Chhayantar

The Safe Escort

At the entrance of the cave, a man stood and asked, "Sawan? Why are you standing so deep inside the cave, in the dark? It's so dark that I can't even see you. Come out, I need your help."

Hima, who was standing with her eyes closed and head down out of fear, suddenly opened her eyes wide and looked at the man. She smiled and thought to herself, "That means he didn't see me transforming! Oh God, thank you!" Hima happily folded her hands and thought.

Then suddenly, Hima noticed, "Wait, why does this man's voice sound familiar?" Thinking this, Hima started coming out of the dark depths of the cave.

As she came out and saw the man clearly, Hima's beautiful face wilted. Because the man standing at the entrance of the cave was the same handsome man who had met Hima in the palace in the morning and had mocked her.

The man was also surprised to see the Little Queen Hima in this old cave, "little queen? What are you doing here? You have violated the rules again? You know, a queen cannot leave the palace without any servant or guard, don't you?" This time he was speaking very seriously, not mockingly.

Hima also got a little scared and started thinking nervously, "Oh no, he's right, and this time everyone in the palace must have found out that I am missing! I need to find some excuse to save myself and avoid any punishment!"

Again, Hima was nervous, and now her facial expressions were very attractive. The handsome man noticed how attractive little queen Hima looked when she was nervous. He admired her beauty for a few moments, then suddenly came to his senses and asked, "Little queen? What are you thinking? Tell me, what are you doing here?"

Hima, a little annoyed, muttered very softly, "Let me think first!"

To which the man replied, "What? What did you say?" Then Hima, smiling in pretense, said,

"Oh, hehe, I meant... Yes! I am also wondering how I got here, I don't remember anything! And... Yes! My head! It feels so heavy!" Hima started speaking as if she was feeling dizzy, "Ah! My head is hurting! It seems some evil force brought me here, otherwise, how could I , who was in the palace just a while ago, end up here? Surely someone brought me here under a spell! Ah, my head is spinning!"

Hearing this, the man became genuinely concerned, and his face showed clear signs of worry. He said, "If that's the case, then fine, I shall safely escort you back to your palace, that's the right thing to do for your safety. Let's go."

Hima, who was pretending to be dizzy, suddenly asked very happily, "You will really take me back to the palace?" Now, looking at Hima, it didn't seem like she was feeling dizzy. The handsome man also looked at Hima in surprise, thinking, wasn't her head spinning just now?

Hima then remembered that she was pretending to be dizzy and went back to pretending, holding her head with her right hand and saying, "Look, everyone will be worried, take me quickly."

The man and our little queen Hima then left the forest and started heading towards the palace.

The whole way, the man did not interrupt queen Hima even once. Hima was thinking, "He was talking so arrogantly in the morning, mocking me, and now he's so concerned that he's personally escorting me to the palace? Well, he is a servant of the palace, so he must know that I have lost my memory and am new to this kingdom. Maybe that's why he's personally escorting me. Whatever it is, I have to make up a story in the palace about where I was."

After a while, queen Hima and the man reached a short distance from the palace gate, from where the palace gate was clearly visible.

The man was walking ahead of Hima. As soon as they reached a short distance from the palace, he stopped and turned towards Hima. He said,

"I haven't completed a task of the palace yet, and without completing it, I cannot enter the palace, so you will have to go ahead on your own." And saying this, he started walking back towards the forest.

Then Hima thought for a moment and suddenly stopped the man. The man turned back towards Hima and looked at her questioningly.

Hima said to him,

"After meeting you in the morning, you seemed very arrogant to me, you mocked me and...."

The man interrupted Hima and said,

"Oh, the morning, yes, I remember, it was quite fun mocking you." The man said, smiling and mocking Hima again.

Hima was annoyed but smiled and said, "Really?! Look, I don't care who you are, where you are from, or why you are so arrogant. But I thought that since you are escorting me to the palace, I would give you this ring as a gift, so now I can't back out."

Hima took off the ring she was wearing on her thumb and extended her hand towards the man with the ring in her palm.

The man took the ring from Hima's palm and asked, "First time seeing someone wearing a ring on their thumb." The man said with a smile on his face and left with the ring.

Hima, annoyed, with an attractive expression on her face, kept looking at the man.