The Teak Forest

Chapter 11

Ram

We reached the waterfall. I perched my hands on my hips and looked down. The sun was beating down like crazy. That's the problem in this area, No one can predict the weather. One day it'll beat down like a belt, another day it'll be freezing cold or it'll rain so much that you couldn't even see the person in front of you.

I pushed back my hair which was dripping from sweat. Prabhu popped up behind me and looked down.

"Do you know how many bodies we found there?" He asked.

"How many?" I asked as I walked around to check for a way down.

"I don't know," He started counting with his fingers, "S.S, Arul, Manikam..." He named some people. "We were lucky to find who we found, who knows how many people died here," He shrugged, I gave him a glare.

"Continue sir," He said.

I turned back and continued walking. Pavitra hates this type of wheatear I thought to myself. The sound of crickets chirruping makes her skin crawl. She would just stay indoors the whole day with the AC cranked up and refuses to come out of her cocoon to even eat. I would run after her to feed her. I smiled sadly at the memories.

After a few minutes of walking, I stumbled upon a rope. I pulled up the rope but it kept coming, I let the rope run out of my hands.

"This was not here before," Prabhu panted. He looked miserable, his face was red as an apple and the sweat looked like water droplets.

I removed my sunglasses and propped them on the ground, I rolled up my sleeves and twisted the rope in my hands for a better grip.

"What are you doing sir?" Prabhu asked, perplexed.

I didn't answer him, I started descending the cliff slowly with the rope in my hand.

"Okay, you go on...I-I'll join you later," He said, Soon he fell out of my line of sight.

It was pretty tiresome and I had to climb down carefully avoiding the sharp rocks. I don't have the strength going to deal with stubbed toes today. Except that I climbed down with ease, this is what I did five years of police training for.

The cliff seemed to go down forever. My stomach twisted at the thought of Pavi falling down from that height. I shook off that thought, Pavi is well and alive. She should be. The rope's texture changed as I reached the ground, they felt like roots. I could see the ground now.

I loosened my grip and jumped into a puddle of water. I shook off my legs and walked forwards to find any trace of human life. I did find life though, just not human. A raven sat on a tree far near the bank, cawing at my movements.

I walked into the water slowly. It was pretty shallow and warm due to today's temperature. It felt like a massage, the water moved slowly and uniformly and made a low 'splosh' sound as I moved. I looked around for a while behind rocks and under the trees. The raven kept its eyes on me throughout the search. It felt intimidating. As if Veera himself was spying on me.

I squinted my eyes to get a better look at it. It was so big and feathery, its blue eyes pierced into my soul. But something else gleamed under its feat, a fire-yellow cloth piece. I went closer to the tree the raven was sitting, it straightened and repositioned itself on the branch. It leaned in closer ready to take off.

I leaned down to pick up a rock to scare it off the tree to get to the cloth. That cloth was part of Pavi's dress, I bought her that dress. But before I could throw it the raven darted towards me and caught my wrist. I shook my hands in a panic hoping to shake it off but it wouldn't let go, its large beaks were dangerously close to my eyes. I caught on its neck preventing it from eating my fucking eye off. I lost my balance and fell  down with a grunt. The Raven fell down with me.