ArHi FF:3:The BEASTS and the BLEEDING ROSES - Page 78

Officially welcoming to our Inn, on behalf of all my readers and Comrades, Reader Dhrashtee and Comrade Lady Em. Will reply to their overwhelming comments when I return on the 21^st. And yes, Hoopoe, I never make a scene just for the fun of it. Everything has more layers to it than what is seen.

Chapter One Hundred Fourteen: Annoying Arrangements

"We leave immediately," said Lord Arnav stepping into the clearing but there was no hermit there.

"What the!" he exclaimed and then spotted the tiny hut nearby from whose open door poured out the feeble light sourced from a single candle.

He headed for the door, followed by Kushi and they stepped within to find the hermit sitting cross-legged before a solitary candle.

Positioned in front of this candle were three coconut shells filled with some warm soup which the hermit had made from the tiny campfire outside.

"I was wondering what took the lion and lamb so long," mumbled the sage to no one.

"What?" Lord Arnav asked, not having heard it clearly.

"Soup anyone?" asked the sage cordially, smiling at the two.

"No time for soup," said Lord Arnav curtly, one hand held out before Kushi, stopping her from accepting the hermit's invitation, while he addressed the hermit, "We leave now."

"Not in this dark," said the sage calmly.

"The dark is not a hindrance to me," refuted Lord Arnav.

'"Not without a carriage," said the sage, looking peacefully at him.

Lord Arnav gritted his teeth, "You're a hermit. Hermits lead a life of sacrifice."

The hermit nodded, "Hermits lead a life of countless sacrifices that it is their right to good escort if ever they are required to leave the forest and enter habitation."

"So you will not leave with me without good escort?"

The sage shook his head, smiling warmly.

Lord Arnav frowned, "My carriage is broken and my horses have run away. How else do you except me to accord you good escort other than by foot?"

The sage sat as though the world was nothing of worry to him, "A caravan of gypsies are bound to pass through the forest after daybreak on the morrow. We can ask them for a lift to your Castle."

Lord Arnav was unwillingly considering this when his eyes fell on Kushi. She was looking wistfully at the warm soup before the hermit.

Lord Arnav looked at the soup too and sensed his stomach growl.

He grunted, "Just this night," and stepped aside.

Kushi rushed to where the hermit sat and she too sat cross-legged before him and accepted gratefully the coconut shell the hermit handed to her.

The room was tiny and except for the mat in the corner, there was nothing for Lord Arnav to sit on.

"I'll have it standing," he said shortly and took the coconut shell the hermit stretched up to him.

Not only was it because it was served in a coconut shell, but owing to the fact that there was no spoon and he was expected to sip it from its brim, made him quite displeased with the whole affair.

He looked at Kushi and saw how she eagerly forgot every unfitness and sought to only appease her hunger.

She was sipping the soup, her hands grasped around the hard coconut shell and sometimes she smiled thankfully at the hermit who was sitting across from her, sipping his own soup.

No one bothered about Lord Arnav, if he was drinking or if he was uncomfortable with the arrangement.

Those who wanted to drink it, could drink, and those who disliked the idea, could starve the night.

Muttering curses, Lord Arnav tipped the brim of the coconut shell and sipped a mouthful of the soup. Warm soothing liquid caressed his tongue and down his parched throat and in the very next moment, forgetting all his charming decorum and etiquette, he downed the entire soup in one famished gulp.

Stretching out the empty shell to the hermit, he found himself asking, "Is there a second helping?"

The hermit smiled at him and nodded, "There is more where that came from."

After four helpings of the soup, Lord Arnav was back to his normal self. Filled and reenergized to spit wrath, he frowned at the room they were standing in, after dinner.

"Am I to sleep here?"

"Precisely," said the sage, with that calm expression that was beginning to greatly irk Lord Arnav. In fact, it irked him more than Kushi's retorts did.

Lord Arnav was fuming again when he hissed, "I am the Master-"

"-Of an Empire and must have a luxury bedstead to sleep upon," completed the hermit calmly, "Well, you can sleep wherever you want, Master of the Empire. I myself prefer sleeping under the trees. This hut I made by hands solely for occasions of rainfall, when, to slumber under trees would not be quite welcoming." And with that he walked out of the hut, leaving the two of them alone in that shack lit by a candle that would melt to nothingness in a few minutes.

"We should have asked him for a spare candle," she murmured, her eyes wistfully eyeing the quiet candle.

"Where is Fortune?" asked Lord Arnav, still angry with the arrangements.

"He's gone to spend his night in the forest trees, I suppose," said Kushi, "at least, that's what the hermit told me."

"Then I'm going to spend the night in the forest too," he muttered and walked out of the hut.

Kushi stared at his departing form and then turned to look at the candle. No, not alone in here.

She raced outside and realized Lord Arnav, in his angry strides, had covered a vast distance already. She rushed after him and when she was nearly behind him, called out, "Please don't go!"

He stopped and looked at her, over his shoulder, "Why not?"

Kushi stood there, bathed in the moonlight, her face framed by her open hair as she looked pleadingly up at him, "I...I am afraid to sleep alone in the dark."

"There's a candle there," he said curtly.

"It will be finished soon," she advocated.

"Search for a spare one," he said and turned to go, when she said, "Not alone...I cannot be in there alone."

Her voice was almost feeble with desperation and Lord Arnav closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. Without looking at her, still standing in the shadows with his back to her, he told her, "I don't sleep well in the nights. I might need to walk about. "

"You need only be there," she requested, "The whole hut is yours to walk within all through the night."

He paused a moment to think it through, the consequences of sleeping in a hut alone with her in it.

Not only was her life in danger but even his own wild desires might not be easily controlled in the darkness of their tempting solitude.

"So?" she asked, hopefully.

He nodded, turned around and saw the gratitude light up her eyes. Then he watched her rush back into the hut and after a few struggling seconds, he followed after her.

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On a wise note, keep Expectations low. It's the Safe Way. Because when consistency in psychology of characters is made to maintain, often you do not get what you want to get. Thank you for all your comments and love. Prepare for the next essential update. Be strong.