The Ballad Of Nirvana

Chapter 37

*The two men above are Chag and Agni. Well, at least a little. The one holding the book is Chag and the other one with long, wavy hair is pretty boi, Agni Tamas!* 

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Chapter 37

Indriya slept like a log of wood but she was still so grumpy even after waking up that Chag had to drag her off the ground.

"How did you manage to sleep like that on the freaking floor of the forest?" He asked grunting as he helped, more like picking her up.

"I am so sleepy, Chag. My back aches like that of an overworked donkey. Please let me go back to sleep!" Indriya mumbled, her eyes still half-closed.

"So you won't wake up like this. I will throw a bucket of water on your face and you won't wake up. You just wait." Indriya heard his boots crunch on the dry leaves as he walked away. She opened half of her eye to look where he was going but suddenly two humongous arms grabbed her from behind and held her in place. She thrashed and shoved at first but then she smelled the salty gust of wind that passed over and stopped.

"Uh...what do you think you're doing, Vardhi?" She asked.

"Helping your cousin to wake you up." He said in a cheerful tone, while in a distance she saw Chag walking along with Mythri toward them.

"Good job, Vardhi." Mythri sounded impressed for some weird reason.

"Let's start shall we?" Chag winked at Mythri

"Yes, boss." Mythri smiled back at him mischievously.

"You guys, I am already half asleep, and I don't care about what you do. So good night! Bon Voya..." but Indriya could not complete her sentence because Chag and Mythri started to tickle her. Yes, tickle her.

Indriya was very ticklish, in fact, she doubted that there was any part of her body that was not ticklish. So she almost indefinitely, she laughed and screamed and shouted. But they did not let go so easily, she thrashed and cried so much that both she and her grandfather fell to the ground. Yet, Chag and Mythri did not stop tickling her, finally, she clenched her fists and asked her power to help in some way.

"You-guys-are-torturing-me!" She laughed out and cried.

Her power did not even try to come out of her and thankfully they stopped tickling her and she felt alive. Suddenly they stopped and Indriya thanked the heavens for it.

"How do you feel?" Chag asked and was out of his breath.

"As alive as a war-refugee." She panted.

"Good, go freshen up, we have to reach Nirjara by evening," Chag said wiping the sweat on his upper lip while Mythri simply stood like she wouldn't sweat even if she stood five feet apart from the core of the earth.

Indriya considered going back to sleep but another round of tickling seemed like a nightmare, so she rambled toward the stream to wash her face. And what she saw there made her wish she couldn't have walked toward the place.

Agni embraced Mekhala casually like nothing in the world mattered to them. Her eyes were brimming with tears, something inside her broke all of a sudden and she dropped to her knees.

Agni and Mekhala were still embracing far enough not to notice her existence, a distance that would be hard to cross onto the other side.

"Get up, Indriya," Chag said from behind suddenly, but she didn't even want to look up at him. "Get up, sister. Here let me help you." He said as he held her elbow and helped her up. But something inside Indriya cracked open a vile feeling that seemed to have been sleeping until now. She couldn't take her eyes off of them and a weird cool entered her mind.