently. "Thank you," says Chandu.
But somehow Chandu felt pity for the girl. He realizes how tough it is for her to fight out of her sorrows. Her family is no more. She didn't understand a single thing why her family was killed. Chandu in that glowing stick's light looks at her. 'She's beautiful' is the sentence strikes Chandu's mind. A simple but a very unique beauty she is. After a day of toil and moil Chandu finally got a time to concentrate on her. He didn't have a proper time to see her properly. The girl is silent, her eyes look dull and tired. Chandu decides not to torture her anymore for this night.
"Are you hungry?" Chandu asks.
The girl looks at him and again silently nods her head affirmative. Chandu from his bag takes out an apple. It's a bag which he's carrying right from the beginning. He gives the apple to the girl.
"Have this."
The girl takes the apple with rejoice and starts giving a bite to it. But suddenly something strikes her. She looks at Chandu before biting the apple, "Are you not hungry?"
Chandu smiles and then takes out another apple from his back. The girl smiles back and started eating the apple vigorously. Chandu realizes that she was hungry for a long time now. Chandu gives bite to his apple and looks at the girl, "That tree is a short one and has strong branches; we are going to spend our night on that tree."
The girl stops eating the apple, however chewing the part of apple in her mouth, says, "I can fall from that tree when asleep. And what about the wild animals in the jungle?"
Chandu smiles at her concern, "Don't worry I'll build up a hammock. And as far wild animals are concerned, this jungle is highly infested by Deer, so no worry."
The girl again concentrated on her apple. Chandu takes out 2 hammock sheets and started binding it up. After doing so, Chandu breaks some branches of tree and makes a campfire. The girl sitting beneath a tree looks all these activities with curious eyes. Chandu finishes his work and looks at the girl, "Come sleep here."
The girl comes to him and he helps her to get on to the hammock and she lies down on it. Chandu gives her a smile and moves to his hammock. He lies down and looks at the top. The dense forest has entirely covered the sky. Some glimpse of sky is being seen but rest is covered.
He turns towards the girl and sees that she's again back to sleep. He smiles and thinks about her life. Yes, it's quite same as his one. He also had a family, also had a love but suddenly……nah, he don't want to go back again. His master always said him that the memories are okay up to certain limit but brush them off when it becomes a burden to you. His eyes has no sleep, he can't even remember the last time he slept properly. Chandu again turns back to the nature's ceiling. He thinks about her – the girl. That girl suddenly taking him back to his past. He controls himself not to think about Ra….no Chandu doesn't want to remember her or speak out her name. She might be okay now. He doesn't want to think about her. He always follows his master, who saved him, who made him what he is right now. His special fighting skills, his adaptability skills and many more are gifts from his master. He was so weak at that time when his family…..ah again again he's moving towards his past. Chandu decides to sleep otherwise memories will torture him. He slowly shuts his eyes and finally goes to sleep.
The forest now glowing for the campfire light witness two tormented souls now sleeping on the lap of mother nature.
Continued in next chapter...