(Book 5) Hayden Mackay and The Pride of Haima-Endira

8. The Shreni System

Crack!

The occasional cracking sound of the twigs was loudly audible in the eerie tranquility.

Rawat dynasty, also known for its renowned igloo-shaped huts were now only mere dilapidated ruins with sordid wooden rooftops covered by overgrown last-seasoned weeds. The edges of the huts marked the boundaries, which could be a fence, although broken and rusted.

I trudged along the sedate lane, keeping my eyes peeled and mind focussed on the buzzer. With an attached front porch and a small backyard, every hut of this dynasty must be similar, before getting badly damaged by Shashi's madness. It wasn't the first time I was looking around at the village, but every time I entered the premise, I imagined a charming scene that Nazira had once described.

"Twilight. A beautiful field with laden crops. Farmers reaping and mowing the fields. Busy village with joyful people collectively doing the chores, laughing and gossiping, enjoying their way around all through the day. Kids playing hopscotch. Youngsters entering the groves without permission to pluck the coconuts and drink its water. All for fun and entertainment. My teacher used to say a village is supposed to be that way. What do you think?"

"I think I'm hungry. Let's have dinner?"

Crack!

I looked around in a hope to meet and greet with atleast one person from this dynasty. I squinted. There was no one. Just the huts and dry dead trees everywhere. The vacant and enormous farmland covered with a thick blanket of snow seemed to be waiting to get plowed for ages. The Selvyn hill stood afar, rugged with thick forest, trees silvered with ice. The age-old and the famous Temple of Chandrika was somewhere hidden behind the shadows of the passing clouds and the innumerable holy trees of Vrindahina.

There had never been a single attack in this main village of the Dynasty. Singh had absolutely no reason to travel this far. There was just no activity, except a few Sharad's knights occasionally patrolling. I was given enough time to explore and was determined to use it well. Where are you? My mind lingered upon the single question. I knew where the Clan of Vaquiro lived. I'd been to the village of Clan of Matsyasvi several times. But where were the rest? King Aghasthya had mentioned that the population of the Rawat dynasty was twice that of Sharad's. He also lost the count of the number of clans this Dynasty consisted of. King Harsh would fund any local occupation and regard them as an individual clan. How was it possible that they disappeared without anyone's knowledge?

Since the attacks were reduced, I wandered and strolled around the village every morning. The dynasty stretched on forever. Street after street. Hut after hut. The silence here seemed screaming for help. I was patient though, doing everything I could. I'd been leaving tons of 'I want to meet you. Please show yourself and talk to me' notes at every way-finding signs and at the broken statue of King Harsh established at the entrance of the streets. Even after a week, the stack of papers remained there. But later, a lot of them have started to disappear. Without building my hopes up, I simply told myself that they were just getting dusted off by the currents of the winds.

However, my mornings weren't completely wasted with this unproductive activity. In fact, I was loving the amazing progress I made within a couple of weeks. There were a lot of unique laws and regulations that King Aghasthya had never made us aware of or rather waiting for me to accept the Will first. I'd started to appreciate Dhanunjay who had been waking up early, before the crack of dawn, to spend atleast an hour giving me classes. After all this time, there was still one missing link required before an avalanche burst in King Aghasthya's heart. Today, I was hell-bent to get what I wanted, and for it, I was determined to manipulate Dhanunjay well.

"The letter you gave me the other day is posted," he said, zipping up his puffer jacket and stuffing his hands inside the pockets. "I know this is your personal matter. But because you mentioned that its personal and that even King Aghasthya shouldn't know about it... I'm suspicious. Who did you send that letter to? Tell me now!"