THE WAR FOR LOVE

Part 2

"Shh! Chup!" Sidharth snapped at her for shouting out loud in such a shrill manner. Also, anyone could hear her, people could gather around and he would be in big trouble then. 

"K-kon hai?" the girl asked, scared by the hardly visible guy who was groaning like an animal in the middle of the night. 

She had freaked out so bad that she ended up dumping her pitcher and breaking it into pieces. She feared it was a sea monster, or the ghost of the old man who disappeared years ago in her village. She had heard the scariest rumors spread around, various horror stories from her friends and some old nancy stories from her grandmother. 

"M-maine pucha kon hai vaha? Mai patthar marungi!" she asked again with a warning, quickly picking up a stone from the ground for self defence. She wished she had a firelight to see who it was and could have immediately scared it off with it. But since she was there to get her water containers filled, she couldn't carry one stick. 

"Nahi! Marna mat, mujhe chot lagi hai." Sidharth answered, he didn't think of another answer at the moment. He didn't know where he was, whether it was one of the villages that came under their territory or not. 

"Khade ho sakte ho?" she asked, that person did sound weak and she realised he wasn't harmful but needed help. She threw the stone away and took a step forward, trying hard to see his condition in the faint moonlight. He was a tall guy, half laying on the ground in a soaked vest and dhoti. Unarmed, wounded and hurt. 

"Nahi." he replied. 

"Hath do apna." she said, standing near him and forwarding her hand. She felt bad for him. Sidharth looked up at the girl, a total stranger who was ready to succor him. He was hoping she would ask again who he was but gladly she didn't. 

He forwarded his left arm, his right arm supported his body and tried getting up from the muddy ground. She pulled him up using both her hands and was amazed to experience how much this guy weighed. 

"Ruko- ruko! Tum bohot bhari ho!" she said, taking a deep breath and gathering courage to pull him up finally this time. She stooped lower, bending to his level and wrapped her arm around him, under his arm. 

"Abhi utho." she told him and he obliged, knowing that carrying him was next to impossible. Slowly and carefully, the girl made him stand on his feet. He shifted his weight to his left leg that was comparatively less hurt and let his right arm hang loose around her. 

"Dheere dheere chalenge." she said, helping him with his steps and hummed in response. They walked, he was in pain but the jingling of the girl's anklets and bangles were a distraction. 

"Tum kaha rehte ho?" she asked, hoping that she'd drop him home. Well, the question was no less than a bomb dropped, Sidharth was too tired and in pain to even think of a lie. 

"Yeh konsa gaon hai?" he asked instead. 

"Punera. Tum iss gaon ke nahi ho? Toh Manjhi nadi tak kaise aaye?" she bombed him with questions again. But wait, he hadn't ever heard of this 'Punera' village. Maybe it lied outside his father's territory of Vijaygarh. 

"Narainpur." he lied, there was no way he was going to reveal anything. She was a commoner and would definitely hand him over to the village's chief if she came to know what he was accused of. 

"Narainpur? Yeh kaha hai?" she asked yet again. God! She asks so many questions! He wanted to jump back into the river again and swim to some other place, ignoring the fact that she was asking the right questions. What else do you expect from an unknown person who is rather helping you? 

"Aah!" he winced when he mistakenly stepped on his right foot. The grass and sand on their way were not easy to walk on, barefoot, it hurt a lot.