Back to the past

Chapter 7

Sams POV

They tied our hands which further were tied with horses. We were walking, while some of the people were riding on horses and some were walking. They looked like soldiers of some army.

We were immediately on a dirt path after walking a few meters from the place that looked like dense forest which in reality was a small forest. We were at the edge of that. The area was plain and looked totally, different. There were different kinds of crops grown in some parts, other parts had small sand Dunes which ranged from 5-10 meters. I saw cattle grazing further away.

I was amazed to see how my village looked in the past. It was nothing like the modern village. Totally different the geography of the area was totally unimaginable. After walking almost a kilometer we reached a place that was fortified by different kind of materials.

It was dug from all sides and on there was one small passage. They had spears in the pit holes.

To my surprise they called it Kotla. I remember someone telling me what the what meaning of my village was. That is when I realised Kotla means a fortified military post.

This was a small fortified soldier camp. There were small tents. There were only one or two structures. I did saw a mosque. I was a little surprised to see the mosque while walking. Because the same mosque exists today as well but looks like a ruin. But it looked brand new while I walk past that.

They brought us in front of the leader while we kept standing.

One of the soldier said something in the ear of the person who had a little turban kind of thing on his head, had long hair, beard and was wearing a strange costume. His ears had huge rings in them.

To my surprise he spoke a similar language that we could easily understand.

The leader, "Are you Ghurid supporters"

I will a little surprised to hear him speak a language similar to my mother tongue.

He again repeated with a little more force in his words.

"Are you a Ghurids " he said

I looked at Adam and Harta and they looked at me and then him. When I saw no one spoke, I gathered a little courage and said

"We are not ghurids, we are passengers and were resting in this forest for a night"

The leader, "what kind of passengers, don't you know foreigners are not allowed in this area"

Me, "sorry! We got lost"

The leader, "where were you going! Where are you from and what kind of clothes are you wearing ?"

Seeing our innocent faces may be his anger went down, or may be we looked like no danger to them.

I was literally thinking to cook up a story, when Adam suddenly spoke.

"We came from Himalayas and are going back to Himalayas." Adam spoke

The leader looked at him, while rolling his moustache and closing one eye he said.

"Himalaya! Ha ha Himalaya" he said and started laughing.

We looked at each other and then at him. We were confused by his expressions.

He said nothing and ordered his soldiers to put us in a tent. As soon as we entered the tent harta said

"Himalaya! What Himalaya, tell him who we are"he said

I looked at him and said, "are you mad they will kill us, do you think they will believe even a cent of what the reality is"

Adam spoke in between cutting us, "he guys! We have to go back to Himalayas before winter starts or we will be struck in plains"

I looked at Adam and was about to shut him up, but when I turned to talk to adam I saw him showing his fingure towards the other end of the tent. There was a shadow of a person who seemed to be spying us or trying to hear our conversation.

We changed the conversation and kept talking about the Himalayas and the tough route and upcoming winter, snow etc etc.

We were definite we made them believe we were from the Himalayas and were going back there.

We kept silent and didn't speak much words about what was going on as we were not sure if someone was spying us.

They offered us food, that consisted of rice, lamb and another meat of some animal with some veggies. That food wasn't bad at all. We really enjoyed the food. They offered us some guavas and we really enjoyed the hospitality.

I was thinking what he meant by Ghurids, after trying to think a lot I recalled reading in history that There was a Ghurid empire in 11th century. I wasn't sure about the year. But we were in 1219 as per the date on the phone.

I was in deep thoughts when suddenly the loud sounds of Naghara started. Everyone outside the tent seemed to be running here and there. The sounds of moving horses struck my ears.

We were untied and wanted to go out and see what was going on. Finally we gathered some courage and peeped out of the tent. It looked like everybody was on high alert and they were gathering as if they were preparing for a war. They had swords, bows and diffident kind of fighting weapons in their hands.

The leader was standing on the top of the fortress and was looking far in the direction we came from. He looked a little worried.

The leader came down after 2-3 minutes and a man entered the fortress on a white horse holding a white flag.

As soon as he entered, he looked for the leader. When he saw the leader, he took a messege out and read it aloud, "I Jalal ad din the commander of great Genghiz Khan order you to surrender and become a part of his great empire, if you will not accept this offer my 20000 troops will attack this mini Kotla and kill you all and move ahead"

We were literally shocked to hear the order he read. I was like "Genhiz Khan!" The Mongols!

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This is also unedited and a short chapter I will edit and upload all of them soon.